[AnNahar] A British-Nigerian art expert who appeared on the BBC's Bargain Hunt show has pleaded guilty to failing to report that he sold pricey works to a suspected financier of Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... 's Hezbollah.
Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, was charged with failing to disclose art sales between October 2020 and December 2021. He pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates' Court to eight offences under a section of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Ojiri sold about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) of artworks to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the UK and U.S. as a Hezbollah financier. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the UK or U.S. from doing business with Ahmad or his businesses. Any of Hunter's works? Nahhh. Apparently these had value
U.S. prosecutors said Ahmad acquired more than $160 million (120 million pounds) in artwork and diamond services by using a complex web of companies to evade sanctions.
Prosecutor Lyndon Harris said Ojiri knew about the sanctions against Ahmad because he had searched for news reports about his status and discussed it with others.
"There is one discussion where Mr. Ojiri is party to a conversation where it is apparent a lot of people have known for years about his terrorism links," Harris said.
Ahmad was sanctioned in 2019 by the U.S. Treasury, which said he was a prominent Lebanon-based money launderer involved in smuggling blood diamonds, which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.
Two years ago, the U.K. Treasury froze Ahmad's assets because he financed Hezbollah.
Ojiri, who also appeared on the BBC's Antiques Road Trip, faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced June 6 in the Central Criminal Court.
[Rudaw] Germany will deport rejected asylum seekers regardless of how well they have integrated into society, including those with jobs or language skills, a government office told Rudaw on Saturday.
"If, after examining an asylum application, the Federal Office comes to the decision that there are no grounds for protection, [it] issues an order to leave the country," Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) stated in a written response to Rudaw. It added that rejected applicants may be returned to their country "even without their consent."
"Integration achievements play no role in the asylum procedure," BAMF said. "Individual integration achievements as well as professional activities have no influence on the examination."
The decision on the asylum application, it said, is based solely on whether an applicant faces a specific threat if returned to their country of origin. Decision-makers also consider whether internal relocation is possible within the applicant’s home country before granting asylum.
The office clarified that its role is limited to processing asylum applications and making protection decisions. Deportation enforcement falls under the jurisdiction of Germany’s federal states and their respective immigration authorities.
A growing number of Iraqi Kurds and Arabs who were recently deported had held temporary toleration status, known as Duldung, and had been employed or enrolled in integration programs. BAMF explained that Duldung only suspends deportation temporarily and does not establish a legal right to stay.
"People who are deported have no right to stay in Germany—even if they have a toleration status," BAMF noted. "The obligation to leave remains."
Public criticism has mounted over deportations of long-term residents. One such case is Rawsht Ghafor Abdullah, an Iraqi Kurd with a nursing degree who held Duldung status in Bavaria. In a video posted online, Abdullah said he was deported despite completing integration courses, working in Germany, and having no criminal record. BAMF declined to comment on individual cases but said residency decisions fall under the remit of state-level authorities.
Germany hosts one of the world’s largest refugee populations. In 2024, there were nearly 251,000 asylum applications, according to a survey by BAMF.
Immigration was a central issue in Germany’s February parliamentary elections. The Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union bloc - considered center-right - secured 28.5 percent of the vote, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 20.5 percent, and the Social Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... (SPD) with 16.4 percent.
In January, the parliament passed a controversial migration control bill aimed at tightening enforcement. The legislation includes five measures: preventing illegal immigration, deporting those without legal status, deporting foreign criminals, detaining those under removal orders, and limiting family reunification.
Germany is a popular destination for tens of thousands of Iraqis and residents of the Kurdistan Region who attempt to reach Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... each year, often through smuggling routes.
[AnNahar] Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... and Syria are cracking down on Paleostinian factions that for decades have had an armed presence in both countries and which on some occasions were used to plan and launch attacks against Israel.
The crackdown comes as Syria's new rulers under Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... are pursuing officials of the former government under Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , including those in the ousted president's web of security agencies. Syria's most prominent Paleostinian factions were key allies of the Assad dynasty in both war and peace time and closely cooperated on security matters.
It also comes after Iran's main regional ally, Lebanon's Hezbollah, was weakened after over a year of war with Israel and as Lebanon's new government vows to monopolize all arms under the government, including Hezbollah and Paleostinian factions in Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Syria's President Ahmad al-Sharaa said his government is holding indirect talks with Israel through mediators, who he did not name. He said the aim of the indirect negotiations is to ease tensions after intense Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Syria.
A crackdown on hardline Paleostinian factions, including the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , which took part with Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks 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... , is likely to be welcomed by Israel.
A Syrian government official declined to comment on the matter.
A Paleostinian official who had been in Damascus for more than 40 years, and who recently left the country, said Paleostinian factions in Syria were forced to hand over their weapons and the Paleostinian embassy will be the only side that Syria's new authorities will deal with. The Paleostinian groups would only be limited to social and charitable activities, the official added, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for their safety.
Paleostinian factions for decades have lived in refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria and have been involved militarily both locally and regionally. They closely aligned themselves with the Assads and later with Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose powerful military arsenal grew over the past few decades. Over time, many of the leaders of groups like Hamas and the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad were based in those countries.
However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... the regional developments of late 2024 that went against Iran's favor in the Levant began to take shape in recent weeks among the Paleostinian factions in Lebanon and Syria.
"No weapons will be allowed in the (Paleostinian refugee) camps. The Syrian state will protect citizens whether they are Paleostinians or Syrians," said Syrian political analyst Ahmad al-Hamada, whose view points reflect those of the government. "It is not allowed for Paleostinian factions that were arms for Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and the Assad regime to keep their weapons."
When asked whether the state will prevent any attacks against Israel, al-Hamada said Syria will not allow its territories to be used as a launch pad against any neighbor.
Syrian authorities in Damascus this week detained two bigwigs of the Iran-backed Paleostinian Islamic Jihad group and briefly detained and questioned the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine-General Command, FLP-GC, that since its founding had been a key ally of Assad.
Another Paleostinian official with one of the factions that had been based in Syria said the developments caught them by surprise, and that regardless of who runs the country they are keen to have good relations with Syria's new rulers and maintain the country's stability.
"We hope that this wouldn't have happened. But we don't have a say in this," the official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are still based in the country. "We are simply guests here."
The government in Lebanon, which is trying to expand its army's influence in the south near Israel, has also been reclaiming dozens of informal border crossings with Syria, which were key arteries for Iran and its allies to transport weapons and fighters over the years. Many of those crossings were held by PFLP-GC forces of Evil who have given some of those positions up to the Lebanese Army after Assad's downfall.
Paleostinian 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....> , who Paleostinian factions in Syria oppose, visited Damascus last month for the first time in more than a decade and he is scheduled to visit Lebanon on May 21.
After Israel intensified its airstrikes on Lebanon in response to Hamas allegedly firing rockets from southern Lebanon in late March, the Lebanese government for the first time called out the Paleostinian group and arrested nearly 10 suspects involved in the operation. Hamas was pressured by the military to turn in three of their forces of Evil from different refugee camps.
Ahmad Abdul-Hadi, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, was also summoned by the head of one of the country's top security agencies over the incident and was formally told that Hamas should stop its military activities.
Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun, who is backed by the United States and Arab countries rather than Hezbollah and Iran, has said armed factions should not be allowed to "shake up national security and stability." His statement has set a new tone after decades of tolerating the presence of armed Paleostinian groups in refugee camps which have led to armed conflict in the crowded ghettos.
"I think we're in unprecedented times, politically speaking," said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "The (Lebanese) army is acting out of a political will, with its former chief now the president. There is a strong political thrust behind the army."
A Lebanese government official familiar with the initiative said that Hamas was told to hand over wanted forces of Evil and end all its military activity in the country. He added that there is also a plan to gradually give up Hamas' weapons, which coincides with the visit to Lebanon of Abbas, leader of the rival Fatah group.
[SaharaReporters] The threat of an impending Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... attack in the city of Garoua, Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... forced local authorities to cancel the usual Friday prayers, plunging the community into uncertainty and fear, SaharaReporters has learnt.
According to sources who spoke to SaharaReporters, the turbans had been spreading news of their plans throughout the day, and with recent escalations in their attacks, the authorities took the precautionary measure to ensure the safety of the public.
"Given the serious threat posed by Boko Haram gunnies in the region, the decision was made to suspend Friday prayers as a preventive measure," said a local government official who preferred to remain anonymous.
"Our priority is the safety of our citizens, and we had no choice but to act swiftly."
Boko Haram, an holy warrior bully boy group based in northeastern Nigeria, has carried out a series of attacks in the Lake Chad region, including parts of Cameroon, since 2013.
Their violent mostly peaceful campaign, which has included bombings, kidnappings, and ambushes, has caused immense hardship for the affected populations.
The group aims to establish a hardline interpretation of Islamic law and has frequently targeted civilian populations, security forces, and religious institutions.
This disruption comes amid a heightened security presence in the region, with the group intensifying its offensive in recent weeks.
[TheFP] How lazy journalism, bad data, and skewed statistics fueled accusations of war crimes against Israel.
"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... Is Starving," a headline in The New Yorker declared in early January 2024, pushing a harrowing narrative that took hold during the first six months of the war. In March, The Washington Post asked: "Is Gaza Heading Into Famine?" A headline in the Post the next day answered: "Israel’s War on Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... Brings Famine to Gaza."
In April 2024, Samantha Power, director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the Biden administration, became the first senior U.S. official to declare that famine in Gaza had begun. She cited a report published by an independent, United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... —affiliated monitoring system, called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Global Initiative (IPC).
First developed in 2004 with backing from the UN, the IPC has become the global gold standard for food security analysis. Using a data-driven, evidence-based, five-phase scale that ticks up as food supplies run low, the IPC is designed to shield the humanitarian goal of having enough to eat from the political pressures of war. Today, a famine is declared only when the IPC’s data about a region shows that at least 20 percent of households have run out of food, at least 30 percent of children are acutely malnourished, and two people out of every 10,000 are dying each day from starvation.
In 20 years, just four famines have been confirmed by the IPC: Somalia in 2011, South Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... in 2017 and 2020, and Sudan in 2024. A confirmed famine in Gaza, as Power told Congress was happening, would have been a historic catastrophe and the first to occur outside continental Africa. Power’s statement bolstered claims that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war, and that the U.S. government was therefore complicit in an alleged war crime.
But there were serious problems with Power’s sensational testimony. Foremost among them: The IPC never declared a famine in Gaza. The report she cited was a projection of possible outcomes, not a conclusive finding. The next month, USAID issued its own analysis alleging that famine was underway, an indictment so serious that it required confirmation from an independent board of global experts known as the Famine Review Committee (FRC).
The FRC, which functions as the IPC’s final authority and quality control check, rebuked the USAID analysis, calling its conclusions insupportable. The failures were stunning.
Private sector food deliveries, such as trucks contracted to commercial warehouses, were left out of the agency’s estimates of the total food supply in north Gaza. As a result, as much as 82 percent of the "daily kilocalorie requirement" in northern Gaza last April wasn’t counted. In the same month, USAID’s famine monitor also left out 940 metric tons (2 million pounds) of flour, sugar, salt, and yeast donated by the UN to bakeries in north Gaza, enough to make about 1,400 metric tons (3 million pounds) of bread.
When asked about erasing the bakery donations, USAID’s internal famine-monitoring network justified the decision on the grounds that bread from those bakeries had been sold rather than given away for free.
It was never in doubt that the Israel-Hamas war brought immense human suffering to Gaza, including from food shortages. But USAID depicted a world that had little in common with reality.
North Gaza actually had 10 times more food last April than USAID had claimed. These findings should have been big news. As aid shipments increased, a famine had been averted.
[IsraelTimes] Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... has conducted a major overhaul of security at its sole international airport in Beirut to prevent Hezbollah smuggling, satisfying Israeli and US officials and giving them hope that the Lebanese state will take full control over the country’s ports of entry from the terror group, The Wall Street Journal reports.
"You can feel the difference," Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam tells the WSJ. "We’re doing better on smuggling for the first time in the contemporary history of Lebanon."
Senior Lebanese security and military officials tell the outlet that no planes are now exempt from security checks, while flights from 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... have been suspended since February. Airport staff linked to Hezbollah have been fired, smugglers detained, and new surveillance mechanisms using AI are being put into place, the report says.
In one of the recent achievements, Lebanese security thwarted an endeavor to smuggle over 50 pounds of gold to Hezbollah through Beirut’s international airport, a security bigshot tells the WSJ.
"There is reason for hope here," says a senior US official working for the ceasefire mechanism overseeing a deal that ended over a year of Hezbollah-instigated fighting in November.
"It has only been six or seven months, and we have stepped to a place that I am not sure I thought was achievable back in November."
The report says the Israeli and US officials feel there is work to be done, however. Israeli strikes continue to target Hezbollah operations in Lebanon, it says are in violation of the November ceasefire.
Ibrahim Mousawi, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon’s parliament, tells the WSJ that the terror group sustained heavy losses but claims there are ways for them to rearm: "Where there is a will, there is a way."
He also says that allegations of the terror group’s control over the airport were exaggerated: "We are part of the system, just like any other Lebanese constituency."
[IsraelTimes] The Canadian B’nai B’rith Jewish non-profit says it has “exposed” a server on a social media platform used by Quebec medical school applicants and students to spread antisemitic and other hateful content.
On the public Discord server, the “aspiring doctors openly posted Holocaust denial, praise for the ‘Final Solution,’ hurled racial slurs, glorified terrorism, and degraded women,” the B’nai B’rith says, releasing screenshots of the French-language posts.
One post reads: “Don’t worry. You can trust me as long as you don’t have a kippa under your wig.”
Another appears to call for an “Islamic State of Quebec,” and that “Quebec is done. We’ll dominate soon.”
“This content wasn’t buried. It was shared in open channels, visible to over 1,400 members. Almost no one spoke up. These aren’t anonymous trolls. They are future doctors. And this kind of hate doesn’t stay online. It follows them into classrooms, clinics, and operating rooms,” the B’nai B’rith organization says.
“Silence enables this rot to spread. Institutions must act — now. Hate like this has no place in healthcare—or anywhere in Canadian society.”
B’nai Brith Canada has exposed a public Discord server used by Quebec medical school applicants and attendees that became a cesspool of antisemitism, racism, misogyny, and hate.
For months, a number ofaspiring doctors openly posted Holocaust denial, praise for the “Final… pic.twitter.com/xRxBJa1GvA
— B'nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) May 8, 2025
… praise for the “Final Solution,” hurled racial slurs, glorified terrorism, and degraded women.
This content wasn’t buried. It was shared in open channels, visible to over 1,400 members. Almost no one spoke up.
These aren’t anonymous trolls. They are future doctors. And this kind of hate doesn’t stay online. It follows them into classrooms, clinics, and operating rooms.
Silence enables this rot to spread. Institutions must act—now.
Hate like this has no place in healthcare—or anywhere in Canadian society.
[IsraelTimes] US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says Israelis should not feel snubbed by US President Donald Trump’s decision to skip Israel in his upcoming visit to the Middle East, which will include stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
“His first trip is about economic opportunity. That’s where his focus is,” Huckabee says in an interview with Hebrew news network Channel 12.
“What he’s doing is not because he’s snubbing Israel. There are 200 nations in the world, almost, so there are a lot of them he hasn’t gone to yet, a lot of them he isn’t going to right away — he’s spent more time with the prime minister of Israel than he has with any other world leader. I think that says a lot.”
“I would just say to people, ‘relax, calm down, Donald Trump loves you, there’s no doubt about that, he’s got your back,'” says the ambassador. “He is the same Donald Trump that, for four years as president, did more for Israel than any other American president.”
The man clearly reads the Israeli news sites.
Turning to the ongoing nuclear talks between the US and Iran, Huckabee is asked whether Washington would allow Israel to carry out independent military action against Iran if a deal is signed, should it still deem it to be a threat.
He answers that the US believes “Israel has the right to do what it has to do,” and that Trump knows “nobody can tell Israel what to do. He says, however, that the White House would definitely have “recommendations” in this regard.
Huckabee also defends Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump, after recent reports suggested that their relationship may have soured.
He says that the interviewer’s suggestion that Trump has thrown Netanyahu “under the bus” is a “very unfair characteristic.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has spent more time with President Trump than I have in the past couple of months, and it’s a warm and personal, cordial relationship,” says Huckabee.
More Huckabee:
[X]
Hmm. @Jerusalem_Post needs better sources than this unidentified “source.” My 4 yr old grandson Teddy is more reliable. And take it from Teddy. This report is nonsense. @Israel doesn’t have a better friend than @POTUS ! https://t.co/N3YYgdXYCW
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) May 10, 2025
#1
Evidently Netanyahu has been lecturing Trump on what he "must" do with Iran.
World leaders should have learned after Zelensky threw his temper tantrum in the Oval Office that you treat our President with respect
and gratitude.
Definitely do not tell us what we "must" do.
You're lucky you have us as a friend, not the other way around.
This skipped visit was sending a message, and it "must" be received loud and clear.
Oh,Netanyahu doesn't like being told what he must do? Imagine that. America first!
#2
Skipping Israel was a smart move for Air Force-1 given the 100's of Surface to Air missiles that seem to have been provided by Putin, Xi, and Biden leaving stockpiles in the Sand Lands.
[IsraelTimes] A Tufts University student from Turkey who was swept up in the campaign by US President Donald Trump’s administration to deport pro-Palestinian campus activists, returns to Massachusetts after spending more than six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
Rumeysa Ozturk,
,…the Turkish Fulbright Scholar, whose student visa was revoked for having co-authored an opinion piece for the Tufts University student newspaper a year earlier supporting terror organization Hamas and castigating the university for not divesting from Israel-related companies. I’ve not yet seen anything about the other three co-authors — perhaps that association is what got her in trouble. No doubt her naturalized, activist Iranian-American immigration lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, is also somehow objectionable …
who was arrested after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, tells reporters after arriving at Logan International Airport in Boston that she is excited to get back to her studies and community after a judge ordered her immediately released.
“This has been a very difficult time for me,” she says at a press conference with her lawyers and local members of Congress.
Ozturk thanks her supporters, including professors and students who have sent her letters, and urges the public not to forget about hundreds of other women still housed in the detention center.
“America is the greatest democracy in the world,” she says. “I have faith in the American system of justice.”
The 30-year-old PhD student was arrested on March 25 by masked plainclothes officers on a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts, near her home, after the US Department of State revoked her student visa.
[IsraelTimes] The families of hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana grant media outlets permission to air a video of the two men that was published by Hamas earlier this evening.
In the video, Ohana sits on the ground next to Bohbot, who lies under a blanket and appears as though he is asleep.
“I am prisoner number 21. This is prisoner number 22,” says Ohana, gesturing to Bohbot, whom he says he will talk about.
The video is almost certainly dictated by their captors.
Absolutely, not almost. Let us remember that the legal and moral responsibility for the health and welfare of the hostages is on the shoulders of Hamas and the immediate captors. Israel has given them endless opportunities to release the kidnapped, but they have refused.
“His medical and psychological conditions are very difficult,” says Ohana of his companion. “Ever since we heard that the war had been going on for months, we realized how dangerous it was to our lives.
“Since then, he has not stopped trying to harm himself,” he says. “Since then, we have lost our world and our hope. A few days ago, he tried to hurt himself, and I, along with a Qassam fighter, jumped on him to try and stop him, and as a result, he tried to hurt us too.”
“How did things get to this point?” asks Ohana. “Our lives are in imminent danger, every minute here is critical!”
“We can’t even sleep. Prisoner 22 is refusing to eat or drink. He cannot do anything except daydream and think about his son Reim and his wife Rivka. He cannot do anything. He cannot function.”
“What are you waiting for? What will happen if I can’t stay with him and I leave him alone? I can’t even imagine that,” says Ohana.
He says that he has also decided to stop eating, “because my friend’s fate is my fate, and our fate is in your hands.”
He then turns his attention to the Israeli Air Force, asking the pilots how they can continue to carry out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip when they know it could endanger the hostages and Palestinian civilians.
“What do you tell your families? What do you tell our families?” he demands.
“How is this war still going? How has this war not ended?” Ohana says. “What needs to happen that hasn’t happened yet? What needs to be done that hasn’t been done?”
An entire country wants this nightmare to end — from now on, every drop of blood spilled, every additional deterioration that you see with your own eyes — is on your hands. It is only in the hands of the decision makers.”
Enough! The time has come to stop! Time is running out,” he ends his plea.
The video concludes with an animation of a clock with spinning hands, and the words “Only a ceasefire agreement brings them back alive” superimposed on top in Arabic, Hebrew, and English.
[IsraelTimes] Daniel Noboa says UAE has also said it will help in fight against cocaine traffickers
Here’s hoping he is able to get what his country needs.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has said he’s sought assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the narco mobs that are terrorizing the South American country.
In an interview in Gay Paree on Thursday night, the iron-fisted 37-year-old who won reelection last month said Israel and the UAE have agreed to provide intelligence "to help" fight cocaine traffickers.
Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels battle for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation’s ports.
During presidential campaigning, Noboa suggested US special forces should be deployed to Ecuador to tackle the violence and floated legal reforms to allow US bases to reopen.
Over the past week, he traveled to Italia, Spain, Britannia and La Belle France — some of the European countries experiencing rocketing cocaine consumption — to develop further security alliances, as well as Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
He said he spoke to Israeli and Emirati leaders about "cooperation on security at ports and borders... since the violence is there, in the areas or on the routes to the ports."
But Noboa admitted that "there is not much interest so far" from foreign powers in establishing military bases in the Andean country.
In March, he announced a security alliance with Erik Prince, founder of the controversial American security company Blackwater, whose employees killed and maimed dozens of civilians in Iraq.
Asked about the pact, Noboa said Prince was merely acting in a "consultancy" capacity.
After a close-run race in the first round of Ecuador’s election Noboa easily defeated left-wing lawyer Luisa Gonzalez in April’s run-off.
While Gonzalez had pitched herself as a political everywoman who would improve the lot of poor Ecuadorans, Noboa — heir to a banana export empire — staked his political fortunes on his war on the cartels.
In March, he announced a preemptive amnesty for security forces fighting gangs in the violence-wracked port of Guayaquil, despite allegations of gross rights abuses by the military particularly.
His tough talk appeared to pay off, with the incumbent taking an 11-point lead over his rival.
Gonzalez rejected the results as fraudulent, without providing proof of her claim.
Noboa said his win was a "vote of confidence" in his policies.
He faces a tough task to unite a country grappling with its dramatic decline in fortunes.
Rampant bloodshed has spooked investors and tourists alike, fueling economic malaise and swelling the ranks of Ecuador’s poor to 28 percent of the population.
"More than anything, we need to attract foreign investment," Noboa said.
But in order to access bond markets, the government needs to lower its country’s risk factor.
Noboa assured that Ecuador’s economic fundamentals were "not bad," citing low inflation and record bank deposits, among other indicators.
#3
Oh, boy. Deploying US troops to new foreign countries.
That will work out great.
It worked so well in Afghanistan.
America first! How many times must this be repeated?
And working with mercenaries like Blackwater isn't a good look either.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/11/2025 20:42
Comments ||
Top||
#6
On Zamzama, baring their nyms,
Sat a score or more, chattering hymns,
And each monk almost passed
For some alien caste,
Though you wouldn't take any for Kims.
[Responsible Statecraft] The photographs, television images and newspaper stories make it perfectly clear: there was an urgency, a frenzy even, as the U.S. Embassy in Saigon shuttered and its diplomats and staff were evacuated, along with other military, journalists, and foreigners, as well as thousands of Vietnamese civilians, who all wanted out of the country as the North Vietnamese victors rolled into the city center.
It was April 30, 1975 — 50 years ago today — yet the nightmare left behind that day only accentuated the failure of the United States, along with the South Vietnamese army, to resist a takeover by the communists under the leadership of the North. It was not only an extraordinarily bloody chapter for Vietnam (well over 1.5 million military and civilian deaths, depending on estimates, from 1965 to 1975), but a dark episode for America, too.
