Global Outrage at Israel: Photo Essay

IDF Kills 24, Wounds 93 Palestinians in Gaza

Gaza’s Government Media Office accused Israeli forces of committing “two brutal massacres” overnight by bombing a mosque and a school-turned-shelter and killing at least 24 Palestinians. Some 93 others were wounded in the attacks in central Gaza.

The targeted buildings were identified as the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ibn Rushd School. Both were housing hundreds of displaced people.

The bombings followed 27 Israeli attacks on 27 homes and displacement centres across the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours.

Almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the war. Half of the dead are women and children. Almost 90% of Gaza’s residents are now displaced, amid widespread destruction.

This weekend tens of thousands of people all over the world protested against the Likud-run government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a man indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague for war crimes. Time and space permits only a sampling of the outrage. The Israeli government and its supporters will disparage these thousands and thousands of demonstrators as “Hamas lovers,” “antisemites,” “useful idiots of Iran,” “terrorism supporters,” et cetera et cetera, but rational people know the reality, despite the unfounded accusations, aspersions, rhetoric, and hate speech emanating from Jerusalem and the repetitive, nauseating, droning talking points we’re forced to hear or read in the West.

Police put out a fire after a self-proclaimed journalist self immolated during a pro-Palestinian rally outside the White House in Washington on 5 Oct [Seth Herald / Reuters]

Protesters march during a pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday 6 Oct. (Photo: AAP)

Berlin, Germany [Christian Mang/ Reuters]

Madrid, Spain [Ana Beltran / Reuters]

Copenhagen, Denmark [Ritzau Scanpix / Thomas Traasdahl via Reuters]

Jakarta, Indonesia [Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana/ Reuters]

President Biden has only a few months left in the White House while his legacy is being effectively corroded by war-monger Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, despite President Biden’s brilliant handling of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Biden Administration deployed a stellar cast in Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA Director William Burns to negotiate for a ceasefire and release the hostages, but they were thwarted by Netanyahu. Many Democrats openly suspect that Netanyahu is interfering with the US election by refusing to “seal a deal” or reach a ceasefire to make President Biden look ineffective and thereby help Donald Trump against Kamala Harris this November. Many Arab-Americans have already decided to support Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein, which could siphon off Democratic votes in Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Sources:

(1) Update Live: Israel bombs Beirut, kills 21 Palestinians in attack on Gaza mosque (aljazeera.com)

Thousands join pro-Palestine rallies across Europe as anniversary of Gaza war nears | Euronews

President Biden ‘doesn’t know’ if Netanyahu is trying to influence US election | Euronews

Israeli Settlers Seizing Occupied West Bank Land Under Cover of War; 623 Palestinians Killed Over Past Two Years

Palestinian Alice Kisiya (R), whose family land was taken over by armed Israeli settlers, confronts a settler in the area of al-Makhrour in the occupied West Bank, near Beit Jala, on 22 Aug 2024 (AFP/Hazem Bader)

Over the past year, while much of the world’s attention has been focused on the war on Gaza, several residents of Umm Safa – a picturesque village just 12km north of Ramallah – have been driven from their homes by armed settlers, often aided by the Israeli army.

Settler violence is not a new phenomenon in the occupied West Bank, where large swathes of territory are under Israeli civil and military control. But since the war on Gaza erupted, land seizures and violent attacks aimed at forcing Palestinians to abandon their homes have spiked. The attacks have coincided with sweeping movement restrictions that have seen Palestinians denied access to cities, towns, and villages.

Omar Hamed (17, L) and Jihad Abu Alia (25, R) were killed by Israeli settlers. (Source: BBC News)

In recent months, the settlers – emboldened by the election of far-right leaders of the settlement movement – began levelling the al-Shami and Ras mountains near Umm Safa, with the aim of turning the area into a settlement outpost.

Residents said that when they approached Israeli authorities for help, they were rebuffed and told to return with documents proving their legal ownership of the lands.

After an extensive search, they presented documents dating back hundreds of years to the Ottoman era, showing that they were, in fact, the legal owners.

Hussein Khasib lives in constant fear, knowing he and his family could be next.

“We went to the Israeli civil administration, hoping it would prevent the settlers from seizing our lands. In the end, they [the Israeli officials] told us that the lands were state property and we couldn’t use them,” Khasib reported.

‘The terrorism carried out by settler militias is why many Bedouin communities left,’ said Hassan Malihat, Director of the al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights

You can easily see the difference from this dated map comparing the West Bank population in 1967 to 2017. The situation for Palestinians have since worsened.

In 1995, the Oslo Agreement divided the West Bank into three zones known as Areas A, B, and C.

Area C, which comprises around 60 percent of the West Bank, was meant to be “gradually transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction”. But after a failed peace process in which Israel refused to end its occupation and withdraw militarily, the area remains under full Israeli military and civil control.

Khasib said that the lands currently being levelled were just 15m away from his home. Since the settlers started their construction works, he and his brothers received notices ordering them to demolish their homes.

“Every day, we live in hell,” a distraught Khasib said.

“We don’t sleep at night because they aren’t content with just bulldozing [the land] but also attacking our homes. They want us to leave so they can take over the entire mountain.”

