[IsraelTimes] Officials tell ToI that Israel slightly reduced the number of living hostages it is demanding but wants speedier releases; agreed to withdraw from recently captured areas, hold talks on permanent ceasefire
Israel has come down slightly from an earlier demand for 11 hostages to be released as part of a deal with Hamas to revive a ceasefire that collapsed last month, two officials familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Friday.
Last month, Israel demanded the release of 11 living hostages in exchange for restoring the ceasefire. For its part, Hamas said it was willing to release five living hostages. For several weeks, both sides refused to compromise further, and the talks remained at an impasse as Israel expanded its military campaign throughout the Gaza Strip, which it resumed on March 18.
Seeking to meet the sides halfway, Egypt, in recent days, began pushing a new proposal that would see eight living hostages released.
After meeting with US President Donald Trump earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to soften his demands, the two officials said.
On Thursday, Israel submitted to Egyptian mediators its response to Cairo’s latest proposal, the officials said, revealing that the number of hostages Jerusalem now seeks is slightly lower than the 11 it demanded last month without further specifying.
However, Israel is demanding that the living hostages be freed during the first two weeks of the 45-day ceasefire, rejecting previous Hamas demands that the releases take place periodically during the duration of the truce.
Moreover, the Israeli proposal seeks to lower the ratio of prisoners — including those serving life sentences — who will be released for each hostage, one of the officials said.
In addition, the latest Israeli response seeks the release of 16 bodies of Israelis still held in Gaza, while offering to release the bodies of Gazans held by Israel in exchange.
Israel would also agree to allow the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza and withdraw its troops to where they were positioned in the Strip before it resumed fighting on March 18 and recaptured swaths of the enclave.
In its response, Israel agreed to hold negotiations on the terms of a permanent ceasefire once the truce has been restored, said the two officials.
Hamas’s top priority is securing a permanent ceasefire. However, an agreement by Israel to hold such talks would likely be viewed by the terror group as insufficient, as Israel already agreed to hold similar talks during the first phase of the now-collapsed ceasefire deal and did not adhere to that commitment, one of the officials said.
To address Hamas’s concerns, US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff has told Arab mediators that Trump would be willing to issue a public statement expressing Washington’s commitment to holding negotiations for a permanent Gaza ceasefire.
Egyptian mediators plan to share Israel’s response later this weekend with a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya, which will arrive in Cairo on Saturday night, the officials said.
Hamas is expected to push back on many of Israel’s demands, and no resolution is expected in the coming days, the officials said.
However, recent weeks have seen Hamas back off its previous pledge not to agree to an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire.
[IsraelTimes] Military has almost completed dismantling terror group’s infrastructure south of the river, Lebanese Al Jadeed network reports, amid US pressure
The Lebanese army has for the first time entered Hezbollah bases north of the Litani River and has nearly completed dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure in the south of the country, the Lebanese Al Jadeed network reported on Thursday.
The report noted that the Iran-backed terror group had never before surrendered bases to the Lebanese army north of the river.
A November 2023 ceasefire agreement, reached after more than a year of skirmishes and several months of open war between Israel and the terror group, required Hezbollah to immediately vacate areas south of the Litani, which flows into the Mediterranean some 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the Israeli border.
The agreement called on the Lebanese military to ultimately dismantle all military infrastructure and unauthorized arms on both sides of the Litani, but did not provide a timetable concerning areas to the river’s north.
According to the Al Jadeed report, the Lebanese government will reach an agreement with Hezbollah regarding a phased relinquishing of the weapons it possesses.
The United States has been pressing the Lebanese government to ensure Hezbollah’s full disarmament, with White House envoy Morgan Ortagus reportedly emphasizing an expectation that the Lebanese do more during her trip to Beirut last weekend.
On Thursday, Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah said the Iran-aligned terror group was ready to enter talks with the Lebanese government on a national defense strategy, with a focus on ensuring the removal of Israeli troops from Leb ...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.... ’s territory.
A senior Hezbollah official had told Rooters on Wednesday that the terror group was prepared to engage in talks with Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun about its weapons if Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon and halted its military strikes.
Under the November 27 Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire agreement, Israel is entitled to strike what it deems imminent threats and ceasefire violations by the terror group and has done so repeatedly.
[IsraelTimes] An Israeli infantry force on Friday crossed the border into the al-Wazzani parks in south Lebanon, the National News Agency said.
The Lebanese Army had overnight confronted an Israeli force that crossed into the outskirts of Alma al-Shaab, forcing it to retreat, after it carried out bulldozing works and cut some trees.
Israeli artillery shells meanwhile targeted the Abou Laban neighborhood in the southern town of Aita al-Shaab on Friday, as Israeli warplanes overflew the western and central sectors of south Lebanon.
[IsraelTimes] Spanish civil society has ‘concerns,’ due to war in Gaza, about Israel’s participation in annual song contest, writes Spanish RTVE network in letter to European Broadcasting Union
Spain’s public broadcaster said on Friday it has called for a "debate" over Israel’s participation in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... due to "concerns" over the situation in war-torn Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks.... RTVE has sent a letter to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which manages the event, "requesting a debate on the participation of Israeli public television (KAN)" in the contest, the Spanish public broadcaster said in a statement.
The Swiss city of Basel will host the glitzy annual extravaganza — one of the world’s biggest live television events, which involves countries from Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... to Australia — at the St. Jakobshalle indoor arena, with the semi-finals on May 13 and 15, and the final on May 17.
Public broadcasters of participating nations select the candidate which will represent them, so the absence of Kan would mean there is no Israeli performer at this year’s event.
RTVE said it "reiterates its support" for Eurovision "but also acknowledges the concerns that the situation in Gaza and the participation of KAN public television are raising within Spanish civil society."
"It would be appropriate for the EBU to recognize the existence of this debate and provide a forum for discussion between EBU member broadcasters on the participation of Israeli public television," the statement added.
Spain has been one of the most anti-Israel countries in Europe since the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... attack against Israel that sparked the war, recognizing a Paleostinian state in a move Israel says is a reward for terrorism.
Compare to just a few years ago, when Spain invited those who could prove their lineal descent from Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 to apply for citizenship. What changed?
Thousands protested at last year’s contest in the Swedish city of Malmo over Israel’s participation against the backdrop of the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in Gaza. Israeli competitor Eden Golan had to change her lyrics over apparent references to the deadly Hamas assault. She finished fifth in the competition.
A survivor of the attack will represent Israel in Basel this year. When Lions of Islam killed more than 370 people at the Nova music festival, Yuval Raphael survived by hiding under a pile of bodies. She said she would be ready to face the kind of hostility Golan did.
Eurovision organizers shun Spanish request to hold debate on Israel’s participation
EBU notes ‘concerns and deeply held views regarding the conflict in the Middle East’ but says all members will participate in song contest
Eurovision organizers shun Spanish request to hold debate on Israel’s participation. EBU notes ‘concerns and deeply held views regarding the conflict in the Middle East’ but says all members will participate in song contest.
[AnNahar] Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... has been clearly informed that it can't rebuild what Israel has destroyed in more than a year of war with Hezbollah unless Hezbollah is disarmed.
Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji told Asharq al-Awsat, in remarks published Friday, that Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus has herself, among others before her, told Lebanese leaders that Lebanon will not receive foreign aid before disarming Hezbollah.
"The U.S. administration wants to help Lebanon liberate its land, rebuild (war-hit regions), and revive its economy, but in return two things are required of us - economic reforms and arms monopoly," Rajji said, adding that Ortagus did not mention a timeframe but said these prerequisites must be achieved as soon as possible and that what has been done is "good but not enough."
In an interview with al-Arabiya this week, Ortagus said she was encouraged by her meetings in Lebanon. "Yes and no," she answered, once asked if the Lebanese government is doing a good job. The government is working "very quickly", she said, but added that the situation is "not easy" and that reforms and change are "challenging" and will take time.
The U.S. envoy had said last month that Washington will be "bringing together Lebanon and Israel for talks aimed at diplomatically resolving several outstanding issues between the two countries" -- the release of Lebanese prisoners, the remaining disputed points along the Blue Line, and the remaining 5 "Strategic" hills where Israeli forces are still deployed in south Lebanon. She said she hopes diplomat-led working groups will soon negotiate these outstanding issues.
"The Israeli and the Americans want to form three working groups to negotiate (these issues) but we told them Lebanon is only ready to negotiate the disputed points along the Blue Line as Israel's withdrawal and the release of prisoners are non-negotiables and need to be done immediately and without conditions.
He added that the U.S. has suggested these working groups be civilian but that this topic has not been raised again since.
Lebanon wants the border demarcation to be negotiated through a military committee and not through direct talks -- like in 2022 when Lebanese and Israeli leaders separately signed a U.S.-brokered maritime demarcation deal after months of indirect talks -- and Lebanese politicians have unanimously said that the normalization of ties with Israel and direct negotiations are not on the table.
"Lebanon is calling on all countries to pressure Israel to withdraw from the occupied Lebanese territories. Hezbollah will then have no excuse to hold onto its weapons and this will strengthen the position of the Lebanese state, which insists on liberating its land through diplomacy. However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... until now, the Israelis are refusing to respond," Rajji said.
Israel deems the five hilltops "strategic" and says they are important for security and provide key vantage points to monitor Hezbollah movements and prevent potential threats along the border.
Israel has also continued to launch strikes on Lebanon despite a November ceasefire thon the lamly halted more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah. Israel says the strikes target Hezbollah members or weapons but it has also targeted prefabricated homes set up for residents whose homes in south Lebanon were destroyed in the conflict.
Trust but Verify. Pay-to-Slay is central to the Palestinian governing raison d’être.
[IsraelTimes] After US expressed skepticism, top Abbas aide sends letter to Rubio encouraging Trump delegation to come to Ramallah after June 1 and certify new welfare system up and running
The Paleostinian Authority has formally invited the Trump administration to certify that Ramallah’s reform of its controversial welfare system viewed as incentivizing terror is being implemented, a US official and a PA official revealed to The Times of Israel on Friday.
The invitation was extended in a letter that PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> ’s top aide, Hussein al-Sheikh, sent on Wednesday to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... The letter notes a decree Abbas signed in February canceling legislation that conditioned welfare payments to Paleostinian prisoners on the length of their sentences in Israeli jails, instead basing stipends solely on the financial need of the recipient, the officials confirmed.
Sheikh states that the PA is fully committed to implementing the reform and would welcome a US delegation to come to Ramallah and begin certifying that the new system is in place starting on June 1.
While June 1 will be nearly four months after Abbas signed the decree, the two officials said time was needed to get the new system up and running, given that families need to re-apply and their requests need to be adjudicated based on a strict set of criteria.
"This is a major step demonstrating that this is not just talk, but action because an invitation would not be extended if we weren’t confident that the US will certify," the PA official told The Times of Israel.
Asked to comment, a State Department spokesperson said, "We do not comment on diplomatic correspondence."
"This abhorrent practice of compensation that provides benefits and payments in support of terrorism needs to end now. We want to see actions, not words," the spokesperson added, repeating a statement it issued to The Times of Israel last month.
Abbas’s decree is designed to bring the PA into compliance with the Taylor Force Act, a 2018 congressional legislation that barred US economic aid that directly benefits the PA.
For such aid to resume, the US secretary of state is required to certify four conditions: (1) that the decree conditioning payments to prisoners on the length of their sentence has been revoked; (2) that those payments have actually ceased; (3) that the PA is taking steps to combat terror in the West Bank; and (4) that the PA is publicly condemning terror.
Abbas has met the first condition with his decree, and a US delegation will determine whether the second condition has been met come June 1.
As for the third condition, the PA official pointed to Ramallah’s continued security coordination with Israel and its efforts to crack down on gangs in the northern West Bank.
As for the requirement that the PA condemn terror, the PA official highlighted recent statements made by Ramallah condemning Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... A written letter of certification from Rubio is required for the PA to be deemed in compliance with the Taylor Force Act. Once that letter has been issued, it must be re-certified every 180 days.
The practice of paying allowances to those convicted of carrying out terror attacks, and to the families of those killed while carrying out attacks, has been pilloried by critics as incentivizing terror, and held up by Israel as a symbol of PA corruption and its inability to serve as a partner for peace.
Paleostinian leaders have long defended the payments, describing them as a form of social welfare and necessary compensation for victims of what they said is Israel’s callous military justice system in the West Bank.
While the State Department initially welcomed the decree signed by Abbas on February 10 as a "big win for the administration," it has since sharpened its tone against the PA.
Monthly payments to the families of security prisoners and the families of maimed and slain attackers have occurred twice since Abbas signed the decree on February 10, two Paleostinian sources directly familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel last month.
The Paleostinian official explained that this was because the payments were from months before the decree was signed. With Ramallah’s funds limited due to Israel’s withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues, the PA was only able to transfer welfare recipients their payments for December in February, while the stipends for January were received earlier this month.
Accordingly, it will likely take another month or two until the new payment system kicks in, the Paleostinian official said.
The Paleostinian official speculated that the US administration’s shift in tone toward the PA reform likely stemmed from an initial expectation that the new payment policy would be implemented sooner.
"We still plan to uphold the decree that was signed," the Paleostinian official said.
[IsraelTimes] In rare coordinated effort, officials said to have warned Iran’s supreme leader that military threats from US and Israel are real, and country faces massive unrest if it goes to war
In a rare intervention, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> was urged by his brass hats to allow negotiations with the United States on the regime’s nuclear program or risk the fall of the Islamic Theocratic Republic, The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported Friday.
The US and Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... are set to meet in Oman on Saturday for talks over Tehran’s rogue nuclear program.
According to The New York Times report, which cited two senior Iranian officials who are familiar with the details, Khamenei held a meeting last month attended by heads of the judiciary and parliament. Those officials, in what the sources described as an unusual, coordinated effort, pressured Khamenei into accepting talks with Washington, even direct ones.
They told Khamenei that the threat of military action by the US and Israel against its nuclear sites was serious.
"If Iran refused talks or if the negotiations failed, the officials told Mr. Khamenei, military strikes on Iran’s two main nuclear sites, Natanz and Fordow, would be inevitable," the sources said, as reported by the Times.
The country, already in economic shambles, would be forced to respond, but then would also likely be plunged into domestic unrest if it were to go to war, they said.
The combination of such events would amount to an existential threat to the Islamic Theocratic Republic, the officials reportedly told Khamenei.
The sources said that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, an ex-Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps chief and current conservative head of Parliament, told Khamenei that a war combined with a domestic economic implosion could quickly get out of control.
They also quoted President Masoud Pezeshkian as telling Khamenei that managing the country through its current crises was not tenable. The report points to power cuts that threaten to shutter factories and water shortages in the central city of Yazd, which saw schools and government offices closed this week.
Iran previously rejected talks but has since relented amid US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... ’s threats.
Hossein Mousavian, a former diplomat who served on Iran’s nuclear negotiating team on a 2015 deal and is now a visiting fellow at Princeton University, told The New York Times that the change illustrated that preserving the regime was Khamenei’s main priority. Hossein Mousavian, a former diplomat who served on Iran’s nuclear negotiating team on a 2015 deal and is now a visiting fellow at Princeton University?
Signing him on was a real triumph, donchaknow. Their NearEast history and international relations students will be getting the story straight from the horse’s mouth. Wasn’t it Yale who had a former Talib minister matriculate with a full scholarship, despite being illiterate in both Pashto and English? Such an opportunity for his fellow students, wherever he was!
"Mr. Khamenei’s turnaround demonstrates his long-held core principle that ’preserving the regime is the most necessary of the necessities,’" Mousavian said.
While Khamenei relented and agreed to talks, he also imposed his own conditions, the report said.
Citing three Iranian officials, the NYT said that Khamenei agreed to discuss strict monitoring for the nuclear program and a significant reduction of the enrichment of uranium. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes... he has said that Iran’s missile program is off limits, regarding it as being part of Iran’s defenses. The sources said that was a "deal breaker."
However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes... the report also said that Iran was "open to discussing its regional policies" and support for its terror proxies like Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... , Hezbollah and the Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s in 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...
More from the Times of Israel:
Then, there are the expectations of the two sides. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi maintains the negotiations will begin as indirect talks, likely with Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi passing messages between Tehran and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. Trump has maintained the talks will be direct. While not a major roadblock, it signals the challenge the negotiations face — particularly after years of indirect talks during the Biden administration went nowhere.
And while the US side can offer sanctions relief for Iran’s beleaguered economy, it remains unclear just how much Iran will be willing to concede. Under the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran could only maintain a small stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67%. Today, Tehran’s stockpile could allow it to build multiple nuclear weapons if it so chooses, and it has some material enriched up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Judging from negotiations since Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal in 2018, Iran will likely ask to keep enriching uranium up to at least 20%.
One thing it won’t do is give up its program entirely. That makes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal of a so-called Libyan solution — “you go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American execution” — unworkable. Iran routinely threatens Israel with destruction and is the main backer of several proxy terror groups attacking Israel, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Iranians, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have held up what ultimately happened to the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was killed with his own gun by rebels in the country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, as a warning about what can happen when you trust the United States.
Already, a top adviser for Khamenei, Ali Shamkhani, has warned what could happen if the US continues to threaten Tehran, including Iran expelling inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency and ending cooperation with the UN watchdog.
“The transfer of enriched material to a secure location could also be considered,” he added, opening the door again to Iran having secret, undeclared nuclear sites as it did when the crisis over its program began over 20 years ago.
But Majid Takht-e Ravanch, a deputy Iranian foreign minister, offered a more positive note on Friday.