Beyond the failure of Washington’s Cold War policy — that intervening in Vietnam’s post-Colonial struggles for independence was necessary to prevent the "dominoes" of communism from tumbling across Southeast Asia — more than 55,000 Americans were killed. An untold number who returned suffered lifelong injuries, impacts of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and illnesses and other symptoms due to Agent Orange and other toxic exposures.
The nation had been ruptured politically and socially over the war, a divide that one could say has never really healed.
Yet ironically, Washington’s proclivity to intervene in other countries’ affairs and to use military power as the first resort has only grown. It would seem the true lessons of Vietnam were left on that iconic rooftop from which the last helicopter left Saigon 50 years ago.
Some say after WWII, U.S. power and intervention has always maintained the global liberal order and that Vietnam was a "mistake" — a one-off. Others say it was a sign that the pretense of America as the "indispensable nation" was folly from the beginning, that the Cold War had blinded us to the realities of the world and the limits of military intervention.
So we asked experts, both in geopolitics and history, what they think:
Was the failure of Vietnam a feature or a bug of U.S. foreign policy after WWII?
"America’s involvement in Laos began in the 1950s, when the United States started providing conventional military assistance to government forces fighting Laotian Communist insurgents who were backed by North Vietnam. Despite U.S. aid, the government army proved ineffective. Early in 1961, the Americans turned to a different strategy, arming and directing an irregular force of Hmong tribesmen (then commonly called Meo), a mountain tribe living in the Plain of Jars region in northern Laos. That plan was conceived and organized by Bill Lair, a CIA officer who had been based in Thailand for many years and knew the region well. The guerrillas were commanded by a Hmong officer in the Laotian army named Vang Pao."
#2
Vietnam followed Korea. In the 50s and 60s many felt we lost in Korea, however, looking at the night time satellite view of the place today shows who won. The objective of American intervention was to repel the invasion of the south. It was Syngman Rhee's intention of uniting the peninsular that resulting in the pursuit of North Korean forces to the Yalu and the resultant Chinese intervention. We were always fighting the last war.
The problem in Vietnam was that we never wanted to 'win'. Fear of Chinese intervention was always in the policy markers back mind. However, that is were it all existed. As time has shown, the Vietnamese and Chinese are not allied. Had they done early in the war what Nixon did at the end, bombing the crap out of them and sealing Haiphong harbor, it would have ended far quicker and earlier. Then there may have been the 'will' to actually back up the South Vietnamese government like we had the South Korean government, rather than allowing one party to cut their aid, assistant, and leave them to the mercy of the North.
#3
There are a lot of factors at play here, but i'd put in a vote for piss poor generalship. As far as I can tell our basic tactic at least before 1968 was: "The bad guys are somewhere over there. Walk your platoon in that direction until they shoot at you. Then we'll know where they are and we can bomb 'em." If we were going to do that, we should at least have had some generals walking point.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/11/2025 10:46
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#4
I still don't get what was so vitally imporant about Vietnam that we had to run the printing presses to pay for it and Nixon took us off thegold standard because we couldn'tafford the war.
Oh, and 50,000 good men dead.
And untold cultural damage done by being the obvious bad guys.
The good guys don't set children on fire with napalm.
Hamas does that.
#5
So is nobody going to mention that the South Vietnamese government were a gang of murderous thugs who created more communists than they ever killed?
All anyone had to do to bring a screeching halt to communism was give the workers a fair share of what they created with their own hands.
But no. That was too much. Open fire on those uppity deplorables and drive them straight into the arms of the world's most dangerous ideology.
Good plan, everyone.
[Responsible Statecraft] When the red tracers of an AC130 gunship’s minigun slashed through the warm, dry night skies above Panama City at 12:41 AM on December 20, 1989, few guessed that it would mark an opening stanza in America’s expansive unipolar moment.
In the hours that followed, more than 20,000 U.S. troops conducted a swift and violent invasion of a sovereign state to remove the inconvenient and venal regime of General Manuel Antonio Noriega, who had embarrassed and bedeviled U.S. policymakers for years.
Now nearly forgotten, this invasion — bequeathed with the trite and even cynical name of "Operation JUST CAUSE" — marked a tentative but crucial first step toward the "forever wars" of today. Freed from the frightening, but disciplining, constraints of the Cold War, American leaders were now unchecked by rival powers, and the very perception of success for Operation JUST CAUSE would help shape their decisions going forward.
Conceived as the illegitimate child of America’s late 19th and early 20th century flirtation with regional imperialism and the naval theories of U.S. Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, Panama and its canal have long exerted significant pull over U.S. strategy and domestic politics. A more fulsome account of the U.S.-Panamanian relationship is beyond the scope of this essay, but the hypocrisy and bad faith on both sides in this tragicomic saga has few equals, even in the annals of U.S. hemispheric policy.
The 1977 Panama Canal Treaty was ratified against fierce Republican opposition, and it provided for a 22-year turnover transition during which time there would be a hybrid administration of the Canal Zone. By 1989, this resulted in a dizzying checkerboard of U.S. and Panama Defense Force (PDF) military installations interspersed next to and co-located with each other across the isthmus. The U.S. reserved the treaty right to intervene militarily to protect the canal.
The agreement, however, was predicated upon the assumption of good relations between the signatories, a dubious proposition even under the nationalist but pragmatic Panamanian regime of Omar Torrijos. When the cartoonishly duplicitous Manuel Noriega assumed de facto power in Panama after Torrijos’ death in 1981, he initially leveraged support for Reagan’s policies in Central America to mask his growing ties with drug cartels and other adversaries. This awkward fling ended, when Noriega’s 1987 indictment on federal drug charges ushered in a hostile turn in relations.
#1
Forever war? Continental American expansion 1792-1890s in endless wars on the frontier, continuing further west (or east) on to the Philippines through 1910. That is the real history of mankind. From those cultures that kept records, there has only been something around 200 years of peace in this world. There is always something going on somewhere on the planet.
#2
Noriega ran drugs for the CIA. the ones that created the crack cocaine epidemic that destroyed our inner cities and the black family along with it.
He was OURGUY[tm].
No convictions were made and nobody went to prison.
Except Noriega, of course.
A big win for the deep state here. All objectives fulfilled.
[PJMedia] If you haven’t seen the video, it’s absolutely worth watching, because in a (slightly) different timeline — i.e. Biden’s presidential debate with Trump was scheduled closer to November (or canceled altogether) — and the Democrats were capable of keeping those 2020 COVID-era voting restrictions — there’s at least a 45% chance Joe Biden would’ve won a second term.
Seriously. Had he not been unmasked on national TV as an invalid, it’s revisionist history to assume that Biden was a no-hoper. Even after humiliating himself in his one and only debate (“We finally beat Medicare!”), he had a 58% approval rating after dropping out of the race, and trailed Trump by just one point (47% to 46%).
Donald Trump wasn’t the only one who dodged a bullet in 2024: our whole country did.
Because there’s just no way Joe Biden could’ve handled the rigors of the presidency for another term. He couldn’t even handle the yapping yentas on “The View”:
It was sad. At the 22:58 mark, Biden lacked the cognitive abilities to answer a question about his lack of cognitive abilities. So he rambled. And by the end of his rambling, disjointed response, it’s pretty clear he had forgotten what the original question was, so his wife jumped in and answered for him.
The contrast between the steady clarity of “Doctor” Jill Biden’s voice — and the ex-president’s raspy, meandering performance — was considerable. For all of Joe Biden’s shortcomings and limitations, there was a time when he was an above-average public speaker. He was never on-par with someone such as Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama, but he built his brand by looking, sounding, and playing the part of a liberal’s idea of a working-class hero.
That time is over. At this point, trotting him out on the public stage is borderline elder abuse.
The Dems' base isn’t just angry; they’re frickin’ apoplectic. We’re talking Worldbreaker Hulk levels of rage.
The Democrat who taps into this anger and becomes its “emotional avatar” will capture the heart of the party.
And that’s what was so intriguing about Joe Biden’s mental meltdown on “The View”: potentially, a brand-new star was born!
Unquestionably, liberal voters greatly preferred the Biden years to either Trump I or Trump II. Liberal longing will grow as Trump’s second term continues; absence, after all, makes the heart grow fonder. But it’s already at a fever-pitch: they’d sell their grandma to the Cossacks to return to the Biden days!
Question: If Biden is perceived as being a brain-dead, semi-animated automaton, who, then, deserved credit for all those wonderful successes? Who was actually running the show?
Answer: “Doctor” Jill Biden.
She’s still in her early 70s — which makes her a neophyte amongst her party’s geriatric giants, i.e. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Steny Hoyer, and Bernie Sanders.
By the way, she’s also a woman. That matters in the Democratic Party, because “personal identity” carries an outsized impact. She’s also a teacher; a profession liberals love and respect.
Her “caretaker role” makes her sympathetic — even to traditional voters. We all know spouses who care for their elderly, infirm partners. It’s heartbreaking. None of us know what goes on between the Bidens behind closed doors, but after nearly 50 years of marriage, most Americans would assume she’s a loyal, loving, compassionate spouse.
In the minds of liberals, those qualities would contrast quite splendidly against the mercurial madness of MAGA.
The biggest weakness of “Doctor” Jill Biden is her lack of experience, because she’s never held an elected office on her own. No matter: If she’s credited for being the “power behind the throne” during the Biden years, then clearly, she already has all the presidential experience she needs.
Potentially, she could offer a powerful message to liberals: if you long for the sanity and successes of the Biden administration, then “Doctor” Jill Biden is the perfect candidate.
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To liberal ears, it’s a compelling pitch: all the stuff we liked about Biden, but none of that pesky senility.
Joe Biden has aged out; Hunter Biden simply isn’t electable. If the Biden family needs a new acolyte — someone who keeps those donor dollars rolling in — Jill Biden is its best choice.
Don’t dismiss the personal profit motive. This is the Biden family we’re talking about!
If “Doctor” Jill Biden writes a memoir next year and goes on a book tour to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, pay close attention. It could be the beginning of a far larger story.
#1
So sick of political dynasties. They have no place in our Republic.
The breath of fresh air that was Trump was that he wasn't named Bush, Clinton or Kennedy.
Remember that in 2016 the GOP's preferred candidate was Jeb Bush and they were perfectly happy to run him and lose to Hillary.
they get called the Uniparty for a reason.
Trump cast out the Jeb/neocon/McCain wing out of the GOP and they have been hopping mad ever since.
[ZeroHedge] The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said on May 7 that it has canceled about half a million “unneeded” credit cards used by federal agencies.
In a post on social media platform X, DOGE wrote that over the past 10 weeks, its program to audit “unused” or “unneeded” credit cards has been expanded to 32 federal agencies.
DOGE, led by tech billionaire and Trump administration adviser Elon Musk, said that more than 500,000 agency credit cards were deactivated in that time period, out of roughly 4.6 million active cards and accounts used by the government.
“So, still more work to do,” the organization wrote in the post, which included a screenshot of a spreadsheet showing the canceled agency cards.
The spreadsheet showing what cards were canceled included ones used by the Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, Labor Department, Small Business Association, Treasury Department, Commerce Department, Interior Department, Education Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Housing and Urban Development Department, Defense Department, Health and Human Services Department, State Department, and others.
The May 7 statement means that DOGE has canceled another 30,000 credit cards used by agencies since mid-April, when it provided the last update on the effort.
At the time, Musk reposted DOGE’s comment and claimed that “twice as many credit cards are issued and active than the total number of government employees.”
DOGE’s website says that it has saved about $165 billion, or $1,000 per taxpayer, since it was established through an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January.
Days before that, top congressional Democrats alleged that DOGE, the Trump administration, and Musk were holding up some $430 billion in funds that they said were appropriated by Congress.
Trump’s drive to downsize and reshape the federal government has already led to the dismantling of entire agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
DOGE has been a major part of that effort, and the White House has said it is responsible for tackling what it calls fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government, while streamlining operations.
The government overhaul has led to numerous lawsuits seeking to block the Trump administration and DOGE from proceeding with some of the planned dismissals and other activities.
Musk’s government tenure is nearing its end. As a special government employee, the Tesla CEO is allowed only 130 days to work before he must depart.
Musk told Tesla investors last week that he would be stepping away from DOGE and the Trump administration in May. However, he said he would still be involved in some capacity to ensure that DOGE’s cuts remain intact. In its quarterly report released on April 23, Tesla posted lower-than-anticipated profits due to a variety of factors.
Musk told Trump at a Cabinet meeting on April 30 that it had been “an honor“ to work with his ”incredible Cabinet” and with Trump himself.
“A tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first 100 days,” Musk said. “As everyone has said, it’s more than has been accomplished in any administration before. Ever. So this portends very well for what happens, for the rest of the administration.”
[ZeroHedge] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning to roll out artificial intelligence across the agency following a successful pilot program.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary has directed all FDA centers to immediately start using artificial intelligence (AI) and fully integrate it by the end of June, the FDA said in a May 8 statement.
By June 30, all centers will use what the agency described as a “common, secure generative AI system integrated with FDA’s internal data platforms.”
“I was blown away by the success of our first AI-assisted scientific review pilot,“ Makary said in a statement. ”We need to value our scientists’ time and reduce the amount of non-productive busywork that has historically consumed much of the review process. The agency-wide deployment of these capabilities holds tremendous promise in accelerating the review time for new therapies.”
AI refers to computer systems that can carry out complex tasks typically performed by humans.
“AI can be generally described as a branch of computer science, statistics, and engineering that uses algorithms or models to perform tasks and exhibit behaviors such as learning, making decisions, and making predictions,” FDA officials said in 2023.
Makary said on Thursday that past years have featured discussions on utilizing AI and that it’s time to start using it to save time, with some tasks that once took days now taking mere minutes.
“We at the FDA now have to ask big questions that we’ve never asked before. Why does it take over 10 years for a new drug to come to market? Why are we not modernized with AI and other things? We’ve just completed our first AI-assisted scientific review for a product and that’s just the beginning,” he said earlier in the week on social media platform X.
The rollout across the FDA is being coordinated by Jeremy Walsh, Booz Allen Hamilton’s former chief technologist, who was recently appointed as the agency’s chief AI officer, and Sridhar Mantha, who previously led the Office of Business Informatics at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
President Donald Trump has encouraged agencies to adopt wider use of AI, including through an executive order that said it is U.S. policy to “sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”
An April memorandum from the White House said that agencies “must adopt a forward-leaning and pro-innovation approach that takes advantage of this technology to help shape the future of government operations.”
The FDA had previously expressed concern that AI contains bias that may “worsen inequalities in health care delivery,” while also saying AI could speed up review of drug applications to bring quicker timelines for making drugs available to patients.
[ZeroHedge] The Trump administration is being sued by a coalition of 16 states and the District of Columbia over claims it is withholding billions of dollars in funding approved by Congress to build electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, according to a federal lawsuit announced on April 7.
The lawsuit is led by attorneys general from California, Colorado, and Washington and was filed in the District Court for the Western District of Washington.
It centers on the $5 billion in funding allocated under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program in 2022 to facilitate electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the states.
As Katabella Roberts reports for The Epoch Times, that funding was established through the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, amid a push towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and making at least 500,000 publicly available EV chargers in the United States by the end of this decade.
Congress required the $5 billion funding to be distributed among the states over fiscal years 2022 through 2026.
So far, an estimated $3.3 billion had already been made available, according to the lawsuit.
Shortly after taking office in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy,” in which he directed federal agencies to “immediately pause” all funds appropriated via the Infrastructure Law, including the funds allocated for EV charging stations made available through the NEVI program.
The order stated that America is “blessed with an abundance of energy and natural resources that have historically powered our Nation’s economic prosperity,” but that, in recent years, “burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations” have impeded the development of those resources, while also limiting the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reducing job creation, and increasing energy costs.
Following Trump’s directive, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), an agency under the Department of Transportation (DOT), announced it was suspending the commitment of funds under the NEVI program and rescinded approval of state plans, pending a review.
The lawsuit challenges the FHWA’s authority to terminate the funding and claims its actions deprive the states of billions of dollars in appropriated funds and violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the Separation of Powers Doctrine, and the Take Care Clause, among others.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare Trump’s directives unlawful, to vacate the administration’s actions, and permanently stop it from withholding the funds.
Department of Transportation and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Federal Highway Administration Administrator Gloria Shepherd are listed as defendants.
In a statement announcing the suit, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta said the administration’s decision “will devastate the ability of states to build the charging infrastructure necessary for making EVs accessible to more consumers, combating climate change, reducing other harmful pollution, and supporting the states’ green economies.”
#5
several $ billions have been allocated but the amount of actual federal $ reimbursing completed work is much less (I can't figure out how much less)
as of January 2025, there were about 300 chargers operational at about 60 stations; a lot of other projects were in various stages of project development with project agreements already signed and funds obligated and to be paid upon completed work
a poorly thought out program but not as dire as the 7 stations for $7B
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/11/2025 18:21
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[JustTheNews] Snippet: "The new GOP report stressed that “the FBI case file makes clear this case was a premeditated assassination attempt on Republican congressmen by a radical, left-wing political extremist, who was seeking to affect the conduct of our government.”
What about legitimate teachers?
[JustTheNews] Virginia has over 51,000 open cybersecurity positions in 2025, with only 77% of demand currently met—one of the largest workforce gaps in the nation, according to CyberSeek, a federal workforce data tool used by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Over three-quarters of young Americans are ineligible for military service, disqualifying thousands each year who still want to serve — a Virginia-led bill now aims to direct those individuals into civilian defense roles.
In response to gaps in cybersecurity, logistics and disaster response that continue to rise, lawmakers have created the Defense Workforce Integration Act, requiring the Department of Defense to create a formal pathway within one year for medically disqualified applicants to access civilian national security jobs.
A companion version has also been introduced in the Senate.
House Bill 3241, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggan, R-Va., also mandates coordination with defense contractors, federal agencies and academic institutions to help fill critical workforce gaps.
"Every year, tens of thousands of young Americans are turned away from military service – not because they aren't willing to serve, but because of medical disqualifications that may have no bearing on their ability to contribute," said Kiggans.
She continued, "This bipartisan, bicameral bill strengthens our workforce, preserves talent, and reinforces our commitment to the defense industrial base at a time when global threats are growing by the day."
Virginia has over 51,000 open cybersecurity positions in 2025, with only 77% of demand currently met—one of the largest workforce gaps in the nation, according to CyberSeek, a federal workforce data tool used by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
"Every year, tens of thousands of young Americans who want to serve our country are medically disqualified from military service, leaving too much talent on the sidelines," said Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif. "By opening these new pathways, we can strengthen our defense workforce, bolster our national security, and enhance that American desire to serve."
Panetta's remarks come as military eligibility continues to decline nationwide.
Only two in five young adults meet both weight and physical activity requirements to join the military, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Obesity alone disqualifies about one-third of potential recruits, and the Department of Defense spends over $1.5 billion a year on obesity-related health costs for current and former service members.
The legislation also expands the Air Force's DRIVE program, which stands for Develop, Redistribute, Improve, Vault and Expose, a similar initiative that allows "highly qualified and motivated airmen" medically disqualified from Basic Military Training to continue serving the Air Force through civilian service.
It will also require better coordination with defense contractors and academic institutions and directs the Defense Department to refer medically disqualified applicants to civilian roles in national security.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Three teenagers allegedly kidnapped a wealthy man at gunpoint and drove him to a remote Arizona desert to steal $4 million in cryptocurrency in a sinister plot.
Austin Fletcher and Belal Ashraf, both 16 and from Pasco County, Florida, allegedly teamed up with a third, as-yet-unidentified teenager to target the victim, who has remained anonymous.
Prosecutors said at Fletcher's probable cause hearing on Friday that the third teenager is no longer in the United States. It is not clear if authorities know where they are or if they plan to extradite them.
A juvenile court judge ruled that Ashraf and Fletcher will face charges as adults, including robbery, kidnapping, and extortion.
The horror robbery allegedly unfolded last November when the man told police that he had been forced into a car at gunpoint before being driven to the White Hills area, around an hour outside Las Vegas.
The victim said he had been hosting a cryptocurrency event in downtown Las Vegas that evening, and was ambushed by the three teens when he returned to his apartment complex.
Court records cited by 8NewsNow showed that the teenagers allegedly wrapped a towel around the man's head and 'told him not to look at them', and warned him that 'if he did not comply, they had his dad and would kill him.'
They told him that if he complied and handed over his digital assets, he 'would live to see another day.'
After driving the man out into the desert, the three teens allegedly demanded his banking passwords and threatened to murder him if he refused.
Prosecutors added in their filings that the teenagers appeared to be on the phone with another person during the ordeal, which the victim said he could hear through speakerphone.
When his cryptocurrency accounts were drained, the man was then left out in the Arizona desert as the teens drove off, prosecutors say.
The victim only found safety after walking over five miles through the barren desert until he found a gas station, where he called a friend to pick him up.
According to authorities, the teens were linked to the attack through a vehicle that traveled from Florida to Nevada beforehand, and visited key locations including the victim's apartment.
The vehicle was also reportedly tracked to a stop in Mississippi, where a gun owned by one of the suspect's family members was then seen in a social media post shared by one of the teens, police said.
Court records cited by 8NewsNow showed that the third, unidentified teenage suspect may have gone to high school with Fletcher and Ashraf in Florida and they were involved in 'disturbances' at the school.
In one such instance, the three teens 'were reported as swearing in English and Arabic', and Ashraf was 'observed shoulder checking a school resource officer' and screaming in the face of an assistant principal, records said.
In court this week, a Las Vegas judge set Fletcher's bail at $4 million, rejecting his attorney's request for him to serve house arrest.
This decision came after a different judge allowed Ashraf to be released with electronic monitoring days before.
Fletcher and Ashraf are next due in court in June.
Putin's signature judo
He used his opponent's power and turned him into shovels. They thought that the ultimatum about a 30-day truce was pushing us to the wall. And it turned out that they drove themselves into a corner.
The President of Russia, in fact, broke the whole game of Kiev with one direct initiative: if you want peace, sit at the negotiating table. At least we know these truce of yours since 2014. They were all sabotaged and used to prepare for further combat. Including the last three - energetic, Easterly and victorious.
So let's talk not about a truce, but about peace where we have this conversation. In Istanbul on May 15. That was where the negotiations were interrupted with the British side. Moscow sees the Istanbul agreements as a basis for negotiations, but it is far from the final version of the agreements – everything decides the situation on the ground where we are victorious. And, of course, there is no talk about transferring constitutional Russian lands.
If Kyiv and its sponsors refuse to negotiate or sabotage them, they are depriving themselves of the moral right to talk about the pursuit of peace.
“We are set up for serious negotiations with Ukraine. Their point is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict, to establish a long-term, durable peace from a historical perspective. Our suggestions, so-called, are on the table. The decision is now up to the Ukrainian authorities and their curators," said the President of Russia.
Our next proposal will be even worse for Kiev.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has threatened to 'run right over' staff in his department who resist Donald Trump's agenda.
David Richardson took over as acting chief at FEMA after previous boss Cameron Hamilton was booted from the role a day after criticizing the president's plans to abolish the department.
The incoming head, whose title is Senior Official Performing the Duties of FEMA Administrator, was caught on camera issuing the stark warning during a staff meeting on his first day.
'Don't get in my way,' the former US marine told staffers, according to a recording of the speech obtained by CBS News.
'I don't need the full title I just need the authority from the president,' Richardson continued from behind a presidential-style podium.
'Obfuscation, delay, undermining. If you're one of those 20 percent of the people and you think those tactics and techniques are going to help you, they will not, because I will run right over you. I will achieve the president's intent.
'I, and I alone in FEMA, speak for FEMA,' Richardson said.
FEMA employees later described the speech to CBS as 'unhinged' and 'terrifying'.