According to the village council in Umm Safa, Israeli settlers have sought to connect the settlements of Halamish (Neve Tzuf) and Ateret, which were established after hundreds of Palestinians were evicted from their ancestral lands. Around 600 dunams (60 hectares) of village land were also confiscated in the 1990s to build the main road leading to the settlements.

There are only 720 Palestinians left in Umm Safa, many of whom lack the land to build new homes. Meanwhile, Israel has closed the village’s eastern and western entrances, severely restricting civilian and commercial movement. The situation in Umm Safa is not new and is part of a broader push by settlers and the Israeli government to take advantage of the war in Gaza to increase pressure on Palestinian communities to flee.

Earlier this year, Israeli authorities approved the seizure of 12.7 sq km of land in the Jordan Valley, indicating it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Israeli settlers gather in the West Bank village of Umm Safa on 26 Sep 2024, as construction begins to level Palestinian land (Fayha Shalash / MEE)

As reported here on Coriolanus, the Biden Administration sanctioned a handful of these extremist terrorist Settlers, but clearly this minor gesture has been ineffective.

Sources:

Israeli settlers are seizing occupied West Bank land under the cover of war | Middle East Eye
Deadly West Bank settler attacks on Palestinians follow Israeli boy’s killing (bbc.com)

Israel Expands Bombardment of Lebanon; Thousands Flee Widening War

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched what the IDF called a “limited ground operation” into southern Lebanon. Russian President Vladimir Putin called his invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation.”

88 Countries of La Francophonie called for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon.

People inspect the rubble of buildings levelled by Israeli strikes, which killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut’s southern suburbs, on 29 Sep 2024 (AFP). Who is going to pay to reconstruct Lebanon and its infrastructure after this carnage?

Powerful new explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs late Saturday as Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon, striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in the north for the first time as it targeted both alleged Hezbollah and Hamas fighters.

Thousands of people in Lebanon, including Palestinian refugees, continued to flee the widening conflict in the region, while rallies were held around the world marking the approaching anniversary of the start of the war in Gaza.

At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes in less than two weeks. Israel says it aims to drive the militant group away from shared borders so displaced Israelis can return to their homes.

The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a brief war in 2006. Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in the ground clashes that Israel says have killed 440 Hezbollah fighters.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters in Damascus that “we are trying to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and in Lebanon.” The minister did not name the countries putting forward initiatives, saying they include regional states and some outside the Middle East.

At least six people in Lebanon were killed in more than a dozen Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday. Nearly 375,000 people have fled from Lebanon into Syria in less than two weeks.

People carry luggage as they cross into Syria by foot through a crater caused by Israeli airstrikes aiming to block Beirut-Damascus highway at the Masnaa Border Crossing, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 5 Oct 2024. Hundreds continued to cross the border on foot.

“We were on the road for two days,” said Issa Hilal, one of many Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are now heading back. “The roads were very crowded … it was very difficult. We almost died getting here.”

Other displaced families now shelter alongside Beirut’s famous seaside Corniche, their wind-flapped tents just steps from luxury homes. “We don’t care if we die, but we don’t want to die at the hands of Netanyahu,” said Om Ali Mcheik.

Three hospitals in south Lebanon were forced to close after Israeli bombings struck two and the other ran out of supplies, displacing a number of doctors from the area and creating concerns around the state of the Lebanese health sector.

Marjayoun governmental hospital and the Salah Ghandour hospital in Bint Jbeil, large healthcare centres along the eastern and western sections of the Lebanese borders, announced their closure after their premises were struck, killing seven and wounding 14 healthcare workers.

“The main hospital of the entrance was targeted as paramedics were approaching. Seven were killed, five were wounded. We considered this a message, so we decided to close,” said Dr Mones Kalakish, the director of Marjayoun governmental hospital. He added that because of the frequent targeting of paramedics in south Lebanon, wounded people had not been able to reach the hospital for the past three days.

“There was no warning to the hospital before they struck. The warning didn’t come over the telephone, it came via bombing,” Kalakish said.

Mays al-Jabal governmental hospital, 700 meters from the Israel-Lebanon border, said hospital staff could no longer perform their role due to a cutoff of supplies.

“Medical supplies, diesel, electricity, none of it was available. Unifil was bringing us water, and now they are unable to move. How can a hospital operate without water?” said Dr Halim Saad, the director of Mays al-Jabal hospital’s medical services.

More than 50 healthcare workers have been killed since 23 Sep, when Israel started an intense aerial campaign in south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley. Paramedics all over the country have been killed and injured by Israeli airstrikes, including in a medical centre in central Beirut, where nine were killed in a strike on Thursday.

97 paramedics had been killed since fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started last year – a number which has grown over the past two days.

The displacement of medical workers due to Israeli bombing has created problems across the country at a time when the number of people wounded by Israeli strikes regularly exceeds 100 a day. The health system in Lebanon, and particularly in the south, is fragile after five years of economic crisis and almost a year of war.

At Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, the largest public hospital in Lebanon, officials said Israeli bombing of nearby Dahiyeh, a southern suburb, had displaced some of its staff, leaving some unable to come to work. The hospital has opened a dorm on its campus to accommodate some of its more vital staff and tried to find housing in safe areas for others.