“If the American side refrains from raising unrelated issues and demands — and abandons threats and intimidation — there is a good opportunity to reach an agreement,” Takht-e Ravanch said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
[IsraelTimes] Latest letter comes amid growing wave of criticism from reservists arguing that hostages must come first; Netanyahu says letters are ‘encouraging’ Israel’s enemies
Some 250 reservists from the IDF’s elite 8200 intelligence unit have thrown their support behind the Israeli Air Force pilots who recently called for an immediate shift in the government’s war policy, drawing the ire of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused them of "encouraging" Israel’s enemies.
The intelligence unit reservists said in a letter published Friday that they were joining "the call of the aircrews in demanding the immediate return of the hostages, even at the cost of an immediate change in the conduct of the war."
The declaration was the latest in a growing wave of criticism from within Israel’s reserve forces over the continued 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... and the failure to return the remaining 59 hostages.
The calls began with a group of roughly 1,000 Israeli Air Force veterans, the vast majority of whom are in retirement, who published a letter Thursday demanding as much.
The letter did not call for a general refusal to serve but instead urged the government to prioritize the release of hostages over the continuation of the war in Gaza, which the signatories argued now serves "political and personal interests" rather than national security.
Some 60 of the 1,000 IAF veterans are still active reservists, and the IAF has said that they will be dismissed.
The Air Force veterans were then joined by a group of some 150 ex-Navy officers and dozens of reservist doctors who signed their names to letters demanding an immediate end to the war for the sake of the remaining hostages.
Voicing many of the same concerns as those before them, the intelligence unit reservists also warned that high rates of reservists were experiencing "burnout" after multiple rounds of being called up, many of them to the front lines.
They said that they had "noticed the ever-increasing rates of non-reporting for the reserves," and as such were "concerned about the future effects of this trend."
Furthermore, it argued, the war in the Paleostinian enclave was not bringing Israel any closer to its oft-touted goals of returning the hostages, defeating the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... terror group, and ensuring that Gaza could no longer pose a threat to Israel.
"The continuation of the war does not contribute to any of its stated goals, and will lead to the deaths of hostages, IDF soldiers, and innocents," they wrote, adding lower down: "We see Hamas controlling the Strip and recruiting new operatives to its ranks, while the government has not presented a convincing plan to overthrow it."
None of the letters published over the last few days have included calls for refusals to serve.
Nevertheless, IAF chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar slammed the letter written by Air Force veterans in a missive issued Friday, in which he said that the "manifesto that was published weakens the solidarity and leads to generalizations that affect servicemembers who are not partners to these views, as well as the entire [IAF].
"It is not appropriate for active reservists to call to stop the war, which they themselves take part in. We cannot allow this in any unit that participates in the war, including the Air Force," he said.
He said that he had been "forced to act and declare that active reservists who signed the manifesto cannot continue to serve in the IDF."
"This is a policy designed to maintain a strong, cohesive, and functioning [IAF]," he said, calling it a "painful, but necessary process."
"Over the past week, we have had conversations with those involved. This message was delivered directly and indirectly, with the aim of separating the military from politics," he said, adding that the IAF "will continue to operate like this in the future as well."
"When we stand together in a full partnership, we will stand up to every challenge and complete each task successfully. This is a historic time, we must remain strong and united. Only then can we win. As the Air Force commander, I am committed to you, all of the servicemembers," he said.
"May we stand with responsibility and professionalism with all the tasks we are given," he added.
In a scathing response to the letters on Friday, Netanyahu accused the reservists of representing a small minority funded by organizations he claimed wanted to overthrow his government.
"It is a small, noisy, anarchistic, and disconnected group of pensioners, a large group of whom have not served for years," he said, referring to the discovery that just 60 of the Air Force veterans who signed the original letter were active reservists, and within that number only a handful were competent pilots.
"The weeds are trying to weaken the State of Israel and the IDF and are encouraging our enemy to harm us," Netanyahu continued. "They already broadcast a message of weakness to our enemies once. We won’t allow them to do it again."
It was the second time in recent days that Netanyahu attributed the mass protests against his government that took place for most of 2023 as being a key factor in Hamas’s decision to launch its invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7.
Amid the protests against the government’s controversial judicial overhaul agenda, several groups of reservists, including some in the IAF, issued statements that they would refuse to serve under a regime they no longer viewed as democratic.
Despite Netanyahu’s claims, the IDF has said that Hamas had planned the attack at least a year in advance.
"Israeli citizens learned the lesson — a refusal to serve is a refusal to serve," no matter what dirty name they give it," the premier said, despite no reservists threatening this time around to refuse to serve.
"Whoever encourages refusal will be fired immediately," he said.
CIVILIANS BACK RESERVISTS’ DEMANDS
Also, on Friday, Ynet reported that some 1,840 academics signed a petition in support of the Air Force veterans and reservists and their call to end the war.
"We, faculty members at institutes of higher education, join the call of the Air Force personnel and demand the hostages return home without delay, even at the cost of immediately ending the war," they wrote.
They similarly declared that they found the war in Gaza to have shifted from its stated goals to instead serving "political and personal interests."
"As has been proven in the past, only an agreement has returned the hostages safely, while military pressure mainly leads to the killing of hostages and the endangerment of our soldiers."
The signatories were said by Ynet to include Avishay Braverman, who served as the president of Ben-Gurion University from 1990-2006, and until 2015 as a member of Knesset for the Labor Party.
It was also signed by Joseph Klafter, president of Tel Aviv University from 2009-2019, and the former president of Ariel University, Yehuda Danon.
[IsraelTimes] Government joins defense to request dual national Alexander Smirnov, 44, be let out of jail as he appeals conviction, after false claims former US president and son took bribes
The United States government wants an American-Israeli former FBI informant who fabricated a story about former US president Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass.... and his son Hunter taking bribes to be released from prison while he appeals his conviction, it was revealed Thursday in court records.
Are you sure that it’s not true? The Bidens, père et fils, were pretty corrupt…
Alexander Smirnov, 44, was sentenced to six years in prison in early January after pleading guilty in Los Angeles federal US court to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme, which was described by prosecutors at the time as an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.
Smirnov had been prosecuted by former US Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who resigned in January just days before US President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... returned to the White House for his second term. Smirnov’s case was reassigned Thursday to a new federal prosecutor, who jointly filed a motion the same day with Smirnov’s attorneys seeking his release, court records show.
In the motion, the US government said it will review its "theory of the case." The motion also notes that Smirnov’s release from custody would allow him to receive proper treatment for health issues related to his eyes.
Smirnov has been in jug since February 2024. He was arrested at the Las Vegas airport after returning to the US from overseas.
A hearing on the motion was not immediately scheduled Thursday.
Smirnov had falsely claimed to his FBI handler that around 2015, executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid then-US vice president Biden and his son $5 million each.
The explosive claim in 2020 came after Smirnov expressed "bias" about Biden as a US presidential candidate, according to prosecutors at the time. In reality, Sherlocks found Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 — after Biden’s term as US vice president.
Authorities said Smirnov’s false claim "set off a firestorm in Congress" when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into Biden, who won the presidency over Trump in 2020. The Biden administration dismissed the impeachment effort as a "stunt."
Weiss also brought gun and tax charges against Hunter Biden, who was supposed to be sentenced in December after being convicted at a trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to tax charges. But he was pardoned by his father, who said he believed "raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice."
#3
Whatever law it is that makes lying to the FBI a crime should be repealed because too many times we find it was the FBI that lied. The FBI can fabricate evidence that the truth is a lie. They can also alter the notes from an interview and claim that an interviewee lied when in fact he or she was telling the truth. Then they commit lawfare on behalf of corrupt politicians, put an innocent person in jail and ruin his or her reputation for telling the truth. This is why we don't trust the FBI anymore.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/12/2025 11:45
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#4
/\ Never talk to the Federales without your lawyer present.
[IsraelTimes] Several Arab Israelis have been arrested or charged in recent days on suspicion of having collaborated with West Bank terror groups planning to carry out attacks inside Israel.
On Friday, the Israel Police said it had arrested two Galilee residents for planning attacks in coordination with the Tulkarem Brigades
…sometimes Tulkarm Brigades, they first appeared in 2022. Various groups claim their origin, but really they’ll take money, personnel, and partner with any jihad group to attack Israel…
terror group, based out of the West Bank city of the same name.
The two men, named by police as Nur Shabaat, a resident of the town of Nahf, and Amir Kaywan, from the nearby Deir al-Assad, were arrested in March.
Police said that during interrogation, it was found that Shabaat made contact with the Tulkarem Brigades to participate in their operations, as well as those of other West Bank terror groups.
Shabaat then asked Kaywan for assistance with the plans, including asking him on several occasions to carry out stabbing attacks against security forces on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israel has been carrying out an extended counterterrorism operation dubbed Operation Iron Wall in the northern West Bank since January 21, an operation initiated days after a ceasefire agreement came into effect in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The operation began in the terror hotbed of Jenin, before expanding to nearby towns including Tulkarem, Far’a and Nur Shams. In recent days, the IDF said it expanded the operation to the Nablus area as well.
[HodhodYemenNews] American warplanes launched a series of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s early Friday morning, targeting residential and agricultural areas in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... ’s capital, and Sana’a Governorate.
According to security sources, the US aggression targeted Bani Hushaysh district with five consecutive airstrikes, causing significant material damage to public and private property.
The aggression also targeted the Jabal Nuqum area, east of the capital, with a heavy airstrike.
Moreover, the US aggression conducted three strikes on the Faj Attan area in the Moeen District, southwest of Sana’a.
The US aggression also targeted a farm in the al-Hawari area of the Hamdan District with two airstrikes, resulting in extensive damage to agricultural lands and crops, that are a source of livelihood for many families.
This US aerial aggression comes in the context of an intensive military escalation in Sana’a and several Yemeni governorates, where US aircraft deliberately target residential areas and civilian facilities, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
Suuuuure they did. Just like all the other times the Houthis shot off their missiles.
[HodhodYemen ...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... News] The Yemeni Armed Forces announced Friday that they successfully struck the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and several hostile warships in the northern Red Sea during a joint military operation in recent hours.
"As part of confronting the American aggression against our country and in response to its crimes against our people, the missile, UAV, and the naval forces continued to target enemy warships in the northern Red Sea, led by the American aircraft carrier Truman," according to a statement read by the military front man General Yahya Sare’e .
Over the past few hours, they have targeted it in a joint military operation using several cruise missiles and drones, General Sare’e said.
The Armed Forces, through the continuation of their defensive operations, confirm the enemy’s failure to effect on Yemeni military capabilities and that, with Allah’s help, they will continue to perform their defensive duties on land and at sea, the statement affirmed.
"The Armed Forces salute our great Yemeni people for their honorable million-man march in Sab’een Square and across all squares, affirming their rejection of the American aggression and their confrontation and resistance, as a jihad for the sake of Allah and in fulfillment of their religious, moral, and humanitarian duty toward the oppressed Paleostinian people."
Sooner or later, the enemy will realize that the steadfast, struggling people of Yemen do not submit or kneel except to Allah, the Almighty, the Compeller, General Sare’e affirmed.
[Rudaw] Syria on Thursday asked the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... Security Council to stop Israel from carrying out "attacks and incursions" into its territory, its ambassador told Rudaw.
"We called on the Security Council to take decisive and immediate actions to deal with these incursions and attacks," Koussay Aldahhak Syria’s ambassador to the UN, told Rudaw’s Sinan Tuncdemir following a Security Council meeting convened at Damascus’s request.
He censured the strikes and incursions as motivated by "false pretexts" and "baseless" allegations.
Israel has also "occupied" at least 10 percent of Syria’s territory, according to a blurb issued by the UN after the Security Council’s meeting.
Since the beginning of 2025, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented 44 Israeli attacks on Syrian territory, including 37 aerial strikes and six ground attacks. The Israeli military action has caused the destruction of approximately 50 sites, including weapons and ammunition depots, headquarters, command centers, and vehicles, according to the war monitor.
In its latest attacks, Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s targeted Hama’s military airport and the strategic T4 Air Base in Homs - both of which were believed to have been possible spots to house Ottoman Turkish forces.
"I warn Syrian leader Jolani [rebel name of Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa]: If you allow hostile forces to enter Syria and threaten Israeli security interests, you will pay a heavy price," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement reported by AFP.
Israel’s deputy UN representative Jonathan Miller said his country’s actions are driven by "necessity, not expansion."
"We will do whatever is necessary - for however long it takes - to prevent another 7 October," he told the Security Council, referencing the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... attacks of 2023.
Fikriye Asli Guven, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... member, but not the most reliable... ’s deputy representative to the UN, stated that they are cooperating with regional countries to "address shared security concerns." She also noted that eliminating "terrorist organizations" in Syria are necessary for "lasting peace and permanent unity."
The Ottoman Turkish diplomat was referring to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Ankara considers an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
"We are also closely monitoring the agreement made between the Syrian administration and the so-called SDF," she added.
Syria’s interim President Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed a landmark agreement on March 10 to integrate the SDF into the state apparatus. The agreement recognizes the Kurds as an integral part of Syria, includes a countrywide ceasefire, and stipulates the return of displaced Syrians to their hometowns.
Jerome Bonnafont, La Belle France’s representative to the UN, said at the Security Council meeting that the SDF-Damascus agreement is a "positive first step" toward a negotiated solution for Syrian unity and "guaranteeing the rights and interests of the Kurds in Syria."
[Garowe] Recent battlefield advances by the murderous Moslem group al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... have prompted some U.S. State Department officials to propose closing the American embassy in Mogadishu, according to The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... The recommendation, driven by concerns over embassy security, echoes fears of past crises — including the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the 2021 collapse of the Afghan government following U.S. troop withdrawal.
However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... other officials within the Trump administration’s National Security Council have warned that shuttering the embassy could undermine confidence in Somalia’s federal government and risk political instability. These officials are urging continued engagement and support for Somalia’s fragile institutions.
The U.S. embassy in Mogadishu remains fully operational, with security conditions under regular review. The embassy was reopened in October 2019 under President Trump after being closed for nearly 28 years, marking a significant step in U.S.-Somalia relations.
In addition to the embassy closure, State Department officials have also floated the idea of withdrawing the 500 to 600 American troops stationed in Somalia and halting counterterrorism operations against al-Shabaab and ISIS.
It remains unclear whether former President Trump, who reduced troop levels in late 2020 before leaving office, would pursue these proposals if reelected. President Biden later redeployed a limited number of U.S. forces to Somalia in 2021.
#1
I guess if AFRICOM can run their Somalia missions from the comfort and safety of Germany, there's little need for an embassy in Somalia. Especially if the Ambassador just visits.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/12/2025 8:52
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#3
Somalia is not an actual country, its a target-rich Islamic warlord area full of whack-a-mole opportunities and foreign-aid con-jobs. The only real purpose of an Embassy there seems to be the immigration pipeline to the Somali Minneapolis Colony!
[KhaamaPress] In a move raising deep concern among Afghan communities in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has officially ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for citizens of Afghanistan, leaving thousands at risk of deportation in the coming weeks.
The decision, announced by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, concludes the protection previously granted to approximately 14,600 Afghan nationals who have lived in the U.S. under TPS since 2022. The protection had been extended due to the ongoing conflict, economic instability, and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan following the Taliban ...Arabic for students... ’s return to power in 2021.
TPS is a legal provision that allows individuals from countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to live and work temporarily in the U.S. without fear of removal. The Biden administration had last renewed Afghanistan’s TPS designation in September 2023, citing unsafe conditions for return. That designation was set to expire in May 2025.
Secretary Noem’s announcement, however, asserts that Afghanistan no longer meets the statutory requirements for continued designation under the TPS program. The department plans to issue a formal notice explaining the rationale behind the decision in the coming days.
The development has alarmed human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... groups, refugee advocates, and Afghan American communities, who argue that the situation in Afghanistan remains dire. The country continues to face widespread poverty, food insecurity, restrictions on women’s rights, and political repression under Taliban rule.
"Ending TPS for Afghans is not only premature but deeply troubling," said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President of Global Refuge. "Conditions in Afghanistan have not improved—they remain dangerous and unstable. This decision risks returning vulnerable individuals to a place where their safety and freedoms cannot be guaranteed."
Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, more than 80,000 Afghans have been evacuated, many through emergency parole programs. Some have since adjusted their status through asylum or Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), but a large number remain under TPS as their only legal protection from deportation.
Advocacy groups have also expressed concern over recent reports of Afghan parolees receiving notices to leave the country within days after their parole was revoked. DHS has acknowledged using its discretionary authority in some cases but has not clarified how many Afghans are affected.
The removal of TPS for Afghans comes as part of a broader rollback of humanitarian immigration protections by the Trump administration, which took office earlier this year. The administration has framed the move as part of efforts to "restore the rule of law," though critics say it targets vulnerable populations and undermines U.S. commitments to its wartime allies.
Legal challenges to the decision are possible. Earlier this year, a federal judge blocked the administration’s attempt to end TPS for Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south... ns, citing a lack of evidence and potential political bias.
For now, Afghan families under TPS are left in legal limbo, uncertain about their future in a country many have come to call home.
I wonder what percentage of the US population is considered "vulnerable". And if you're not "vulnerable" does that mean you're invulnerable, like a Congresscritter with seniority?
Posted by: Matt ||
04/12/2025 11:16
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Ugh. When the government pays, they get to choose.
[IsraelTimes] He ‘cannot be entrusted with religious freedom of Jews,’ says one leader as Jewish community fumes over pick of online-ordained rabbi who calls Zionist Jews ‘Nazis’ and ‘apostates’
The Colombian Jewish community is reeling after an anti-Zionist "rabbi" was tapped to be the country’s director of religious affairs.