Richardson was appointed after Hamilton was fired on Thursday, days after he broke with Trump during a hearing on Capitol Hill over proposals to take a chainsaw to the national disaster relief agency.
'I do not believe it is in the best interests of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,' Hamilton said.
Richardson however took his first meeting with thousands of his new staff as an opportunity to pledge his allegiance to the president.
'I am as bent on achieving the President's intent as I was on making sure that I did my duty, where I took my Marines to Iraq, eleven of them,' Richardson said on the recording, per CBS.
He previously served as a United States Marine Corps ground combat officer and saw action in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa, earning an award for valor in the process.
During the 17-minute speech he told an anecdote about sending a member of the Second Marine Division home from Iraq.
'I had too important of a mission for anybody to undermine me or to make things difficult,' Richardson said.
His first act in office was to issue two memos to staff which he encouraged them to read.
They demand that employees produce reports and data outlining FEMA's readiness for 2025 and any potential weaknesses.
He said his first day would be spent, 'looking at all the laws and statutes that guide FEMA and making sure that we are only doing the things that are within the law.'
'If we're not doing that, we are wasting the American taxpayer dollars,' he said.
The administrator said that a town hall event would be held at a later date where staff can ask questions.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the recordings of the speech, 'sounds like a productive first meeting'.
DailyMail.com has contacted FEMA for comment.
Richardson hails from Waterford, Michigan and was previously appointed as the Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, according to his official biography.
He also taught history at George Washington University, as well as strategy at the US Army Field Artillery School and Marine Corps Martial Arts.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The first video from inside El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison shows newly deported Tren de Aragua-accused migrants hollering from their cells.
The scene unfolded as US representatives toured the facility with the country's president, Nayib Bukele.
Video shows the caged men shouting and screaming as Reps Andy Ogles, Vicente Gonzalez, Anna Paulina Luna as well as former congressman Matt Gaetz made their way through.
'I saw evil today. I will never forget it,' Luna said of her visit. 'I heard a story of a MS-13 admitting to watching an infant being murdered.
'I watched and listened to another member of MS-13 admit to murdering over 50 people.
'I saw murderers. Recruited as young boys and as boys their souls and humanity was crushed. Forcing them to commit murder as a way of blooding in.
'The Dems in congress advocating for this need to STOP. Some of these MEN were illegally in MD, MA, VA, TX, etc. multiple times deported.'
Other footage showed her sampling a typical meal given to the inmates - burgers and fries.
CECOT houses some of El Salvador's most hardened criminals and has a capacity for 40,000 inmates.
The prison in Tecoluca, which opened in 2023, is a sprawling complex and a symbol of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's harsh crackdown on gang violence.
Buekele struck a $6 million deal with the US to house accused migrants in the prison, which is known as a 'black hole of human rights'.
For the strongman president of El Salvador the deal with the US is an opportunity to show the world the brutal efficacy of his repressive 'State of Exception' regime - an excess of the growing autocratic trend turning its back on liberal democracy.
At least 363 people have died in Salvadoran prisons since the policy came into effect, prisoner rights group Cristosal told MailOnline, citing 'horrific overcrowding, disease, systematic denial of food, clothing medicine, and basic hygiene'.
The jewel in the crown, CECOT has been heralded by Bukele as a superweapon in the war on gang violence.
Confined to cells of 70 for all but 30 minutes a day, prisoners are held in dire conditions, forbidden from going outside or having visitors, and are made to sleep on steel cots without mattresses in cramped conditions.
It has recently become home to hundreds of alleged Tren de Aragua members who had been residing in the US.
They were deported as part of the president's immigration crackdown.
Between February and March, 13,300 migrants were deported, according to NBC's tracker.
The policy has caused some backlash after some of the migrants removed to El Salvador claimed they had been falsely accused.
Testimony emerged about migrants being rounded up on the basis of sporting tattoos similar to those adopted by the prison gang or other flimsy so-called evidence.
The deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who has been in the states since 2011, caused a huge controversy after the Department of Homeland Security admitted he had been deported in error.
Garcia has no criminal convictions in the US or in El Salvador and strongly refutes the allegation that he is part of Tren de Aragua.
An immigration judge had also previously ruled that he could not be sent home due to persecution by the gang.
But Trump officials have refused to back down even as the highest courts in the country ordered his return to the US.
The president raised more eyebrows this week when he unveiled plans to suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right of a person to challenge their detention in court, as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown.
'The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,' White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters.
'So it's an option we're actively looking at,' Miller said. 'A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.'
Federal judges have so far been skeptical of the Trump administration's past efforts to use extraordinary powers to make deportations easier.
Trump argued in March that the U.S. was facing an 'invasion' of Venezuelan gang members and evoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority he has tried to use to speed up mass deportations.
Federal courts around the country, including in New York, Colorado, Texas and Pennsylvania, have since blocked the administration's uses of the Alien Enemies Act for many reasons, including amid questions about whether the country is truly facing an invasion.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
05/11/2025
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#1
Gotta love when a VIP visits your prison. You get a decent meal for once.
#2
These scumbag can rot in CECOT for all I care, but I'm getting a wee bit tired of the photo ops and PR these US politicians are pulling, starting with Kristi Noem.
#3
Every time one of these stories come out, whether about that prison, about an unhappy arrest, about Democrat hysterics, it’s another reminder to our illegals that the zeitgeist has changed, another point on the scale tipping toward self-deportation.
Because we cannot deport fast enough to clear out the millions — it has to be a choice by the illegal immigrants to leave. We saw something similar after 9/11: as the deadline approached to President George W. Bush’s requirement that all adult male Moslem immigrants register to show they were in the country legally, entire families liquidated and left, whether going back home or up north to Canada. And it was more than just those who had overstayed student and tourist visas, but even those here legally — they didn’t want to endure the scrutiny to ensure they were not connected to Al Qaeda and other jihadi groups. That’s the main reason we’ve had so few serious mass jihad attacks, unlike in Europe — most who would have done such things left, and the remainder have been keeping their heads down, despite nasty talk among themselves.
[FoxNews] A French startup named Robeauté has just raised about $29 million to develop a truly groundbreaking neurosurgical microrobot.
Imagine a device no bigger than a grain of rice that can carefully navigate the complex and delicate pathways of the brain.
This little robot could change the way doctors treat brain tumors and other neurological conditions, making surgeries safer and more precise than ever before.
[FoxNews] Among the most dangerous jobs that any American can do is guarding prisons, and among the hardest prisons to guard are facilities that hold members of foreign gangs like MS-13. Yet, for some idiotic reason, the mayor of Newark, N.J., and three members of Congress, all Democrats, decided to make that job even more dangerous on Friday.
At the Delaney Hall ICE facility in Newark, these so-called leaders didn’t just stage a protest, they illegally trespassed on a federal detention facility, pulling its guards away from normal duties and forcing the photo-op arrest of the mayor.
U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba described the desperate grandstanding on X shortly after the incident.
"The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon," Habba wrote. "He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW."
This hapless foursome of Garden State windbags consisted of hizzoner, as well House of Representative members Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver, and Rob Menendez, Jr.
If that last name sounds familiar it is because his father, Robert Menendez Sr., is the disgraced ex-senator recently convicted of taking bribes, including gold bars from foreign governments. Maybe Menedez the Younger was just practicing visiting his dad behind iron bars.
In any event, these four blustering blowhards waited for a bus to enter the facility and ran in behind the bus, in clear violation of federal laws. They were told to leave and refused.
Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested during the despicable display, something he almost certainly planned to happen. Did I mention he’s running for governor? And Democrats from across the country decried his detention as another example of Trumpian authoritarianism.
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, a Democrat, of course, rushed to his peer's defense.
"Regardless of your views on ICE, the law is the law and any facility operating in a New Jersey municipality must follow it," said Fulop, who is also running for governor. "If Delaney Hall doesn’t have proper local authorization, Mayor Baraka had every reason to be there, and every right to demand accountability."
But what did Baraka think was going to happen when he illegally and stupidly tried to break into prison? There are countless ways that Baraka and the lawmakers could have exerted oversight without inviting criminal chaos.
Where was this outpouring of moral outrage when former President Biden was letting illegal migrants pour into the country and murder innocent people?
What is most shameful here is the utter disregard these public servants had for the law enforcement officials who had to referee their little parade.
Last week in Charleston, West Va., I spoke to a police officer who trains others and asked how the deportations impact their job.
"There is no such thing as a low-risk encounter," he said. "There is only high risk and unknown risk," and, of course, the possibility that a suspect might have a deportation order makes every stop potentially more dangerous.
The point here is that while these Democrat doofuses were enjoying their made-for-TV moment, law enforcement at the facility were forced to face a new challenge to their already demanding jobs.
These officers had no idea if anyone in the assembled crowd might be armed, if others might use the farcical distraction caused by these politicians to rush the facility, or if those inside might take the opportunity to make mayhem.
In other words, it was an unknown risk.
Indeed, as the White House was quick to point out, this facility holds murderers and rapists, the worst of the worst, but somehow, through the slow-working moral poison of leftism, these elected officials are convinced the criminals are the victims.
[FoxBusiness] Google will pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle a lawsuit claiming the company collected users' data without permission, according to state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton said the settlement sends a message to tech companies that he will not allow them to profit off "selling away our rights and freedoms." He also said the agreement "is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust."
"In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law," Paxton said in a statement. "For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won."
This is the largest amount won by any state in a settlement with Google over similar data-privacy violations, Paxton said.
The agreement settles several claims Texas made against Google in a 2022 lawsuit over geolocation, incognito searches and biometric data. The state argued Google was unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data.
Paxton claimed the tech giant collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, through applications like Google Photos and Google Assistant.
Google said the agreement settles various "old claims," including some related to product policies the company has already changed. The company said the settlement does not require any additional product changes.
"We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services," Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement to The Texas Tribune.
Texas had previously reached two other settlements with Google within the last two years, including in December 2023 when the company agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store.
Last year, Meta agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over claims that the company used facial recognition software without users' consent. The "tag suggestions" feature was specifically cited in the suit, as Facebook would run photos uploaded to the website through its facial recognition software and suggested people to tag in photos.
#3
OBTW:
The USA has about 1,680 miles of coastline in the Gulf.
Mexico has about 1,740 miles of Gulf coastline.
The US has FAR more population and infrastructure along its Gulf coastline than Mexico.
Then there is the Exclusive economic zone (EEZ) versus territorial sea argument.
USA wins here. USA 40% vs Mexico 38% and the remaining 12% belongs to Cuba.
Then there is the Continental Shelf argument, and the US wins again.
The other argument is: Draw a line from the tip on TX to the Tip of Key West Fla.
Distance: 964.12 mi (1,551.59 km)
Vs
Mexico's Faro Bagdad Lighthouse to Cancun
Distance: 703.37 mi (1,131.96 km)
Why not have both a Gulf of the USA and Gulf of Mexico?
[FoxNews] Lieberman is an Army medic, assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg
Army Sgt. Brian Lieberman, 22, said he was "just doing his job" when he saved the life of a 14-year-old girl in the middle of a shooting at his apartment complex. But the United States Army believes Lieberman is an American hero, meriting the Soldier's Medal.
Lieberman, an Army medic, is assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The Soldier's Medal, a prestigious award since its inception in 1926, is presented to those deemed heroic through "clearly recognizable personal hazard or danger and the voluntary risk of life."
It is not enough to simply have been a "good Samaritan" or to save a life. Rather, a recipient must act without hesitation to put his or her own life on the line.
On June 5, 2023, a gunman attacked the Carrington Place apartment complex in North Carolina, shooting a teenage girl in the back. Army training instincts kicked in, and Lieberman rushed into the line of fire.
"I looked out my window with my roommate and we heard people screaming and saw people running around by my complex pool, at which point I grabbed my weapon and ran out my front door while my roommate dialed 911," Lieberman said to Fox News Digital.
"As I got downstairs, I approached a group of people and I threw my hands up and stated that I am an army medic and they pointed to an individual that was lying in the street. I was only able to locate a single gunshot wound to her lower back."
After discovering the wound, Lieberman began using his combat medic expertise to treat the victim, including using grocery bags as a makeshift seal. At that point, the gunman returned.
"The shooter's vehicle drove past us again, and my roommate yelled at me to get down. I threw myself over the girl while the shooters drove by [and] shot at us again, and then that was when I pulled my weapon out to return fire into the suspect's vehicle."
Lieberman then continued seeing to the young victim's wounds until medical personnel arrived on-scene. The victim survived thanks to the heroic actions of Sgt Lieberman that day.
The 22-year-old sergeant was awarded the Solider's Medal on Tuesday at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for his heroism and selflessness that day.
But Lieberman's humble, sacrificial nature didn't start in the Army. For him, he thanks his upbringing for his call to service.
"It all started at home," said Lieberman. "My mom is currently still a nurse and has been for well over 30 years now and my father was a paramedic and a police officer for [a] combined 30 years as well… I just grew up seeing my parents always go above and beyond, always stop[ping] to help someone in need, no matter where they were, what we were doing."
An Army citation reads, "Specialist Lieberman’s bravery and willingness to risk his life to protect others is in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, the 82d Airborne Division, and the United States Army."
In truly humble fashion, Lieberman credits others for his brave actions that day.
"I would have not gotten this award if it wasn't for my roommate in that scenario… But if it wasn't for him that day, I would not be in the situation that I am in now," said Lieberman. "I feel like he didn't get much recognition that he deserves and I feel like he should be sitting right here next to me in this interview and in every single interview."
"Because he brought me my medical bag, he brought me all the rags that I used to clean up her blood… So he might not have pulled the trigger that day, but he 110% was the reason that I was so successful that day in helping that girl."
[FoxNews] New footage posted to X appears to show Rep. LaMoncia McIver barreling through ICE officials at prison gate
A trio of U.S. House Democrats from New Jersey whose visit to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center went off the rails Friday and devolved into a scuffle with federal agents could face arrest, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Lawmakers LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez allegedly stormed the Delaney Hall Detention Center, along with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested and charged with trespassing. Authorities claim an ICE agent was assaulted in the confrontation, which was caught on camera.
"If it was a typical U.S. citizen, and they tried to storm into a detention facility that's housing dangerous criminals or any person at all, they would be arrested," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told "Fox News Live" host Kevin Corke Saturday. "Just because you are a member of Congress or just because you're a public official, does not mean you are above the law.
"If you assault a law enforcement officer, we will also make sure you answer to justice," she added. "So, I think that arrests are still on the table for this. This is an ongoing investigation."
DHS reportedly has body camera footage of Congress members assaulting ICE officers, "including body-slamming a female ICE officer," Axios reported.
A group of protesters, including the lawmakers, stormed the detention center as a bus of detainees was entering the security gate, according to a news release from DHS.
After the incident, McIver wrote in an X post that ICE "shoved" her and "manhandled" Watson Coleman.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
05/11/2025
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[Breitbart] Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has called for a “halt” to immigration, arguing that the mass importation of foreigners “devalues” Britain.
The open borders agenda embarked upon by both Westminster establishment parties, having begun under Tony Blair and brought to record heights by Boris Johnson, has been a boon to big corporations to bing down the cost of labour but has come at the cost of social cohesion and the British way of life, Nigel Farage has said.
“Many of those that have come in the last 20 years do not share our values,” he told The Express. “And so in a sense, we become a little bit less British every day. And I do view that as being a problem.”
“We have to call a halt. A 10 million rise in the last 20 years has devalued the quality of life for everybody, damaged us culturally, broken up our communities, broken up our sense of patriotism, and belief. And you know what? Not everything is about big business employers.”
This week, laying out his Reform UK party’s agenda in the Daily Mail, Farage said they would seek to put a “freeze” on immigration with the goal of “zero per cent population increase through immigration.”
The party would also leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which the UK is still a member of despite Brexit, as it is technically separate from the EU. The ECHR has frequently been used to block the deportations of illegal aliens, migrant criminals, and even terrorists from the UK.
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Illegal migration over the English Channel has soared to record highs, with over 11,500 having reached British shores from the beaches of France, the highest level for this time of the year since the crisis began.
This comes despite Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer vowing to “smash the gangs” and bring the migrant crisis to an end during last year’s general election.
Meanwhile, a report from the Times of London suggested that the government’s projections on a decline in legal immigration were vastly underestimated and that the UK will likely see a net migration (the number allowed in minus the number who left) of around 525,000 per year from 2028 onwards, or a city the size of Edinburgh added to the country every year.
This represented nearly 200,000 more than the government had expected annually. According to the report, the post-Brexit immigration system pushed through under Boris Johnson has resulted in more non-EU migrants, who are more likely to remain in the country than European migrants.
The failure of both Labour and the Conservatives to stem mass migration has led to soaring popularity for Farage’s Reform party, which is coming off of a historic victory in the local England elections earlier this month.
The latest survey from Find Out Now, found that Reform currently stands at 33 per cent support, compared to 20 per cent for Labour and 16 per cent for the Conservatives. If the poll were to be reflected in a general election, Reform would secure 365 seats in the House of Commons, with a majority of 80, meaning that the Farage party is on pace to become the next government in 2029.
[Breitbart] Several thousand people demonstrated in Warsaw on Saturday against illegal immigration and the pro-European government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a week before the EU member chooses a new president.
The protest, organised by the nationalist opposition, drew demonstrators from across Poland, who carried the red and white national flag and chanted slogans such as “no to immigration”.
Immigration is a central issue in the central European country ahead of the May 18 election.
Poland currently hosts around one million refugees from the war in neighbouring Ukraine, and has accused Russia and Belarus of orchestrating a wave of immigration into the European Union member.
The protesters made their way towards the seat of government in central Warsaw, chanting the name of nationalist presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki.
The 42-year-old fan of US President Donald Trump has the backing of the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party and outgoing President Andrzej Duda.
He is polling second in the presidential race, with around 25 percent support.
The frontrunner, Warsaw’s pro-European Union Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, has the support of Tusk’s Civic Coalition and is polling on 32 percent.
“Poland has to defend itself against illegal immigration. These migrants have their own countries. They should stay there,” 66-year-old farmer Boguslaw Uchmanowicz told AFP.
[Breitbart] Ed Martin has a message for the forces who blocked his nomination for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia: Be careful what you wish for.
A group of establishment senators, led by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), blocked President Donald Trump’s nomination of Ed Martin for U.S. Attorney (USA) for the District of Columbia – an incredibly powerful post with a crucial role in Trump’s America First Agenda.
But don’t cry for Martin. Trump has appointed him to a powerful new role within the Department of Justice, which he detailed on Breitbart News Saturday with host Matt Boyle.
“It’s classic Donald Trump, right? That somebody tries to block him and block his pick, and he decides to double down,” Martin told Boyle. “This is probably the greatest job I could ever envision.”
Trump announced Martin’s new role in a Truth Social post Thursday:
Ed
Martin has done an AMAZING job as interim U.S. Attorney, and will be moving to the Department of Justice as the new Director of the Weaponization Working Group, Associate Deputy Attorney General, and Pardon Attorney. In these highly important roles, Ed will make sure we finally investigate the Weaponization of our Government under the Biden Regime, and provide much needed Justice for its victims. Congratulations Ed!
Martin is not wasting time.
“Attorney General Bondi gave us marching orders when she got in, and we have a working group that’s already been meeting,” Martin told Boyle, saying the group “is already overwhelmed with the amount of work to do. There’s no limit to what the Biden administration was doing.”
Investigating the weaponization of government and serving as pardon attorney to aid those harmed by the weaponization fit together perfectly, Martin believes.
“We saw the government used against the citizens. One of the things we have to do is get the citizens back to where they should be, and that’s going to include some people that need pardons, right?” he told Boyle, singling out those targeted on January 6, pro-life advocates, and law enforcement officers as some of those targeted by weaponization.
Trump installed Martin as interim USA for DC to jump-start the work of the crucial office. USA offices usually take time to build momentum in new administrations, Martin explained.
“From the beginning, classic President Trump, he has a vision, right?” Martin explained. “In Washington, DC, you couldn’t do what we usually do. What you usually do is you nominate a US attorney, and it takes three or four or five or six months, and the first three or four or five or six months, you’ve got an acting – someone who’s not invested … President Trump put me in on day one and said, ‘Go and fight today and fight like hell, so that we can make this thing work,’ and then, if I get confirmed, fine, if you don’t get confirmed, well, we’ll keep working on other stuff.”
Despite Tillis torpedoing Trump’s pick, Martin is proud of the “monstrous success” in reorienting the office in a short time, rare for an interim USA.
“After all the politicization of the office, we turn to fighting crime – 25% drop in crime in 100 days, that’s what we did,” Martin said.
He has confidence his replacement as interim USA for D.C. will continue his work.
“Be careful what you hope for guys, because Judge Jeanine Pirro is my replacement, and I don’t know if you’ve ever met her – she’s smart as hell, she’s tough as hell, and she’s not at the point in her career where she needs anybody’s approval,” Martin said, touting her desire and ability to continue the office’s new direction with the same fervency.
Boyle pointed out that much of the “weaponization and the rot, the politicization at the Department of Justice really goes back even further than the Biden administration” – particularly to Barack Obama’s administration, and asserted that Martin has his work cut out for him in his new role.
Crossfire Hurricane documents are finally being revealed, Martin said. And he is turning his attention to Russiagate as well, insisting Americans should know “why and how in our national intelligence classification system, [we] allow 51 intelligence officers to sign a lie.”
But that’s the tip of the iceberg, with Martin praising Bondi for her work so far with the Herculean tasks of investigating the countless issues of weaponization.
“We’ve seen athletes being targeted. Pro-life being targeted. Jack Smith being out of control. January 6, being destructive on citizens,” he ticked off. “We have a list that we were charged with from Attorney General Bondi that we’re working through now. The list is going to expand, because the president knows, like I do, that weaponization didn’t stop with any single list.”
Martin will pursue the evidence wherever it takes him in his pursuit of truth.
“We’ve got to get to the weaponization everywhere it is,” he said, promising to pursue “the truth, complete exposure – not spin, not Liz Cheney, select committee of propaganda. Total truth.”
He’s locked in on holding accountable those taking part in the government’s role in the COVID conspiracy too.
“I’ve been working already in my office with Bobby Kennedy on COVID,” Martin told Boyle. “There were so many lies told to us on COVID. And again, we’re going to get the truth out, and we’re going to find out who did what, when. And look, Fauci was pardoned, but not everybody around Fauci was pardoned. So we’re going to see who did what, and we’re going to, again, tell the truth, get it out there, hold them accountable, and then help people that were damaged to heal and get pardoned if they need to.”
[HotAir] UCLA's medical school is being sued for racial discrimination in admissions. The class action lawsuit was filed Thursday.
A federal class-action lawsuit accuses UCLA’s medical school and various university officials of using race as a factor in admissions, despite a state law and Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in California’s Central District federal court, was brought by the activist group Do No Harm, founded in 2022 to fight affirmative action in medicine; Students for Fair Admissions, the nonprofit that won its suit at the Supreme Court against Harvard’s affirmative action program; and Kelly Mahoney, a college graduate who was rejected from UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.
According to the lawsuit, the legal action was being taken to stop the medical school and UCLA officials from allegedly “engaging in intentional discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity in the admissions process.”
This story really began last year when the Washington Free Beacon reported that dean of admissions at the medical school, Jennifer Lucero, was putting race above merit in admissions decisions. She allegedly shouted at her own team when one of them questioned whether a black candidate with subpar test scores was qualified.
...when it came time for the admissions committee to consider one such student in November 2021—a black applicant with grades and test scores far below the UCLA average—some members of the committee felt that this particular candidate, based on the available evidence, was not the best fit for the top-tier medical school, according to two people present for the committee's meeting...Jennifer Lucero, exploded in anger.
"Did you not know African-American women are dying at a higher rate than everybody else?" Lucero asked the admissions officer, these people said. The candidate's scores shouldn't matter, she continued, because "we need people like this in the medical school."