There is a concern among hospital staff that work conditions in the Beirut hospital could become dangerous, as news of hospitals and paramedics being bombed spreads.

“A person who does not have big responsibilities, they might think to leave. I can’t blame them, they have their own security, own family, own life,” Dr Jihad Saade, the chief executive of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, said. Until now, the hospital has been operating normally.

Displacement of medical staff has primarily affected south Lebanon, where Israeli bombing is more frequent. It is unclear how many people still remain in the south, after Israel ordered people in about 70 villages to evacuate.

More than 2,000 people have been killed and more than 9,535 wounded since fighting started in Lebanon, most of them since 23 Sep.

Sources:

Israel expands its bombardment in Lebanon; thousands flee widening war (voanews.com)

Beirut’s Dahiyeh left deserted and destroyed after brutal Israeli bombardment | Middle East Eye

Three hospitals in Lebanon forced to close amid Israeli bombing | Lebanon | The Guardian

Macron says 88 French-speaking countries have called for ceasefire in Lebanon | Euronews

Kiev: Russia Has Executed 93 Ukrainian POWs Since Start of Invasion

A Russia-backed rebel sniper wears a mask in Debaltseve, Ukraine. Photo: Vadim Ghirda / AP

Ukraine has documented evidence related to the execution of 93 Ukrainian prisoners of war related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

80 percent of the executions occurred this year.

On 1 Oct, the Prosecutor-General’s Office announced it had opened an investigation into what it described as the “largest mass execution” of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian troops since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in Feb 2022.

According to an official statement published on the office’s Telegram channel, Russian forces recently killed 16 Ukrainian “prisoners of war” near the villages of Mykolayivka and Sukhiy Yar in the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk region.

Videos circulated on various Telegram channels appear to show Ukrainian soldiers, freshly captured by Russian troops, emerging from a forested area.

After the prisoners were lined up, Russian soldiers appear to open fire. The videos then appear to show Russian soldiers approaching those who were only wounded and shooting them again at close range with machine guns.

Under international humanitarian law, executing soldiers who have surrendered is considered a war crime.

Kiev alerted the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross over the deaths, citing violations of the Geneva Conventions, which govern the treatment of prisoners of war.

In March, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine published a report that recorded the execution of at least 32 Ukrainian prisoners of war in 12 separate cases from Dec 2023 to Feb 2024.

Sources:

Kyiv Says Russia Has Executed 93 Ukrainian POWs Since Start Of War (rferl.org)

Ukraine-OHCHR-40th-periodic-report.pdf

Vietnam-era Veterans Exposed to Nerve Agents and Hallucinogens in Secret Military Tests Seek Years of Back Benefits

Test subjects in an undated photo enter a chamber where they were exposed to chemical agents as part of military experiments at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. (US Army photo)

Vietnam-era veterans exposed to nerve agents and hallucinogenic drugs in a classified military research program more than 50 years ago are appealing for retroactive disability benefits after a federal court ruling found their constitutional rights were violated.

Now in their 70s and early 80s, the veterans were sworn to silence and restricted from reporting the debilitating health effects from the program, which included paralysis, cancer, depression, and psychosis. They were also restricted from obtaining disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“I never knew what I was given in those tests,” said Frank Rochelle (76) of North Carolina, a former Army corporal whose service from 1968-1970 included a tour in Vietnam. “When I went to file a VA claim, I was told that the tests I took part in had never happened. The records were sealed. I had no way to prove my case.”

But a 2023 court ruling is enabling Rochelle and other service members for the first time to obtain VA disability compensation retroactive to their date of discharge. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 veterans who participated as human test subjects in classified studies that the US Army Chemical Corps conducted at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland are believed to be alive today.

The facility was established in 1948 primarily as a center for researching chemical warfare agents, but military equipment, protective clothing and pharmaceuticals also were tested at the facility. The Vietnam-era veterans were considered volunteers in classified studies that began in 1956. They signed consent agreements prior to participating in experiments but said later they were not informed of the risks.

About 7,000 military personnel participated in the tests until the Army disbanded the program in 1975, according to the DoD. Edgewood Arsenal now functions as the Army’s center for research, tests and development in chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense.

The court found the secrecy agreements that the participants signed, which carried the threat of criminal penalty if violated, effectively denied them due process and disability compensation to which they were entitled.

“This decision importantly opens a pathway for all veterans who are under a secrecy agreement to pursue their claims, whether they are Edgewood Arsenal vets or not,” he said.

Rochelle’s case is pending a higher review in the U.S. Veterans Court of Appeals, which has already ordered retroactive compensation this year in three other cases involving Edgewood veterans.

Jones said though the VA states it now has a process in place for Edgewood Arsenal veterans to file to receive benefits, the agency continues to delay decisions and deny their claims.

The VA does not have figures on how many Vietnam-era veterans have submitted claims for retroactive payments related to illnesses and injuries from serving as test subjects at the Edgewood Arsenal.

In 2023, Army veteran Bob Taylor of Idaho was the first veteran to receive disability compensation retroactive to his military discharge for illnesses and injuries that he suffered after participating in the classified research project.