Richard Gamboa Ben-Eleazar was appointed to the post in Colombia’s Ministry of the Interior by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, according to an announcement Gamboa made on X last Thursday.
He thanked Petro for "the opportunity to serve excluded and marginalized religious minorities from the Directorate of Religious Affairs, in the construction of a just and peaceful Colombia for all."
But Colombia’s Jewish community does not recognize Gamboa as a rabbi, and Jewish groups have condemned him as an antisemite. He reportedly received his ordination from a Florida institution called the Esoteric Theological Seminary that advertises rabbinical degrees for $160. Gamboa’s LinkedIn displays an ordination certificate from the seminary.
Marcos Peckel, executive director of the Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia, expressed outrage over the appointment. Gamboa’s appointment comes after Petro severed diplomatic ties with Israel last May, accusing the country of committing genocide 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... , an accusation Israel has denied.
"This man refers to Zionist Jews as heretics, apostates, and Nazis. That’s how he talks about us," Peckel told The Media Line. "A person who speaks this way cannot be entrusted with the religious freedoms of Jewish citizens."
Colombia’s Chief Rabbi Alfredo Goldschmidt also rejected the appointment of Gamboa, telling The Media Line, "We’ve had very good experiences with past religious affairs directors, usually evangelical leaders who respected all faiths. Gamboa has no such support—not from Jews, evangelicals, nor Catholics. He’s had festivities with all."
Gamboa has castigated Israel and Zionism online. In a post on X in February, he wrote that Israel is a "neo-Nazi ...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both.... state" and said that "Zionism is an anti-Jewish, idolatrous, and apostate heresy."
The Anti-Defamation League joined the chorus of Jewish groups denouncing the appointment, posting on X that his appointment would "threaten religious freedom and the security of Colombia’s Jewish community."
The ADL also accused Gamboa of having "ties to turban groups." The Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a release that he and the ambassador representing Iran, Israel’s chief adversary, have had a close relationship.
Gamboa defended himself in another post on X, writing, "In the last 48 hours, my human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... have been violated in Colombia: religious freedom, right to honor and a good name, freedom of conscience... they have done so publicly and in my capacity as a HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER!"
BREAKING: The Council on American Islamic Relations is seeking to block Columbia from turning over records to Congress about the pro-Hamas group Students for Justice in Palestine.
CAIR is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and was labeled a terrorist group by the UAE in 2014. pic.twitter.com/aEZYe5RvKF
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) asked Columbia to produce records related to SJP's activities, finances, potential links to terrorist groups, and overall "threats to campus safety" by Wednesday. CAIR, which is suing Columbia’s board of trustees on behalf of detained protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and several other foreign anti-Israel students, objected to the request.
Releasing the documents, attorneys with CAIR's legal defense fund argued, could implicate Khalil and his classmates. They asked a federal judge in New York to implement a 30-day review period, during which CAIR could assess the documents and file objections. The judge, Arun Subramanian, responded by ordering Columbia to delay the release of the documents until Friday for CAIR's review, according to court filings.
[KhaamaPress] A senior TTP commander, Hafizullah Mubariz, was killed by Pak forces near the Afghanistan border, according to Pak media reports.
Pak media reported on Saturday, April 12, that Hafizullah Mubarez, a senior commander of Tehrik-e-Taliban ...Arabic for students... Pakistain (TTP), was killed in a military operation near the Pakistain-Afghanistan border. Mubarez, widely known by his alias "Kochawan," was considered a key figure within the holy warrior group.
According to The Express Tribune, the Pak military conducted the operation that led to Mubarez’s death. He had been leading TTP’s special forces in the Malakand region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and parts of Kunar province ... Kunar is Haqqani country..... in eastern Afghanistan.
Security sources confirmed to Pak outlets that Mubarez played a critical role in planning and executing deadly attacks on both Pak and U.S. forces. His involvement extended to multiple cross-border operations targeting Pak military personnel.
The slain commander was also reportedly behind several terror attacks on civilians and state institutions within Pakistain. He had long been on Pakistain’s most-wanted list, with a reward of 10 million Pak rupees announced for information leading to his capture.
Pak intelligence officials stated that Mubarez was responsible for orchestrating assaults along the porous Pakistain-Afghanistan border. These areas have long been a hotspot for Death Eater activity and holy warrior hideouts, particularly since the fall of Kabul in 2021.
In response to repeated border attacks, Islamabad has accused TTP of using Afghanistan territory to launch strikes—a claim that has consistently been denied by the Taliban-led government in Kabul. Despite efforts to secure the border, tensions between the two nations remain high.
The killing of Hafizullah Mubarez marks a significant counterterrorism achievement for Pakistain but also underscores the persistent threat posed by the TTP and other holy warrior networks operating in border regions.
Analysts believe that unless cross-border cooperation and intelligence-sharing between Afghanistan and Pakistain improve, such assassinations may offer only temporary relief from the threat of Death Eater violence.
[KhaamaPress] Freshta Jami was sentenced to life in the UK for attempting to join ISIS-K and planning terrorist activities in Afghanistan.
Freshta Jami, an Afghan woman, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a UK court after being found guilty of attempting to join ISIS-Khorasan in Afghanistan. The court ruled that she posed a serious threat due to her ties with terrorist organizations.
According to British media reports on Thursday, April 10, Jami was convicted under Section 5 of the UK Terrorism Act 2006 for preparing to commit terrorist acts. She was found guilty on two counts and received a life sentence, with a minimum of 17 years to be served.
The Leicester Crown Court handed down the sentence after finding substantial evidence of her intentions and preparations. Her actions were deemed premeditated and dangerous, reflecting an ideological commitment to krazed killer beliefs.
Police investigations revealed evidence from her home connecting her directly to ISIS activities. Her arrest in February followed a thorough surveillance operation based on digital communications and radical material found in her possession.
During court proceedings, it was revealed that Jami had planned to become a "martyr" and was also intending to take her children with her to Afghanistan for that purpose. This aspect of the case raised serious concerns about the welfare and safety of minors involved.
Jami was initially arrested in February and held in jug since then. Her case underscores growing concerns in the UK over radicalization and attempts to join foreign terrorist groups from within its borders.
The UK authorities have reiterated their commitment to preventing terrorism and protecting public safety. The case of Fereshta Jami serves as a stark reminder of the threats posed by krazed killer ideologies and the importance of vigilance at both community and national levels.
Frog throughly boiled. It is ithe Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, after all.
[ToloNews] The leader of the Islamic Emirate met with the governor of Paktia and other provincial officials in Kandahar.
During the meeting, Sheikh Hibatullah Akhundzada emphasized that the time has come to implement Sharia in the country’s political, economic, and military sectors. He called on local officials to make serious efforts to enforce Islamic rulings, especially the law of "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice."
The deputy spokesperson of the Islamic Emirate, Hamdullah Fitrat said: "The esteemed Amir al-Mu'minin instructed officials to strengthen the Islamic system, implement Sharia, enforce the law of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and serve the people."
The leader of the Islamic Emirate also stressed the importance of unity among the people and the prevention of divisions.
Fitrat further stated: "The Amir al-Mu'minin urged the people to cooperate with ministries, find solutions to public problems, and eliminate ethnic divisions."
Political analyst Abdul Sadiq Hamidzoy said: "If the government wants the support of the people, the foremost need is for social justice, so that no one feels disappointed or alienated."
This comes as the leader of the Islamic Emirate had previously, during Eid al-Fitr prayers in Kandahar, emphasized the importance of setting aside differences and said that an Islamic system can only succeed when there is unity and harmony among all citizens.
They aren’t likely to get him. What’s their fallback?
[IsraelTimes] Argentine court ruled last year that Iran and Hezbollah were behind attack that killed 85 people in Buenos Aires; lead prosecutor says no immunity for Iranian supreme leader
By Grace Gilson
The names of bombing victims and the Spanish phrase "Memory and Justice" cover a wall after a ceremony was held to mark the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center that killed 85 people in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP/Natacha Pisarenko)
JTA — Argentine prosecutors have requested an arrest warrant for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
Khamenei, who ascended to his position in 1989, was Iran’s leader at the time of the attack. It killed 85 people and was, at the time, the single deadliest attack against Diaspora Jews since the Holocaust. An Argentine court ruled last April that Iran and Hezbollah were behind the attack.
The lead prosecutor in the case, Sebastián Basso, argued in an Argentinian federal court that Khamenei was behind the decision to carry out the attack, and he did not have immunity from prosecution, Argentine newspaper Clarín reported Wednesday.
“It is the national judicial authorities who have the duty and the power to judge those responsible, regardless of their location and the social and political position they occupy in the territories where they reside,” said Basso, according to Clarín. He cited both Argentine and international law in his arguments.
Basso said that Khamenei “led the decision to carry out a bomb attack in Buenos Aires in July 1994 and issued executive order (fatwa) 39 to carry it out. It is also undeniable that Khamenei has always been, and continues to be, the main supporter of groups with military capabilities such as Hezbollah,” according to Clarín. Khamenei has previously denied allegations of Iran’s involvement in the attack.
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Previous prosecutors had said Khamenei could claim immunity for the charges. More broadly, Basso’s request signifies Argentina’s shifting approach to Iran’s role in the AMIA attack, which it had allegedly once tried to downplay before last April’s ruling.
Firemen and policemen search for wounded people after a bomb exploded at the Argentinian Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA in Spanish) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 1994. (Ali Burafi/AFP)
In 2013, Argentina took steps to jointly investigate the attack with Iran. Basso’s predecessor, Alberto Nisman, was assassinated in 2015, hours before he was set to present evidence that a former Argentine president had covered up Iran’s involvement in the bombing.
In 2021, Iran appointed two men to its government who were implicated in the bombing.
"We have all this cheap crap stuck in ports and ships. Buy now!"
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] China will raise its tariffs against the U.S. to 125% from Saturday in the latest escalation in the burgeoning trade war, the finance ministry announced today.
The new duties are a significant climb from the 84% announced on Wednesday, rising to meet the current U.S. tariffs imposed on Chinese goods.
Beijing said that the U.S. tariffs against China defy 'basic economic laws and common sense' after Donald Trump raised the rate on Chinese imports to 125%.
A statement from the finance ministry said the imposition of 'abnormally high tariffs' amounted to 'unilateral bullying and coercion'.
China's tariff hike only moves in line with Trump's latest raft of duties; Washington said yesterday the 125% announced Wednesday compounded an existing 20%.
Beijing did say that it would not respond to any more tariffs imposed by the U.S.
The Trump administration has kept up the pressure on China despite climbing down from high, and varied, duties on dozens of other trading partners this week.
While the EU now faces a baseline 10% rate pending 90 days for negotiations, leaders are still contemplating countermeasures should talks falter.
Meeting with Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday, Xi Jinping urged cooperation with China to resist what he called 'unilateral bullying' from the U.S.
The three-month reprieve on hefty tariffs against 57 countries followed 'pressure from China', Beijing said in a show of goodwill.
'China and Europe should fulfil their international responsibilities... and jointly resist unilateral bullying practices,' Xi said on Friday, state news agency Xinhua reported.
This, he stressed, would not only 'safeguard their own legitimate rights and interests, but also... safeguard international fairness and justice.'
Sanchez, in turn, told a press conference following his meeting with Xi that tensions over trade should not impede cooperation between the European Union and China.
Spain buys about 45 billion euros ($49.1 billion) of goods every year from China, its fourth-largest trading partner, but sells around 7.4 billion euros' worth.
'Both Spain and Europe have a significant trade deficit with China that we must work to rectify,' he admitted.
But, he said, 'we must not let trade tensions stand in the way of the potential growth of the relationship between China and Spain and between China and the EU'.
Sanchez broke with the rest of the European Union on his last trip to China in September 2024, urging the bloc to reconsider plans to impose high tariffs on Chinese electric cars and calling for a 'fair trade order'.
China has found itself largely isolated in Trump's trade war, heavily penalised with tariffs as the new administration looks to encourage domestic manufacturing.
There is no winner in a tariff war, and going against the world will only push the U.S. into self-isolation, President Xi said during his meeting with Sanchez.
Beijing has vowed not to shy away from the fight should Trump insist upon his economic conflict with China.
But Xi did say any further tariff hikes from the U.S. would be 'ignored' by China.
'Even if the U.S. continues to impose higher tariffs, it will no longer make economic sense and will become a joke in the history of world economy,' he said, per CNBC.
China's mission to the World Trade Organization did, however, say today that it had filed an additional complaint to the trade body over U.S. tariffs.
'On 10 April, the United States issued the Executive Order, announcing a further increase of the so-called 'reciprocal tariff' on Chinese products.
'China filed a WTO complaint against United States' latest tariff measures,' the statement from China's mission said, citing a ministry of commerce spokesperson.
With tensions mounting, Elon Musk's Tesla suspended new orders on its Model S and Model X electric cars in China.
Musk has tried to maintain cordial ties with Beijing. China represents a huge market for the car manufacturer and extracts precious metals used in its batteries.
In Shanxi, China, jewelry stores raised large red banners announcing that American customers would face 104 per cent 'service fees' in store.
The Zhangji BBQ Beef Offal Restaurant in Wuhan lifted similar banners, local media reports.
Meanwhile, China's e-commerce giant JD.com said on Friday it would launch a 200 billion yuan ($27.35 billion) fund to help the country's exporters sell their products domestically over the next year, as a U.S.-China trade war intensifies.
JD.com said in a statement that it would send its employees to Chinese companies involved in foreign trade, directly purchase their 'high-quality products' and set up a special area on its e-commerce platform to sell these products and direct traffic and marketing support to this area.
Separately on Friday, supermarket chain Freshippo, owned by JD.com rival Alibaba and known as Hema in Chinese, said it had opened a fast-track path for export companies to explore the domestic market.
The support programmes for Chinese exporters could help them re-coup some of their losses stemming from reduced sales overseas by quickly starting or increasing domestic sales, although they will face intense competition in a slowing economy.
Like JD.com, Freshippo will set up a special zone on its platform where only products from these companies will be sold.
It said it will also make it easier for exporters to get on its platform by simplifying registration procedures and would allow these exporters to make use of the company's warehouse network.
In a twist on the trade war, social media users have relished in content poking fun at the Trump administration and its radical tariff regime.
A trend has emerged of AI-generated videos circulated on TikTok and Chinese app Douyin depicting Trump and his White House staffers working in sweatshops.
One video showed Trump and his Vice President, JD Vance, stitching MAGA hats in a factory.
'Factories are being located to the United States,' read the overlay in Mandarin, next to three laughing emojis.
Another video circulating this week showed Trump, Elon Musk and JD Vance working on a production line making trainers.
Concerns mount that should the economic stand-off with China continue, consumer goods like the Nike shoes featured in the viral video could skyrocket in price.
At the moment, 62 per cent of the shoes sold in the United States are imported from China, with other nations like Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and India providing the rest. Just one per cent of shoes are produced domestically.
China is a key trading partner with a large manufacturing industry, producing huge quantities of inexpensive goods for American consumers.
#2
As a side data point, a month ago a sales rep told me to stock up because price increases on goods are going up because tariffs. I thought to myself, how are your price increases this time of year every year for the past all years different, because it sounds like a blame shift?
Also, was talking to someone who is very dependent currently on products from Chyna, and that person said all those prices have already been bumped because tariffs. "So if this all falls through, do they adjust the prices down?" I asked. "Actually I asked that, and didn't get a firm answer. Uh huh." was the reply. Uh huh.
So I have a question, or at least a posit, because if it were me it would be my play:
Considering a noticeable throttling down of imports from Chyna, and a lack of qualified and motivated manufacturing age workers in the USA, and importing shitty workers who can't even drive or educated in the Metric System:
Is that push for a domestic AI initiative to create an indigenous automated modular manufacturing system which can self Lego its configuration to produce flower baskets one cycle and reconfigure into a show producer next cycle, such as how in games like Command and Conquer or Empire At War, a light, medium, or heavy factory which can produce some 5 different items from the same factory?
#3
"OK team, nice quarter work with keeping the stock, logistics, and maintenance work on our Washer and Dryer Line. This weekend will be a reconfigure, so Roblox Team is on call this weekend. Monday we will be producing Basic Call Vehicle Cargo Transports, adjust and prepare Observation and Logistics Supply for one thousand units ICU and two hundred EV, at this time until fulfilled or extended order. As said, Roblox Team you are on duty, so no party favors, keep you monitoring devices on-hand and notifications on until Inspection Go."
Buy on rumour, sell on news, they say, though the first takes strong nerves.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Minutes before President Donald Trump's tariff pause, investors made strangely prudent financial moves.
On the internet, people are ablaze with suspicion.
…all envious because they missed the timing themselves.
The stock market descended rapidly last Thursday and Friday, as the Trump administration doubled down on a larger-than-expected 'reciprocal' tariff policy.
But then Trump paused the policy via a post on Truth Social at 1:18pm on April 9, sending stock prices soaring in a record-setting single-day rally.
In the 18 minutes leading up to Trump's tariff pause announcement, a handful of popular ETFs lit up with unusual trading activity. Volumes on QQQ, SPY, and TQQQ surged — and fast.
For example, in the five-minute interval that ended 18 minutes before Trump posted the news online, trading in QQQ spiked from a steady clip of around 214,000 shares every five minutes to nearly 1.5 million, according to MarketWatch data.
The volume spikes of the ETF lit up Subreddits, like Wall Street Bets ELITE, including one thread titled 'Is Trump Pulling Off the Biggest Financial Fraud in History? A Dire Warning.'