State law made affirmative action in admissions illegal in California since 1996, long before it was overturned nationwide by the Supreme Court. So this sort of thing is not supposed to happen. And yet it allegedly was under Lucero's leadership which began in 2020. The results of setting aside merit standards were not good for the school.
Within three years of Lucero's hiring in 2020, UCLA dropped from 6th to 18th place in U.S. News & World Report's rankings for medical research. And in some of the cohorts she admitted, more than 50 percent of students failed standardized tests on emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics...
One professor said that a student in the operating room could not identify a major artery when asked, then berated the professor for putting her on the spot. Another said that students at the end of their clinical rotations don't know basic lab tests and, in some cases, are unable to present patients...
Led by Lucero, who also serves as the vice chair for equity, diversity, and inclusion of UCLA's anesthesiology department, the admissions committee routinely gives black and Latino applicants a pass for subpar metrics, four people who served on it said, while whites and Asians need near perfect scores to even be considered.
The bar for underrepresented minorities is "as low as you could possibly imagine," one committee member told the Free Beacon. "It completely disregards grades and achievements."
What UCLA's medical school was doing should have been flatly illegal but the story went on to say that Lucero rarely referred directly to race and instead used proxies including zip codes to achieve the same results.
That story was published last May. In March of this year, HHS announced it was launching an investigation.
HHS’s Office of Civil Rights will investigate whether the school’s admissions office, led by anesthesiologist Jennifer Lucero, holds black and Hispanic applicants to a lower academic standard than white and Asian applicants, according to a source familiar with the investigation. California law has banned racial preferences in university admissions for nearly three decades, and the Supreme Court followed suit in 2023...
"HHS will not tolerate informal admissions practices and institutional policies that promote racial discrimination at HHS-funded institutions," the agency told the Free Beacon. "This investigation reflects the Administration’s commitment to honor the hard work, excellence, and individual achievement of all students and not just those of particular racial backgrounds."
Earlier this week, just two days before the lawsuit was filed, the WFB published a follow-up suggesting racial discrimination was still taking place.
On April 8, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, the medical school circulated a memo that outlined "guiding principles for student representation on the admissions committee," which includes third- and fourth-year medical students as well as faculty members. Those guidelines require the committee to consider race when picking students to serve as admissions officers.
"The Chairs of the [admissions committee] will review all submitted recommendations to ensure representation from those who identify as BIPOC and LGBTQ+," the memo reads, according to a screenshot obtained by the Washington Free Beacon...
Lawyers who reviewed the guidelines said they were patently illegal and would be exhibit A in any kind of enforcement action against the medical school.
"Putting in writing, while under federal investigation for discrimination, that your faculty will ‘review’ the proposed slate of students included in a program ‘to ensure representation from those who identify as BIPOC and LBGTQ+’ is astonishingly brazen," said Dan Morenoff, the executive director of the American Civil Rights Project. "You have to wonder how it’s possible for no one either in the administration or with its outside counsel to even roughly read either the law or the room."
[IsraelTimes] Islamic Republic’s top diplomat strikes defiant tone after Witkoff said Tehran must dismantle uranium enrichment sites, with new round of negotiations set for Sunday in Oman
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that if the United States’ goal was to deprive 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... of its "nuclear rights," Tehran would never back down on that front.
Araghchi was speaking in Doha a day ahead of another round of planned nuclear talks between Iran and the US in Oman.
"If the goal of the negotiations is to deprive Iran of its nuclear rights, I state clearly that Iran will not back down from any of its rights," state media quoted Araghchi as saying.
Iran has repeatedly said its right to enrich uranium is non-negotiable and has ruled out a "zero enrichment" demand by some US officials.
But US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... ’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said in an interview on Friday that Iran’s "enrichment facilities have to be dismantled" under any accord with the United States.
Trump, who withdrew Washington from a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers meant to curb its nuclear activity, has threatened to bomb Iran if no new deal is reached to resolve the long-unresolved dispute.
Western countries say Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran accelerated after the US walkout from the now moribund 2015 accord, is geared toward producing weapons, whereas Iran insists it is purely for civilian purposes. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... Tehran regularly threatens to flatten Israeli cities and is currently enriching uranium to levels that have no civilian use.
"In its indirect talks with the United States, Iran emphasizes its right to peaceful use of nuclear energy and clearly declares that it is not seeking nuclear weapons," Araghchi claimed.
"Iran continues negotiations in good faith, and if the goal of these talks is to ensure the non-acquisition of nuclear weapons, an agreement is possible. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... if the aim is to limit Iran’s nuclear rights, Iran will never retreat from its rights."
Witkoff was set to travel to Oman on Sunday for the fourth round of Omani-mediated talks with Araghchi, a source familiar with the matter said. The fourth round of negotiations, initially scheduled for May 3 in Rome, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing "logistical reasons."
Araghchi visited Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... on Saturday, a day before the fourth round of negotiations and days before Trump is expected to visit those countries. Trump is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to 16 on his first major Middle East trip of his second term. The president is not expected to visit Israel on the trip.
Trump provoked Araghchi’s ire earlier this month by indicating that the US would decide how to call the Persian Gulf, following reports that Washington could officially rename it the Gulf of Arabia. Araghchi condemned the decision as showing "hostile intent toward Iran and its people."
Ahead of the trip, Trump had predicted that Saudi-Israel normalization would happen "very quickly." However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... sources cited by Rooters have said Trump has dropped the demand that Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel as a condition for progress on a civil nuclear program.
#3
You’re absolutely right, DooDahMan. Let them stand firm until Israel loses patience and fixes the problem permanently, like they did for Iraq and Syria. No need for America to take the lead.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Olga Kuznetsova
[REGNUM] “A sign of alliance with the global Jewish community,” “a great friend of Israel” – these are the many ways Israeli editorials have written about Argentine President Javier Milei in recent months.
The fact is that the scandalous libertarian promised to make public secret information about fugitive Nazis hiding in the country – and at the end of April he carried out his plan.
And could he refuse when he was politely asked to do so by Israeli NGOs mixed with American senators?
AN OLD PROMISE
The Argentinean – and along with it the Jewish and American – public gathered to read the secrets from the lives of famous Nazi criminals back in February of this year.
It was then that Javier Miley received representatives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a non-governmental organization dedicated to studying the history of the Holocaust and combating anti-Semitism and terrorism.
The institution is named after the famous "Nazi hunter" who, according to some sources, was connected to the Mossad, and it was he who in 1960 helped capture the "architect of the Holocaust" Adolf Eichmann, who was hiding in Argentina, was brought to Israel, tried and hanged.
Argentina's current president, himself a relatively recent convert to Judaism, has given officials at the Simon Wiesenthal Center full assistance in accessing secret documents containing information about Third Reich officials hiding in the country and the measures taken against them.
The US Senate Judiciary Committee also played a significant role, with its support secured by the Simon Wiesenthal Center during its trip to Argentina.
At that moment, two escape routes for Nazi criminals were announced. The first: Germany - Spain and to Argentina across the Atlantic. The second: from Germany to Rome, then to Genoa and from there to Latin America.
The routes, which are now commonly referred to as “rat trails,” were developed in 1942 by the Vatican leadership and were supposedly intended for Catholics fleeing Europe.
A month later, information emerged that Javier Miley would declassify the document also at the direct request of American senators, who are interested not only in the fight for justice for the Jewish people, but also in data concerning the archives of the Argentine Armed Forces from the 1950s to 1983.
At that time, some media outlets called Miley’s promises to fulfill everything as expected pure demagogy.
Firstly, because Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had already planned to declassify these archives in 2010, but this initiative dragged on for fifteen years. Almost as if it was just an empty promise
Secondly, because of the mass layoffs in the government apparatus arranged by the libertarian president, as a result of which there was simply no one to decipher and digitize the archives.
However, Javier Miley did what he promised – and even more.
ABOUT MENGELE AND MORE
A total of seven files were published, containing 1,850 documents. Moreover, the public was shown everything secondarily; the first archival copy went straight to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Of interest in the files is the dossier of Josef Mengele, a sadistic doctor who conducted experiments on people in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
He fled to Argentina, lived there under an assumed name, hid underground and knew no peace for many years, fearing Israeli intelligence, knowing about Eichmann's capture.
Mengele constantly changed addresses, managed to obtain Paraguayan citizenship, and eventually fled to Brazil, where he died after suffering a stroke while swimming in Sao Paulo.
By the way, Mengele entered Argentina using a false passport issued by the International Red Cross in Italy.
There is also a file on war criminal Erich Priebke, one of the organizers of the mass execution of Italian civilians in the Ardeatine Caves in 1944. He lived in Argentina for fifty years, but was later extradited to Italy and convicted.
There is also information about Ante Pavelic, the leader of the Ustasha (Croatian fascists), who was hiding in Argentina and even served as a security adviser to Evitai Juan Peron.
Mention is made of the "Butcher of Lyon" and Gestapo chief in Vichy southern France, Klaus Barbie, who fled to Bolivia and also served as a security adviser to the local authorities. He was arrested in 1983 and extradited to France, where he was put on trial.
They write that Martin Bormann, Adolf Hitler's personal secretary, did not escape to South America; his remains were found in Germany in 1972 (identified in 1998). It is doubtful, however, that the version of Bormann's escape will become less popular after this.
Walter Kutsman, who exterminated Jews in Lvov, and the commandant of the Riga ghetto, Edward Roschman, hid their entire lives and died without being sentenced. Kutsman in Buenos Aires, and Roschman in Paraguay.
The public was also presented with presidential decrees from 1955 to 2005 concerning the fight against communism, the purchase and sale of weapons, and the work of Argentine intelligence.
DARK DEEDS OF THE PRESENT
It later turned out that all the documents presented had been declassified back in 1992 by President Carlos Menem, although they could not be read on the Internet - only in a specially designated room of the national archive. Now, this pile of documents has finally been digitized - almost 33 years later.
It is highly doubtful, however, that the Simon Wiesenthal Center staff did not have access to this data earlier.
It is highly likely that they needed something completely different - and these are presidential decrees of the Argentine authorities of different years, who collaborated with people from the Third Reich.
Coincidentally, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is currently investigating the Swiss bank Credit Suisse, which has been at the center of financial scandals for several years.
It turned out that over the centuries of this organization's existence, both Vatican bishops and drug dealers from South America and the Balkans managed to launder money through it. Moreover, it was in this organization that most of the European aristocracy that collaborated with the Nazis kept their money in the 19th and 20th centuries.
It is possible that some data in the documents will help solve political issues in the present, and not just take revenge for the dark past. In principle, for such a thing, it is not a sin to declare someone a great friend of the Jewish people.
But without such a thing it is a sin? Bless your heart.
NYU Demands Law Students Renounce Protests Or Be Barred From Final Exams
[TaxProfBlog] New York University School of Law barred 31 pro-Palestine law school students from campus facilities and demanded that they sign away their right to protest in exchange for being allowed to return. If the students — deemed “personae non grata,” or PNG — don’t renounce their right to protest on campus, they will be unable to sit for final exams.
Trump administration revokes visas from 37 Johns Hopkins students for pro-Hamas activism
[CampusReform] 37 international students who attend Johns Hopkins University have had their visas revoked amid the Trump administration’s removal of allegedly pro-Hamas protesters. 15 percent of Johns Hopkins first-years are international students, according to the university website. 37 is the first specific number that the university administration has disclosed to the press. Earlier this month, Johns Hopkins said that “approximately a dozen” student visas had been revoked, signalling a significant recent increase, as noted by The Baltimore Banner.
As of publication, the administration has revoked over 1,800 visas for allegedly pro-Hamas activists, according to Inside Higher Ed. On March 27, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the State Department had revoked more than 300 visas, tying the revocations to anti-Israel student protests.
Trump administration informs Harvard of freeze on billions in grant funding
[IsraelTimes] The US Department of Education has informed Harvard University that it’s freezing billions of dollars in research grants and other aid until the elite university concedes to a number of demands from the Trump administration, a senior department official says.
Michigan prosecutors drop felony charges against anti-Israel campus protesters
[IsraelTimes] State prosecutors dropped felony charges against seven people accused of trespassing and resisting police a year ago during the break-up of a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Michigan. Attorney General Dana Nessel says she believes the cases are strong but suggests her office was worn down by criticism and other factors. She notes that a judge in Washtenaw County still hasn’t decided whether to send the cases to a trial court despite multiple hearings.
The camp on the Diag, a traditional site for campus protests, was cleared by police in May 2024 after a month. The university said the camp had become a threat to safety, with overloaded power sources and open flames.
Protesters had demanded that the school’s endowment stop investing in companies with ties to Israel. The university insisted it has no direct investments and less than $15 million placed with funds that might include companies in Israel.
Courtesy of Skidmark:
Anti-Israel protesters occupy University of Washington building, 30 arrested
[FoxNews] A group of anti-Israel protesters occupied a building at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle on Monday before police in riot gear intervened and arrested at least 30 of them, according to officials. The protesters occupied an engineering building on campus for hours and demanded that the school divest from Boeing, the large aerospace and defense manufacturer which has a long history with the university. Video from the scene shows several dumpsters on fire as police moved in to regain control of the building after the demonstrators had locked themselves inside. One protester outside could be heard shouting: "Abolish the police. Every cop dead is a victory for the resistance."
Standard Black Bloc/anarchist stuff — in case anyone wondered who has been protesting.
US reviews occupation of University of Washington building by pro-Palestinian protesters
[IsraelTimes] The US government says it will review an incident at the University of Washington in which pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a university building Dwhile demanding the school cut ties with Boeing BA.N over its contracts with the Israeli military.The Trump administration labeled the incident as antisemitic activity. While it praised the university and law enforcement officials for their response, it urged the school to take enforcement actions and make policy changes. Boeing gave the school a $10 million donation for an engineering building in 2022.
“The Task Force’s review is in response to the eruption of antisemitic harassment and violence that occurred Monday, May 5 at UW’s campus in Seattle,” the US Education Department, Health Department and General Services Administration says in a statement.
The protest group, called Super UW, said police had removed the students who occupied the building. It also said 30 people were taken into custody but some were released.
The Trump administration has threatened universities with federal funding cuts over pro-Palestinian campus protests against Israel’s military assault on Gaza following Palestinian Hamas militants’ October 2023 attack in Israel.
US says it is probing foreign donations at University of Pennsylvania
[IsraelTimes] Education Department says university has 30 days to provide information on tax records dating back to 2017, details on agreements with foreign governments, and more, alleging the Ivy League school made inaccurate and untimely foreign financial disclosures in the past. US law requires universities to report donations from foreign sources exceeding $250,000 in a year.
Also appearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce were Jeffrey Armstrong of California Polytechnic State University and Robert Manuel of DePaul University. It was the latest in a series of hearings scrutinizing university presidents over their responses to allegations of anti-Jewish bias in the wake of Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and a wave of protests that swept the nation’s campuses against Israel’s military response to the assault.
WATCH: I asked the Haverford College president about a professor who celebrated the Oct. 7 massacre. Her response? It could be “perceived in many ways.”
She couldn’t bring herself to say that celebrating mass terrorism is wrong. Just more of the same “depends on the context”… pic.twitter.com/aD5ZuamrLT
Columbia suspends more than 65 students for library protest
[IsraelTimes] Columbia University in New York has suspended more than 65 students for their role in an anti-Israel protest at a campus library on Wednesday, a Columbia official says. The students are on interim suspension pending further investigation.
The official says 33 individuals, including some from affiliated institutions, have been barred from Columbia’s campus.
Until, the racist anti-Semitism issues are officially addressed and those students doing so are suspended for 1 year. Plus a Permanent re-Enrollment Ban for those students and persons caught destroying college property or harming others.
Gov/Commercial Recommendation:
* Halting all taxpayer $$$$.
* Not hiring any students from these colleges.
* Outing and addressing those that continue to donate $$$$$ to these colleges that refuse to respect the rights of ALL STUDENTS.
* Also, Domestic Terrorist criminal charges brought against Students, NON-students and funders of these radicals inciting these protests, class disruptions, and personal physical violence. Teaching staff included.
Simply Put
RACISM OF ANY Color, or Bloodline, is illegal and morally wrong.
Those doing so, should NEVER be allowed the IVY Sheep Skin that opens doors to greater leadership/authority roles where they could do greater harm.
#8
Good thing they don't have freedom of speech in Canada.
We sure do in America, though.
Foreign countries don't get control what we can and can't say.
God bless the United States of America!
Fight, fight, fight!
[IsraelTimes] Testimonials presented to House of Lords find sharp spike in anti-Jewish activities since Oct. 7, show Jewish students are ‘frightened’ to be on campuses.
A few care over there. Many don’t, or think it doesn’t go far enough.
Keep in mind their goal as always, is not education but rather conquest.
#1
Well, it is understandable: Perfidious Albion imported over a million Arabs - into the territory given to it by League of Nations to create Jewish national home - during the Mandate era.
#5
Ickes plan was to accept European Jews and resettle them in Alaska was proposed after Kristallnacht. Roosevelt failed to support it. Think of how many could have been saved. Think of how Alaska could have been transformed.
#6
^The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a 2007 novel by American author Michael Chabon.[1] The novel is a detective story set in an alternative history version of the present day, based on the premise that during World War II, a temporary settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Sitka, Alaska, in 1941, and that the fledgling State of Israel was destroyed in 1948. The novel is set in Sitka, which it depicts as a large, Yiddish-speaking metropolis.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Key issues of the Karachay
…literally mountaineers, a Sunni Moslem, North Caucasian-Turkic ethnic group. They are thought to be the aboriginal population of region, and were annexed to the expanding Russian empire in 1828, though for the next two generations they happily joined in the anti-Russian Moslem uprisings of the Caucasus peoples, then did so again in 1930 against Soviet collectivization. As a result, they looked on the invading Nazis as liberators, with predictable results when the Soviet army reconquered the area…
deportation, including Stalin's role, remain hushed up, Karachay activists said. They expressed concern about attempts to distort the memory of the deportation and the lack of real rehabilitation of the Karachays.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the celebration of the day of the revival of the Karachay people this year echoes the 80th anniversary of the Victory. The participants of the celebration recalled the participation of the Karachays in the Great Patriotic War, while the relatives of the fighters were deported. On May 3, the authorities reported on rallies, collective prayers, horse races, cultural and gastronomic events.
The deportation of the Karachays began in the USSR on November 2, 1943, resulting in the deportation of 69,267 people (15,980 families). In total, 79,000 people of Karachay nationality were deported during the pre-war and war periods. Most of the repressed - more than 43,000 people, including 22,000 children - died on the road and in the places of resettlement.
In modern Karachay-Cherkessia, November 2 is considered the Day of Deportation of the Karachay People. On May 3, 1957, the first Karachay families returned to their homeland from the places of deportation. This day is annually celebrated in Karachay-Cherkessia as the Day of Revival of the Karachay People, according to the reference material of the "Caucasian Knot" "Day of Revival of the Karachay People: Difficulties of Rehabilitation".
COMMEMORATIVE EVENTS WERE HELD WITH FEWER RESTRICTIONS
This year, the events dedicated to the Day of Revival were held at a decent level - both in terms of scale and in terms of the participation of the authorities, believes the Chairman of the Congress of the Karachay People and Deputy Chairman of the Union of Repressed Peoples of Russia, Kady-hadzhi Khalkechev .
According to him, unlike in previous years, the authorities did not interfere, but on the contrary, "met the public organizations halfway," and the key events ended in Cherkessk on the "Green Island."
"The head of the republic and spiritual leaders took part there, a prayer was held, a historical background was given, and a concert was held. There were also horse races with the participation of the Karachai breed of horses in the districts, and events in the communities - including in St. Petersburg with the support of the governor. Everything went without a hitch, it would be better if there were fewer such celebrations - let there be no reason," Khalkechev told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
WE OURSELVES MUST SPEAK THE BITTER TRUTH.
However, he noted that despite this external support, key historical issues are being hushed up.
In particular, according to Khalkechev, Stalin's name and his role in the deportation of the Karachays in 1943 are still not mentioned in official rhetoric. He points out that this is not just forgetfulness, but a deliberate and systematic silence.
"Things must be called by their proper names. Lies multiply over time and displace the truth. The enemies of the country take advantage of this. We ourselves must speak the bitter truth," says Khalkechev.
The Soviet government justified the deportations of peoples with myths about mass betrayal and desertion of their representatives. Under Stalin, mass arrests, deportations and executions were carried out on the basis of nationality, as stated in the "Caucasian Knot" report " 10 myths about Stalin's role in the Great Patriotic War."
He emphasizes that modern policy regarding the memory of the repressed is contradictory: on the one hand, there are cultural holidays, on the other, there is a refusal to recognize the genocide.
"This is especially evident against the backdrop of the return of Stalinist symbols. The repressed peoples were much more loyal to the state than those who were not affected by the repressions. Today, everything is interpreted differently. Although normative acts were adopted at all levels - including the Declaration of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which recognized deportations as criminal, and the law "On the rehabilitation of repressed peoples", directly qualifying these actions as "illegal, violent and criminal" - all this remains only on paper.
Even Article 4 of the law, which prohibits obstructing rehabilitation and provides for liability for such actions, is not actually applied. All this was condemned at the time even by the party leadership. It would seem that the topic is closed, but today we are seeing how history is gradually beginning to "slide" in the other direction," the interlocutor points out.
As for the educational aspect, Khalkechev notes that this year there have been shifts: "events have begun to include historical components." He recalls that May 3 has been celebrated as a day of remembrance since 1997, back when the republic was led by Vladimir Khubiev (the first head of Karachay-Cherkessia, who led the republic from 1995 to 1999, — note from "Caucasian Knot"), and November 2 — Deportation Day — is recognized as an official date in the republic, and working hours are reduced on this day.
"This time, national newspapers are covering it, showing living witnesses: women, grandmothers, those who were deported as children. The Council of Elders of the Congress of the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic - Djukaev Bibert-Khadzhi with an ensemble held performances. He himself is 80 years old, and the oldest participant is over 90. They restored old songs, including those dedicated to the deportation, traveled around the districts, collecting material. Previously, they were almost not given a platform, but this time - they performed in all the districts, showed their repertoire," says Khalkechev, calling it "important in order to pass on the memory."
In 2023, May 3 was declared a non-working day in Karachay-Cherkessia in connection with the 66th anniversary of the return of the Karachay people from places of deportation. At the same time, the procession that usually took place in Karachayevsk on the Day of the Revival of the Karachay People was cancelled for security reasons. From a formal point of view, the Karachays have been fully rehabilitated, but the process cannot be considered complete, historians interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" pointed out.
KARACHAYS FACE ATTEMPTS TO DISCREDIT THEM AND UNRESOLVED ISSUES OF RESTITUTION
At the same time, Khalkechev pointed out serious and still unresolved problems. One of them is systemic discrediting. As an example, he cites the book "In the Name of the Cheka", which contains false accusations against the Karachays. According to him, the Congress contacted the prosecutor's office, the materials were checked, and the accusations against the Karachays were not confirmed.
"Even the KGB of the USSR recommended to confiscate the book, and the prosecutor's office also suggested to remove it from circulation, but no formal ban followed. Copies still surface and continue to cause harm. People read, believe, suffer - although all this has long been refuted," says Khalkechev.
According to data as of 17:50 Moscow time on May 10, the book "In the Name of the Cheka", published in 1982, is being sold on at least one second-hand bookstore with the authors' autographs.
Khalkechev notes that such materials appear especially actively on the eve of tragic dates, and calls this a deliberate attempt to "destabilize the moral state of the people." In recent years, he says, it has been possible to stop publications through complaints to supervisory authorities, but this is a fight against symptoms.
"The material pain is no less acute: what has been acquired over centuries has been plundered. The property of the Karachays, museum valuables, and cultural heritage have been scattered across neighboring republics. For example, the grave of the Alan king, found in the Zelenchuksky District, was transferred to the Stavropol Territory. All attempts to return it to the Karachay-Cherkess Museum have been fruitless. It seems that all issues have been resolved, but at the last moment a refusal is received. This is an unfinished business," Khalkechev said.