Taylor’s attorneys first argued in US Court of Appeals for Veterans that he was entitled to compensation back to his discharge date of 1971. Taylor, who served from 1969-1971, has been diagnosed with multiple cancers, depression, insomnia, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

He and other Edgewood veterans said they thought they had volunteered to test military equipment in the 1960s and 1970s but were directed instead to military research labs for human trials using chemical substances they received in gas chambers, by injection and other means.

Taylor was exposed to at least three highly poisonous chemical agents during the Edgewood experiments. Some of the agents were known only by numbered references with the prefix “EA” for Edgewood Arsenal.

They were EA-3580, a form of sarin gas; EA-3547, a derivative of tear gas, and scopolamine, a highly toxic chemical test as a “truth serum” but that can cause psychosis.

The service-connected illnesses and injuries of Taylor and other veterans from the experiments were not recognized by the VA until the secrecy agreements were partially lifted by the DoD in 2006.

“We were lied to about our reasons for going to Edgewood. We thought that the Army was testing equipment to better the forces,” said Rochelle, whose medical problems from his experiences at Edgewood made him “unemployable,” according to VA records. “This has been ignored for 30 to 50 years.”

Source:

Vietnam-era veterans exposed to nerve agents and hallucinogens in secret military tests seek years of back benefits | Stars and Stripes

Gang Kills 70 People in Haiti’s Pont Sondé

Google Maps.

An attack by the notorious Gran Grif gang in the town of Pont Sondé, Haiti, left at least 70 people dead on Thursday, after gunmen armed with automatic rifles opened fire. Among the victims were ten women and three infants.

“As the attacks unfolded, gang members reportedly set fire to at least 45 houses and 34 vehicles, forcing a number of residents to flee,” said a UN official.

The attack comes in the wider context of indiscriminate gang violence across Haiti, leading to an alarming escalation of human rights violations and large-scale internal displacement.

Over 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, making Haiti the country with the largest number of displacements globally due to crime-related violence. Mass displacement has led to widespread insecurity in the nation, with almost half of Haiti’s 11.9 million civilians in dire need of humanitarian assistance. The gang violence against the Haitian population has spread from the capital, Port-au-Prince, to isolated rural areas. The pervasive assaults include sexual violence, kidnapping, looting, roadblocks to intimidate and rob civilians and forced recruitment by armed gangs.

Jimmy “Barbeque” Cherizier (C) is a powerful criminal leader who leads an alliance of gangs in Port-au-Prince. A former police officer, he is openly defiant and does not wear a mask like thousands of gang members in Haiti.

Despite the growing urgency of the crisis, funding for Haiti’s humanitarian response remains critically low and the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan asking for $674 million is currently only 39 per cent funded.

Kenyan police officer who is part of a UN-backed multinational force takes a selfie after landing in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 16 July 2024. Another 200 police officers from Kenya arrived for a UN-backed mission led by the East African country to battle violent gangs that have taken over parts of the Caribbean country. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Sources:

Gang attack in Haiti’s Pont Sondé leaves 70 dead | UN News

Haiti: Horrifying gang attacks leave at least 70 dead | OHCHR

Donald Trump Says He’d Change Name of Fort Liberty, NC Back to Fort Bragg if Elected

Fort Liberty, NC sign greets visitors to the base. This is the home of the 82nd Airborne Division (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes)

Former President Donald Trump said he would change the name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg if he’s elected. Trump made the remarks on Friday night during a town hall in Fayetteville, NC, which is near the military installation.

“I walked in — the first question that I asked — should we change the name from Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg? First question,” he said as the crowd cheered. “Right, so here’s what we do — we get elected, I’m doing it. I’m doing it.”

The renaming of Fort Bragg was part of a controversial three-year process to strip the names of Confederate leaders who took up arms against the US in the Civil War from Army installations. It was part of an effort initiated by top Pentagon officials in 2020.

Congress mandated the Naming Commission in a 2021 annual Pentagon policy bill, giving it the task of identifying items in the Defense Department inventory associated with the Confederacy. Among the items that the commission studied were the names of nine Army installations honoring Confederate generals, including Fort Bragg.

Then-President Trump vetoed the bill, disapproving of the effort to remove Confederate names from the military. Congress overrode the veto, making the changes law. Fort Bragg was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023. Changing the name of Fort Liberty would require congressional approval.

Instead of providing his supporters with a plan or policy on how to deal with global climate change and the hurricanes that have damaged the Carolinas, the ex-President is concerned about changing the name of a US Army base back to honor a traitorous Confederate Army General. You wonder if this brontosaurus knows the Civil War ended in 1865, the racist, slave-owning Confederacy lost, and that Americans have more pressing needs like universal health insurance, flood re-insurance programs, or logical gun control measures?

Cartoon courtesy of theweek.com.

Previous reporting:

Source:

Trump says he’d change name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg if elected | Stars and Stripes

This is not a mirage.

Sendai Daikannon (仙台大観音) is the eighth-tallest statue in the world at 100m (330 ft). She is the tallest statue of a goddess in Japan.

This incredible statue in Sendai, Japan, represents a bodhisattva, a person who is on the path towards bodhi (‘awakening’) or Buddhahood. At the time of its completion in 1991, it was the tallest statue in the world.

With all of the war criminals running amok creating death, destruction, and misery, some world leaders could use a bit of enlightenment or a “bodhi”.