#4
I agree. We should investigate all POTUS and Congresscritter stock investments - in depth - starting with Pelosi, Bernie, AOC, and Da Nang Dick. Everyone making $170K annually should be given an audit to explain how they became multi-millionaires.
Trump said: "Here's what we're gonna do", did it publically, and was already rich
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/12/2025 8:41
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#5
Nancy is upset, along with her fellow inside traders, that they weren't included in the process.
[FoxNews] California, New York and Massachusetts doled out more than $300M in improper unemployment payments over the last four years, according to DOGE
After finding $382 million in fraudulent unemployment payments since 2020, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified California, New York and Massachusetts as the primary culprits.
The three Democrat-led states accounted for $305 million in improper claim payments, DOGE said Thursday.
The group added that California also accounted for 68% of the benefits that were dispensed under former President Joe Biden to parolees identified by federal authorities as being on the government's terrorist watchlist, or who had criminal records.
California, New York and Massachusetts all have a Democratic trifecta — meaning Democrats control the state House, Senate and the governor's office. They also have a Democratic triplex, which includes party control of the Attorney General, Secretary of State and governorship.
"There’s a reason for the mass exodus from Democrat-run states that have mismanaged their economies and driven residents to the nearest Republican-led state," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital. "High taxes, poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars and progressive policies continue to yield negative results, which is why Americans overwhelmingly support the work of DOGE."
Earlier this week, DOGE reported that since 2020, hundreds of millions in fraudulent unemployment benefits went to tens of thousands of recipients listed as over 115 years old, between ages 1 and 5, or even with birthdates that haven't occurred yet.
"This is another incredible discovery by the DOGE team, finding nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments. The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans’ stolen tax dollars. We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud," said Labor Department Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Additionally, DOGE also found this week that it was "routine" under the Biden administration to admit immigrants into the country with minimal screening and, as a result, led to more than 6,000 people — either with criminal records, or flagged on the FBI's terror watchlist — entering the country.
Furthermore, DOGE found, hundreds of these people were able to collect public benefits — including approximately $42,000 through the government's unemployment insurance program. These people also collected money from federal student loan programs, food stamp programs and IRS tax refunds.
The Trump administration ended parole for everyone identified as having a criminal record, or being on the FBI's terror watchlist.
Ingrahm Angle 4/11/25, begins at 21 minutes and lasts 6.
[YouTube] Democrats are furious, and the piece starts with a clip of four unidentified congressmen on the floor on Thursday. The third is a gentleman who claims the Republicans don't want you vote, and in particular they don't want those that are a) married women, b) can't afford a passport and c) college students who've left their birth certificate at home.
A woman follows who actually looks to be the right size for her age, but unfortunately her face can't Save her. She says the bill is an anti-woman and democracy voter suppression bill cloaked in lies about election integrity.
Laura interviews NY congressman Mike Lawler, and starts with "Is your wife ok?" Mike says 4 Democrats voted for the bill including Henry Ouar (?) and that Democrats continue to demean all of these groups as too stupid to get an ID, and Chuck Schumer has said that they're going to kill it in the Senate.
A clip of Delia Ramirez (IL) is played, who is now identified as person #2 in the list above, and she tosses black, brown, veteran and working class Americans into the mix. Laura says the average cost of a REAL ID is $22.44, and they're using a scare tactic. Mike says the REAL ID act pas passed in 2005 for national security, and starting this year you'll need a REAL ID or a passport to get on a plane.
Laura ends with Democrats want illegals to vote or they won't ever win another election.
[GEO.TV] A Hamas official said on Thursday that the group welcomed the announcement by French President Emmanuel Macron that Paris could recognise a Palestinian state by June, hailing it as an "important step".
"France, as a country with political weight and a permanent member of the (UN) Security Council, has the ability to influence the course of fair solutions and push towards ending the occupation and achieving the aspirations of the Palestinian people," Mahmud Mardawi told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2025
00:26 ||
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#1
France in itself is a good reason to get the USA out of NATO.
[GEO.TV] Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has condemned Israel's ''starvation and weaponisation of aid in Gaza,'' calling it a ''crime violating humanitarian values and international law'', according to Al Jazeera.
Speaking at the Joint Arab-Islamic Summit meeting in Antalya, Turkiye, he said the lack of accountability threatened the international system's stability and he urged decisive action.
The prime minister also reiterated Qatar's commitment to the Palestinian cause and to the establishment of an independent state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
[ZERO] The U.S. Postal Service has proposed raising the price of a "forever" stamp from 73 cents to 78 cents as part of a broader rate hike set to take effect July 13, pending approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission, according to CBS News.
The increase would raise mailing service prices by about 7.4%.
The USPS says the hike is necessary for financial stability, continuing a trend of rate increases under former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who warned customers to expect "uncomfortable" pricing adjustments after a decade of flawed pricing models.
CBS writes that DeJoy stepped down in March after nearly five years, as the Trump administration and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, floated the idea of privatizing mail delivery.
#1
I'll be glad when no federal money is involved with sending me stuff I don't even bother to open. I get my money by physical checks and bank wires. I pay my bills online. I don't *need* physical mail delivery.
#3
Checking the silver market, it appears the old silver dime is worth about $2.33. Got to take the perspective, is that our money is worth less thanks to all the artificial money creation by the government (aka magic money tree).
#6
About the only thing forever are postage rate hikes and billions in deficits. What a way to run a railroad. Oh, wait....
But Mike is right. The USPS is still relatively cheap. Within the EU, an intra-EU letter is just as international postage wise as sending a letter to the USA or Japan.
#8
#7^
2 or 3 days
I wish.
I still have a certifed letter I sent out with a sizeable check 56 days ago to Atlanta (156 miles)
Yet to reach to the address.
#10
Been to the USPS HQ for here.
Filed for INTERNAL tracking after 15 days.
Filed a COMPLAINT after 30 days.
ZERO UPDATES SINCE.
Out $11.50+ mail fee.
Looking at a $35 fee for stop check next.
#14
I pay all my bills by check and cash to try and avoid any form of online banking or credit card fraud. The mail between Norther Nevada and the East Coast takes 8-12 days in most cases. Relatively cheap in comparison to other countries isn't impressive when it is slow and unreliable.
#16
If it is only certified, it is only recorded at the drop off before going into the same gray mail sack as general mail. It is then recorded when the grey mail sack is opened, usually at destination, if they're paying attention. If it is registered, it has to be recorded at each exchange of the item and is in a different color mail bag that is tracked as well.
[GEO.TV] The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced the ruling by an immigration judge to deport the permanent resident for his ''peaceful political activities'' calling it a ''dangerous, unconstitutional'' decision, Al Jazeera reported, citing a statement.
“Although today’s ruling is just the first step in a long legal process, it should be alarming to all Americans who cherish the Bill of Rights and basic freedoms like free speech,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, in a statement.
“We are confident that federal courts will see through the Trump administration’s lawless attack on free speech and that the movement against the Israeli government’s genocide will continue to grow in our nation, despite these Orwellian attempts to suppress free speech.”
[GEO.TV] An immigration judge ruled Friday that a pro-Paleostinian student protester, a US permanent resident detained by the Trump administration, can be deported, US media and a legal rights group said.
Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said the government had met its burden to prove it had grounds to deport him, Fox News reported.
"An immigration judge ruled immediately after a hearing today that Mahmoud Khalil is removable under US immigration law," the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.
Comans had ordered the government to spell out its case against Khalil, who the government is seeking to deport on the grounds that his protest activities are a threat to national security.
In a letter to the court, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... insisted that Khalil's activism could hurt Washington's foreign policy.
Lawyers for Khalil are expected to appeal. And a federal judge in New Jersey has temporarily barred Khalil’s removal from the country.
Khalil’s lawyers, including representation from the American Civil Liberties Union, have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to crack down on free speech protected by the US Constitution.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, has cited the Immigration and Nationality Act, passed in 1952, which gave the executive branch power to deport any noncitizen who poses “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
The law also specifically allows for the deportation of a non-citizen who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.”
On Friday, Justice Department attorneys said in papers filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, that Comans would not have the authority to immediately free Khalil.
They said an immigration judge could determine if Khalil is subject to deportation and then conduct a bail hearing afterward if it is found that he is not.
Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The government, however, has said that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and pro-Hamas.
Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student, had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student coalition that spearheaded anti-Israel protests at the school.
CUAD has praised “violent resistance” by Palestinians, including, explicitly, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. The group also hosted a number of pro-Hamas figures to campus, including Khaled Barakat, who was later listed by the Biden administration as a specially designated foreign terrorist.
In addition, Khalil served as a negotiator and spokesperson for the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia last year, and for students who broke into and occupied a university building, unfurling a banner calling for “intifada.” He is not personally accused of participating in the building occupation, however, and wasn’t among the people arrested in connection with the demonstrations.
[GEO.TV] The UN warned Israel's latest evacuation orders are leaving Palestinians with shrinking space to survive in Gaza and further worsening the humanitarian crisis, Al Jazeera reported.
In a news conference, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Israel on Friday issued ''two new displacement orders covering vast areas in northern and southern Gaza''.
''Several medical facilities and storage sites containing critical supplies are located within newly designated displacement zones,'' he added.
Dujarric warned of ''life-threatening consequences''.
''With this latest development, OCHA reports that more than two-thirds of the Gaza Strip is either under active displacement orders or designated as no-go zones. This leaves Palestinians with less than a third of Gaza's area to live in, and that remaining space is fragmented.''
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2025
00:19 ||
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[11162 views]
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#1
Is the UN similarly worried about no-go zones in France, Germany, and the UK?
#2
To be fair, IDF-enforced no-go zones keeping out the civilians are very different than the resident-enforced no-go zone enclaves keeping out the police and the native population. Both are war zones, but still.
[GEO.TV] Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty has reiterated Cairo's rejection of any plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza, reported Al Jazeera.
''Such acts are considered a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and undermine peace efforts and threaten regional peace and security,'' said Abdelatty, speaking at the Arab-Islamic ministerial committee meeting on Gaza.
Abdelatty said Egypt continues to engage in negotiations and called for the second phase of the ceasefire agreement to be implemented.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2025
00:18 ||
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[11158 views]
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#1
Egypt gets...8 Billion from the US annually. Maybe they no longer need it.
[GEO.TV] The Israeli military has opened fire on a group of civilians in southern Khan Younis, reported Al Jazeera.
Several casualties were reported following Israeli air strikes on the tent shelters of civilians in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, which Israel had designated a ''safe zone'' while continuing to attack civilians sheltering there.
[IsraelTimes] IDF advances in Morag Corridor between Rafah and Khan Younis, find Hamas tunnel under Rafah kindergarten; army issues evacuation orders for several Gaza City neighborhoods
Two soldiers were were maimed in southern 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 Friday, one of them seriously, the military said, as troops pushed forward and expanded control of a new corridor in the area.
An IDF officer was moderately maimed during an exchange of fire with Paleostinian button men in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said. According to the IDF, a cell of terror operatives opened fire on troops in southern Gaza. The soldiers returned fire, killing two of the button men. A short while later a drone struck and killed a third member of the cell.
The officer was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Also Friday, a soldier was maimed in southern Gaza, the first badly hurt troop since the military resumed its offensive in the Strip last month. However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... the Israel Defense Forces said the soldier with the Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion was apparently injured in an accident and not by enemy fire. The army said he was hit by an accidental discharge of a bullet, without giving further details.
The soldier was evacuated for medical treatment, and his family were notified, the IDF said.
The IDF also said Friday that a Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... sniper commander in southern Gaza’s Rafah was killed in a recent strike, as forces continued to operate in the area and advanced in the corridor between the city and nearby Khan Younis. Ahmad Iyad Muhammad Farhat, the commander of the Hamas terror group’s sniper forces in the terror group’s Tel Sultan Battalion in Rafah, was responsible for advancing and carrying out numerous attacks on Israeli troops in Gaza and against Israel, the IDF said Friday, announcing he had been killed.
The military said that over the previous 24-hour period, Israeli Air Force fighter jets, drones, and helicopters struck some 40 targets across Gaza, including cells of operatives, buildings used by terror groups, weapons, and other infrastructure.
The IDF’s Gaza Division has been operating in Rafah’s Tel Sultan and Shaboura neighborhoods since last month. In the past day, the military said troops killed several operatives and destroyed booby-trapped buildings.
Also in Rafah, the IDF said Friday that troops of the Golani Brigade located a Hamas tunnel built under a kindergarten. One of the tunnel’s entrances was located in the yard of the daycare, footage released by the military showed. According to the IDF, a school was located 100 meters away. Troops of the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit scanned the tunnel, which was found to be several dozen meters long and booby-trapped with explosives. The tunnel led to a "key" Hamas underground passageway, the IDF said.
The tunnel was later demolished.
The IDF said the 36th Division advanced in the so-called Morag Corridor, between Rafah and Khan Younis, during which troops killed operatives and destroyed above-ground and underground infrastructure used by Hamas.
In northern Gaza, the 252nd Division located and destroyed additional Hamas infrastructure, and a tank shelled a group of armed operatives, killing them, the IDF said.
NEW EVACUATION ORDERS FOR GAZA CITY
The IDF also issued an evacuation warning for Paleostinians residing in some areas of eastern Gaza City.
In a post on X, the IDF’s Arabic-language front man, Col. Avichay Adraee, published a map of the area to be evacuated, which includes the neighborhoods of Shejaiya, Zeitoun, and Tuffah.
He said that the military would soon operate "with great force" there to "destroy terror infrastructure."
Civilians were called to head for shelters in western Gaza City.
Hamas-affiliated Gaza health authorities claimed Friday that a pre-dawn Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in Khan Younis killed 10 members of the same family, seven of whom were children.
The IDF said it was looking into the reports.
WATER PIPELINE DAMAGED, MUNICIPALITY SAYS
Hundreds of thousands of Gaza City residents have lost their only source of clean water in the past week after supplies from Israel’s water utility were cut amid fighting, municipal authorities in the Hamas-governed territory said. Many now have to walk, sometimes for miles, to get a small water fill after fighting in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood damaged the pipeline operated by Israel’s state-owned Mekorot. Mekorot’s pipeline had been supplying 70% of Gaza City’s water since the destruction of most of its wells during the war, municipal authorities said.
It is not usual for one side in a war to provide the other with food and water, not to mention pause the attack in order to support vaccinating the children.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2025
00:17 ||
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[11198 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Question: Does the world expect Israel not to respond to missile attacks coming from Gaza?
The residents of Gaza can whine all they want, but they are a guilty party also.
Until they cease supporting Hamas and other Terrorist groups and stop providing hiding places in civilian areas, they are making their own kids targets.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The chief DEI officer at NASA's jet propulsion lab was fired after her title was changed to hide her from Donald Trump's war on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Trump and 'First Buddy' Elon Musk have been happy warriors against DEI, working to rid the federal government of what they call unfair practices.
Neela Rajendra had run the lab's central diversity office, at one point arguing that having deadlines for work projects undermine inclusion, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
However, amid a series of 900 job cuts due to budgeting issues made in 2024, the diversity office was cut but Rajendra was mysteriously kept on.
She'd had all references to DEI washed from from her title but reportedly kept many of the same job duties as 'head of employee success.'
In early March, Rajendra was still in charge of the lab's 'Black Excellence Strategic Team.'
However, earlier this week in response to reports she was being protected from Trump administration DEI cuts, the lab parted ways with Rajendra.
'Neela Rajendra is no longer working at [the Jet Propulsion Laboratory]. We are incredibly grateful for the lasting impact she made to our organization. We wish her the very best,' lab director Laurie Leshin wrote in an all-staff email on Thursday.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The death toll from the earthquake in Myanmar continues to rise and has already reached 3,689 people. This was reported on April 11 by China Central Television, citing the Myanmar authorities.
“As a result of the powerful earthquake that occurred in Myanmar on March 28, 3,689 people died in the country, 5,020 were injured, and another 139 are missing,” the TV channel reported, citing the State Administrative Council of Myanmar.
On March 28, an earthquake was recorded in Myanmar, the magnitude of which, according to various estimates, was between 7.7 and 7.9. Its epicenter was near the city of Mandalay in Sagaing County, the second largest city in the country.
After the first earthquake, a second one with a magnitude of 6.4 occurred. In Mandalay, Naypyidaw and many other cities of the country, this caused destruction. Also on April 1, at a distance of 16 km from Mandalay, a new earthquake with a magnitude of 5 was registered.
By order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, specialists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations were sent to the republic, who are conducting rescue operations around the clock.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on April 8, Russian rescuers inspected more than 126,000 square meters in search of people in Myanmar, of which seven objects were checked in a day on an area of more than 5,000 square meters. By that time, the Russian Emergencies Ministry employees checked the rubble of 82 buildings.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[KavkazUzel] An investigation has been launched into the criminal case of a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria who, according to investigators, justified terrorism in his publications on a social network.
A criminal case has been opened against a resident of Kabardino-Balkaria under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public justification of terrorism or propaganda of terrorism), the press service of the republican department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported today.
According to investigators, in November 2023, the suspect created an account on a social network and posted "publicly accessible publications containing statements justifying terrorist activity" and promoting the dissemination of the ideology of an international terrorist organization banned in Russia.
"The suspect's actions were identified and stopped by officers of the UFSB of Russia for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic and the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic," the department's Telegram channel said in a post. No other details were given.
Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for a fine of 300 thousand rubles to seven years of imprisonment.