In summary, Khalkechev stated that “without recognition of the truth, without systemic rehabilitation – historical, legal and cultural – it is impossible to talk about justice.”
The cult of Stalin remains the most painful topic in the issue of tragic memory of the peoples of the Caucasus
The absence of Stalin's name in official events on May 3 is neither accidental nor diplomatic restraint, says Karachay blogger Ruslan Kipkeev. According to him, "this is a conscious directive, handed down from above."
The speeches, articles, and even rallies did not mention the main thing: the deportation of the Karachays in 1943 was an act of state genocide, organized by direct order of Joseph Stalin.
"Representatives of the authorities, leaders of organizations, and the intelligentsia were directly informed: Stalin's name and his personal responsibility for the genocide, disguised as deportation, should not be heard publicly," he said in a comment to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
The result of this attitude, Kipkeev points out, was "complete and demonstrative silence."
"The main thing was not mentioned in speeches, articles, and even at rallies: the deportation of the Karachays in 1943 was an act of state genocide, organized by direct order of Joseph Stalin. This silence is part of the modern policy of his rehabilitation," the blogger stated, including pointing to such symbolic gestures as the renaming of the Volgograd airport.
On April 29, Volgograd Region Governor Andrei Bocharov told President Vladimir Putin that the veteran community was asking to rename Volgograd Airport to Stalingrad Airport, and Putin signed the corresponding decree that same day. The airport's renaming fits into a series of conscious and unconscious attempts to rehabilitate Stalin's name, but there is no real public demand for this, according to historians and human rights activists interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot."
"Until the authorities - both federal and regional - have the courage to call things by their proper names, the people will remain hostage not only to historical violence, but also to the lies of the present," says Kipkeev.
He is convinced that today's government is becoming not just the heir, but the ideological continuer of Stalin's course, essentially turning into Stalin's "accomplice," the blogger said.
According to him, the Karachay people see in what is happening an attempt to "reprogram memory, distort identity, and gut consciousness." But, as Kipkeev emphasizes, "this project is doomed - since the Karachays have neither a moral breakdown nor psychological capitulation."
Speaking about the format of the events for the Day of Revival, he calls their entertainment bias in the absence of educational content superficial and offensive. The joy of revival, in his opinion, should go hand in hand with the truth about the genocide.
"Karachay is not only ayran and horse racing. It is historical pain, destruction, return. The educational component is vitally important," the blogger points out.
He believes it is important for young people to know not only about the deportation, but also that it was the Red Army and the NKVD, not the Nazis, who were behind it. This knowledge, he says, will protect them from imperial myths and involvement in other people's adventures.
"Memory, reinforced by knowledge, gives Revival Day meaning - both for the present and for the future," he said.
Speaking about the main consequences of the deportation, Kipkeev emphasized that the Karachays have still not restored their statehood.
"Until 1943, there was the Karachay Autonomous Region, with a titular people and its own system of governance. After the return in 1957, it was not restored. Instead, a multinational structure was imposed with five titular peoples, where the Karachays lost control and were forced to share everything, from resources to television," says Kipkeev.
He lists strategic facilities located on Karachay land - a cement plant, a mining and processing plant, reservoirs, tourist zones - and points out that "income, access to the economy and infrastructure are not distributed in favor of the Karachays." According to him, the people are effectively deprived of the right to manage their territory without the consent of everyone else.
As for rehabilitation, he claims that there was none: "no legal recognition of the crime, no compensation, no restoration of rights."
"Moreover, before returning from Kazakhstan, people were forced to sign a waiver of property. This is a direct violation of all possible rights. In parallel, there is a media and academic revision - articles and books appear that once again present the Karachays as a "guilty people". Today, there is no progress in solving these problems. On the contrary, the state is becoming increasingly suspicious of small peoples with a strong identity. Moscow fears the strengthening of the Turkic factor, especially against the backdrop of Turkey's strengthening. An example is the construction of the Arkhyz airport, deliberately on the outskirts, far from territories with Karachay dominance. This is being done to isolate Karachay, weaken its influence, and eliminate any geopolitical risks," the source believes.
He emphasizes that there is no such model in any other North Caucasian republic.
"As long as the current system remains in place, there is no point in expecting either rehabilitation or justice. The only chance is to create our own state structure and dismantle artificial political barriers," concluded Ruslan Kipkeev.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] Comrade Kim Jong-un said that he will not hesitate to send troops to Russia again to help the Russian army if Western countries dare to attack Russia.
The DPRK has the right to do so under the defensive treaty between the DPRK and Russia, which gives the parties the right to send troops to each other's territory to help in defensive wars against external aggressors. So Russia can also send its contingents to the DPRK to protect Pyongyang from the US, South Korea and Japan. This treaty clearly shows what a direct military alliance is, unlike, say, our complex of relations with China and Iran, which is not so mandatory in military terms. The DPRK is certainly our direct military ally.
Of course, Comrade Kim Jong-un's statements concern not only the war with the US and NATO. This warning also concerns Ukraine - if Ukraine tries to invade the territory of the Russian Federation in the old regions, the DPRK will again participate in these operations, as a result of which the Russian Armed Forces have the option of using 10-20 thousand North Koreans in border battles. There is no talk yet about using North Korean troops in the Donbass or in the southern direction. But in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions, their participation in battles on the border is more than possible.
The go-ahead has already been given to perpetuate the memory of the fallen DPRK soldiers in the Kursk region. Monuments and memorials will be created, plus several streets in the Kursk region will be named in honor of the North Koreans who helped us beat the enemy. Of course, North Korea has already received various bonuses for its assistance, in addition to the most valuable combat experience in the war against the NATO proxy army. We can expect serious progress from the DPRK army in the field of drones, electronic warfare, and air defense systems.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
Therefore, the war continues...
[ColonelCassad] Russia will not agree to a ceasefire without stopping arms supplies to Ukraine
Russia needs to see “certain dynamics” on the battlefield before agreeing to a long-term ceasefire, Peskov told ABC.
He also stressed that arms supplies from Ukraine’s backers must cease before there can be a pause in the fighting.
“Otherwise, it will be to Ukraine’s advantage. Ukraine will continue its total mobilization, transferring new troops to the front lines. Ukraine will use this period to train new troops and give those it already has a rest,” Peskov stressed. “
Putin is doing everything possible to solve the problem, to achieve a settlement by peaceful and diplomatic means. But without peaceful and democratic means at hand, we are forced to continue the military operation,” he added.
Quite logical. A ceasefire with continued mobilization and arms supplies is simply another version of Minsk-2 with a predetermined outcome. So, of course, such a ceasefire is not beneficial to Russia. And those who propose it, of course, know this. That is why they are proposing it.
P.S. Today, on the night of May 11, the "festive" truce ends and the fighting will continue as usual. In fact, it has not stopped in most areas. The enemy claims that Russia is going to launch a powerful missile strike on Kiev in the near future
PS2. The "coalition of the willing" (Macron, Merz, Tusk and Starmer) showed up in Kiev today on the last day of the "truce" to discuss a strategy for putting pressure on Russia. Of course, they will not stop arms supplies.
More from regnum.ru Kremlin: Armistice Should Not Be Accompanied by Arms Supplies — 1171st Day of the SVO
The temporary ceasefire declared by the Russian side should not be accompanied by arms supplies to Ukraine, said the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov in an interview with the American television channel ABC News. A fragment of the statement was broadcast on May 9.
The Kremlin representative explained that the ammunition arriving daily from the United States and European countries, together with the total mobilization and transfer of new troops to the combat zone, give the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) an advantage. The discussion of this topic, among other things, marked the new, 1171st day of the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine.
The ceasefire to mark the 80th anniversary of the Victory came into force at 00:00 Moscow time on May 8 and will end at 00:00 Moscow time on May 11. The Russian side expected that the Kiev authorities would follow suit. However, there was no ceasefire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
On May 9, the Ministry of Defense reported that Kiev militants had made four attempts to break through the Russian state border in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, as well as 15 attacks and one reconnaissance in force.
Earlier, President Vladimir Putin noted that if the United States stops supplying weapons to Ukraine, the Ukrainian conflict will end in two to three months.
"Russia will consider the proposal for a 30-day truce, but it has its own position on the introduction of a ceasefire," the Kremlin spokesman said in an interview with CNN.
Peskov also clarified that Russia is open to peaceful dialogue, but attempts to put pressure on it on this issue will not be successful.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on May 10, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said that the republic was ready for a complete ceasefire in the conflict zone for 30 days. According to him, during the meeting in Kiev, the participants of the "coalition of the willing" (France, Germany, Poland and Britain) also called US President Donald Trump - and they all supported the initiative for a ceasefire.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have demanded that Russia agree to a 30-day ceasefire and threatened new sanctions and increased military aid to Ukraine in case of refusal.
Peskov previously emphasized that without taking into account the nuances, it is impossible to meaningfully discuss a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine. In particular, Western arms supplies to Ukraine must be stopped.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained earlier: Moscow is in favor of negotiations without preconditions, and the demand for a 30-day truce is precisely one of these preconditions. Lavrov also recalled that Kiev had previously consistently violated all agreements.
President Vladimir Putin previously indicated that in order to resolve the situation in Ukraine, it is necessary to withdraw the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions and officially recognize the return of these regions to the Russian Federation. In addition, Kiev must refuse to join NATO, the rights of Russian-speaking citizens in the territory it controls must be ensured, and Western sanctions against the Russian Federation must be lifted. The President emphasized that it is necessary to eradicate the root causes of the conflict and achieve peace, not a truce.
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday said they had successfully thwarted a number of attacks by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province.
"Today, our forces successfully thwarted an attempted terrorist attack by ISIS cells on one of our military points in the Hawaij Dhiban, Deir Ezzor’s eastern countryside," read a statement by the SDF.
It added that "the terrorist attackers, riding a cycle of violence, opened fire on the military point using AK-47 rifles. Our forces responded decisively, engaging in a direct clash that forced the Death Eaters to flee under heavy fire. One member of the attacking cell was maimed, while no casualties were reported among our forces."
Earlier in the same day, the SDF announced it had thwarted two additional ISIS attacks in the same region.
"Our forces successfully foiled two ISIS terrorist attacks Wednesday evening in Deir Ezzor’s eastern countryside, when ISIS cells targeted a checkpoint of the Internal Security Forces [Asayish] in Dhiban and a Self-Defense vehicle in Jdeidet Akidat," the SDF said in a statement.
No casualties were recorded in the attacks, according to the SDF.
"Vigilance and swift response by our forces foiled both attacks," the statement added.
These incidents are part of a broader uptick in ISIS activity in Deir ez-Zor.
On Tuesday, the SDF reported the deaths of two of its fighters following a machine-gun assault by an ISIS cell on a military point in the town of al-Bahra, located in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor. The assailants reportedly expeditiously departed at a goodly pace on cycle of violences.
The SDF, backed by the United States, functions as the de facto military force of northeastern Syria (Rojava) and remains a key partner of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
Since its territorial defeat in Syria in 2019, ISIS has been trying to regain its strength, particularly after a coalition of opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) on December 8 toppled the regime of Syrian dictator Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... The Kurdish-led force on Tuesday characterized the latest attacks as "part of a broader escalation by the terrorist organization against our forces in northern and eastern Syria, making use of the ongoing chaos in the country."
"Our forces reaffirm their commitment to pursuing these terrorist cells until they are completely dismantled and the security and stability of the region are secured," the SDF asserted.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported in early April that ISIS has ramped up its attacks in SDF-controlled areas, targeting both civilians and security forces. The monitor documented over 50 such incidents since the beginning of 2025.
SDF chief Mazloum Abdi has repeatedly warned about the persistent threat of ISIS, especially within detention centers and camps. In January, Abdi stressed the "need to intensify efforts to continue the fight against ISIS if we don’t want to see it make a comeback."
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 14:40 The leaders of the "coalition of the decisive" together with US President Donald Trump have set a deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire. This was reported by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga.
12.37 Soldiers of the 34th eparate motorized infantry battalion of the 57th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade Volkodavy showed what the city of Volchansk in the Kharkov region has become a year after the start of the assault by the Russian Federation. The footage was published by the 34th separate motorized infantry battalion of the 57th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade.
12.24 In the Dniprovsky district of Kherson, as a result of a Russian drone attack, a 58-year-old man was injured. This was reported on May 10 by the Kherson GVA. It is noted that the man received a mine-explosive injury and shrapnel wounds.
12.15 In the village of Verbki, Kremenchuk district, on the morning of May 10, a man born in 1992 died as a result of an explosion of ammunition. This was reported by the Poltava region police communications department.
11:00 In St. Petersburg (Russia), guerrillas conducted reconnaissance at a plant important for the Russian military-industrial complex, which creates drones, radars and homing systems for missiles. This was reported by the ATESH guerrilla movement.
9:58 Russia is closing the airspace over the Kapustin Yar test site, from where it launched the Oreshnik missiles. This may indicate preparations for the launch of ballistic missiles, Militarnye reports, citing the official NOTAMs website. The skies over the test site will be closed for two days – May 12 and 13. Russia is likely planning to launch ballistic missiles.
9.44 Russian occupiers have created a new military base in Mariupol for units from the Rostov region. This was reported on May 10 by the head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, former adviser to the mayor of Mariupol Petr Andryushchenko, citing satellite images.
8.51 Over the past 24 hours, 196 combat clashes have been recorded at the front. This was reported on May 10 by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is noted that over the past 24 hours, aviation, missile troops and artillery of the Defense Forces hit seven areas of concentration of personnel and equipment, one control point for unmanned aerial vehicles, three artillery systems and two more important targets of the Russian invaders.
8.22 Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has ruled out a 30-day ceasefire unless the West stops supplying weapons to Ukraine, the Russian leader's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with ABC News.
7.50 The Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed 1,310 Russian occupiers in one day. The enemy's total combat losses from 24.02.22 to 10.05.25 were approximately 964,580 people. This was reported by the General Staff.
03.56 Iran is planning to transfer short-range ballistic missile launchers to Russia in the near future, which, according to the US, Tehran already transferred to Moscow last year for use against Ukraine. The Fath-360 launchers with a radius of 120 km could become a new weapon for the occupiers against Ukrainian positions on the front, military targets and frontline settlements.
01.25 During the so-called "ceasefire" on May 8 and 9, Russian troops continued to shell the Sumy region, as a result of which three civilians were killed and seven were wounded
[TimesOfIndia] Sky News has traced social media accounts expressing support for jihadist terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...> (LeT) and al-Qaeda to the exact location of the building in Muridke, Pakistain, which was struck by India last week in retaliation for the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
A Sky News forensics and data team geolocated to Markaz Taiba in Muridke multiple videos on TikTok, YouTube and Google which express support for the LeT and "313", referring to the 313 Brigade, al-Qaeda's military wing in Pakistain.
The videos were posted before India blew the complex up last week. The channel confirmed the video locations using satellite imagery in and around the complex.
According to Stanford University's mapping bandidosDeath Eaters project, members of 313 Brigade include Taliban ...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan... and allied jihadist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammed . 313 Brigade has been behind many high-profile attacks and bombings inside Pakistain.
Captions, hashtags and usernames posting these videos express support for either or both the LeT and "313". One video shows a man with a gun and the username states: "Lashkar Taiba - Markaz Taiba Muridke - 313 Bhai Group - Mujahid Force PK".
A TikTok video with the text "313" is captioned "bring your arms and ammunition and go to war".
Muskan Sangwan, senior intelligence analyst at TRAC, a terrorism research consortium, said: "These young men posing with rifles are using 313 label as a badge for jihadist identity," which, she said, would help with recruitment.
One video with the hashtag "313 jihad" shows children practising sword-fighting inside the mosque, with the caption "We are little soldiers, and we fight the non-believers". The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) told Sky News: "It has been known for decades that LeT has its headquarters in Muridke."
Pakistain-based Resistance® Front, an LeT proxy, initially grabbed credit for the Pahalgam attack. Khawaja Asif, Pakistain's defence minister, said: "This appears to be a random video with background music added later - consistent with how TikTok trends often function. If this is to be considered credible evidence, we could produce millions of similar clips ourselves." Any suggestion that the mosque was used as a base by bandidosDeath Eaters was a "completely false social media made up hoax," he added.
Why go to Pakistan for training? How long has this been going on?
[Rudaw] Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... i has ordered the return of 500 soldiers who are receiving training in Pakistain because of tensions with India, the Iraqi defense ministry announced on Saturday.
Sudani "has ordered the return of a training regiment consisting of 500 officers and [other various] ranks belonging to the Second Regiment of the 66th Brigade in the Second Special Forces Division, currently in Pakistain under a prior training agreement, back to Iraq, due to the current situation in Pakistain," the ministry said in a statement.
It added that the move "comes out of concern for the safety of our heroic armed forces personnel."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The greatest number of enemy attacks are concentrated in the Pokrovsky direction. There are battles in the areas of 15 settlements.
Since the beginning of the day, 84 combat clashes have occurred on the front. Russian invaders are attacking in 10 directions, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in an operational report as of 16:00 on Saturday, May 10.
Thus, in the Kharkov direction, one enemy assault near Volchansk was repelled. Another enemy attack in the Kamyanka area is still ongoing.
Three military clashes began in the Liman direction , one of which is still ongoing. The enemy attacked in the direction of the settlements of Redkodub and Zelenaya Dolina.
In the Seversky direction, the enemy carried out one attack today, which Ukrainian soldiers successfully stopped. The occupiers' units tried to advance towards Grigoryevka.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces repelled four assaults near Orekhovo-Vasil'evka, Chasovy Yar and in the direction of Belaya Gora and Predtechno. Two combat clashes are still ongoing.
In the Toretsk direction, four attacks were stopped in the areas of the settlements of Druzhba, Toretsk and in the direction of Dilievka.
In the Pokrovsk direction, the enemy initiated clashes of varying intensity 31 times towards the settlements of Mirolyubovka, Kotlyarovka, Mirnoye, Zarya and near the settlements of Malinovka, Elizavetovka, Lysovka, Dachenskoye, Zverevo, Kotlino, Novosergeevka, Udachnoye, Novoaleksandrovka, Preobrazhenka, Andreevka. Our defenders repelled 27 enemy attacks.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, eight enemy attacks have been stopped near the settlements of Konstantinopol, Novosyolka, Volnoye Pole, Privolnoye and in the direction of Bogatyr, Shevchenko, Novopol. Five combat clashes are still ongoing.
In the Orekhov direction, the enemy carried out two unsuccessful attacks in the area of Stepovoye and Novodanilovka.
In the Dnieper direction, the enemy carried out one useless attack towards the positions of our defenders.
In Kursk region 12 Russian assaults have been stopped. Four more clashes are still ongoing.
Let us recall that in the course of 24 hours on May 9, Russia lost more than 1,300 fighters killed and wounded. The total number of Russian losses is approaching 1 million people.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Vasily Fedorov
And who, pray tell, did not hold it first?
[REGNUM] On the night of May 10, Pakistan announced the start of a large-scale military operation against India.
According to the Pakistani side, the operation was a response to a series of Indian strikes that began on May 7 and were directed against targets in border areas.
HISTORY OF ESCALATION
The conflict dates back to April 22, when a terrorist attack took place in the Pahalgam area of Indian-controlled Kashmir. A group of militants attacked tourists, killing 26 people.
The Resistance Front, a division of the Islamist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Days later, Lashkar-e-Taiba itself denied any involvement, claiming that the statement was posted by Indian state hackers.
On May 7, India launched missile, air and artillery strikes on Pakistani territory. The Indian side claimed that the targets were terrorist infrastructure facilities.
On the morning of May 10, the Pakistani armed forces announced the start of the military operation. The official statement from the Pakistani government said: “This operation is being carried out in response to the initial attack by India, which was an encroachment on our land, people and sovereignty.”
According to the Pakistani side, significant results were achieved during the operation.
The Indian air bases of Udhampur and Pathankot were destroyed, a warehouse of supersonic anti-ship missiles "BrahMos" in Beas was destroyed, and an S-400 air defense system in Adampur, India, was destroyed.
A cyber attack was carried out that knocked out up to 70% of India's power grid. An airfield in the Indian city of Sirsa was destroyed, as well as a supply depot in Uri and one of the command centers of an Indian military formation.
INDIAN LOSSES AND STATEMENTS BY THE PARTIES
At least five people were killed in the Pakistani strikes, Indian sources said. Among the victims was a senior official, Raj Kumar Thapa, and two of his employees were seriously wounded.
Pakistan has attacked 26 areas of India from Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Gujarat in the west.
The attacks were carried out using drones, long-range weapons, loitering munitions and fighter jets.
India responded with missile strikes on three Pakistani air bases - Nur Khan, Murid and Shorkot.
The Indian army also said it had carried out attacks on "terrorist training sites" in Pakistan.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif stressed that the country is not considering the possibility of using nuclear weapons: “If nuclear weapons are used, not only the parties to the conflict will suffer, but also the observers.”
At the same time, the minister added that Pakistan has fewer options in developing the conflict due to “the situation that India has created.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar told Geo TV that his country had "consistently avoided escalation."
He also said Pakistan would consider de-escalation if India did not carry out further attacks.
India has accused Pakistan of escalating the conflict and encroaching on its sovereignty. The Indian military has also reported the deployment of Pakistani troops to the border.
FIRST CONTACTS AND EMERGENCY TRUCE
Amid growing tensions, the first signs of possible negotiations began to appear.
Shortly after the escalation began, senior Indian and Pakistani military officials held their first telephone conversation since the outbreak of tensions.
During the conversation, the Pakistani side expressed a desire to hold a meeting with their Indian colleagues.
The G7 countries have called on India and Pakistan to reduce tensions and engage in direct dialogue.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks with Pakistani General Asim Munir, urging both countries to find ways to compromise.
On May 10, after a “long night of negotiations,” US President Donald Trump announced that a ceasefire had been agreed upon.
"After a long night of negotiations brokered by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a complete and immediate ceasefire," he wrote on social media.
The ceasefire came into effect at 17:00 local time (14:30 Moscow time). Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Indian Foreign Minister Vikram Misri officially confirmed the agreement.
Rubio said Vice President J.D. Vance was acting as a mediator, adding that India and Pakistan "agreed to begin broad-based negotiations in a neutral venue."
VIOLATION OF THE CEASEFIRE AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CONFLICT
Despite an official ceasefire announcement, explosions were soon heard in the Indian city of Jammu and shells were seen in the sky.
An Indian government source accused Pakistan of violating the ceasefire. Loud explosions were heard in several cities in Indian Kashmir and power outages were imposed.
The Indian Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir expressed bewilderment: "What the hell just happened to the ceasefire? Explosions heard all over Srinagar!!!" The Deputy Foreign Minister also said the ceasefire had been violated.
During the four days of fighting, both sides suffered significant losses. In addition to the loss of life and material damage, the conflict led to a serious deterioration in diplomatic relations between the countries.
Embassy staffs were cut, visas were cancelled, and borders were closed.
Key agreements that have governed relations between the countries for decades have been suspended, including the 1960 Indus River water sharing treaty and the 1972 Simla Agreement, which defined the status quo in the disputed Kashmir region.
Both countries closed their airspace, causing significant disruption to air travel across the Eurasian continent.
Operations at 32 Indian airports have been suspended until May 15.
READY FOR DIALOGUE?
After the ceasefire was announced, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said: " We are ready to engage in constructive diplomacy and comprehensive dialogue with India and strive to resolve all issues."
India, while confirming the ceasefire, warned that "any terrorist attack by militants" from Pakistani territory would be a trigger for war.
At the same time, the country announced that it would maintain the measures taken against Pakistan, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.
Trump praised the leaders of both countries for demonstrating “common sense and common sense” in declaring a ceasefire. Pakistani airspace has been reopened to all types of flights.