Sendai, Japan.

Sources:

Daikanmiji Temple, Sendai Daikannon | Daikanmitsuji-Sendai-Daikannon | Sendai-DaikannonSendai Daikannon – Wikipedia

Nuclear Security Chief in Ukraine’s Russian-Occupied Zaporizhzhya Killed in Car Bombing

Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) posted a video of the explosion.

Ukrainian Military Intelligence (GUR) assassinated the head of security at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine with a car bomb on 4 Oct. Andrei Korotky died after a homemade explosive device planted under his car detonated. Korotky was also the former head of the Moscow-installed local council of deputies in the city of Enerhodar, where the blast occurred. Ukrainian intelligence accused him of war crimes and organizing pro-Russian events during the occupation, basically a “quisling.” Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a probe into the deadly bombing.

As posted previously on Coriolanus, high-value Russian targets have been killed by IEDs hidden in their cars, most likely by Ukrainian espionage and sabotage agents.

Source:

Nuclear Security Chief in Ukraine’s Russian-Occupied Zaporizhzhya Killed In Car Bombing (rferl.org)

Two Seditionists Sentenced for 6 Jan 2021 Attack on US Capitol

Allan Jennings used medical scissors to shatter glass on a Capitol door. (Photo: FBI)

Allan Jennings (57) of Hillsboro, TN, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $3,825 in restitution and fines by the Honorable US District Judge Reggie B. Walton. Jennings previously pleaded guilty to a felony offense of civil disorder and a misdemeanor offense of destruction of government property during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

The “Stop the Steal” mob’s initial attack against law enforcement officers caused the police to withdraw. Jennings was among the first few rioters to pursue retreating police officers into the Tunnel. The police had closed the doors to keep the mob from further advance. Jennings then deployed a pair of medical scissors and shattered the door’s glass, costing $825 to repair. Jennings made his way toward the front of the advancing mob, where he put his hands on a police officer’s shield, before returning to the middle of the mob and escaping. The FBI arrested Jennings on 12 Sep 2023 in Tennessee.

Chemical irritant didn’t dissuade James Weeks from continuing his rampage outside the Tunnel. (Photo: FBI)

James Weeks (55) of Sodus, NY, was sentenced to 27 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,774.00 in restitution and a $5,000 fine by the Honorable US District Judge Beryl A. Howell. Weeks previously pleaded guilty to a single felony offense of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers.

On 6 Jan, Weeks and the “Stop the Steal” mob entered the Tunnel and violently fought the police. Weeks attempted to grab a police officer, yelling “Shove it up your a—! You fat f—! I’m gonna shove that up your a—!” and “We’re gonna f— you up!” The defendant then struck an MPD officer using his hands and body. Shortly after, another rioter sprayed chemical irritant in the Tunnel, causing Weeks to exit.

Outside Weeks cheered on rioters who were vandalizing the US Capitol building. He then approached a window, waved a black can of OC spray through one of the broken panes of glass, then broke the window with a wooden stick.

The FBI arrested James Weeks on 1 Feb 2024, in Albany, NY.

In the 44 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,504 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 560 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.

Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

These two middle-aged lunatics represent America’s Fedayeen Saddam, dead-enders that think their white privilege is coming to an end and that minorities and Democrats unfairly stole the 2020 Presidential election. They heeded Donald Trump’s idiotic call to arms and are now paying the price.

Sources:

District of Columbia | Tennessee Man Sentenced to Prison on Felony and Misdemeanor Charges for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

District of Columbia | New York Man Sentenced to Prison for Assaulting Law Enforcement During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

Bird Flu Outbreak Kills Dozens of Tigers in Vietnam Zoos

Forty-seven tigers, three lions and a panther have died in zoos in south Vietnam due to the H5N1 bird flu virus. Photograph: Pardofelis / Alamy

Forty-seven tigers, three lions and a panther have died in zoos in south Vietnam due to the H5N1 type A bird flu virus. The deaths occurred this summer at the private My Quynh safari park in Long An province and the Vuon Xoai zoo in Dong Nai, near Ho Chi Minh City.

No zoo staff members in close contact with the animals had experienced respiratory symptoms.

A total of 385 tigers live in captivity in Vietnam. About 310 are kept at 16 privately owned farms and zoos, while the rest are in state-owned facilities.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that since 2022, there have been increasing reports of deadly outbreaks among mammals caused by influenza viruses, including H5N1. These infections can range from mild to severe in humans, and in some cases can even be fatal. Vietnam notified the WHO about a human fatality from the virus in March.

In 2004, dozens of tigers died from bird flu or were culled at the world’s largest breeding farm in Thailand.

Tigers are on the brink of extinction. Global populations have plummeted alarmingly by 96%, for all six-remaining subspecies. Three are now extinct. A combination of poaching, illegal captivity, and habitat destruction have contributed to their dwindling numbers, and it shows no signs of slowing down. WHO, the government of Vietnam, NGOS, and all of us, must do more to save these magnificent felines.