[NYPOST] The teenager charged with murdering high school football star Austin Metcalf at a Texas track meet will not face the death penalty if he's convicted at trial, according to the local District Attorney.
Karmelo Anthony, 17, who allegedly stabbed Metcalf in the heart at the Frisco athletic event last week, is protected from death row — and even life without parole — by the Supreme Court due to his age, Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis told WFAA.
''The Supreme Court has said not only can you not seek the death penalty against someone who committed a crime when they're 17, you can't even get them life without parole. That would not be something we could do even if we wanted to,'' Willis said.
#3
The website fundraiser for the suspect, not the victim has raised over $350,000 to support his defense.
"As of the morning of April 11, a fundraiser on GiveSendGo for Anthony had raised $351,055 of its $450,000 goal,” WFAA reports.
“The narrative being spread is false, unjust, and harmful,” the family’s post on the fundraiser reads. “As a family of faith, we are deeply grateful for all of your support during this trying period. Your prayers and assistance mean more to us now more than ever.”
I asked the FBI to arrest one Democrat. Turns out it's my lucky day.
Tania Fernandes Anderson, a Woke, BLM, former illegal alien on the Boston City Council, has been arrested by the FBI & indicted on five counts of wire fraud.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/12/2025 8:51
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#3
maybe sooner or later
The ones that work out — and I’ve known a few — rarely end up in the news feed, Crusader. The problem, as always, is those chosen for ticking off characteristic rather than ability boxes, whatever the characteristic might be, then indulged and promoted beyond their ability.
[IsraelTimes] Supreme Court denied mental health parole for Ahmad Manasra, 20, convicted of terrorism for seriously wounding two in 2015 attack in Jerusalem
Israel on Thursday released a Paleostinian man who stabbed two people in Jerusalem when he was 13, and who lawyers claim developed schizophrenia as a result of his conditions in prison.
Ahmad Manasra, now 20, was released after completing his 9.5-year sentence, according to his attorney Khaled Zabarqa, who said he had no immediate information about Manasra’s condition but was with the ex-prisoner’s parents.
"We know in jail he’s been very ill. We’re waiting to know his health situation now," Zabarqa said.
The release came amid allegations by human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... groups and released Paleostinian prisoners of abuse in Israeli prisons. Israel’s Prison Authority declined to comment on Manasra’s detention and said all prisoners are held in accordance with Israeli and international law and that allegations of abuse are investigated.
In 2015, Manasra and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan Manasra seriously maimed a 20-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood. The terror attack took place amid a spate of stabbings by Paleostinians in the West Bank and across Israel that raised fears of a third intifada in 2015-2016.
Police responding to the attack fatally shot Hassan, and Ahmad was maimed when he was hit by a car as he tried to escape the scene of the attack. Graphic video would later circulate of the maimed assailant lying in the street, bleeding from the head as passersby cursed at him.
Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> claimed at the time that Israel had "summarily executed" Ahmad Manasra, prompting Israel to take the rare step of publishing a picture of the minor recovering at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center.
Manasra was convicted a year later and sentenced to 12 years in prison. In 2017, the Supreme Court reduced Manasra’s sentence to 9.5 years, citing his young age, rehabilitation, the opinion of prison authorities, and Manasra’s secondary role in the terror attack relative to his cousin.
Courts rejected repeated requests to release Manasra early on mental health grounds. Because Manasra was convicted of terrorism, he was deemed ineligible for a mental health release, regardless of age or psychological state.
In October 2021, an Israeli psychiatrist from the left-wing group Physicians for Human Rights determined Manasra was suffering from psychotic delusions, severe depression and suicidal thoughts, according to Amnesty International.
Authorities first moved Manasra to isolation a month later after a scuffle with another inmate. In interviews the following year, Manasra’s family and lawyers said he was locked in a small cell for 23 hours a day and suffered from paranoia and delusions that kept him from sleeping. His lawyer said Manasra had tried to slit his wrists.
In March 2023, a judge approved the extension of Manasra’s solitary confinement "to ensure the safety of Manasra, the safety of others from him and security and order in the prison." During the hearing, the state said Manasra was found fit for solitary confinement in physical and psychiatric examinations, Haaretz reported at the time.
Manasra’s family said he was transferred to the psychiatric wing of another prison every few months, where doctors would give him injections to stabilize him.
Speaking to left-wing site Local Call in 2022, Manasra’s lawyer Leah Zemel said Manasra had developed schizophrenia because of how he was treated in prison.
"Ahmad has no family history of schizophrenia," said Zemel. "His illness developed as a result of these conditions." She argued her client’s condition could be traced back to the crowd that gathered around him when he was injured while carrying out the terror attack.
"I think that was a very difficult moment for him, and he went into prison with that difficulty," said Zemel.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[ColonelCassad] Writer Vsevolod Glukhovtsev about his experience of communicating on Wikipedia.
How Writer Glukhovtsev Debated With Wikipedia
Dear readers!
Your humble servant has been the owner of a personal article on Wikipedia for more than five years, namely since February 2020. I will be honest: for a while I was proud of it, although I did not really look there (either at the article itself or at Wikipedia in general). Of course, I made some updates. They were accepted. Well, that's all. Yes, I heard that its original idea of an independent encyclopedia created by the collective mind of humanity has long been emasculated, that it has turned into a politicized project, and politicized in a way that is disadvantageous for Russia; but to tell the truth, I ignored it.
I simply did not pay attention. And then I did. I saw an article dedicated to the events in the Kursk region. The article is literally titled: "Battles in the Kursk region (since 2024)." To say that I was shocked... Well, I don't want to be banal. I'll say it this way: I wasn't ready to believe my eyes.
I simply didn't expect that such bias and fraud in covering facts were possible in a publication that positions itself as an encyclopedic one... Okay, I'll try to be unbiased: something similar is present in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, in articles from 1950-1951, related to Yugoslavia and filled with such gems as "the bloody executioner Tito and his henchmen"...
But that's a thing of the past. And this is the present.
And humans are human, especially those of a totalitarian bent.
And it outraged me to the extreme. The result of my indignation was this letter from me to the moderators (formally they are not called that, but to hell with them, from now on I will call them "moderators"):
Citizens moderators, I ask you to remove the article about me from Wikipedia. This is due to the extreme, to put it mildly, bias in the description of various aspects of the Special Military Operation conducted by the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine. To put it more harshly, I see hypocrisy and shamelessness in Wikipedia articles concerning the SVO. I categorically do not want my name to be in any way associated with a resource that has tainted itself with moral uncleanliness.
The letter was not sent, having been blocked by the so-called "edit filter". I tried to find out what the reason was - for some reason the answer came in English. Unfortunately, I did not save it, I remember that the filter found "vandalism" in my words... Then, by trial and error, I discovered that the filter reacts nervously to the abbreviation SVO, simply does not allow texts with it. Okay, the owner is the master, and I am a guest, nothing to complain about.
In the end, a dry, neutral formulation was passed, and correspondence with the moderators began, with the signature of one of them painstakingly decorated with hearts in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. The gist of it was: we can't delete it, it's against Wikipedia rules, your wishes are not an argument. Again, you can't argue. Then I demanded that the following edit be made to the article "Vsevolod Glukhovtsev":
"In April 2025, I asked to delete the article about myself, considering any presence on Wikipedia unacceptable to the honor of a citizen of the Russian Federation. This request was denied."
The replies have already come, touchy and irritated – see the photo. I don’t know if the correspondence will continue – I have no desire to continue it, but who knows.
I actually have no complaints about Wikipedia. What complaints can there be about an opponent? The Wikimedia Foundation from the USA. And even about the Runet space
…I looked it up and discovered that stands for Russian internet…
– after all, we are a free society, and the right to freedom of speech is sacred. Even if the word is nasty. I have questions for readers: why in the same God-saved Runet – I am Yandex,
… a Russian technology company that provides Internet-related products and services…
for example – does Wikipedia pop up first for almost any serious request? Where is our analogue of Runiversalis?.. It is not heard, not seen. How to explain all this?.. Well, as always, I hope for the help of the collective mind: what do you say, dear readers? What are your opinions, thoughts, advice?..
#1
I hope at some point Trump puts the screws to wikipedia.
That site does a great job of covering the history of rock bands. But the moment even a single thing the touch involves "politics", they are censorious cowards.
🚨BREAKING: Democrat Governor of Oregon Tina Kotek calls the bluff of President Trump & tells schools to keep DEI programs & 'Hold the line.' pic.twitter.com/7pHvQgVL77
Posted by: Fred ||
04/12/2025
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#1
Just keep putting these in positions of power. I'm sure a few of them (at whatever abysmal percentage) are absolutely *great* at administering billions of dollars of government spending.
[REGNUM] A new scandal with a spy flair is on the front pages of Israeli newspapers. In early April, the secret services reported on the discovery of a major channel for financing the Palestinian movement Hamas.
The money flowed out of Israel and, having made a detour in a "third country", ended up in the enclave. The total amount of funds, converted into dollars, is estimated at tens of millions.
However, this time the main figure in the story was not Iran, to which Tel Aviv traditionally blames spy activities within the country, but Turkey. It was through Turkish “gray accounts” (with the tacit consent of the authorities) that the majority of funds intended for Hamas passed.
Official Tel Aviv has accumulated quite a few questions for Ankara, but it decided to voice them at the very moment when Turkish ambitions in the Middle East suddenly clashed with Israeli ones.
A CONFUSING ROUTE
According to a joint report by the General Security Service (Shabaq) and the "Israeli FBI" (Lahav 433), the criminal group included at least six people - Israelis of Arab, including Palestinian, origin.
Their activities were directed by an Israeli Arab, Fadi Arabi, who lived in the small town of Arraba in the north of the country. According to investigators, it was he who created the international network and provided communications between the Turkish headquarters of Hamas and its units in the Gaza Strip, as well as in Judea and Samaria.
He also allegedly coordinated the circulation of funds intended for Hamas. The money came from Turkey, where there were many sympathizers of the Palestinian movement, and from Israel - with a hook through dummy accounts in Turkish banks.
For these purposes, Fadi recruited his brother Nassim, who lived in Turkey and helped keep the financial channel out of the sight of Turkish law enforcement, and also promptly interacted with Hamas functionaries.
They, in turn, periodically transferred large consignments of cash for the needs of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. They were transported the old-fashioned way - in suitcases.
It is noteworthy that Israeli law enforcement was already on the gang's tail in January, when several couriers with bundles of money of "unclear origin" were arrested. However, Arabi managed to elude the investigation and even recruit several new "financiers", which allowed the scheme to continue to operate for several more months.
"OXYGEN PIPELINE"
The Shin Bet dubbed the discovered financial channel an “oxygen pipeline,” since the financial aid coming from Turkey largely helped Hamas stay afloat and continue its fierce resistance to Israel.
It is known for certain that the group's members transferred more than 3 million shekels (about 800 thousand dollars) to the movement (in cash and by transfers). However, law enforcement officials insist that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
For example, Lahav 433 has data on ambiguous transfers from Turkey totaling $2.5 million, the real recipients of which have yet to be verified.
It is also proposed to include in the "overall calculation" the "additional expenses" that Israel incurred after the forced expansion of the counter-terrorist operation in Judea and Samaria. The total damage to the country according to this method is estimated at $15 million.
ACCUSATIONS AGAINST TURKEY
Israeli law enforcement and politicians are wondering why Turkey never informed Israel about the suspicious transfers. According to some of the suspects, local security officials were aware of the financial channel but did not interfere.
This led investigators to the idea that the arrested Arabi is not the only leader of the network and that the “conductor” of the financial channel should be sought among Turkish politicians and security officials.
The version that foreign intelligence services had a hand in promoting the “oxygen pipeline” is also being considered, since the detainees had no special training and, as further cross-examinations showed, had a poor understanding of how the global system for combating money laundering works.
However, Tel Aviv does not yet have enough trump cards to clearly accuse any third country of interference.
It is worth mentioning that information about the discovery of a secret channel for financing Hamas appeared on the day when representatives of Turkey and Israel held talks in Baku on the delimitation of spheres of influence in Syria.
Ankara's insistence and unwillingness to leave Syria deeply hurt the Israelis, and the parties were unable to reach an understanding.
But the failure of the negotiations has given free rein to the populists, both in the ranks of the parliamentary opposition and in the government. The Israeli establishment has once again started saying that the “heart” of Hamas should be sought not in Qatar or Lebanon, but in Turkey, where the real leaders of the movement have settled, and not “political extras.”
And the “oxygen pipeline” scandal only further inflames the debate.
It is largely beneficial to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although the promotion is mainly carried out by his political opponents from the Shin Bet and the opposition camp.
Shifting the focus to Turkey will temporarily distract the public from the Qatargate investigation and highlight that Ankara deliberately ignored Hamas's gray scheme in order to weaken Israel from within and distract it from the struggle for influence in Syria and the rest of the Middle East.
Such a shift in emphasis could well make unviable the thesis that the Israeli prime minister, who provided image support to Doha, is solely to blame for the strengthening of Hamas’s position.
Given that it is objectively evil to claim that Bibi is solely or even mostly to blame for the strengthening of Hamas’s position…
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 21:37 Russian Ministry of Defense:
At 20:25 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle of the airplane type over the territory of the Belgorod region.
20:51 Servicemen of the assault unit of the 44th Army Corps of the North group of forces equipped rear camp.
Khar'kov direction:
Cozy sleeping places, a bathhouse, a motorcycle repair shop and a canteen with hot meals are located in the recessed rooms. This is where the soldiers return after completing combat missions to restore their strength.
Fortifications and camouflaged firing positions provide reliable protection from enemy drone attacks. Supplies are provided by small-sized transport, which significantly simplifies logistics.
There is a workshop for repairing equipment underground, which allows repair work to be carried out without risk to life.
20:22 Drone operators destroy enemy equipment, bunkers and mortar positions with high precision in the Krasnoarmeysk direction
Thanks to the professionalism of UAV operators, the enemy loses equipment and suffers significant losses in manpower every day -video.
19:51 Destruction of Ukrainian M-113 armored personnel carriers in the Toretsk area —video.
19:26 Demolition of Ukrainian armored vehicles in Zaporizhia region —video.
18:53 Russian Ministry of Defense:
At about 16:30 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle of the airplane type over the territory of Kursk region
18:27 A Severian drone spotted a group of Ukrainian infantrymen with a pickup truck in the Liptsi area of Khar'kov Oblast, after which artillery opened fire on them —video.
17:52 Captured Ukrainian serviceman: "The regiment commander is a beast, he cracks people like nuts"
Captured Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman Ruslan Gorbenko was forcibly mobilized and sent to the Skala battalion. According to him, the regiment commander of this battalion cracks people like nuts. Even women are sent to the assault. And if someone refuses to kill people, they threaten death.
"There are women from prisons in Skala. I was in Shevchenko, I saw women's corpses, women are also sent to storm Shevchenko. In Skala they told me that if you don't kill people, we will kill you now," the prisoner of war recalls.
17:28 A 122mm D-30 howitzer crew from the West group of forces destroyed camouflaged positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Artillerymen of the 25th Army of the Zapad group carry out daily precision strikes on military facilities and equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which facilitates the advancement of assault units —video.
16:55 A 203mm self-propelled gun 2S7M "Malka" of the "Center" group destroyed a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Krasnoarmeysk direction.
The destruction of the enemy's fortified stronghold allowed our attack aircraft to advance closer to Krasnoarmeysk -video.
16:22 Russian Ministry of Defense:
In the period from 10:30 to 11:30 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the airplane type:
Two UAVs over the territory of the Belgorod region and
One UAV over the territory of the Kursk region
. 15:53 Sever drone operators destroyed a Ukrainian Armed Forces pickup truck in Sumy Oblast The group's servicemen discovered the enemy pickup truck in a forest area, the target was quickly destroyed by an FPV drone crew —video.
15:26 Russian Defense Ministry on progress of attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to invade the territory of the Russian Federation in the Kursk region as of April 11, 2025
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to defeat the formations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region.
– During offensive operations, units of the North group of forces inflicted losses on formations of a mechanized, tank, three airborne assault brigades and two territorial defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Gornal and Oleshnya.
Strikes by operational-tactical and army aviation and artillery fire damaged enemy manpower and equipment in the areas of the settlements of Belovody, Vladimirovka, Vodolaghi, Maryino, Miropolye, Mogritsa, Sadki and Yunakovka in the Sumy region.
Over the course of 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 235 servicemen, two combat armored vehicles, seven cars and an engineering vehicle were destroyed.
14:47 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of special military operation from April 5 to 11, 2025.
From April 5 to 11, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out eight group strikes with long-range precision weapons of air and sea origin, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, as a result of which the infrastructure of military airfields, enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, assembly shops, storage sites for strike unmanned aerial vehicles, ammunition depots, as well as temporary deployment points of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries were damaged.
Over the course of the week, units of the North military group continued to destroy Ukrainian Armed Forces formations in the Kursk region.
The settlements of Guevo in the Kursk region, Basovka and Zhuravka in the Sumy region were liberated by active actions. Air strikes, unmanned aerial vehicles and artillery fire affected the manpower and equipment of the mechanized, three airborne assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the territorial defense brigade.
– In the Khar'kov and Belgorod directions, units of three mechanized, two motorized infantry brigades, two assault regiments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and three territorial defense brigades were defeated.
Over the course of a week, in the area of responsibility of the North group of forces, the enemy's losses amounted to over 2,345 servicemen, four tanks, 41 combat armored vehicles and 79 automobiles. 20 field artillery guns and five ammunition depots were destroyed.