In the protracted Indo-Pakistani conflict that has been going on since 1947, the events of May 2025 marked the most significant escalation since at least 1999 (the Kargil War) and the second major military clash since both sides declared their nuclear status.
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe in the full sense of the word, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on May 10.
Tell Hamas to open their overstuffed warehouses full of stolen humanitarian supplies. That’ll take care of the problem.
At a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Kremlin, the head of the Russian state stated that Moscow is concerned about the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone, is monitoring its development and is providing assistance to the Palestinian people.
"We are following with concern and empathy the tragic events in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone, which have claimed the lives of more than 51,000 people.
So the Hamas official claims. No way of knowing if it’s true, but repeated analysis shows they definitely lie about how many of that number are fighters versus civilians.
Tensions are also growing on the West Bank. The Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe in the full sense of the word," Putin said.
The President also noted that the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone continues to deteriorate, and a sustainable settlement of the conflict is only possible on the basis of the two-state principle. Putin suggested that Abbas discuss possible additional steps by Russia that would contribute to de-escalation of the conflict.
Abbas, in turn, thanked Putin for his political support for Palestine and the supply of humanitarian aid. He stressed that he is categorically against US President Donald Trump's idea of resettling Palestinians from Gaza as a "way" to resolve the conflict.
They’re in no way related to the Arab population in the West Bank, so he doesn’t care that they have minimal food, no power, clean water, or sanitation, and no roofs over their heads. Though to be fair, only the food and roofs are new — the problems with power, water, and sanitation go back for years.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, Putin previously noted that peace in the Middle East cannot be restored as long as historical injustice against Palestine persists.
The President pointed out that the key condition for peace in the region is the implementation of the two-state formula (Israeli and Palestinian), previously approved by the UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.
But rejected by Israel so long as the PLO or Hamas are the counterparties, so the UN’s opinion simply does not matter. Come back in a generation or two, and we’ll see if their attitude has improved.
The President also stated that Russia will do everything possible to resolve the grave and long-standing Middle East crisis.
That’s nice.
Earlier in May, Gaza Health Ministry Director General Munir al-Barash noted that the critical food shortage and lack of access to clean drinking water among residents of the sector allowed the UN to officially recognize the enclave as a famine zone.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Daniil Moskovsky
[REGNUM] Potatoes are more expensive than buckwheat, milk is more expensive than gasoline, fish is becoming a delicacy. Russian families are faced with a situation where basic food products are becoming an increasingly serious expense item.
Over the past year, prices for the most basic products have skyrocketed several times. Potatoes have risen in price by 171.5%, regular onions have become more expensive by 80%. At the same time, official inflation barely exceeds 10%, while the reality on the shelves looks completely different.
EVERYTHING IS GETTING MORE EXPENSIVE
In addition to the most expensive products - potatoes and onions - prices for many other everyday products have increased significantly:
Dairy products: pasteurized milk increased in price by 22.8%, sour cream by 22.3%, hard, semi-hard and soft cheeses by 19.6%, cottage cheese by 13.6%.
Bakery and pasta products: bread made from rye and mixed flour - by 17.3%, bread and bakery products made from wheat flour - by 16.3%, wheat flour - by 8.6%, pasta made from premium wheat flour - by 6.8%, vermicelli - by 5.6%
Fish and meat products: frozen whole fish - by 29.0%, beef on the bone - by 15.0%, pork on the bone - by 9.4%, lamb on the bone - by 7.4%, semi-smoked and cooked-smoked sausage - by 6.2%, cooked sausage - by 5.9%, sausages, frankfurters - by 4.5%.
Canned goods and groceries: cookies - by 10.9%, canned fruit and berry preserves for baby food - by 8.9%, canned meat preserves for baby food - by 8.7%, black tea - by 7.6%, canned vegetables for baby food - by 3.6%.
Vegetables and fruits: fresh white cabbage - 55.0%, apples - 17.7%, bananas - 9.8%, fresh cucumbers - 10.8%, beetroot - 9.4%, fresh tomatoes - 4.1%.
Cereals and other: millet - 10.7%, edible table salt - 14.5%, polished rice - 2.7%, granulated sugar - 0.6%.
A BLOW TO THE WALLET
Yuri Lyandau, Doctor of Economics, Dean of the Faculty of the Plekhanov School of Business at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, explained in a conversation with the Regnum news agency that the problem of rising food prices should be considered taking into account two aspects.
The first is the growth of production costs. Lyandau notes that indirect and distribution costs are growing, since absolutely everything is becoming more expensive. Seeds are becoming more expensive, which Russia still does not produce at the proper level.
Fertilizer prices are rising, despite the country being a major producer. Logistics costs are increasing – gasoline, cars, transport.
Climate anomalies have been added to the traditional problems. "This has never happened before: weather anomalies occur, which negatively affect the harvest. There may be an early warm spring, everything begins to bloom, and then at the end of April - beginning of May there are terrible frosts, and, naturally, many crops perish," says Lyandau.
The second and perhaps more painful aspect, according to Lyandau, is the greed of retail chains. According to him, they have effectively divided the Russian market and are setting astronomical trade markups.
VOICE OF THE EARTH
Tatarstan farmer Ramil Fakhriev told Regnum how these problems affect producers. He explains the disproportion between agricultural prices and wages using the example of bulls.
Previously, they were sold for 100 thousand rubles - this was three months' salary of the average worker in the region. Now many receive 100 thousand or more per month, and bulls are still sold for the same 100 thousand.
Farmers are trapped: prices for their produce have increased only slightly, while expenses have increased dramatically. Fakhriev notes that due to the increase in fuel costs and wages, farmers have not become richer from the price increases.
According to him, the situation has become so difficult that many colleagues are simply abandoning agriculture.
"I run a thematic group on a social network, and many people there have started selling their livestock because keeping them is becoming unprofitable. As a result, people start doing other things. It's easier for them to slaughter their livestock, drop everything, go somewhere to work and earn money there - it's much more profitable," the farmer shares his observations.
NEED SUPPORT
The system of state support for agricultural producers has drawn particular criticism. Fakhriev explains that subsidies are only given for dairy production and that if bulls are kept for meat, subsidies are not given.
In order to receive support, you need to have at least six cows. The farmer notes that it is not easy for an ordinary peasant to grow such a farm.
Fakhriev gives another illustrative example: "I need a tractor today. This tractor costs a million rubles with all the equipment. If I take out a loan, I won't be able to service it.
On the other hand, if I have a million in spare money, I have two options: buy a tractor and start farming, or put the money in the bank and just earn interest. Today, earning interest is more profitable."
PROFIT ABOVE ALL ELSE
Yuri Lyandau gives a harsh assessment of the actions of retail chains: according to him, they are taking advantage of the situation and trying to earn as much as possible.
He says that some of them are discussing the introduction of dynamic pricing. Lyandau cites existing examples of trade manipulations - in the Moscow region, on weekdays, the price of food is one, and on weekends - another, because many summer residents come.
The seasonal price increase looks especially cynical: "Even in December, in the second half of the month, prices increase significantly. And we say that this is not some kind of 10% inflation, but a twofold increase, simply because it is the New Year holidays and everyone understands that they will buy everything anyway."
THE RICH ALSO CRY
The situation with delicacies is also difficult. Imported products have become significantly more expensive due to the fall of the ruble and problems with logistics.
“In our restaurant, oysters have gone up in price by 15%, truffles by 20%,” says the chef of one of Moscow’s fine dining restaurants. “ Customers sometimes complain, but they still order.”
WHAT'S NEXT?
The forecast of the interlocutors of IA Regnum does not inspire optimism. Yuriy Lyandau warns that prices will continue to go up. In his opinion, there will be a gradual increase at the level of inflation, but he will not be surprised if prices for some types of products, especially susceptible to shortages, increase by 30%.
The economist identifies two factors for further price growth: growth due to inflation and rising cost prices, as well as the unregulated activities of retail chains with their inflated markups.
Fakhriev is also skeptical about the future: according to him, if he continues to raise prices, he will lose customers.
For now, it works as it always has, but it will only recruit a new batch of animals after careful calculations of profitability.
SYSTEM SOLUTIONS
Most likely, without systemic changes, the situation will only get worse. Lyandau insists on the need for state regulation of the pricing process for products manufactured in Russia.
Farmer Fakhriev proposes specific measures: he would like small and beginning farmers to be given subsidies for small-sized equipment and business development. In his opinion, this would help increase production.
The situation with food prices has become one of the main social issues in Russia. Simple products have become a serious expense item, and farmers have become a risk group.
Without systemic measures to support agricultural producers and regulate trade markups, the situation will only get worse, warn IA Regnum’s sources.
The Pakistanis have indeed claimed that ever since they first sent jihadis in to conquer Kashmir before Pakistan was separated from India at independence. Granted, they only managed to get partway across before the Indians stopped them, but one of these times the jihadis they’ve financed, equipped, and trained will finally succeed in finishing the job — completely uncontrolled, really.
[Regnum] Several explosions occurred in the capital of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the city of Srinagar, on the evening of May 10. This was reported by the region's chief minister Omar Abdullah.
The blasts came hours after India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire agreement.
"What just happened to the ceasefire? Explosions are heard all over Srinagar," Abdullah wrote on his social media page.
CNN reported that there were “multiple” explosions. ANI reported that drones were seen in the skies over Udhampur. According to these reports, the air defense system was activated and the city’s electricity was cut off.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, earlier on May 10, US President Donald Trump said that India and Pakistan, with Washington's mediation, had agreed to a complete ceasefire. The parties confirmed this statement, and the ceasefire came into effect.
And very exciting it was, too, until the parties of the Pakistani part broke it. Mr. Wife, who worked in India once upon a time, thought it might actually last only minutes. I thought they would hold on at least until midnight, to keep President Trump sweet. Mr. Wife won, darn it.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio added that, in addition to the ceasefire, the parties to the conflict also agreed to meet on neutral territory and discuss "a wide range of issues."
The conflict between India and Pakistan began to escalate on April 22, after a terrorist group attacked tourists in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. At least 27 people were killed in the attack. The attackers managed to escape.
Pakistan’s Lashkar-e Taiba pretending to be a local “resistance” group.
On May 6, India launched Operation Sindoor, declaring it was targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan. Pakistani authorities said the Indian military had targeted civilian targets.
They did say that, yes. That’s how they define where they park their pet jihadi groups — the traditional Arabic term is ribat, a base to house fighters while they rest and prepare for the next attack to expand the ummah.
There have been several exchanges of fire along the border between the two countries, and there have been reports of dogfights between fighter jets, drone strikes and missile strikes. Both sides have accused each other of attacking civilian targets and have expressed their willingness to stop escalating in the wake of their adversary.
The Pakistani side violated the agreement with India on establishing a ceasefire, Indian First Deputy Foreign Minister Vikram Misri said on May 10.
"There have been repeated violations of the agreement reached earlier this evening between the Directors General of Military Operations of India and Pakistan in the last two hours," Misri told reporters.
He stressed that the Indian Armed Forces are giving an adequate response to violations. The Indian diplomatic mission called on Pakistan to take appropriate measures to eliminate violations and "treat the situation seriously and responsibly."
Misri added that the Indian Armed Forces "have been instructed to deal decisively with any instance of recurrence of border violations along the international border."
As reported by Regnum news agency, the conflict between India and Pakistan escalated after a terrorist group attacked a group of tourists in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir on April 22. At least 26 people were killed in the attack.
Two days later, India blocked the flow of the Indus River into Pakistan and expelled Pakistan's military attachés. In turn, Pakistani authorities suspended bilateral agreements with New Delhi, closed Indian airspace, and declared that any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water would be considered an act of war.
There have been several exchanges of fire along the border between the two countries, and there have been reports of dogfights between fighter jets, drone strikes and missile strikes. Both sides have accused each other of attacking civilian targets and have expressed their willingness to stop escalating in the wake of their adversary.
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Soviet interplanetary spacecraft Cosmos-482, which was launched in 1972 to explore Venus but did not leave near-Earth space, has ceased to exist. This was reported by the press service of Roscosmos.
The device left orbit under the control of the automated warning system for dangerous situations and sank into the ocean.
It was a noble effort. Now the world ocean is its tomb.
“According to calculations by specialists from JSC TsNIIMash (part of Roscosmos), the device entered the dense layers of the atmosphere at 09:24 Moscow time, 560 km west of Middle Andaman Island, and fell in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta,” the statement said.
"Cosmos-482" was the second of the devices sent to Venus in the spring of 1972. Four days apart, on March 27 and 31, the USSR launched two similar automatic interplanetary stations. The first device, "Venera-8", successfully reached the planet and spent a little over 50 minutes on its surface. The station managed to transmit data on the environment to Earth, including the composition of the atmosphere and soil, having fully completed its task.
The second Venera-72A spacecraft reached near-Earth orbit after the first three stages of the Molniya-M launch vehicle operated normally. However, due to a malfunction of the booster engine, the station could not be launched into an interplanetary trajectory. The spacecraft remained in a high elliptical orbit and began to gradually approach Earth. The unsuccessful launch was not announced, and the spacecraft that remained near the planet was named Cosmos-482.
Earlier, Roscosmos reported on the correction of the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) using the Progress MS-30 spacecraft to prevent a possible collision with fragments of space debris. On May 1, the spacecraft turned on its engines, which worked for almost 213 seconds. This impulse was enough to increase the station's orbit by about 540 m. The average orbital altitude reached 418.74 km.
[IsraelTimes] Despite saying it would act on Trump’s plan to depopulate the Strip, Israel has allowed just 550 people out since March, after months-long efforts by humanitarian groups and foreign governments
At a February presser alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... outlined a proposal to relocate 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... ’s roughly 2 million residents to third-party countries.
In response, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced the creation of a new governmental body — a "Voluntary Emigration Directorate" — tasked with facilitating the exit of hundreds of thousands of Gazooks. A retired IDF colonel, Yaakov Blitshtein, was appointed to head the directorate in late March.
"Emigration from Gaza will begin within weeks," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a February 15 interview with Channel 12.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel stated on April 7 at a conference organized by Yedioth Ahronoth: "More than 16 flights have departed from Ramon Airport carrying Gazooks who requested to leave the Strip — and this is only going to increase."
In recent months, Israeli media have widely reported on flights evacuating Gazooks from the Strip, presenting this as part of Trump’s plan. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... Israel has not officially disclosed how many Gazooks have left at any time during the war.
When The Times of Israel contacted the Population and Immigration Authority — a body facilitating Gazook departures — officials referred the inquiry to the Defense Ministry, which declined to respond.
The Times of Israel likewise found no meaningful change in Israel’s exit policy for Gaza residents in recent months.
Despite reports of increased movement through the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to a source familiar with the issue who talked to The Times of Israel, and public announcements by foreign countries and humanitarian organizations, only about 600 people have left the Gaza Strip in the past two months, since the collapse of the most recent ceasefire.
This is a relatively small number compared to the exodus earlier in the conflict.
For comparison, according to Egyptian media reports, around 103,000 people exited Gaza through the Rafah crossing between November 2023 and May 2024. Additionally, during the second ceasefire between February 1 and March 17 of this year, 4,259 Gazooks — including patients, maimed individuals, and their family members — were evacuated from the Strip for medical treatment abroad.
LEAVING GAZA REQUIRES INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION
Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the body under the Defense Ministry responsible for coordinating the movement of Gaza residents, has maintained that the only criteria for exiting Gaza — both before and throughout the war — are severe illness or injury, or foreign citizenship. In all cases, residents cannot apply directly to COGAT; an international organization must submit the request on their behalf.
It is notable that many countries accepting patients from Gaza during the war, including the UAE and various European states, have clarified that these are temporary stays for medical treatment and that the individuals are expected to return afterward.
Since the war began, the World Health Organization has been responsible for coordinating the evacuation of patients and their companions from the Gaza Strip. From November 2023 to May 2024, evacuations occurred via the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Following the Israeli ground operation in Rafah on May 6, 2024, the crossing was closed.
In June 2024, Israel began allowing patients to exit Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel and then into Jordan by vehicle via the Allenby Bridge. From Jordan, they were flown abroad.
Israel does not allow Paleostinians to fly through Ben-Gurion Airport, the country’s central international hub, except in rare cases such as high-ranking Paleostinian Authority officials who receive special permission. Since last February, some Gazook patients have been allowed to fly directly from Israel via Ramon Airport in the Negev in the south of Israel. (Until then, Ramon Airport in southern Israel was not used for international flights.)
The WHO publishes an online chart that is updated every few weeks to show the number of individuals evacuated from Gaza. According to the data, from the collapse of the ceasefire on March 18 until May 6, a total of 310 people — patients and companions — were evacuated.
FOREIGN NATIONALS STILL WAITING TO EXIT
To exit Gaza as a foreign citizen — including dual citizens — during the war, the individual’s country must submit a formal request to COGAT and provide proof of citizenship and presence in Gaza. Gazook residents cannot request exit permits from Israel directly.
When the Rafah crossing was open from November 2023 to May 2024, foreign nationals used it to reach Egypt. Most were asked to pay between $2,000 and $5,000 per person to Egyptian companies managing the crossing.
Notably, even Gazooks without foreign citizenship were able to leave by paying the same amount, including senior Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... figures such as the Hamas-run health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, who reportedly exited the Strip this way during the war.
Following Israel’s operation in Rafah and the subsequent closure of the crossing in May 2024, foreign nationals could no longer leave Gaza through that route.
In August, COGAT responsed to a query from Gisha, an Israeli organization that helps protect the freedom of movement of Paleostinians — especially Gaza residents — by stating that Israel would be willing to allow the departure of Gazooks with foreign citizenship through Israeli territory, provided that their countries submitted an official request and furnished documentation confirming their planned travel via Egypt or Jordan, including letters of non-objection from those countries.
According to a source familiar with the issue who spoke with The Times of Israel, 10 Gazooks with foreign citizenship left the strip between August 2024 and February 2025 by crossing through Israel into Jordan.
During the most recent ceasefire, Israel did not permit foreign nationals to exit through the Rafah crossing, allowing only maimed and sick individuals to leave.
According to Gisha, representatives of foreign governments were informed that only Gazooks physically present in the Strip with foreign citizenship would be eligible for exit, not those with relatives abroad holding foreign passports. COGAT confirmed to The Times of Israel that eligibility was strictly limited to holders of foreign citizenship, not those with visas or other legal residency forms.
FOREIGN CITIZEN TRAPPED IN GAZA FOR 15 MONTHS
One of the individuals who managed to leave Gaza in February is Ahmad (a pseudonym), a 33-year-old Gaza resident and European citizen. His wife and two daughters live in Europe, where he has resided for the past decade. He requested that his full name and identifying details not be published.
In September 2023, Ahmad traveled to Gaza for a family visit. Once the war broke out, he attempted to leave and return home. His first attempt via Rafah was denied by Israel on the grounds of "security concerns." Later, with legal assistance from Gisha, he petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice to leave. Israel responded after long months that it had no objection to his departure, and a week after the petition was withdrawn, his exit via Kerem Shalom crossing was coordinated.
Ahmad left Gaza after 15 months of trying, despite holding foreign citizenship and having immediate family abroad.
In a WhatsApp conversation with The Times of Israel, Ahmad described the experience as deeply frustrating: "Throughout the process, the official bodies responsible for handling this had failed. The citizen is the last priority."
GAZANS LEAVE FOLLOWING REQUESTS BY FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS
Despite official Israeli statements asserting that only foreign nationals or individuals in need of urgent medical care are allowed to exit Gaza, approximately 290 Gaza residents have left the Strip since the March collapse of the ceasefire. According to foreign media reports, official statements, and a source familiar with the issue who spoke with The Times of Israel, they left through foreign government intervention and not for medical reasons, and some of them did not have foreign citizenship.
Although COGAT told The Times of Israel that the only valid exit criteria are illness, injury, or foreign citizenship, several Gazooks have traveled to Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... over the past two months without meeting these conditions. For example, 13 students left for Ireland on student visas, and several individuals traveled to La Belle France, including Gazooks who had worked for French institutions in Gaza, their relatives, academics granted scholarships, and students with study visas.
When The Times of Israel asked which documents were required for these exits to be approved, the embassies of Ireland and La Belle France in Israel declined to respond. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... the French embassy confirmed that it had worked for several months to secure the departure of those Gaza residents.
Among them were the 13 students accepted to academic institutions in Ireland, along with family members of Irish citizens. The Irish embassy in Israel declined to specify the total number of evacuees. One Irish newspaper reported that among them was a 74-year-old woman, the mother of an Irish citizen, who had waited 18 months to leave Gaza.
In addition, 21 people were flown to Sweden, 175 to La Belle France, 24 Belgian citizens and their relatives to Belgium, and 50 German nationals and their families to Germany. A source familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity, said that additional Gazooks had left for Canada — likely relatives of Canadian citizens — as well as for the UK. The Canadian and British embassies in Israel did not respond to inquiries regarding the exact number of people evacuated.
Except for one instance — a March 31 flight that took 33 German nationals and their relatives directly to Germany — all others were transferred from the Kerem Shalom crossing through Israel to Jordan by vehicle and then flown onward to Europe.
Many of these individuals had reportedly been trying to leave Gaza for months, some since the start of the war. Following the March 31 evacuation to Germany, German officials acknowledged: "We would have preferred to do this sooner — it took us time."
In total, at least 284 people are confirmed to have left Gaza for foreign destinations. The exact number is unknown, but given the significant restrictions imposed by foreign governments and Israel, it is unlikely to be much higher.
The International Committee of the Red Thingy helped coordinate the exit of these residents and foreign nationals through the Kerem Shalom crossing. It declined to tell The Times of Israel how many people it assisted over the past two months.
ISRAELI STATEMENTS CONTRADICT REALITY
The Israeli organization Gisha reported that it had recently received inquiries from 150 Gaza residents who had been accepted to study abroad but were still unable to leave the Strip. COGAT has stated that acceptance to academic programs overseas does not meet the criteria for exit.
Shai Greenberg, spokesperson for Gisha, told The Times of Israel: "Since the beginning of the war, thousands of people have been trapped in the Gaza Strip — including foreign nationals, patients in need of life-saving medical treatment unavailable in Gaza, students accepted into graduate programs abroad, and individuals eligible for family reunification in various countries.
"This is part of a systematic violation of fundamental rights — including freedom of movement and the right to family life for both those trapped and their relatives in Gaza and abroad — as well as the rights to health, bodily integrity, education, and livelihood," Greenberg stated.
Ahmad, who left Gaza in February after 15 months of effort, told The Times of Israel he knows many foreign nationals who remain stuck in the Strip.
"I know a lot of people with foreign citizenship or permanent residency abroad who are still trapped in Gaza — some of them are close friends. Only one of them managed to leave, about 20 days ago," he said.
In early April, several dozen Gazooks with Egyptian citizenship held a protest inside Gaza, demanding that the Rafah crossing be reopened so they could travel to Egypt.
The World Health Organization estimated in early March that between 11,000 and 13,000 people in Gaza still required urgent evacuation for medical treatment — a figure released before the current round of hostilities resumed nearly two months ago.
On March 3, during a Knesset session, Smotrich, who also holds a ministerial role in the Defense Ministry, announced the establishment of an Emigration Directorate.
"This initiative is being prepared under the leadership of the prime minister and the defense minister. The budget will not be an obstacle — if we remove 5,000 people a day, it will take a year," he said.
The data, however, appears to be in stark contrast to official Israeli rhetoric promising and encouraging the emigration of Gaza residents. Even under Israel’s strict criteria — limited to foreign nationals and those requiring urgent care — only a small number of Gazooks have successfully exited the Strip.
[IsraelTimes] Military says some 60 terror targets across Gaza hit in past day; Hamas authorities report over 20 killed and dozens more wounded
The Israeli military said Saturday that it was close to defeating all remaining Palestinian terror operatives in southern Gaza’s Rafah, with fighting now only taking place in the Janina neighborhood.