Sources:

Bird flu outbreak kills dozens of tigers in Vietnam zoos | Bird flu | The Guardian

WWF – Endangered Species Conservation | World Wildlife Fund

Adopt A Tiger from £3 a month | Hand-knitted Tiger toy included | David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

Former UK PM Boris Johnson: “Netanyahu Bugged My Bathroom”

The pair met in 2017 when Boris Johnson was Britain’s foreign secretary. | Pool photo by Darren Staples/WPA/Getty Images

Boris Johnson claimed he found a listening device in his personal bathroom at the British Foreign Office after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu used it.

The former prime minister alleged that his security team found bugging devices in the toilets after Netanyahu had used the facilities. The pair met in 2017 when Johnson was Britain’s foreign secretary.

The claim comes in Johnson’s memoir “Unleashed” which is released on 10 Oct. Extracts were shared with the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“Thither Bibi repaired for a while, and it may or may not be a coincidence but I am told that later, when they were doing a regular sweep for bugs, they found a listening device in the thunderbox,” Johnson writes as he recalls a meeting.

The Telegraph pressed the ex-PM on whether he could disclose more details about what happened, although Johnson told them: “I think everything you need to know about that episode is in the book.”

POLITICO reported in 2019 that the US government believed Israel was responsible for planting cellphone surveillance devices near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, D.C. The devices were designed to fool cellphones into giving them their locations and identity information.

Johnson’s memoir has raised eyebrows in London even before its release.

The ex-prime minister, who was ousted from office by his own party in 2022, has disclosed details about Queen Elizabeth II’s health in her final year and accused French President Emmanuel Macron of trying to give the UK a “punishment beating” for leaving the EU.

Years ago, Lebanese Army G-2 found and dismantled an Israeli spying device disguised as a rock in southern Lebanon which took and transmitted photographs.

CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former officials. Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national secrets from spies. This means the CIA believes that US national secrets are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel.

Sources:

Netanyahu bugged my bathroom, Boris Johnson suggests – POLITICO

Lebanese Army dismantles more Israeli spying devices – Ya Libnan Is Israel the CIA’s top counterintelligence threat in the Near East? | The Times of Israel

Greenpeace Warns of Flooding Risks at France’s Biggest Nuclear Plant

Gravelines nuclear power station on the English Channel coast is already the most powerful in Western Europe. © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0

With six 900MW reactors, the Gravelines nuclear power plant on the English Channel coast is already the most powerful in Western Europe. EDF’s proposal to build two additional new generation pressurised water reactors (EPR2) of 1600 MW each is part of President Emmanuel Macron’s nuclear revival programme.

The new reactors are currently the subject of public debate. If they pass safety criteria laid down by France’s nuclear safety authority (ASN), construction would begin in 2031 and they could be on stream by 2040. While they would be built on a 11-metre-high platform, Greenpeace claims there is a significant safety risk.

“The entire power plant site could find itself – during high tides and when there is a 100-year surge – below sea level” by 2100, it warned in a report published Thursday. EDF refutes their calculations.

“The height of the platform chosen for the EPR2 reactors at Gravelines provides protection against “extreme” flooding, taking into account the effects of IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] scenarios, which are among the most penalising with regard to sea-level rise”, EDF replied.

Greenpeace argues that EDF’s calculations are outdated and do not fully account for the realities of global warming. The NGO based its projection on the IPCC’s most pessimistic scenario, which assumes that no action will be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2100.

Nuclear power accounts for most of France’s electricity, and the Nuclear Energy Society (Sfen) defends it as a low-carbon energy source.

While Greenpeace’s report centers on Gravelines, climate change threatens other nuclear plants, with risks tied to rising temperatures and extreme weather events like storms. Also, potential conflicts could arise over access to river water needed to cool reactors. Russia is occupying the Ukrainian nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhya.

The French nuclear industry has an atrocious reputation. Leaked documents reveal that their companies maintain discreet links to Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear power corporation, despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. French commercial uranium mining despoiled water and vegetation in Pan-Sahel Africa, creating “grievance guerillas” amongst the Tuaregs and other angry disenfranchised locals, some who join “Al Qaida in the Maghreb” (AQIM). One company (Orano) left 20 million tons of radioactive waste in Niger. Strong desert winds carry its radon and radioactive dust which is inhaled by the surrounding population. The soil and underground water have also been contaminated. The 100,000 people living in the area have no alternative but to keep on drinking that water.

Sources:

Greenpeace warns of flooding risks at France’s biggest nuclear plant (rfi.fr)

French electricity company discovers deep crack in nuclear plant cooling system

Why the nuclear option is still an explosive subject at climate talks

French nuclear industry maintains links with Russian giant Rosatom (lemonde.fr)

French uranium mine leaves 20 million tons of radioactive waste in Niger (rfi.fr)

Ireland: Beef to China and South Korea Stopped After Atypical BSE Case

This poor cow is suffering from BSE. (Undated public domain image)

Ireland temporarily halted shipments of beef products to China and South Korea after an atypical case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was discovered in a cow. After a fallen animal was tested in mid-September, authorities in China and South Korea were informed and exports of beef halted, in line with the agreements in place with both countries. The animal did not enter the food or feed chain and there were no public health risks associated with this occurrence.

Atypical BSE is a rare spontaneous event which may occur in any bovine population and not related to feed contamination. Coincidentally at the same time, a delegation of veterinary officials from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine was travelling to China, and used that opportunity to reassure authorities there of Ireland’s control measures for BSE.