- Units of the "West" group of forces have decisively liberated the settlement of Katerynivka of the Donetsk People's Republic. The manpower and equipment of two mechanized, assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, two territorial defense brigades and a border detachment of the Border Service of Ukraine have been defeated.
The enemy lost over 1,585 servicemen, six combat armored vehicles, including two M113 armored personnel carriers and three U.S.-made MaxxPro armored vehicles, as well as a Polish-made Dzik armored vehicle. 21 vehicles, 28 field artillery pieces, including ten Western-made ones, four electronic and counter-battery warfare stations, and nine field ammunition depots were destroyed.
- Units of the "Southern" group of troops as a result of active actions improved their tactical position. They defeated formations of five mechanized, airmobile, assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a territorial defense brigade and two national guard brigades.
Over the course of a week, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 2,085 servicemen, five tanks, 19 combat armored vehicles, including a US-made M113 armored personnel carrier. 104 vehicles, 19 field artillery guns, six electronic warfare stations, and seven field ammunition depots were destroyed.
– As a result of decisive actions, units of the Center group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions. They defeated the manpower and equipment of three mechanized, two assault, two infantry, airborne, two Jaeger brigades, an assault regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a marine brigade, a territorial defense brigade, a national guard brigade and the Omega special forces unit.
The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces amounted to over 3,005 servicemen, 34 combat armored vehicles, including five M-113 armored personnel carriers, four MaxxPro armored vehicles and three US-made HMMWV combat armored vehicles. 38 vehicles and 29 artillery pieces were destroyed.
– Units of the "East" group of forces continued to advance into the depths of the enemy's defense. They defeated formations of two mechanized, ranger, airborne assault, airmobile, mountain assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a marine brigade and a territorial defense brigade. ▪️The enemy lost over 1,060 servicemen, five combat armored vehicles, 26 cars and 15 field artillery guns, including six Western-made ones.
- Units of the Dnepr group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions. They defeated the manpower and equipment of the mechanized, mountain assault brigades, two coastal defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the territorial defense brigade.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 555 servicemen, 13 combat armored vehicles, including three US-made M113 armored personnel carriers, 41 vehicles, and five field artillery guns. Fifteen electronic and counter-battery warfare stations, as well as nine ammunition depots, were destroyed.
Over the course of a week, air defense systems shot down 27 JDAM guided aerial bombs and 19 HIMARS multiple launch rockets made in the United States, as well as 1,200 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles.
14:22 Current situation in the Krasnoarmeysk direction
The situation in the Pokrovsky (Krasnoarmeysky) direction remains tense, with heavy clashes in the Shevchenko and Lysovka areas, and a significant lull in the Udachnoye-Kotlin and Peschanoye lines. The fighting has significantly decreased in some areas, but intense fighting continues in key sectors.
There is a lull in the Udachnoye-Kotlin borders, the activity of military actions has significantly decreased. The situation remains stable, without significant changes, which may indicate attempts by both sides to strengthen their positions and prepare for possible new operations.
In the Peschanoye area, no changes are observed, either on the part of the Russian Armed Forces or on the part of the enemy. The front line remains stable, with no tactical advances. The situation in this area remains unchanged, despite the intensity of previous battles
In Shevchenko, fighting continues. Clashes are taking place in the north-eastern, northern and north-western parts of the settlement. These clashes confirm the continued pressure by Russian troops, who are trying to strengthen their positions and weaken the enemy's defenses.
Fierce fighting continues in the western part of Lysovka. Both sides are suffering significant losses, which indicates a high level of intensity of hostilities. The enemy is resisting, but Russian troops continue to press, trying to secure control over important areas.
14:11 In the period from 10.30 to 11.30 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the airplane type:
Two UAVs over the territory of the Belgorod region and
One UAV over the territory of the Kursk region.
13:57 Summary of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the progress of repelling the attempted invasion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces into the territory of the Russian Federation in the Kursk region as of April 11, 2025.
By units of the North group of forces during offensive operations inflicted defeat of the formations of a mechanized, tank, three airborne assault brigades and two territorial defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Gornal and Oleshnya.
Strikes by operational-tactical and army aviation and artillery fire damaged enemy manpower and equipment in the areas of the settlements of Belovody, Vladimirovka, Vodolaghi, Maryino, Miropolye, Mogritsa, Sadki and Yunakovka in the Sumy region.
Over the course of 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 235 servicemen, two combat armored vehicles, seven cars and an engineering vehicle were destroyed.
13:15 Russian Ministry of Defense:
Around 10:00 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle of the airplane type over the territory of the Belgorod region.
12:58 Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov inspected the "West" group of troops
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov held a meeting at the command post of the West troop group, where he heard reports from the command on the current situation, the provision of troops in the area of the special military operation, and the nature of enemy actions in the group's area of responsibility.
"Since the beginning of the year, 18 settlements, more than 330 square kilometers of territory, have been liberated in the Izyum direction. In four settlements, we are currently continuing combat operations to liberate them," reported the commander of the group, Colonel General Sergei Kuzovlev.
At the command post, Andrei Belousov was briefed on the specifics of using modern unmanned aerial vehicles for various purposes, used both to inflict fire damage on the enemy and to deliver material and technical resources to the military group's frontline positions.
The Russian Defense Minister was also presented with countermeasures against enemy unmanned aerial vehicles, developed taking into account the experience of the Special Military District and proposals from the group's servicemen. In conclusion, the head of the Russian military department thanked the servicemen performing tasks in the special military operation zone.
For their dedication and heroism, Andrei Belousov presented the servicemen with state awards. Including the Order of Courage, the Medal "For Bravery" and the Order of St. George - the St. George Cross of the 4th degree.
12:27 Drone operators of the "Southern" group of troops destroyed an ammunition depot and two control points for unmanned aerial vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donetsk People's Republic —video.
11:54 Governor of Belgorod Region Vyacheslav Gladkov:
Information about inflicted Ukrainian Armed Forces strikes on our region over the past 24 hours
– In the Belgorod district, the settlement of Komsomolsky, the villages of Blizhneye, Bessonovka, Krasny Khutor, Nikolskoye, Petrovka, Toplinka and the hamlet of Tserkovny were subjected to shelling, during which two rounds were fired, and attacks by eight drones, seven of which were shot down by the air defense system.
In the hamlet of Tserkovny, equipment was damaged on the territory of an agricultural enterprise, and in the settlement of Komsomolsky, a private house was damaged as a result of air defense operations.
– In the Borisovsky district, the villages of Berezovka, Bogun-Gorodok, Gruzskoye and the village of Klimovoye were attacked by 5 drones, one of which was shot down. In the village of Bogun-Gorodok, a truck was damaged, in the village of Gruzskoye - an administrative building of an enterprise, in the village of Berezovka - a car.
– In the Valuysky municipal district, in the city of Valuyki, the villages of Borki, Dvuluchnoye, Dolgoe, Karabanovo, Kukuyevka and Sukharevo, 22 drones attacked, of which 12 were suppressed and shot down.
In the village of Dvuluchnoye, a passenger car was damaged, in the village of Kukuyevka - two private houses. After explosive devices were dropped from drones at night in the village of Borki, a car, two private houses and an outbuilding were damaged, in the village of Sukharevo - a private house and three cars, one of which burned down.
– In the Grayvoronsky municipal district, the villages of Golovchino, Kozinka, Mokraya Orlovka, Novostroevka-Pervaya and Poroz were subjected to three attacks with seven munitions and nine drone attacks.
Yesterday evening, a woman sought medical help after suffering a barotrauma as a result of a drone attack in the village of Golovchino. She refused the proposed hospitalization and continues to receive treatment as an outpatient.
In the village of Golovchino, five vehicles were damaged, one of which was destroyed by fire, and in the village of Novostroevka-Pervaya, a tractor was damaged.
– In the Krasnoyarsk district, 63 munitions were fired during nine artillery attacks in the settlements of Krasnaya Yaruga and Prilesye, the villages of Grafovka, Demidovka, Kolotilovka, Popovka and Staroselye, and attacks by 13 drones were recorded, eight of which were suppressed and shot down.
In the settlement of Krasnaya Yaruga, a civilian was killed when a drone struck a car. His wife, who was nearby, was injured. At the Rakityanskaya Central District Hospital, a woman with a mine-explosive injury and multiple shrapnel wounds received medical care. Then she was transferred to City Hospital No. 2 in Belgorod for further treatment.
Another civilian was also injured as a result of an FPV drone attack on a car. The victim continues to receive outpatient treatment. In the settlement of Krasnaya Yaruga, a private house, 3 cars and a GAZelle were damaged, in the village of Kolotilovka, a private house was destroyed by fire.
– In the Rakityansky district, one munition was fired at the villages of Bobrava, Pskovskoye and Tsibulevka, and two drones were attacked, one of which was shot down by an air defense system. In the village of Tsibulevka, eight private houses were damaged, and in the village of Bobrava, a tractor.
- In the Shebekinsky municipal district, the city of Shebekino, the villages of Arkhangelskoye, Bezlyudovka, Bely Kolodez, Belyanka, Krapivnoye, Meshkovoye, Murom, Surkovo, Titovka were subjected to shelling using eight munitions and attacks by 19 drones, 16 of which were shot down and suppressed.
In the city of Shebekino, a civilian was injured. In the Shebekinskaya Central District Hospital, a woman with barotrauma received medical care. Treatment continues on an outpatient basis. In the city of Shebekino, a gas pipe, six private houses, an outbuilding and two cars were damaged, in the village of Arkhangelskoye - a private house.
Tonight, after the dropping of explosive devices from a UAV, two private houses were damaged in the village of Murom.
11:25 Chronicle of the SVO for April 10 from the Telegram channel "Fisherman»:
– Russian troops have consolidated their positions in Dzerzhinsk, having cleared out the remaining pockets of Ukrainian formations. Primary control has been established over most of the city and the Zabalka microdistrict, with the exception of the western outskirts.
Advances towards Kleban-Byk and the Matrona Moskovskaya mine have been confirmed. Positions have been taken on the western flank near Alexandropol, Rozovka and Panteleimonovka.
– In the Sumy direction, the capture of Zhuravka and adjacent forest belts has been confirmed.
Fighting continues on the Vladimirovka-Veselovka line, where the enemy is putting up resistance.
Heavy fighting is also taking place in the Basovka-Loknya-Oleshnya areas, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces are unsuccessfully counterattacking.
– In the Andreevka direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces briefly stabilized the front north of the Volchya River and tried to attack Razliv, but were thrown back.
To the south, the Russian Armed Forces were able to advance and expand the zone of control between Dneproenergiya and Razdolnoye.
10:53 Criminal Kyiv regimecontinuesto shell civilian infrastructure of populated areas of the left bank of the Kherson region, yesterday during the day the Ukrainian Armed Forces released:
– Eight rounds in the village of Novaya Kakhovka;
– Five rounds to the village of Aleshki;
– Three rounds in the village of Malokakhovka;
- According to n.p. Kakhovka four rounds;
– Four rounds in the village of Malaya Lepetikha;
– Two rounds to the settlement of Volna Ukraina;
– Four shells in the village of Golaya Pristan.
A civilian from Aleshki was injured as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The man, born in 1968, was hospitalized in the Aleshki Central District Hospital with a mine-explosive injury, brain contusion, and convulsive syndrome.
During the night, the Kiev regime continued to shell civilian infrastructure in the villages of Staraya Zburyevka, Gornostayevka, Kairy, Bekhtery, Novaya Mayachka, and Sagi, firing a total of 20 rounds from cannon artillery.
Civilian casualties and destruction of infrastructure are being clarified.
10:27 Russian Ministry of Defense:
At about 8:10 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle of the airplane type over the territory of the Belgorod region.
09:30 Around 06:00 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the airplane type over the territory of the Kursk region.
09:30 Kursk region, situation as of the morning of April 11, 2025
In the Kursk region our divisions has begun an assault on the positions of Ukrainian formations in the area of the village of Gornal - the settlement is located at a tactical height, which complicates the offensive.
However, units of the Russian Armed Forces cleared the forest areas to the east of the Gornalsky Monastery and came very close to the settlement itself.
In addition, the enemy's work on the rear areas and supply routes does not cease. The Ukrainian Armed Forces do not intend to simply surrender the rest of the Kursk region, so the work continues. And there is no need to rush here.
09:02 Calculations of the ZALA Lancet complex of the 1st Army Corps of the Southern Group of Forces are applying strikes on Ukrainian Armed Forces positions in the Donetsk direction. Servicemen note that this high-tech, but at the same time easy-to-use weapon effectively destroys enemy equipment and weapons.
08:10 Frontline report for the morning of 11.04.2025
Zaporizhzhya Front. Russian troops continue to put pressure on the enemy's defense in the Shcherbaki area. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding the defense, which, traditionally, is built on a large number of drones.
Donetsk Front. The Russian Armed Forces continue to develop the offensive on Bogatyr, expanding their zone of control in the direction of this settlement. Also, Russian troops continue to advance in the direction of the settlement of Koman. Fierce fighting continues in the Pokrovsk direction.
Kursk region. Here, the Russian Armed Forces are fighting in the area of Guevo and Oleshnya, the last settlements in the border area held by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the same time, the Russian troops are advancing in the Sumy region, where the Russian Armed Forces have liberated the settlement of Zhuravka.
Belgorod Region. Another attempt by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to penetrate our defenses has been repelled. Fighting continues near Popovka and Demidovka. No serious changes in the LBS have been recorded.
07:31 The Armed Forces of Ukraine deliberately attacked ambulances in the Kherson region.
"Two ambulances were damaged in Novaya Kakhovka. The windshields and side windows were broken. Fortunately, no one was hurt,"reportedGovernor of the Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo.
07:27 During the past night, air defense systems on duty destroyed and intercepted 30 Ukrainian aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles:
– 25 – over the territory of the Kursk region,
– Five – over the territory of the Belgorod region.
6:20 Crew of the 152mm Giatsint-B gun of the Dnepr troop group destroyed UAV control point of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
[EngMilRu] From 5 to 11 April 2025, the Russian Armed Forces have carried out eight group strikes by air- and sea-based high-precision aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles to hit Ukrainian military airfields infrastructure, defence industry enterprises, assembly workshops and storage areas of attack unmanned aerial vehicles, ammunition depots as well as temporary deployment areas of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries.
Over the past week, units of the Sever Group of Forces continued to eliminate AFU formations on the territory of Kursk region.
The Sever Group of Forces liberated Guyevo (Kurskoye region), Basovka, and Zhuravka in Sumy region.
Aircraft, drones, and artillery hit manpower and hardware of a mechanised brigade, three air assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a territorial defence brigade.
In Kharkov and Belgorod directions, units of three mechanised brigades, two motorised infantry brigades, two assault regiments of the AFU, and three territorial defence brigades were hit.
During the week, in the Sever Group of Forces area of responsibility, the enemy lost over 2,345 troops, four tanks, 41 armoured fighting vehicles, and 79 motor vehicles. Twenty field artillery guns and five ammunition depots have been neutralised.
The Zapad Group of Forces liberated Katerinovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
Russian units hit materiel and manpower of two mechanised brigades, an assault brigade of the AFU, two territorial defence brigades, and a border guard detachment.
The enemy lost more than 1,585 troops, six armoured fighting vehicles including two M113 armoured personnel carriers and three MaxxPro armoured vehicles produced in the USA, and a Polish-made Dzik armoured vehicle. Twenty-one motor vehicles, 28 field artillery guns including ten Western-made artillery pieces, four electronic and counter-fire stations, and nine field ammunition depots were eliminated.
The Yug Group of Forces improved the tactical situation. Russian troops hit formations of five mechanised brigades, an airmobile brigade, an assault brigade of the AFU, a territorial defence brigade, and two national guard brigades.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 2,085 troops, five tanks, and 19 armoured fighting vehicles including a U.S.-made M113 armoured personnel carrier during the week. One hundred and four motor vehicles, 19 field artillery guns, six electronic warfare stations, and seven field ammunition depots were eliminated.
The Tsentr Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and positions. The Russian Armed Forces inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades, two assault brigades, two infantry brigades, two airborne brigades, two jaeger brigades, an assault regiment of the AFU, a naval infantry brigade, a territorial defence brigade, a national guard brigade, and the Omega special forces detachment.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 3,005 troops, 34 armoured fighting vehicles, including five M113 armoured personnel carriers, four MaxxPro armoured vehicles, and three U.S.-made HMMWV armoured fighting vehicles. Thirty-eight motor vehicles, and 29 artillery guns have been neutralised.
Units of the Vostok Group of Forces continued advancing into the depth of enemy defence. Russian forces damaged formations of two mechanised brigades, a jaeger brigade, an air assault brigade, an airmobile brigade, a mountain assault brigade, a naval infantry brigade, and a territorial defence brigade.
The enemy lost more than 1,060 troops, five armoured fighting vehicles, 26 motor vehicles, and 15 field artillery guns including six Western-made pieces.
The Dnepr Group of Forces' units took more advantageous lines and positions. The Russian Armed Forces inflicted losses on the manpower and hardware of a mechanised brigade, a mountain assault brigade, two coastal defence brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and one territorial defence brigade.
The AFU lost over 555 troops, 13 armoured fighting vehicles, including three U.S.-made M113 armoured personnel carriers, 41 motor vehicles, and five field artillery guns. Fifteen electronic and counter-fire stations as well as nine ammunition depots have been eliminated.