Troops of the Golani Brigade have been operating in Janina in recent days. The Israel Defense Forces said the soldiers had destroyed terror infrastructures, located dozens of tunnel shafts and killed dozens of operatives.
“Janina is the last area where fighting against terrorists in the Rafah Brigade is taking place,” the military said.
Four IDF soldiers have been killed and several others have been wounded during fighting in the Janina area in the past week.
Meanwhile, the military said that over the past day, the Israeli Air Force had struck some 60 terror targets across the Gaza Strip. Hamas authorities reported 23 killed and dozens more wounded in the previous 24 hours.
In the Strip’s north, the IDF said troops of the 252nd Division killed two gunmen who approached forces; in the Morag Corridor area, the 36th Division struck a booby-trapped building where several operatives were located; and in Rafah, Gaza Division forces destroyed Hamas infrastructure both above and below ground.
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said that five people were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent in Gaza City — all members of a single family, according to relatives. The figures could not be verified and did not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
“Three children, their mother and her husband were sleeping inside a tent and were bombed by an [Israeli] occupation aircraft,” family member Omar Abu al-Kass told AFP. The strikes came “without warning and without [them] having done anything wrong,” Abu al-Kass alleged, saying he was the children’s maternal grandfather.
Awful things happen to people in war zones. Next time don’t start a war, and things like this won’t happen.
The Israeli army, which resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the strike. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
On Saturday morning, the army said that nine IDF soldiers, including two senior officers, were lightly wounded by an explosive device in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood overnight.
The troops of the Jerusalem Brigade were carrying out scans in Shejaiya when the blast went off. Among the wounded were the commander of the Jerusalem Brigade’s 6310th Battalion and the deputy commander of the 252nd Division. All were taken to a hospital in good condition, the army said.
Sources close to Hamas said Friday that a delegation from the terror group held two meetings with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Doha this week, but they produced no breakthrough in the search for a Gaza truce.
The developments come as Israel and the US look to resume aid deliveries to Gaza while preventing food, medicine and other basic items from being hoarded by Hamas, as they say the terror group has repeatedly done with past supplies.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that US President Donald Trump expressed frustration with his promised tasks of ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza in a meeting with top donors in Florida last week. Citing people who were in the room, the report said that Trump had said finding a solution in Gaza was difficult because “they’d been fighting for a thousand years.”
Hamas doesn’t want to end the war, they want the world to force Israel to surrender. President Trump thought the same way the Israelis did on 10/6/2023 — now he has learnt what they did.
Gazan media claims 8 killed in overnight Israeli strikes near Khan Younis
Palestinian media reports claim eight have been killed, including children, in Israeli strikes overnight near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, amid escalating fighting between the IDF and the Hamas terror group in the Strip.
A drone strike is also reported hours later in Khan Younis’s Al-Amal neighborhood.
Hamas authorities reported 23 killed and dozens more wounded during the previous 24 hours.
The strikes come as ground troops continue to operate in Gaza.
In the Strip’s north, the IDF says troops of the 252nd Division killed two armed terror operatives who approached forces; in the Morag Corridor area, the 36th Division struck a booby-trapped building where several operatives were; and in Rafah, Gaza Division forces destroyed Hamas infrastructure both above and below ground.
Walla, without citing sources, claims two tanks with 75,000 liters of fuel entered Gaza on Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) denies this, saying that no aid, including fuel, entered Gaza this week. There are no Palestinian reports of the fuel entering the Strip either.
Israel stopped allowing aid into Gaza on March 2 after the first phase of a ceasefire and hostage release deal concluded. It is set to resume aid deliveries in the coming weeks, as part of a US-backed plan that aims to prevent food and supplies from reaching Hamas.
[IsraelTimes] Former captive recalls currying terrorists’ favor by taking care of cooking, maintenance in tunnel where he was held alone for some 400 days after his friends Maya and Itay Regev were freed
Omer Shem Tov, who was released from Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... captivity in March as part of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ceasefire-hostage deal, has said his captors cursed, starved and spat on him, and once threatened to shoot him if he would not agree to help collapse a booby-trapped building on IDF troops.
"If you don’t do it we’ll shoot you in the head," Shem Tov recalled his captors saying. "I told them: Then shoot me in the head. I have no intention of doing it."
Shem Tov said he managed to stay on his captors’ good side by amusing them and performing menial tasks. One night in captivity, however, when the IDF was operating nearby, he decided to carry out a plan to kill his captors and escape. "There was no other way," he said.
When all his captors were asleep, Shem Tov said, he quietly took hold of one of their weapons. But then he let go of the weapon and went back to his cell. He told Channel 12 in an interview broadcast this week that he believed the reason he got cold feet was fear the gun would jam.
Shem Tov was snatched from the Reim-area Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led snuffies stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza. He was kidnapped along with his friends, siblings Maya and Itay Regev, who were released in the November 2023 weeklong truce-hostage deal.
Murdered hostage Ori Danino, whom the three had met the night before, managed to flee but came back with a car to save them.
"I opened the door and shoved Maya and Itay inside," said Shem Tov. "Ori kept on saying, ’keep your head down, keep your head down’... He really looked out for us."
They drove away but soon ran into snuffies who were blocking the road with two pickup trucks. The snuffies opened fire, according to Shem Tov. He recalled one coming up to him, grabbing him by the shirt and tossing him to the ground before beginning to beat him. He could also see snuffies remove Itay and Maya from the car, both with bullet wounds in their legs. Maya’s leg was "just dangling in the air," said Shem Tov.
He and the two siblings were loaded onto a pickup truck and driven to a small storage unit in Gaza, Shem Tov said, recalling the shouts of "Allahu Akbar" he could hear from outside. In the storage unit, Shem Tov was ordered to climb down into a hole in the ground. Once underground, he was met by an armed terrorist and was made to lie on the floor.
Shem Tov said his first instinct was to make nice with the terrorist. "I ask him, ’What’s your name?’ And he tells me his name, and then I tell him my name," recalled Shem Tov, adding that the terrorist had not asked.
"I say to him, ’I’m Omer,’ and then he says to me, ’Do you know Eden Ben-Zaken?'" Shem Tov said, referring to the Israeli pop singer.
"I told him I do, and he says: ’Sing me a song.’ So I sing Queen of Roses," Shem Tov chuckled, referring to Ben Zaken’s 2015 hit. "Just the chorus... he even continued after me."
From there, Shem Tov was taken to his first cell. He said the first thing he thought of there was Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier whom Hamas kidnapped in 2006 and released five years later in exchange for over 1,000 Paleostinian terrorists, many of serving life terms for murder — including Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who criminal masterminded the October 7 onslaught. Shem Tov said he thought at this point that he, too, would remain in Gaza for five years.
Forty minutes later, snuffies brought in a heavily bloodied Itay Regev, said Shem Tov, adding: "I said, thank God, I have Itay now." After a few minutes, Shem Tov said, the snuffies also brought in Itay’s sister Maya, but removed her two minutes later to an adjacent room.
’WE’LL BE BACK IN A WEEK’
Shem Tov recalled asking the captor who stayed in his room how many Paleostinian prisoners he would be worth in an exchange. The captor said fifty. The answer gave Shem Tov hope, he said.
"I look at Itay and I say to him, ’Oh that’s great, it’s all good,'" said Shem Tov. "’Gilad Shalit was like a thousand, we’ll be back in a week, it’s all good.'"
One night, Shem Tov recalled, he and Itay were awaken by the whistle of a bomb. Moments later there was a massive boom, and the window of their cell shattered, Shem Tov said. He and Itay clutched onto each other’s hand, Shem Tov. "I think we even fell asleep like that," he added.
Three days after the air raid, Shem Tov and Itay were moved to a new apartment. But their new quarters were also rattled by air raids, Shem Tov said, recalling one night when he was sure the building would collapse and kill him. When the building stopped shaking, a terrorist covered in dust came in informed them that ten buildings were felled in the raid, Shem Tov said.
The captor in that apartment had a television in the next room, which played Al Jazeera. Shem Tov said one night, the door of his room was left slightly ajar and he was able to watch a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the Gaza war.
The premier’s message, Shem Tov said, was that "the main goal is to destroy Hamas."
"He didn’t say, ’we’ll bring them back home.’ He didn’t say, ’there’s a deal.’ He didn’t say anything like that," said Shem Tov. "When it was over, I went back to Itay, and he said, ’What, what did he say?’ he recounted. "And I told him, ’Everything’s fine, he said they’ll bring us back home.'"
"And then I started thinking about... my parents, my family," said Shem Tov. "The suffering they are going through now."
Shem Tov would remain alone in captivity after the November 2023 ceasefire, which saw Hamas release 105 women and kiddies in exchange for 240 Paleostinians detained in Israel. Itay Regev, who was 18 at the time, was released days after his sister, leaving Shem Tov alone.
"Suddenly, there was silence in the apartment," said Shem Tov. "And then began... the fears, the feeling of loneliness. I felt that I was going insane."
’COULD SEE THE BONES OF MY SHOULDERS AND RIBS’
When the fighting resumed after the first hostage deal, Shem Tov was moved a third time. "We walk underground for something like 50 minutes, and we reach a kind of cell, with bars. They open the cell, put me inside and close it," said Shem Tov. "I immediately had an asthma attack. The moment I got there I wasn’t able to breathe."
One of his captors there was a doctor, Shem Tov said. "I was able to explain to him that I have asthma and won’t be able to be here without an inhaler, and they got me an inhaler."
Shem Tov was held in this tunnel in pitch-black darkness, with a light that could hold for barely a couple hours, "and even that gradually decreased," he said, adding that he would disconnect the lamp to conserve energy so he could eat with light.
Shem Tov’s diet in captivity dwindled from two pitas a day to a biscuit and a small amount of salty water, he said. "I was extremely thin, extremely, I could already see the bones of my shoulders and ribs," he said. Ahead of his release, he said, his captors fattened him up with chocolate, chicken and rice.
He said he passed the time by trying to sleep as much as possible so that he could dream of his family and friends. In his waking hours, he would talk with God.
"Everyone asks him for stuff but nobody asks how he’s doing," said Shem Tov. "So I would always start with, ’Are you okay?’... and then first thing, I would express thanks... for being alive, for breathing, for the food I have." Then, he said, he would make requests: "Put me on the right path, help me get home safely... keep my family safe."
Shem Tov was later taken to a larger cell — "from my perspective, the paradise of the tunnels" — where he would be held for some 400 days until his release. For the first time, he was able to shower.
After so much time without bathing, "You can really peel the filth off of you, from the chest and neck... black as coal," Shem Tov said.
He was allowed to eat with his captors, and recalled his captors taunting him for the way he scarfed down his first meal. "They look at me as I’m eating, and I hear them saying, ’pig, pig, Jew pig,'" said Shem Tov. "And I’m eating, I don’t care."
"One day we’re eating and I say to them, I’ll clear" the dishes, said Shem Tov. From that, he said, there developed "kind of an unspoken agreement that... I do things and you just be nice to me. And I ended spending most of my time in the kitchen there."
He said he soon took over cooking and some basic maintenance tasks in the tunnel — so much so that ahead of his release his captors asked him for tips about the place’s upkeep. He also made his captors laugh: When one asked what he wanted to work as, Shem Tov said he wants to be an actor. The terrorist then asked Shem Tov to imitate him. The imitation delighted the captor.
"The fact that I connected with him saved me," said Shem Tov.
Shem Tov was among the last hostages to be released in the the latest hostage release and ceasefire deal. The agreement’s first phase saw Hamas release 33 women, children, civilian men over 50 and those deemed "humanitarian cases." The first phase expired on March 2, a day after Shem Tov was released, amid Israel’s refusal to negotiate the second part, which would have required the IDF to fully withdraw from Gaza.
Hamas sparked outrage in Israel by holding propaganda ceremonies when handing over the hostages to the Red Thingy. At his ceremony, Shem Tov was forced to kiss the head of the snuffies next to him.
"The cameraman came up to me and told me to kiss him on the head," said Shem Tov. "You can see in the video that I’m hesitant... I said, okay, I’ll kiss him on the head and go home."
He said he did not know why he was on the list of hostages to be released. "There shouldn’t be a list. It should be everyone," said Shem Tov. He added that he did not think military force would get the hostages out.
Asked why there were still captives in Gaza, he said: "I think it’s a political issue."
Terror groups in Gaza are still holding 59 hostages, including the remains of a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war. At least 35 captives have been confirmed dead.
[IsraelTimes] After Oct. 7 failures led to the killing of 48 civilian first responders, a grassroots org launches Magen 48 to professionally train security volunteers from 66 Gaza border communities
It looked like something from the hit Israeli television show "Fauda."
In the blinding sun, a line of men wearing army fatigues, bulletproof vests, and ear protection were firing at targets in quick succession, two at a time.
"Most Israeli men are hard of hearing thanks to this kind of noise," said instructors Georgi and Rada, handing this news hound a set of earplugs.
They stood with stopwatches next to each man due to shoot. "Five seconds to shoot five bullets," they barked.
The range they were practicing on is located in the Israel Defense Forces’ 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... Division headquarters near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel, but the 14 trainees were not professional sharpshooters. Rather, they were members of a civilian kibbutz security team on the first day of a new intensive tactical training course.
The course is aimed at ensuring that Gaza border communities can defend themselves against a repeat of the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... -led massacre in southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were slaughtered during the full-scale invasion, and 251 were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.
Kibbutz Gvulot, just over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the Gaza Strip, was not invaded on October 7. Lacking rifles, security team members who had pistols went to help fight forces of Evil in Kibbutz Holit, about a 15-minute drive away.
It is nevertheless one of 66 localities within the Gaza border area — including the city of Sderot — whose security teams are undergoing one day of training per month over the course of a year, for a total of 12 days. Eight of those sessions will count toward the participants’ military reserve duty and are being funded by the IDF, while the remaining four days are paid for by a private NGO, Magen Yehuda, and its program, Magen 48.
First-response security teams on Israel’s borders are the responsibility of the army, with each community required to have at least 24 members who are trained and armed by the IDF. These members, however, are volunteers, often fathers in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns. One of them is appointed commander and may also serve as the civilian security coordinator, whose salary is paid by the army and the local authority.
The group from Kibbutz Gvulot, which hopes to double in size, represented the spectrum of Israeli society. Members included a farmer and a history teacher, and served in a range of combat units such as the Golani and Paratrooper infantry brigades as well as the elite Navy Seals. Many had chalked up hundreds of days of reserve duty in Gaza during the ongoing war against Hamas there.
LOCKED OUT, UNDER-EQUIPPED, AND POORLY COORDINATED
Until the October 7 massacre, the IDF provided men like these with two yearly sessions of limited training, usually at a shooting range.
When Hamas invaded and the army was initially overwhelmed, defense fell largely on the shoulders of these first response teams, 46 of whose members were murdered in the line of duty.
Along the Gaza border, none of the teams had been trained in pistol use. Some lacked assault rifles or were unable to access locked armories. According to a series of IDF post-October 7 probes, training of these teams was not standardized and coordination between them, the army, and other organizations was often poor.
In August 2022, following a series of break-ins and gun thefts, the army instructed all Gaza border security teams to return their assault rifles. It conditioned their return on the installation of safe storage places, either at home or in local armories. The decision left many unable to defend themselves against the massive waves of well-armed invading terrorists.
Because these were not installed in Sderot by October 7, for example, the security team there was not prepared to help defend the city. In all, 53 people were killed in Sderot that day, including 37 civilians, 11 coppers, two firefighters, and three IDF soldiers.
In Be’eri, the two security members with keys to the armory were killed before they could open it, and in Nahal Oz, the armory remained locked when power went out and the only man with a key for manual use was killed.
THE SECRET OF KIBBUTZ EREZ
Immediately after October 7, Ra’anana-based Australian immigrant Ari Briggs teamed up with his long-time friend Elan Isaacson to understand what had happened so that he could brief Jewish communities overseas.
Briggs is a business consultant and former director of the international department at the right-wing Regavim organization. Isaacson, who moved with his family from South Africa to Israel as a child, spent decades growing flowers on an agricultural cooperative near the Gaza border. After the last major flare-up with Hamas in 2014, Isaacson traded chrysanthemum cultivation for the job of security chief at the Eshkol Regional Council.
Traveling between farming communities with Isaacson, Briggs discovered that the security team at Kibbutz Erez had fared better than elsewhere, managing to prevent the forces of Evil from entering the community and avoiding civilian casualties.
One member of the security team, Amir Naim, was killed during the fighting. The team gathered at the highest point in the kibbutz, from which they could see two pickup trucks full of forces of Evil heading their way, Ben Sadan, another member of the squad, told Ynet. They opened fire on them and a ferocious shootout ensued, with "grenades, RPGs, insane gunfire," he said. Naim was critically maimed and died in battle.
During his visit to Kibbutz Erez, Briggs asked the team how they survived, and they said, "’Ehud Dribben’s training.’ So I chased Ehud down," he said.
Dribben, a counterterrorism instructor who has worked with the IDF and police forces and militaries around the world, established the NGO Magen Yehuda (Shield of Judah) in 2004 as a vehicle through which to voluntarily train 64 first-response teams, many of them in the West Bank.
He trained the Kibbutz Erez team before October 7, having been contacted by a mutual friend of one of the team members.
"We had had one to two days of practice each year, mainly at shooting ranges," recalled Danny Epstein, a member of Kibbutz Erez’s security team who helped fight Hamas forces of Evil on the kibbutz fence for three hours on October 7, sustaining a gunshot to his throat.
"We felt the difference as soon as Ehud came in. He told us what the aim was, his security perspective, and what he expected from us as a security team, from working as individuals to members of small cells to a group."
Dribben had them operating under scenarios of live fire, explosions, smoke, and more, and in simulations with maimed people and hostages.
"We carried out exercises that were relatively complex within the kibbutz," Epstein said. "It created a better bond between us. We know how to work better together now."
NO STANDARDIZED TRAINING
Briggs and Dribben conceived of Magen 48 this past August. The name was based on the understanding that 48 security team members had fallen on October 7. Confusingly, the IDF’s Gaza Division, with which Dribben worked on the details of the program, decided to call its project to improve civilian-military relations Magen 46, as two of the fallen were not from the Gaza border area.
An IDF spokeswoman said the army had taken inspiration from the NGO’s name, adding, "These are two separate programs with the same name, with the same aim, and wherever we can, we will help."
Both the IDF and Magen 48 denied that the army has effectively outsourced part of its training to the private sector.
"It’s a trial that the Gaza Division Commander has approved to upgrade the civilian first response teams," said Isaacson. "The army is taking responsibility, and we are supplementing it."
Key to the project are tailored defense plans, 23 of which have been produced so far. These are made after a reserve lieutenant colonel has toured the community with the local security liaison to understand the layout, where attacks are likely to come from, and how it should be defended. Exercises based on the defense plans are conducted twice in conjunction with the IDF. According to Briggs, seeing that the IDF is involved in such a professional initiative is key to rebuilding confidence in the military that was shattered on October 7.
"People said it’s [a job] for the bigger organizations, the government to deal with," Briggs quipped. "But I’m the crazy Australian, and I know that the government comes in once a program is successful."
The standards for the training are the same in all communities, Dribben said, although the trainings are shaped to suit the location that’s being defended.
The course includes tactical skills, communication, various forms of target training, drone reconnaissance, emergency medical strategies, and team leadership training focused on real-time decision-making. Security teams, to which women had also signed up, required the same level of rifle competency as homefront combat soldiers and combat support personnel.
"Every exercise, in every scenario, is timed, measured, and given marks," Dribben said. "The whole system must be rebuilt in a long-term and professional way."
Briggs has been visiting US Jewish communities, urging them to twin with the security teams of different Gaza border settlements to finance four of the 12 training sessions.
It costs $26,000 for one year, 20% less for the second year, and half that sum for the third, as the teams become more experienced. So far, he has raised support for 18 communities.
Isaacson, a keen supporter of the new training scheme, said, "You can have the best schools, the best of everything, but if you don’t have the basics — security — it will be hard to bring the communities back and keep them there."
"It’s 100% the army’s job to defend us," he went on. "But that’s not enough after October 7. Wherever you live in Israel, you need to take responsibility for your family and community."
Briggs added, "You don’t have to be Rambo to defend your community."
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] A new large video from the "Native Workers' Council" dedicated to "Operation Jihad" -the capture of Grozny by Chechen militants in August 1996, which will eventually lead to the actual capitulation of the Yeltsin regime to the militants in Khasavyurt.
An analogue in youtube.com exists and translated into English:
Abstract:
00:00 - political context and background of the operation
01:06:38 - preparation of the operation and forces of the parties
01:23:39 - the longest day
01:55:14 - the 205th brigade enters the battle
02:15:55 - FSB special forces in Grozny
02:23:09 - the "mad company" and the Airborne Forces enter the battle
02:29:21 - results of the first stage of the battle
02:46:29 - GRU special forces in Grozny
02:51:26 - the last attempts to turn the tide
03:10:20 - the first ceasefire and its violation by militants
03:28:55 - "Pulikovsky's Ultimatum"
03:43:50 - the second ceasefire and the end of the battle
03:48:44 - Khasavyurt, results and conclusions
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 21:42 A sapper assault group of the Prizrak battalion successfully clears out a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces north of the settlement of Druzhba in the Toretsk direction —video. 21:23 KVN fiber-optic drones in the hands of Russian drone operators caught a couple of Humvees, chased a Ukrainian militant and struck a British FV103 —video.
19:44 Soldiers from the 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade eliminated a Ukrainian militant using airdrops —video.
18:53 Our UAV operators of the 1442nd Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 3rd Army Corps of the Southern Group of Forces discovered and destroyed with fire an enemy UAV control point along with Ukrainian Armed Forces militants in the village of Predtechino —video.
18:27 Drone operators of the 6th Motorized Rifle Division destroyed a launch point for Ukrainian UAVs in the Kramatorsk-Druzhkovsky direction —video.
17:36 Vladimir Rogov:
In total, at the moment, the Nazi militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kamenka-Dniprovska inflicted at least seven strikes. The old city center is under fire.
16:52 Vladimir Rogov:
Kamenka-Dniprovska under fire from Ukrainian Armed Forces militants. Banderitesleadmassive artillery shelling of this city in the Zaporizhia region.
15:57 Destruction of a Ukrainian Armed Forces militant —video.
15:10 Zaporizhia direction. Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers, against the backdrop of the declared ceasefire by the Russian Federation, decided to lay down their arms and surrender —video.
14:14 Correction of the LBS west of Andreevka, –MAP.
13:30 Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation as of May 10, 2025
In accordance with the decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, based on humanitarian considerations, during the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Victory - from midnight on May 8, groups of Russian troops in the special military operation zone continue to strictly observe the ceasefire and remain at previously occupied lines and positions.
Despite the announcement of the ceasefire, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have not ceased combat operations against Russian troops. They have made four attempts to break through the state border of the Russian Federation in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, as well as 22 attacks and one reconnaissance in force in the areas of the settlements of Tetkino in the Kursk region, Pavlovka, Budki in the Sumy region, Berezniki in the Khar'kov region, Novoegorovka in the Luhansk People's Republic, Lipovoe, Redkodub, Valentinovka, Dzerzhinsk, Romanovka, Novoolenovka, Mirolyubovka, Ulyanovka, Elizavetovka, Troitskoye, Alekseyevka, Novoaleksandrovka, Kotlyarovka, Novosergeevka and Veseloe in the Donetsk People's Republic.
Along the entire line of combat contact, Ukrainian units carried out 2,669 attacks from barrel artillery, tanks and mortars on positions of our troops, as well as 46 using multiple launch rocket systems. In addition, 6,562 strikes and drops of ammunition from unmanned aerial vehicles were carried out.
A total of 9,318 ceasefire violations were recorded.
In these conditions, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are responding in a mirror-like manner to violations of the ceasefire regime by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and will continue to act in accordance with the evolving situation, responding to all criminal encroachments by the Kyiv regime.