Atypical BSE occurs sporadically in all cattle populations at a very low rate and is not considered a public health risk, unlike classical BSE, or mad-cow disease, which arises from contaminated animal feed.

This is the third time that Irish beef exports to China have been stopped due to a case of atypical BSE.

Most recently, exports of beef products to China were halted between Nov 2023 and Jan 2024 for this reason. Prior to that, exports to China were also halted for a particularly extended period of time, from May 2020 to Jan 2023, almost three years.

In 2019 – the only full year in which Ireland had uninterrupted access to the Chines market for frozen boneless beef – Irish processors sent around €40 million worth of exports to the Asian country.

Market access for Irish beef to South Korea was secured in May 2024.

Source:

Beef to China and Korea stopped after atypical BSE case (agriland.ie)

Five Chinese Nationals Charged with Covering Up Midnight Visit to Michigan Military Site

The FBI has charged five Chinese nationals who studied at the University of Michigan with espionage related charges. The five individuals are accused of taking photos of military equipment at Camp Grayling, MI in Aug 2023. While the students were taking photos, the Michigan Army National Guard was hosting training for the Taiwanese military.

The FBI noted that there have been other instances of college students from China taking photos of vital defense sites in the US. The FBI said all five men graduated last spring from the University of Michigan. They were part of a joint program between the university and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China. The five remain at large.

In 2020, two Chinese nationals who were pursuing master’s degrees at the University of Michigan were sentenced to prison for illegally photographing sites at a naval air station in Key West, FL.

China and Russia remain serious foreign intelligence threats to the US, and as noted above, Israel poses the greatest counterintelligence threat to the USIC. The five students here are part of the “thousand grains of sand” strategy, where every little bit of data is obtained for thousands of analysts in China to create an intelligence mosaic. Chinese intelligence, the MSS, has the manpower and budget for this type of collection.

Aerial view of Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center in Grayling, MI, 19 July 2014. (AP Photo/John L. Russell)

Sources:

FBI Charges Chinese Nationals with Spying at Camp Grayling | Congressman John Moolenaar (house.gov)

5 Chinese nationals charged with covering up midnight visit to Michigan military site | AP News

Kitten Turns Corner Just 24 Hours After Moving from Shelter into Comfy Home

Watch this orphan kitten evolve from frightened, scrawny rescue animal to “I’m-the-queen-of-the-castle,” thanks to Best Friends Animal Society in Los Angeles, CA. All photos of Apple taken by Frankie.

Nervous, Apple had flea dirt on her which was gently brushed off.

After being cleaned up, Apple wrapped up in a blanket and finally purred.

After eating and resting peacefully, Apple woke up refreshed with renewed energy.

Now when Apple gets tired from eating, playing, and romping, she purrs herself to sleep.

And all this took place in 24 hours.

Source:

Kitten Turns a Corner Just 24 Hours After Moving from Shelter into Comfy Home – Love Meow

Know Any Global Climate Change Deniers? Show them this. Swarms of Yellowjackets Plague North Carolina Residents After Hurricane Helene

Heavy rains from Hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage in Asheville, NC, on 28 Sep. Photo: Melissa Sue Gerrits / Getty Images

Flooding in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene has led to swarms of yellow jackets.
Heavy rain and standing water likely destroyed the insects’ nests underground and in trees.
State health officials said they have bought Benadryl and EpiPens to help people who get stung, especially those with allergies.
One million people without power in the Carolinas; over 200 killed in US by Hurricane Helene; hundreds still missing or unaccounted for.
1,000 active-duty troops ordered to assist with recovery efforts.
Flooding increased the risk of water-borne and mosquito-borne diseases dramatically.

Most people aren’t allergic to wasp or bee stings but may still develop pain, itching or swelling at the site. Benadryl, either in topical or oral form, can help reduce those symptoms. Epinephrine injections, or EpiPens, are reserved for people with severe allergic reactions — such as trouble breathing or swallowing — which can sometimes be life-threatening.

Hayes said people who are allergic to bees are usually allergic to yellow jackets, as well, though the scale of the reaction might differ.

Sources:

Yellow jackets swarm after North Carolina floods, prompting need for Benadryl and EpiPens (nbcnews.com)

October 2, 2024: In wake of Hurricane Helene, desperation grows to find missing people | CNN

Mexican Military Kills Six Migrants Near Guatemalan Border

Soldiers stand guard outside a hospital where injured migrants were taken after Mexican soldiers shot a group of 33 migrants in Tapachula, Mexico. 2 Oct 2024. Photo: Jose Torres/Reuters

One day after Mexico’s first female president was inaugurated, soldiers opened fire at a pickup truck carrying migrants, killing six people from Egypt, El Salvador, and Peru, in an incident that President Claudia Sheinbaum described as “regrettable.”

The tragic event occurred on Tuesday evening when soldiers spotted a vehicle carrying 33 migrants “going at high speed,” according to the Mexican Defense Ministry (AKA SEDENA). The vehicle reportedly tried to evade a military patrol in Chiapas, a Mexican state bordering Guatemala.

“Behind the pick-up truck there were two vehicles like those used by criminal groups in the region,” the ministry said, adding that two soldiers reported hearing explosions leading them to open fire.