Over the past week, air defence systems have shot down 27 JDAM guided bombs and 19 HIMARS MLRS projectiles, as well as 1,200 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation the AFU lost 660 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 50,974 unmanned aerial vehicles, 601 anti-aircraft missile systems, 22,796 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,534 MLRS combat vehicles, 23,471 field artillery guns and mortars, 33,965 units of support military vehicles.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the operation to neutralise AFU formations on the territory of Kursk region.
The Sever Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on a mechanised brigade, a tank brigade, three air assault brigades, and two territorial defence brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine close to Gornal and Oleshnya.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, and artillery strikes engaged AFU manpower and hardware close to Belovody, Vladimirovka, Vodolagi, Maryino, Miropolye, Mogritsa, Sadki, and Yunakovka in Sumy region.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 235 troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, seven motor vehicles, and an engineer vehicle during the day.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk direction, the AFU losses amounted to:
more than 73,645 troops, 405 tanks, 331 infantry fighting vehicles,
2,671 motor vehicles, 601 artillery guns, 53 MLRS launchers, including 13 of HIMARS and seven of MLRS made by the USA, 26 anti-aircraft missile launchers, one self-propelled anti-aircraft system, ten transport-loading vehicles, 123 EW stations, 18 counter-fire radars, ten air defence radars, 57 units of engineering and other materiel, including 23 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, five bridge launchers, one engineering reconnaissance vehicle as well as 15 armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 21.24 Since February 24, 2022, the Air Force, together with the Air Defense of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, have shot down 2,496 cruise missiles; 465 guided aircraft missiles; 97 ballistic missiles; 40 Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles and 17,575 Shahed-type attack UAVs. This was reported by the head of the communications department of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Yuriy Ignat.
20.16 The head of the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands Ruben Brekelmans announced the provision of 50 million euros to strengthen the air defense of Ukraine. He reported this on the X platform.
"Massive Russian attacks have forced Zelenskyy to call for stronger air defense this week. That's why I am now announcing €50 million for air defense (I-Hawk system). We are also delivering F16s and critical parts of the Patriot system. We continue to help Ukraine save lives," Brekelmans wrote.
19.37 At least 51 Chinese citizens passed through the Russian Armed Forces selection point in Moscow in a year. The Russian investigative project "Important Stories" identified these people. Journalists found out the names of the Chinese by analyzing the documents that the project had at its disposal. 31 fighters from the PRC applied to the Moscow selection point in 2023, another 20 in 2024.
19.34 Since the beginning of the day, 75 combat clashes have already occurred on the front. The Defense Forces are currently taking measures to prevent the advance of Russian troops deep into Ukrainian territory. This was noted in the General Staff report.
19.13 The Ministry of Defense has approved the Ukrainian-made unmanned aerial vehicle Rarog-10 for use in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The drones are equipped with powerful electric engines, have functionality that allows for stable destruction of selected targets, and surveillance equipment for day and night operation.
The explosive charge that the FPV drones of this complex are capable of carrying is sufficient to destroy enemy field fortifications, shelters, weapons and armored vehicles.
At the same time, drones are less vulnerable to enemy electronic countermeasures.
19:05 In the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, over the past few days, units of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have captured 14 Russian soldiers, including three officers.
18.57 At least several hundred Chinese citizens are fighting as part of the Russian occupation army against Ukraine. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky during an online speech at a meeting of the contact group on Ukrainian defense issues in the Rammstein format.
18:53 Indictments against two servicemen of the 234th Airborne Assault Regiment of the 76th Airborne Assault Division of the Airborne Troops of the Russian Armed Forces have been sent to court . The Office of the Prosecutor General reported this on April 11. One of the defendants is charged with violating the laws and customs of war, coupled with premeditated murder, and the other with a completed attempt to commit this crime.
17.26 On April 11, President Volodymyr Zelensky introduced new sanctions against individuals associated with the Kremlin's propaganda mouthpiece and against the Russian Federation's shadow fleet. This is discussed in the presidential decrees.
16.59 The exchange fund available in Ukraine is not enough to return all prisoners. This was stated by the representative of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Oleh Slobodjanik, during a briefing.
16:58 As part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, two more Ukrainian teenagers were rescued from the occupation and from the territory of the Russian Federation. This was reported by the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak.
15.45 The Russian army fired artillery at Kherson in the afternoon of April 11, there are wounded. This was reported by the Kherson OVA. An 80-year-old woman, a 49-year-old man, a 71-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man were wounded as a result of the shelling.
15.36 Germany cannot yet provide Ukraine with more Patriot systems, but together with its allies it is actively searching for air defense systems around the world - due to Kiev's urgent need for protection from Russian attacks. This was stated by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius during a meeting in the Ramstein format, RBK-Ukraine reports.
15.21 The Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Military Personnel and Their Families, Olga Reshetilova, received almost 6,000 complaints in 100 days. The ombudsman reported this on the air of Unified News.
14.20 US Presidential Special Representative Steve Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has already met with the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Vladimir Putin's Special Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation Kirill Dmitriev.
13.52 Ukraine will receive a new military aid package worth 450 million pounds sterling ($588 million), the UK government announced. The money will go towards repairing military equipment, radar systems, anti-tank mines and drones.
13:36 The Contact Group on Ukraine's Defense in the Ramstein format held its first meeting under the chairmanship of the Defense Ministers of Germany and Great Britain. The participating countries agreed on expanded assistance to Kiev, in particular in the field of electronic warfare. This was reported by the press service of the German Defense Ministry.
13:28 Wars in the real world end only after one of the parties signs an act of capitulation. The "silence regime" gives the parties only the opportunity to "regroup, mobilize and start all over again." This was stated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the international forum Towards a New World Order .
12.46 The body of a regional hospital doctor was found in the premises of the Lutsk TCC and SP . This was reported by the National Police Department in the Volyn region. Local media write that "most likely, we are talking about the head of the VVK - a neurologist at the Volyn Regional Clinical Hospital, Oleh Lopachak."
12:29 The Norwegian Defense Minister signed a document on the country's entry into the international Drone Coalition supporting Ukraine in the war against the Russian Federation. This was reported by the press service of the Norwegian Defense Ministry.
12.21 US Presidential Special Representative Steve Witkoff has arrived in Russia. This was announced by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Answering the question of whether a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Witkoff is planned, Peskov said: "If there is, we will let you know."
11:47 The 27th meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian Defense Issues in the Ramstein format began in Brussels, chaired by British Defense Minister John Healey and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
11:34 A Russian air bomb has fallen on the Belgorod region once again. As a result of the incident, eight residential buildings were damaged. Local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov traditionally rushed to blame the Ukrainian Armed Forces for the attack. This was reported by the ASTRA publication, citing sources in emergency services.
11:15 Over the past few days, Germany has transferred 30 missiles for the Patriot complexes to Ukraine. This was stated by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius before the start of the Ramstein format meeting in Brussels.
10:57 Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky outlined the main tasks of logistics forces in modern conditions, opening the quarterly conference of the Logistics Forces Command on the organization and repair of weapons and military equipment. This is stated in the message of the commander-in-chief on Telegram.
10:34 Over the past 24 hours, Russian aggressors have launched a ballistic missile and nearly 40 drones at Ukraine. Most of the UAVs failed to reach their targets, the Ukrainian Air Force reported .
9:57 US President Donald Trump's spokesman Steve Witkoff has traveled to Russia to meet with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Axios reported, citing its sources and FlightRadar data.
9:22 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky announced the start of a new Russian offensive in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions. There is no immediate threat to Kharkiv, but Sumy is under threat, the BBC reports.
8:45 Over the past 24 hours, Russian invaders most often stormed the Pokrovsk, Liman, Toretsk and Kursk directions. In total, 148 combat clashes took place on the front. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
8:31 The number of victims after yesterday's missile shelling of Dnieper has increased to nine people. The fire that broke out due to the enemy strike was extinguished in the morning. This was announced on Telegram by the head of the Dnipro Regional Military Administration Serhiy Lysak.
7:56 Over the past 24 hours, the Defense Forces have destroyed another 1,210 Russian soldiers. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook.
05.33 Over the past week, the intensity of enemy assault actions on the border of Sumy region has increased by 30%. This was reported by the press service of the regional military administration.
So, over the last seven days, the Russians have carried out 47 assault actions on the positions of our defenders. The Russians are concentrating their main efforts in the directions of the settlements of Zhuravka and Basovka.
05.00 Negotiations on the final achievement of peace in Ukraine cannot be held until a ceasefire agreement is reached, US State Department Press Secretary Tammy Bruce said.
"Our entire leadership, including President Trump and Secretary Rubio, have been very clear about what is at stake when it comes to the nature of the end of this situation [the war in Ukraine - ed.]. This is a dynamic that cannot be resolved militarily. This is a meat grinder. You can't talk about the end result until the shooting and the killing stops," she said.
04.54 Russian army commanders are increasingly resorting to physical liquidation of their personnel in order to maintain discipline. This is evidenced by a conversation with one of the captors, intercepted by GUR specialists.
In the conversation, the Russian commander declared his intention to shoot his soldiers who had left their positions without permission. According to him, before escaping, his subordinates had said that they were going on a "rollback" and asked not to be given up.
"I didn't have time to shoot them, now I'm going back to reset them," he says.
03.20 A meeting of the "coalition of the willing" led by France and Great Britain to ensure a ceasefire in Ukraine took place at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
According to media reports, currently about six countries, including the UK, France and the Baltic states, have said they are ready to deploy their troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission.
02.55 Russian troops managed to occupy Alexandropol in the Pokrovsky district of the Donetsk region, and also to advance deep into Ukrainian positions in the village of Uspenovka, which is located near the border with the Dnepropetrovsk region. This was reported by the monitoring resource DeepState.
Russian troops have occupied Alexandropol in Donetsk region.
01.55 The number of victims of the missile strike on the Dnieper on April 10 has increased to eight people. Three people are receiving outpatient treatment, the rest are hospitalized.
[NYPOST] A federal grand jury has indicted a Massachusetts Democrat for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars from a construction trade association he ran — and using the cash to pay off campaign debts and purchase a clothes dryer, air conditioner, dress shirts and ''personal psychic services.'' You'd think he'd see this coming?
State Rep. Christopher Flanagan raked in between $60,000 and $80,000 in salary as executive director of a Home Builders Association (HBA) on Cape Cod — but was on a tight budget as he began his 2022 campaign for the Bay State legislature.
In the indictment handed up by a Boston grand jury Thursday, prosecutors alleged that Flanagan stole $36,000 from the trade association for personal expenses between November 2021 and January 2023 — including $974.94 for an electric dryer and air conditioner, $1,050.30 for menswear at Macy's and $92.86 at Target.
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#1
There's just nothing serious about the Democratic Party at this point:
With a strong focus on expanding access to quality early childhood education, building affordable and sustainable housing, as well as protecting our environment, doing so by introducing pieces of legislation and bills he has co-sponsored.
https://www.flad.pt/en/chris-flanagan/
Not a single person who votes for Democrats gives a damm about effective government.
#2
How *stupid* do you have to be to set an alarm clock for every morning, get up and get ready, go to work for 8-10 hours, go home to a place you can barely afford, and then when it comes time to vote:
Cast your support for "early childhood education, sustainable housing, and protecting our environment"?
Why aren't there a THOUSAND Trumps pointing out how stupid this is?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Over the past five years, 49 ships have been built for the Russian Navy. This was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, April 11, at a meeting on the development of the Russian Navy.
"Russian shipyards from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok are engaged in serial production of surface ships and new missile submarines. Including the latest Borey A and Yasen-M projects. Significant funds have been allocated for these purposes. Over the past five years, 49 ships of various classes have been built," the president said.
The Russian leader noted that the dynamics of the changing situation in the world and the development of technologies require the formation of a new image of the Navy. Putin emphasized that Russian ships must be able to solve the whole range of tasks facing them, because the Navy plays an important role in protecting the national interests of the country.
“In the coming decade, 8.4 trillion rubles have been allocated for the construction of new ships and vessels for the Navy, and these funds must be taken into account when forming the state armaments program,” Putin said.
According to a report published by the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia retained its third place in the world ranking of military shipbuilding by the end of 2024. At the same time, the index increased to 12,516 from 11,084 points in 2023.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, in June 2024, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Yevtukhov announced that the Russian Navy would receive 50 new ships, including boats, small missile ships, and support vessels. Particular attention is paid to frigates and corvettes capable of operating in the far sea zone. In 2023, 32 ships were added to the Russian Navy.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Victor Vasiliev
[REGNUM] The first EU-Central Asia summit, held in Samarkand on April 3–4, was attended by EU leaders, as well as the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. The high-level event would have gone unnoticed in Russia if not for one scandalous detail.
Over the course of two days, the President of the European Council, António Costa, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, laid out everything that European diplomacy has been voicing for three years now: green energy, water management, communications, transport, and calls to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The only thing added was the newfangled topic of critically important materials.
Following the summit, a Joint Declaration consisting of 20 points was approved. However, point 4, which was noted by a number of experts, contained an anti-Turkish call.
In particular, the signatories of the declaration reaffirm their firm commitment to UN Security Council Resolution 550 of 1984.
It condemns “illegal separatist activities” in the Turkish-occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus in violation of previous resolutions, and again calls on UN member states not to recognize the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).
Turkish international journalist and war correspondent Arda Zenturk called the events a “geopolitical blow” to Turkey and an “act of betrayal.”
Another interesting thing is that during the summit, Turkish leader Recep Erdogan made a statement that “by getting closer to Turkey, Europe can also strengthen its relations with the Central Asian countries, and this is also a great opportunity for the Central Asian countries that want to free themselves from the influence of Russia and China.”
At the very least, Türkiye was counting on certain prospects as a result of this summit, playing on the contradictions between the EU and Russia, and certainly did not expect to get a knife in the back from its allies in the Organization of Turkic States (OTG).
Since the Central Asian countries themselves did not react to this scandal at all, one can assume that the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan simply did not bother to carefully read the final declaration. And one can understand them.
This is the third time that high-level meetings of this format have been held. The previous ones were held in 2022–2023 in Astana, Kazakhstan, and Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan. At first glance, it is not even clear why this meeting is designated as the “first” and why the European side attaches special importance to it. Moreover, all the rhetoric and declarative part of the events are repeated exactly.
FRENCH HAIRPIN
The position of France had an undoubted influence on the text of the final declaration. It is France that has set the tone in all foreign policy activities on behalf of the EU in recent years.
France has also consistently failed to recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In 1983, the Fifth Republic supported UN Security Council Resolution 541, which declared the TRNC's declaration of independence legally invalid.
In 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Erdogan's calls for a two-state solution to the Cyprus issue, calling them a "provocation."
In December 2024, French military aircraft stationed at Paphos Air Base under a 2017 defence cooperation agreement between France and the Greek Cypriot administration violated TRNC airspace, sparking protests from the Northern Cypriot authorities.
These actions reflect France's traditional position of supporting the unity of Cyprus and non-recognition of the TRNC.
In general, it can be confidently assumed that the theses of point 4 of the Samarkand summit declaration were prudently “put in” by the French side. And while French foreign diplomacy is active in the Mediterranean, there is no point in talking about any potential membership of Turkey in the EU.
But, what is most interesting, a similar statement is partly true for Central Asia. If only because, over the past few years, Paris has achieved a significant increase in influence in this region, both in the diplomatic dimension and in the economic one.
France is pursuing its own strategy in Central Asia in defiance of both Moscow and Ankara, and its successes have come as a surprise to many traditional players in the region.
FRANCE'S STRATEGY IN CENTRAL ASIA
Last November, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev paid a state visit to Paris. The French recently hosted Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on a state visit. And Macron's visit to Kyrgyzstan was announced the other day. Such attention to the region is not accidental.
Emmanuel Macron's priorities are well illustrated by the details of the reception for the Uzbek leader, which took place on March 11-13. The French side threw a lavish banquet. The special attention to the leader of the Central Asian country is surprising for France, which has never organized such celebrations for its loyal satellites from Africa.
And then there was a whole reception at the Elysee Palace, attended by official delegations of the two countries, members of the French government, famous figures of culture, art and science, representatives of business circles and the public.
The French know how to make sweeping decisions in foreign policy. This was evident in the South Caucasus (the rise of Nikol Pashinyan and the velvet revolution of 2018 in Armenia are largely French style) and in Ukraine. And now Central Asia.
The official website of the President of Uzbekistan states the following about the results of the visit:
"A Joint Declaration on the establishment of strategic partnership relations was adopted, as well as a solid package of agreements on various areas of cooperation. The leader of our country took part in a round table with the heads of leading companies, banks and organizations of France. A Cooperation Program in the investment and innovation spheres was adopted, providing for the implementation of specific cooperation projects worth 6.5 billion euros."
Everything is explained quite simply. Uzbekistan ranks 10th in the world in terms of uranium reserves and 5th in terms of its production. France is the world's main consumer of uranium, while there are no deposits in the country itself.
It was uranium that at one time determined Paris’s special strategic interest in its former colonies on the Black Continent, in many of which it is mined (primarily in Niger, but also in Mali and the Central African Republic).
As France is forced to leave Africa due to objective reasons (terrorist threats, lack of security and convenient logistics) and pressure from competitors (Russia first and foremost), its gaze turns to the post-Soviet space. First and foremost, to Uzbekistan.
Coinciding with the Uzbek leader's state visit to Paris, French nuclear fuel company Orano said it would begin developing its South Dzhengeldy uranium mining project in Uzbekistan through its Nurlikum Mining joint venture with Uzbek state mining company Navoiyuran.
The mine is expected to operate for more than ten years, with peak production forecast to be 700 tonnes of uranium per year.