Units of the North military grouping inflicted damage on concentrations of manpower and equipment of two territorial defense brigades that did not observe the temporary ceasefire regime in the areas of the settlements of Bessalovka and Pavlovka in Sumy Oblast.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 220 servicemen, four combat armored vehicles, 10 cars and six field artillery guns. An ammunition depot was destroyed.
Units of the "West" military group repelled an enemy attack in the area of the settlement of Lipovoe in the Donetsk People's Republic.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 170 servicemen, two combat armored vehicles, six cars, a 122mm BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system, and a NATO-made artillery piece. A Kraken electronic warfare station and an ammunition depot were destroyed.
Units of the Southern Group of Forces repelled an enemy attack in the area of the settlement of Valentinovka in the Donetsk People's Republic.
The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces amounted to over 110 servicemen, four combat armored vehicles, nine cars and three field artillery guns. An ammunition depot was destroyed.
Units of the Center group of forces repelled eight enemy attacks in the areas of the populated areas of Novoolenovka, Ulyanovka, Mirolyubovka, Elizavetovka, Kotlyarovka, Novosergeevka and Alekseevka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy lost more than 130 servicemen, four combat armored vehicles, nine cars and three field artillery pieces. An electronic warfare station was destroyed.
Units of the "East" group of forces inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of two mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that violated the ceasefire in the areas of the settlements of Bogatyr, Zelenoye Pole and Novopol in the Donetsk People's Republic.
The enemy's losses amounted to 130 servicemen, two combat armored vehicles, four cars and two field artillery guns. A US-made AN/TPQ-48 counter-battery radar station was destroyed.
Units of the Dnepr group of forces defeated formations of the mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that did not observe the ceasefire in the areas of the settlements of Novodanilovka in the Zaporizhia region and Ponyatovka in the Kherson region.
More than 20 servicemen, six vehicles and a field artillery gun were destroyed.
No strikes were carried out by operational-tactical aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces or artillery of the troop groups of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Over the course of 24 hours, air defense systems destroyed a US-made JDAM guided aerial bomb, as well as 86 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the following have been destroyed:
662 aircraft,
283 helicopters,
56,592 unmanned aerial vehicles,
605 anti-aircraft missile systems,
23,265 tanks and other armored combat vehicles,
1,561 combat vehicles of multiple launch rocket systems,
24,624 field artillery pieces and mortars,
35,237 units of special military vehicles.
13:10 Governor of the Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo:
Yesterday, on Victory Day, the Kyiv regime continued to strike on civilian infrastructure on the left bank:
– In the village of Novaya Zburyevka (Golopristansky District), an ambulance from the local Central District Hospital was destroyed by a drone drop. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
– The enemy also shelled Aleshki, Kakhovka, Novaya Kakhovka, Velyka Lepetikha, Dnepryany, Kazachi Lagerya, Novaya Mayachka, and Sagi.
12:15 Governor of Belgorod Region Vyacheslav Gladkov:
Information about Ukrainian Armed Forces strikes on our region over the past 24 hours:
According to updated information, yesterday morning in Belgorod, as a result of an attack by a Ukrainian Armed Forces drone on the building of the Belgorod Region government, two people were injured - all were given the necessary medical assistance.
– In the Belgorod district, 6 drones attacked the villages of Komsomolsky, Oktyabrsky, Belovskoye, Blizhneye, Bochkovka and Krutoy Log, 4 of which were shot down by the air defense system.
In the village of Razumnoye, as a result of falling debris from a downed drone, the roof of a private house was damaged, in the village of Bochkovka, a building on the territory of a farm was damaged by a drone strike.
– In the Borisovsky district, the villages of Bogun-Gorodok, Gruzskoye and Zozuli were subjected to shelling using eight rounds of ammunition and attacks by three drones. In the village of Zozuli, a garage was damaged on the territory of a private home.
– In the Valuysky Municipal District, 13 drones were struck in the city of Valuyki, the settlements of Dalniy, Urazovo, the villages of Borki, Gladkovo and Dolgoe, six of which were suppressed and shot down.
In the city of Valuyki, the glazing of an apartment building and a truck were damaged, and reeds also caught fire - firefighters extinguished the fires. On the Gladkovo - Pominovo highway, one unit of special equipment was damaged, in the settlement of Urazovo - the fence of a private house, an outbuilding and an infrastructure communications facility.
– In the Volokonovsky district, in the village of Tishanka, an explosive device was dropped from a drone tonight – a building and equipment on the territory of the enterprise were damaged.
– In the Grayvoronsky municipal district, 15 rounds of ammunition were fired at the settlement of Gorkovsky and the village of Bezymeno during three attacks and five drones were attacked, one of which was shot down. Without consequences.
– In the Krasnoyarsk region, the villages of Grafovka, Kolotilovka and Terebreno were subjected to two artillery attacks, during which 10 rounds of ammunition were fired, and attacks by three drones. Information about the consequences is being clarified.
– In the Shebekinsky municipal district, in the city of Shebekino, the villages of Voznesenovka, Ziborovka, Malomikhaylovka, Meshkovoye, Murom, Novaya Tavolzhanka, Rzhevka and Sereda, 34 drones were attacked, of which 24 were suppressed and shot down.
In the city of Shebekino, a fence of a residential building was damaged, in the village of Meshkovoye - a communications infrastructure facility, in the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka - a private house, in the village of Murom, a private home was destroyed by fire.
– An air defense system shot down an aircraft-type drone over the Yakovlevsky municipal district. There were no consequences.
11:26 Criminal Kyiv regime continues to shell the civilian infrastructure of populated areas on the left bank of the Kherson region.
Yesterday, during the day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces released:
– According to n.p. Novaya Kakhovka four rounds;
– Four rounds in the village of Novaya Mayachka;
– Four rounds to the settlement of Velikaya Lepetikha;
– Three rounds in the village of Novaya Zburyevka;
– According to n.p. Kakhovka three rounds;
- Five rounds in the village of Aleshki.
An ambulance was damaged as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Novaya Zburyevka. During the night, the Kiev regime continued shelling civilian infrastructure in the villages of Sagi, Dnepryany, Novaya Mayachka, and Kazachi Lageri, firing a total of 14 rounds from cannon artillery.
Civilian casualties and destruction of infrastructure are being clarified.
10:53 In these photos you can see more destroyed Ukrainian militants —photo.
10:17 Telegram channel «WarGonzo»:
Frontline report for the morning of 10.05.2025
- Zaporizhzhya Front. No significant changes in LBS. Positional battles continue in a number of areas, which have further reduced their intensity since the declaration of the ceasefire.
– Donetsk Front. In the Pokrovsk direction, fighting continues in Udachnoye and Kotlino. Before the ceasefire, Russian troops were able to consolidate in Zverevo and advance in the direction of Pershe Travnya. Russian troops were also able to consolidate in Kotlyarovka.
Taking advantage of the ceasefire, the Ukrainian Armed Forces broke through to the center of Dzerzhinsk in armored vehicles, but the Ukrainians failed to implement their plan for media coverage of the raising of the flag. The enemy's equipment and personnel were destroyed.
- Sumy direction. There is no need to talk about any stops in connection with the ceasefire. The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to try to break through to the territory of the Kursk region in the Tyotkino area and in several nearby areas. Unsuccessfully.
Also, there are reports of increased enemy activity in the border area, near the settlement of Gornal. Russian troops continue to destroy equipment and manpower of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
09:51 UAV operators of the 6th Guard Army of the "North" group shared materials of objective control of the destruction of the IVECO armored fighting vehicle (Italy) in the Volchansk direction.
09:01 Dnepropetrovsk direction:
Units of the GrT Center continue fierce encounter battles in Novoaleksandrovka and Novosergeevka and advance in the plantings south of Nadezhdinka to Novoaleksandrovka, as well as north of Kotlyarovka to the ravine, having taken the enemy stronghold in the direction of Novosergeevka and reached the approaches to Novonikolaevka (1.8 km to the border of the Dnepropetrovsk region). Fierce encounter battles continue in the Orekhovo-Troitskoye area.
08:09 Tankers of the "Center" group of forces ennobled monument to Hero of the Soviet Union Sergei Elagin.
06:25 Artists of the frontline creative brigade of the "Center" group of troops conducted festive concert in honor of the 80th anniversary of Victory for residents of liberated Avdeevka in the DPR.
[TimesOfIndia] India on Saturday carried out retaliatory precision strikes at identified military targets in Pakistain after Islamabad fired several high-speed missiles at Indian air bases.
"After Pakistain deliberately targeted air bases, Indian armed forces took a quick and well-planned retaliatory action and targeted technical installations, command & control centres, radar sites and arms store. Pakistain military bases at Rafiqui, Murid, Chaklala, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur and Chunian were targeted through air launch, precision ammunition and fighter jets. Radar site in Pasrur and aviation base in Sialkot were also targeted with precision ammunition. During these actions, India ensured minimum collateral damage and losses," Colonel Sofiya Qureshi said at a special government briefing on Operation Sindoor.
Giving details of Pak aggression during the night, Col Sofiya Qureshi said: "Mighty Pak Army is continuously attacking the western borders; it has used drones, long-range weapons, loitering munitions and fighter jets to attack India's military sites. India neutralised many dangers, but Pakistain tried to infiltrate via Air at more than 26 places, and they damaged our equipment and personnel at air force bases in Udhampur, Bhuj, Pathankot, Bathinda. They used high-speed missiles at 1.40am to target Punjab ...1. Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2. A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3. A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots
.... 's air base. They even attacked health facilities and schools."
India reiterated that it was only responding to Pak provocations.
"I have said on numerous earlier occasions, it is Pak actions that have constituted provocations and escalations. In response, India has defended and reacted in a responsible and measured fashion to these provocations and escalations by the Pak side. Earlier this morning, we saw a repeat of this escalatory and provocative pattern," foreign secretary Vikram Misri said.
Early on Saturday, multiple explosions were heard at several locations in Pakistain pointing to Indian punitive action. Pakistain had claimed that its three air bases were targeted - Nur Khan air base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad, Murid air base in Chakwal city and Rafiqui air base in the Jhang district of eastern Punjab province.
Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said that Pakistain Army was moving its troops towards forward areas, indicating an offensive intent to further escalation. "Indian armed forces remain in a high state of operational readiness, and all hostile actions have been effectively countered and responded proportionately. Indian armed forces reiterated their commitment to non-escalation, provided the Pakistain side reciprocates," she said.
Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory the smoke and fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... government slammed Pakistain for attempting to execute a continued malicious misinformation campaign, with claims of destruction of the Indian S-400 system, destruction of airfields at Surat and Sirsa.
"India unequivocally rejects these false claims being spread by Pakistain," the government said and showed time-stamped images of undamaged Indian air bases to debunk Pakistain claims.
[Garowe] In what could significantly impact the fight against al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... snuffies in East Africa, the US government has placed a $10 million bounty on Abdullahi Banati, a suspected al-Shabaab murderous Moslem allegedly behind the Manda Bay terror attack.
The 2020 terror attack, which took the lives of three US citizens, including a serviceman, was the first major attack by the snuffies on a US base within East Africa, leading to an endless search for attackers.
The Department of State Rewards for Justice (RFJ), which was established in 1984 to combat international terrorism, has asked anyone with information that can lead to the arrest of Abdullahi to come forward with the information for quick action.
"Two DoD contractor pilots, both US citizens, were killed when their military aircraft was hit by RPGs on the tarmac of the airfield. A third DoD contractor, also a US citizen, survived the earth-shattering kaboom with serious injuries," reads the RFJ's U.S. Army specialist.
A Kenyan soldier was also maimed during the attack. Abdullahi is said to be a member of the Jaish al-Ayman, an elite group entrusted to carry out attacks on Kenyan soil. It is named after one of its notorious leaders, Maalim Ayman, also known as Dobow Abdiaziz Ali, an ethnic Somali from Mandera County.
Abdullahi Banati was one of the individuals involved in the operational planning of the January 5, 2020, attack on Manda Bay Airfield. al-Shabaab — al-Qa'ida's principal affiliate in East Africa — is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Kenya, Somalia, and neighbouring countries that have killed thousands of people, including US citizens," the RFJ website reads.
Two years ago, Maskim Ayman was also placed on the list of most desperados over the links to the Manda Naval Base attack, which caught the US army unprepared. Senior US Africa Command commanders had also condemned the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) for failing to act swiftly.
The January 5 attack, which saw approximately 30 to 40 snuffies launch mortar rounds and fire rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the base, led to the deaths of four American soldiers. al-Shabaab later grabbed credit for the attack.
The Manda Bay Airfield, which is heavily fortified and with support from a US base in Djibouti, trains the East Africa Quick Reaction Force, which enhances security within the region and safeguards America's interests.
The US Department of State designated al-Shabaab as both a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) in March 2008. The group is under severe attack both in Kenya and Somalia following coordinated operations by the two countries.
SUMMARY
India on Saturday accused Pakistan of violating a ceasefire agreement reached earlier the same day between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both nations. Speaking at a late-night press conference, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said Indian forces had been directed to give a firm response to any further ceasefire breaches along the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border.
“An understanding was reached this evening between the DGMOs of India and Pakistan to halt the ongoing military action. However, in the last few hours, Pakistan has violated this understanding,” Misri stated. He confirmed that Indian forces were already retaliating against the latest cross-border attack, which he called “extremely condemnable.”
Misri held Pakistan fully accountable for the renewed hostilities and called on Islamabad to immediately put an end to these provocations. “The armed forces are maintaining strict vigilance, and instructions have been issued to deal strongly with any further violations,” he added.
Earlier, Misri had confirmed that both sides agreed to stop all military operations — whether by land, air, or sea — from 5:00 pm IST. But within hours, reports of gunfire emerged from Pakistan’s side in the Akhnoor sector of Jammu and Kashmir, along with sightings of multiple drones near the border.
Tensions between the two countries are at their highest in years, sparked by India’s launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7, 2025. Early Friday, powerful explosions shook Jammu city, leading to a complete blackout shortly after Indian forces thwarted Pakistani attempts to hit military targets near the border. Reports suggested that loitering munitions were present in the airspace.
In a similar pattern, loud blasts were heard in the border town of Jaisalmer, while blackouts were enforced across several districts in western Rajasthan bordering Pakistan, throwing entire areas into darkness. A senior official confirmed that explosions continued for nearly an hour.
Several parts of Punjab, Chandigarh, and Haryana — including Panchkula, Ambala, and Sirsa — were also affected by blackouts. These were seen as precautionary steps amid mounting military friction and fears of airstrikes following Operation Sindoor.
The operation itself was launched in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, including 25 Indians and one Nepali national. The strike targeted nine key terror infrastructure sites tied to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), located across both Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Sources said the operation began at 1:05 am and wrapped up by 1:30 am, with follow-up hits reported at 1:44 am. Officials stated that the mission deliberately avoided Pakistani military assets to prevent wider escalation while still delivering a strong counter-terror message.
Key targets included JeM’s base in Bahawalpur and LeT’s hub in Muridke. Other locations hit included sites in Sialkot and Tehra Kalan in Pakistan, and Muzaffarabad and Kotli in PoK. The Indian military described the strikes as "focused, measured, and non-escalatory," exclusively aimed at terror networks. The operation was jointly detailed by Foreign Secretary Misri, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh at a media briefing in New Delhi.
In retaliation, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the strikes as an “act of war,” asserting that Pakistan’s response was already in motion. He declared the full backing of the Pakistani people for their armed forces and warned of further retaliatory action, fuelling fears of a broader conflict.
Back in India, the government defended the move as necessary and justified. At a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the armed forces for their precision and courage. He expressed satisfaction with the success of the operation and emphasised the need for ongoing alertness.
The conflict has drawn international attention. US President Donald Trump commented on the situation, expressing alarm over the worsening scenario. "It’s so terrible," he said, while noting his strong ties with both India and Pakistan. Trump voiced hope that the two sides could bring the hostilities to an end. "Hopefully they can stop now, as they have gone tit-for-tat," he said, offering to assist with de-escalation if required.
04:17 (IST) May 11
Pakistan violates ceasefire: Firing, drones trigger blackouts in J&K, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat
Shortly after the ceasefire pact between India and Pakistan was announced, multiple ceasefire violations and drone intrusions were reported across the western front, including along the LoC and international border in J&K, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. Firing and drone sightings occurred in Rajouri, Jammu, Akhnoor, R S Pura, Udhampur, and Srinagar, triggering explosions and panic. Nearly 50 drones were reportedly shot down over Srinagar, with similar activity noted in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer and Barmer, and Gujarat’s Kutch.
The violations led to widespread blackouts in border districts to avoid detection of targets, as advised by Indian defence authorities. Local administrations in affected regions enforced night-time blackouts, and residents were urged to remain in bunkers. In response to Pakistani aggression, Indian forces retaliated strongly, causing heavy damage to Pakistan Rangers’ posts and destroying a terror launchpad in Sialkot, PoK.
03:47 (IST) May 11
India-Pakistan Tensions Live: Lashkar’s Muridke HQ chief among 140 terrorists killed in Operation Sindoor
India’s covert Operation Sindoor, carried out on the night of May 6-7, resulted in the elimination of around a dozen top-tier terrorists in Pakistan, including IC-814 hijacker Yusuf Azhar, Lashkar’s Muridke head Abu Jundal alias Mudassar, and the son of the 2016 Nagrota attack planner. Sources confirmed that the strikes, launched in retaliation for the recent Pahalgam massacre, killed an estimated 130-140 terrorists. The operation dealt a severe blow to Pakistan's military-terror nexus, as seen in the high-profile funerals of several terrorists, attended by Pakistani military and political leaders.
Among the key targets was Yusuf Azhar, a long-wanted terrorist with an Interpol Red Notice, and Mudassar, who was given a military-style funeral by Pakistan Army. Lashkar's Abu Akasha and JeM’s Mohammad Hassan Khan were also killed. India’s intelligence claimed to possess video proof of military officials at these funerals, confirming direct links between the Pakistani state and terrorist groups. Two major terror hubs—Muridke and Bahawalpur—were destroyed in the strikes. These facilities had been central to planning and training for attacks like Pulwama (2019) and Nagrota. Officials called Operation Sindoor a clear signal of India’s capability to locate and eliminate high-value targets across the border.
03:19 (IST) May 11
Pakistan shelling kills 2 Army men, an IAF Sergeant and a BSF SI in Jammu
Intensified shelling and drone attacks by Pakistani forces across the Jammu region resulted in the loss of four Indian security personnel. Among the casualties were an Army JCO and a rifleman, an IAF sergeant stationed in Udhampur, and a BSF sub-inspector positioned along the international border in the RS Pura sector.
01:31 (IST) May 11
India-Pakistan Tensions Live: Soldier injured in firing at Nagrota Army station in Jammu, search ops underway to track intruder
An alert sentry at Nagrota Military Station thwarted a potential intrusion, sustaining minor injuries during a brief exchange of fire. Simultaneously, a precautionary blackout was enforced in parts of Punjab. India reported ceasefire violations by Pakistan, responding firmly and maintaining a strong vigil along the border and Line of Control after terrorist attack in Pahalgam.
00:21 (IST) May 11
Loud explosions, red streaks and sirens haunt Jammu and Kashmir, border districts again as Pakistan breaches ceasefire: What we know so far
Despite a newly agreed ceasefire, loud explosions and drone sightings have triggered widespread concern across Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Rajasthan, prompting a complete blackout in several districts. Following the explosions in Srinagar, air defense units were activated, while a firing incident occurred at an Army unit near Jammu. Security forces are investigating the threats as tensions escalate.
00:16 (IST) May 11
Ceasefire violations: India accuses Pakistan, orders strong response to border breaches
India on Saturday held Pakistan responsible for breaching a ceasefire understanding reached earlier in the day between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries. Foreign secretary Vikram Misri, addressing a late-night press briefing, said Indian armed forces had been directed to respond firmly to any further violations along the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border.
"An understanding was reached this evening between the DGMOs of India and Pakistan to halt the ongoing military action. However, over the past few hours, Pakistan has breached this understanding," Misri said.
00:11 (IST) May 11
India Pakistan News Live: Nagrota Military Station; Sentry injured in brief gunfire after spotting suspicious movement
A sentry posted at the Nagrota Military Station opened fire after detecting suspicious movement near the perimeter late Friday night, the White Knight Corps said in a statement. Upon issuing a challenge, the sentry was met with retaliatory fire, resulting in a brief exchange.
The sentry sustained a minor injury during the incident but managed to alert security forces immediately. A search operation has since been launched in and around the area to trace the suspected intruder(s).
SUMMARY
India on Saturday blamed Pakistan of breaching a ceasefire understanding reached earlier in the day between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries. At a late-night press briefing, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said Indian armed forces had been instructed to respond firmly to any further violations along the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border.
“An understanding was reached this evening between the DGMOs of India and Pakistan to halt the ongoing military action. However, in the last few hours, Pakistan has violated this understanding,” Misri stated. He confirmed that Indian forces were retaliating against the latest cross-border intrusion, which he termed “extremely condemnable.”
Misri said Pakistan bore full responsibility for the latest escalation and urged Islamabad to act immediately to halt the provocations. “The armed forces are maintaining strict vigilance, and instructions have been issued to deal strongly with any further violations,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Misri announced that the DGMOs had agreed to cease all military activity — including on land, air, and sea — starting at 5:00 pm IST. However, just hours later, firing was reported from the Pakistani side in the Akhnoor sector of Jammu and Kashmir, with multiple drone sightings along the border.
On Friday morning, panic gripped parts of Jammu following air-raid sirens and explosions near the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri. The Border Security Force (BSF) also thwarted an infiltration attempt in Samba late Thursday night. Meanwhile, the Indian Army reported shooting down more than 50 swarm drones during several Pakistani attempts to breach defences.
Advanced air defence systems including L-70, Zu-23mm, and Schilka guns were deployed across critical areas such as Udhampur, Jammu, Nagrota, Akhnoor, Samba, and Pathankot. Unverified reports claimed that a Pakistani Air Force jet may have been downed over the Pathankot sector. Two Pakistani drones were also destroyed in the Naushera sector amid intense artillery exchanges.
The Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) confirmed that key Indian military installations in Jammu, Pathankot, and Udhampur were targeted with drones and missiles, all of which were successfully intercepted with no casualties.
Union home minister Amit Shah chaired an emergency meeting with top officials from border forces and CISF to review security across India’s borders and airports.
Internationally, US Vice President JD Vance, who was in India during the Pahalgam terror attack, called the situation a “regional conflict” and said the US would not intervene but would support dialogue. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has been in touch with global leaders, assuring them that India’s response has been “targeted, proportional, and focused on terror infrastructure.”
India strongly rejected Pakistan’s accusation that it targeted the Neelum-Jhelum hydropower project in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), warning Islamabad against using such “blatant lies” as pretext for further escalation.
Foreign secretary Misri reiterated that the current crisis was triggered by the Pahalgam attack and said the onus now lay on Pakistan to de-escalate. He also accused Pakistan of running a disinformation campaign.
Pakistan, meanwhile, reportedly launched another round of drone and missile strikes on Thursday night, targeting areas including Satwari, RS Pura, and Arnia. All eight missiles were intercepted. Authorities confirmed the recovery of drone and missile debris from multiple sites, offering clear evidence of the assault.
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...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
...every time you hear the phrase 
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
"Tony Poe's (Anthony Poshepny) CIA War" exploring regional involvement in the early 60's explains it pretty well.
[FoxNews] Among the most dangerous jobs that any American can do is guarding prisons, and among the hardest prisons to guard are facilities that hold members of foreign gangs like MS-13. Yet, for some idiotic reason, the mayor of Newark, N.J., and three members of Congress, all Democrats, decided to make that job even more dangerous on Friday.
[FoxNews] New footage posted to X appears to show Rep. LaMoncia McIver barreling through ICE officials at prison gate
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan...
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...1. Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
... the personification of Somali state failure...