In addition to Orano, more than 50 French companies successfully operate in Uzbekistan in various sectors of the economy, including energy, infrastructure, environmental protection, aviation, food production and tourism.
Among the most well-known are SUEZ and Veolia (large companies in the field of water and waste management, actively involved in projects to develop water supply and sanitation infrastructure in Uzbekistan), TotalEnergies and Voltalia (energy companies expanding their presence in Uzbekistan, involved in renewable energy and infrastructure projects), Lactalis (one of the largest dairy companies in the world) and others.
Economic expansion is supported by initiatives in the field of culture and education: French lyceums and cultural centers have begun operating, scholarships and academic cooperation have been launched, various media and NGOs receive support from the French embassy.
A similar and quite successful strategy is being implemented by France in Kazakhstan.
Of course, Paris itself cannot compete with the influence of China or Russia in the region. However, it manages to play well on the desire of some local elites to reduce dependence on their usual partners. And at the same time, France really does have something to offer in economic terms, unlike Turkey.
France, like the EU as a whole, supports the diversification of foreign policy and economic relations between the countries of the region.
Given the leading role of French diplomacy in the EU, Paris can thus play at a fairly high level, at least outplaying Erdogan (as can be seen in the example above), adding to Russia’s troubles (competing in the nuclear industry and regularly recording a position in support of Ukraine’s territorial integrity) and reducing the region’s dependence on Chinese loans and technologies within the framework of the Belt and Road initiative.
And finally, after Joe Biden's defeat in the US presidential election and the significant reduction of the American presence in the region, Paris has become the new favorite destination for some of the local intelligentsia and liberal-minded public.
France does not directly state its political demands in the region, if only because it has no historical interests in Central Asia. But it does softly and effectively position itself as an alternative to the influence of Russia, China and Turkey.
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[PAGESIX] How many security vehicles does it take to escort one duchess? If you're Princess Meghan Markle ...unlikable American former starlet married to the formerly likable Prince Harry. Chock full of lefty political opinions, Markle's most important characteristic is that she is Black, even though she doesn't look it. Her mother, y'see, is half black and her father is white, which would make her a quarter Black. Her half brother described her (to her husband, before their marriage) as a jaded, shallow, conceited woman that will make a joke of you and the royal family heritage. Once married, she was too good for the Royals and she and Harry decamped to Beverly Hills, kind of like the Clampetts did, thus making a joke of Harry and the royal family heritage... , four.
The Duchess of Sussex was taken to the Broadway show ''Gypsy'' on Thursday night with three SUVs and an unmarked police car.
Page Six has learned that Markle, 43, hired former Secret Service agents as part of her private security detail and that the unmarked vehicle, which belonged to the New York Police Department, had two intel detectives inside of it.
We're told the controversial royal rode in one of the SUVs and the other two were decoys — empty save for drivers — which could have been used to send awaiting photographers on wild goose chases throughout NYC.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Is the "Prince" so broke that he cant divorce her? Because he needs to do so.
But the UK is lost, so why shouldn't he be emblematic of that loss?
#5
Nope, publicity stunt, with Page6 hired to gerbble it up.
"empty save for drivers"
"Secret Service"
"Intel Detectives"
It's all lies and balderdash to make her appear important for a CA gov run. She doesn't even have creditors after her because her home ec show was poli-psyop front.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A South Carolina cop killer refused to offer remorse for his crimes and ignored onlookers before he was shot to death by a prison firing squad.
Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed by a volunteer three person firing squad for the murder of police captain James Myers, 56, just after 6pm on Friday after opting for the very rare execution method over lethal injection or the electric chair.
The cop killer made no final statement before his death and avoided looking at the nine witnesses in the room behind bulletproof glass.
Mahdi cried out from beneath a hood over his head as the three bullets to the heart hit him and his arms flexed. A red bullseye that was placed over his heart was pushed into the bullet wound in his chest.
He groaned about 45 seconds afterward and his breaths continued for around 80 seconds before he took his final gasp.
A doctor declared the inmate dead at 6.05pm, just four minutes after the shots were fired.
Captain Myers, Mahdi's victim, was shot nine times before his body was set on fire.
The death row inmate also plead guilty to murdering a convenience store clerk, three days before he killed Myers.
[FrontPage] Whatever financial benefits we get from open borders is more than offset by our losses.
Every other day the media rolls out another entry about the economic benefits of open borders and mass migration. And every time they do that it just shows how incidental the benefits are to the losses.
IRS to Lose Billions in Revenue If Migrants Stop Filing Taxes – Bloomberg
The Internal Revenue Service is projected to lose more than $313 billion in revenue in the coming decade as undocumented workers are poised to pay fewer taxes after the agency struck a deal to share data with US immigration authorities.
The IRS is expected to lose $12 billion in revenue for the remainder of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, according to a report out Tuesday by the Yale Budget Lab. The group estimates unauthorized workers paid about $66 billion in federal taxes in fiscal year 2023, with about two-thirds of that coming from payroll levies.
Let’s assume those figures are even correct. The estimated cost of illegal aliens for 2023 was over $150 billion. Some estimates place the figures even higher and others lower. The FAIR numbers estimated the tax payments at $31 billion in which case it would be a matter of 5X. But let’s compromise at 3X.
What this hammers home yet again is that whatever financial benefits we get from open borders is more than offset by our losses.
California has a $6.2 billion budget deficit for Medicaid services, and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest budget proposal projects the state will spend a staggering $8.4 billion to cover Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid, for illegal immigrants in 2024-2025.
[NYPOST] The woman who sucker-punched a pro-life activist during a street interview has been arrested for the brazen on-camera attack, according to the NYPD.
Brianna J. Rivers, 30, was arrested Thursday on one count of second-degree assault for her callous beating of activist Savannah Craven Antao during a street interview on the topic of child sacrifice abortion last week, according to the NYPD.
''Just got word from detectives Brianna J Rivers was arrested! God is good!,'' Craven Antao wrote in an Instagram post, adding in the caption,''#BlueLivesMatter
The ham-fisted alleged assailant was taken into custody Thursday morning for the boorish assault that took place during a filmed interview in Harlem last Thursday.
Craven Antao, 23, asked Rivers several pointed questions on the topic of child sacrifice abortion and Planned Parenthood ...has received federal funding since 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed into law the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act. It is sometimes described as the gynecololgical wing of the Democratic party... , leading to a verbal dispute that turned violent mostly peaceful.
''You don't understand the magnitude of having a child,'' the woman officially identified as Rivers stated a few minutes into the conversation, video shows.
''I'm not the one who admitted they would be OK with killing babies in foster care and killing children that have been abused,'' Craven Antao shot back, referencing claims made by Rivers earlier in the interview.
''That's not the point. What I'm saying is—.,'' Rivers began.
She then dropped all pretenses and threw down, unleashing a combo of punches directly into Craven Antao's face.
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] At the trial of the former leaders of the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Baku court, the victims spoke out - Azerbaijanis who were forced to leave Karabakh with the beginning of the movement for its annexation to Armenia.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot", the Baku Military Court is considering the criminal case of 15 former leaders and residents of Nagorno-Karabakh. They are charged under more than 20 articles, and the case contains 2,548 episodes. Former presidents of the unrecognized republic Bako Sahakyan and Arayik Harutyunyan told the court that the Karabakh army was fully supplied by the Armenian authorities, and former speaker of parliament David Ishkhanyan - that the goal of the military actions was the annexation of Karabakh to Armenia. None of the leaders of the unrecognized republic considered the integration of the Armenian population of the region into Azerbaijan possible, explained the former head of the NKR Foreign Ministry.
There are 15 former Karabakh officials in custody in Azerbaijan, including former presidents Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan and Arkady Ghukasyan, as well as former parliament speaker David Ishkhanyan and former Nagorno-Karabakh state minister Ruben Vardanyan, the latter's case is being heard separately. "Kavkazsky Uzel" has prepared a report " Vardanyan and 15 Karabakh leaders: the main thing about the courts in Baku ".
The trial of 15 former leaders and residents of the unrecognized republic in the Baku Military Court continued today with the testimony of victims who were forced to leave Karabakh after the start of the armed conflict.
A native of Khankendi (the Armenian name is Stepanakert, - note of the "Caucasian Knot") Nazeika Atakishiyeva reported that Azerbaijanis began to be openly persecuted by supporters of Karabakh's annexation to Armenia in February 1988. The woman said that she worked as a weaver at the Karabakh silk factory, where Robert Kocharyan ( later the second president of Armenia, - note of the "Caucasian Knot" ) also worked, lubricating the machines. According to the victim, since February 1988, "bearded men not from Khankendi" began to wait for Azerbaijani employees of the factory at the exit from work. Supporters of the movement for joining Armenia threw stones at them, insulted them, knocked on their doors with calls to "leave", and medical workers refused to provide medical assistance. Also in February 1988, Atakishiyeva's house was looted and destroyed, and the family was forced to leave for Agdam.
Victim Zemfira Abbasova, who also lived in Khankendi, said that she was unable to leave her home after the Miatsum (Reunification in Armenian - note by the "Caucasian Knot") movement began in Karabakh. "They insulted us and put pressure on us, broke into our homes, robbed, destroyed, and destroyed our property. We could not go outside, they threw stones at us. They did not even sell us bread. At that time, I worked in the railway department, and they broke in there too. They demanded that we leave our homes so that Armenians could move in instead of us," Vesti.az quotes her as saying.
Akhmed Akhmedov, a victim, said that he was the only Azerbaijani among 30 students at the Khankendi school. "I was repeatedly insulted as an Azerbaijani. Whenever there was a small conflict, they would shout: "tork, tork", that's what they called the Turks. They created an atmosphere of intolerance. (...) It was 1986, I was in the eighth grade. I had a classmate named Armen Beglaryan, who was sitting at one of the back desks. I heard him say to his deskmate: "Gorbachev promised us that we would join Armenia". That was the first time I learned about these political issues," Azertac quotes him as saying.
According to Akhmedov, ethnic intolerance became even more pronounced starting in January 1988: “Azerbaijanis went to buy bread, but they were not given bread, they were harassed everywhere (...) stones were thrown at Azerbaijani houses and windows were broken.” On February 20, 1988, the car in which he was returning home from a relative in Agdam was shot at in the Askeran region. Akhmedov received a bullet wound to the arm, and two other passengers were killed. “Later I learned that a police officer who lived in Askeran opened fire on us with a machine gun,” he said. The victim added that he had now returned to Khankendi.
The victim, Valida Rasulova, told the court that her husband was shot dead in the village of Karkijahan on September 18, 1988, after armed Armenian forces attacked their home. The victim, Farida Huseynova, claimed that the head of her workshop at the silk factory in Khankendi harassed Azerbaijani workers and even threatened to torture them.
Several victims told the court about the events in the village of Baganis-Ayrym in the Gazakh region on the night of March 23-24, 1990. According to former residents, the village was attacked by Armenian armed groups, houses were looted and burned, and several villagers, as well as a policeman, were killed. Victim Ramiz Adygezalov reported that his wife, a child who was only 39 days old, and other relatives were killed. His fellow villager Vugar Magerramov reported that his father was killed and that "there was a baby among those killed." Following this testimony, prosecutors showed video footage filmed in the village: the footage showed the burned bodies of residents, including Adygezalov's wife and newborn son.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Korrespondent] The number of clashes on the front since the beginning of the day has become known.
The Russian troops were most active in the Pokrovsky direction, where they made 26 attempts to displace the Ukrainian Armed Forces from positions in the areas of the settlements of Kalinovoye, Tarasovka, Elizavetovka, Peschanoye, Udachnoye, Uspenovka, Preobrazhenka, Nadievka, and Andreyevka.
The Defense Forces are taking measures to prevent Russian troops from advancing deep into Ukrainian territory. There have been 75 combat clashes so far. This was reported in the General Staff report as of 16:00 on April 11.
The following settlements suffered from Russian artillery and mortar fire: Khrinovka in Chernihiv Oblast; Prokhody, Stepok, Turya, Ryasnoye, Slavgorod, Petrushevka, Kucherevka, Maryino, Velikaya Pisarevka, Pokrovka, Ulanovo, Popovka, Alexandria, Ryasnoye in Sumy Oblast. The enemy's aviation also struck the settlements of Nikolaevka in Chernihiv Oblast with guided aerial bombs; Petrushevka, Prokhody, Miropolskoye, Osoyevka, Taratutine, Krasnopolye, Velykyi Prikil in Sumy Oblast.
In the Kupyansk direction, Russian troops attacked the positions of the Defense Forces in the areas of Golubovka, Novaya Kruglyakovka and Zagrizovoye seven times; three combat clashes are currently ongoing.
In the Liman direction, the invading army carried out 12 attacks on Ukrainian positions near the settlements of Nadiya, Grekovka, Novoye and Katerynivka. Four clashes are still ongoing.
In the Seversky direction, our defenders are repelling an enemy attack in the Ivano-Daryevka area.
In the Kramatorsk direction, Ukrainian defenders are repelling two assaults by Russian invaders. The enemy is trying to break through in the areas of Kurdyumovka and Orekhovo-Vasylovka.
In the Toretsk direction, our defenders repelled five Russian attacks near Dachnoye, Druzhba and Toretsk, and another military clash continues.
In the Pokrovsk direction, Russian invaders have made 26 attempts to push our defenders from their positions in the areas of the settlements of Kalinovoye, Tarasovka, Elizavetovka, Peschanoye, Udachnoye, Uspenovka, Preobrazhenka, Nadievka and Andreyevka. The defense forces are holding back the onslaught and have repelled 24 enemy attacks, two clashes are still ongoing. The settlement of Bagatyr was subjected to air strikes.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the enemy tried three times to break through the defenses of our defenders in the areas of Razliv and Razdolnoye.
In the Gulyai-Polye direction, three combat clashes with the enemy occurred in the areas of the settlements of Privilnoye, Novosyolka and Burlatskoye. The settlement of Gulyai-Polye was subjected to air strikes by attack aircraft, the enemy hit Novopyle and Shevchenko with KABs.
In the Orekhov direction, Ukrainian soldiers repelled two enemy attacks in the area of Malye Shcherbaki.
In the Dnieper direction, the enemy tried three times to approach the positions of our defenders, but was unsuccessful.
Ten combat clashes have occurred in the Kursk direction since the beginning of the day, three of which are still ongoing. In addition, the enemy carried out 25 air strikes, dropping 41 KAB, and carried out 259 artillery attacks, including 16 from multiple launch rocket systems.
At the same time, in other areas there are no significant changes.
Let us remind you that in one month the Russians carried out more than 5 thousand attacks on the front , a third of which were in the Pokrovsky direction.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] In Izhevsk, serial production of 7.62×54R Tandem cartridges, which contain two bullets inside the cartridge case, was launched. This was reported on April 11 by the manufacturer Tekhkrim.
“The cartridges are designed for firing from any 7.62×54R caliber small arms in order to increase the density of fire due to a larger number of striking elements at a distance of up to 250 m when firing at side targets and up to 350 m when firing at chased or oncoming targets,” the company said in a statement.
The bullets have a bimetallic shell and a non-reinforced steel core, and the steel case is copper-plated. The nominal mass of the first and second bullets is 8 and 7 g, respectively. The average mass of the cartridge is from 26 to 28 g, the average muzzle velocity is not less than 650 m/s.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, in March the Kalashnikov press service reported that the concern's Izhevsk Mechanical Plant had delivered a batch of MP-155 smoothbore self-loading rifles to the special military operation zone. The hunting rifles, which are used in the SVO zone to combat drones, and ammunition for them were purchased with donations collected by trade unions of Izhevsk enterprises.
#1
And again, we keep pretending that those commanding military installations should be completely open, rather than proven warriors.
Let's just keep checking "diversity" boxes, sooner or later at least a handful will prove to be worth it...even if most of them aren't actually worthy of running a fast food restaurant.
#2
How *stupid* have we allowed this nation to become?
She somehow rose to the rank of Colonel. Was *anyone* even serious with these promotions?
Yet she somehow didn't grasp that she reported to the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, and thus didn't get to hold command of a base IF she decided to make a stand against the same Federal Government that employed her?
She's too stupid to have an "escape plan". She did this because she thought she could. How does this happen in the year 2025? Has our military chain of command been just completely asleep, or totally corrupted?
A thousand heads should roll for ever promoting her, over and over again.
The Military works for the President.
Under the Constitution, the President, in addition to being Chief Executive, is Commander in Chief of the Military.
The President holds the prime responsibility for the conduct of the United States and its foreign relations.
As long as the orders and assignments are legal and ethical, let the politicians handle Politics and Military
follow its orders and assignments.
#6
"I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the U.S. administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base,"
I do not presume to know anything about cars, but I know blue cars are not as fast as red cars.
#7
Dumb as a bag of hammers. Commanding a 'large' unit and multinational as well means the next step was a star and a posting to a posting to some warmer 'Joint command'.
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.
...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....
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..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...46th president of the U.S. 
...
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both....
...Arabic for 
[GEO.TV] A Hamas official said on Thursday that the group welcomed the announcement by French President Emmanuel Macron that Paris could recognise a Palestinian state by June, hailing it as an "important step".
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
...unlikable American former starlet married to the formerly likable Prince Harry. Chock full of lefty political opinions, Markle's most important characteristic is that she is Black, even though she doesn't look it. Her mother, y'see, is half black and her father is white, which would make her a quarter Black. Her half brother described her (to her husband, before their marriage) as a 
...has received federal funding since 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed into law the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act. It is sometimes described as the gynecololgical wing of the Democratic party...
[Military.com] 