Four of the migrants died on the scene and two more in a nearby hospital. The attack also left 12 wounded.

Sheinbaum called for the incident “to be investigated and punished” and the soldiers involved in the attack were turned over to the Attorney General’s Office.

Violence has been on the rise in Chiapas as cartels fight for control of lucrative routes for smuggling migrants and drugs. The Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel have been engaged in a turf war in the area, with hundreds forced to flee their homes last January.

President Claudia Sheinbaum announces salary increases for military personnel, focusing on lower enlisted soldiers and junior officers.

These poor migrants were escaping terrible, violent conditions in search of a better life, only to be needlessly killed. There is no information indicating where the sounds of the explosions originated and if the human traffickers opened fire on the Mexican soldiers. Authorities haven’t disclosed whether the refugees or the smugglers were armed. Through no fault of her own, President Sheinbaum is off to an inauspicious start to her five-year term. Nevertheless, she is going to change politics in Mexico for a long time to come.

Source:

Six migrants killed in Mexico after military fires at vehicle | CNN

FBI: Seven 6 Jan 2021 Seditionists Processed: Four Arrested; Two Sentenced; One Convicted

The FBI and the Justice Department has been extremely busy over the past 24 hours dealing with 6 Jan 2021 white-supremacist insurrectionists.

First, the FBI made four arrests.

Photo: FBI

Andre Maurice Bonneau (64) of Lewiston, Maine, pictured above, was arrested for allegedly assaulting law enforcement and other charges. Bonneau allegedly disregarded police orders to “get back” and grabbed a bicycle rack in an apparent attempt to breach the police line. Bonneau struggled with officers over the bike rack as he attempted to lift and remove the barricade from the police line. In response to his actions, officers defended themselves by using their riot batons against him and deploying a chemical irritant in Bonneau’s direction. The officers successfully repelled Bonneau’s advance and he retreated.

Christopher Jordan (circled in green) lunging toward a police officer; Earl Jordan (circled in yellow) being moved by other officers. Photo: FBI

Brothers Christopher Jordan (48) of St. George, UT and Earl Jordan (50) of Dickens, IA, were arrested for allegedly assaulting law enforcement and other charges.

Earl and Christopher were seen allegedly engaging with and confronting law enforcement officers during the melee. Earl Jordan allegedly threw his elbow at a police officer, knocking him off balance. Christopher Jordan allegedly lunged toward another officer. Despite verbal commands from police to “get back,” the brothers continued their aggressive behavior. Earl Jordan was allegedly swiped at an officer’s face before grabbing the officer by the throat in another encounter. Simultaneously, Christopher Jordan engaged another police officer, pushing and attempting to wrest control of the officer’s baton.

Despite repeated efforts by the officers to break free from the crowd and establish a police line the Jordan brothers persisted, blocking law enforcement. The brothers then disappeared into the crowd, allowing the officers to regroup behind their line.

Later that day, both brothers confronted police again. Earl Jordan picked up a piece of metal fencing and hurled it as officers struggled to prevent rioters from breaching the building. The Jordan brothers remained on Capitol grounds until the evening hours of January 6^th, when law enforcement successfully cleared the area.

James Roe Cleary identified himself to the FBI as being seen in images taken from the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol. (Photo: US DoJ)

James Roe Cleary (56) of Waterford, CT, was arrested for felony civil disorder, assault, and trespassing during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Cleary was involved in the most intense fighting between rioters and police in the Tunnel, the site of some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement on 6 Jan.

A complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants above are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Two miscreants below were sentenced for their participation in the 6 Jan 2021 attack on American democracy.

Michael Oliveras outside the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021. (Photo: US DoJ)

First, Michael Oliveras (51) of Lindenwold, NJ was sentenced to five years in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution by the Honorable US District Judge Beryl A. Howell.

A federal jury convicted Oliveras of three felonies in Nov 2023. Oliveras traveled to Washington, DC prepared for “war on January 6” because he wanted to stop the certification of the Presidential election. At the Capitol, he swarmed and helped attack a unit of police officers on the West front, engaged in a brawl with officers on the West Terrace, and entered the US Capitol twice—and attempted to enter a third time—during the riot, all while repeatedly calling for the execution of “traitors,” i.e., lawmakers, and encouraging rioters to drag members of Congress out “by their hair.” Oliveras documented many of his actions on videos he took himself.

Oliveras violently engaged and re-engaged with police officers during the fracas and was undeterred even after being sprayed with chemical irritant. After law-enforcement finally secured the US Capitol, Oliveras returned to NJ and posted on social media about his attack on the Capitol:

“Did we want to get our bare hands on the flesh of those who have committed treason? Yes. Would I, as one of those red-blooded Americans, if the opportunity presented itself, grasped and removed one of those traitors? Yes.”

On 8 Jan 2021, Oliveras posted again: “Patriots. Are any of you discouraged? What you saw in the Senate was precisely what we want. Insurrection acts in motion.”

The FBI arrested Oliveras on 9 Dec 2021, in NJ. After his arrest, Oliveras repeatedly joined YouTube airings and exclaimed that he was not sorry for his actions and he would “do it again.”

Jeremy Daniel Groseclose on 6 Jan 2021. (Image: FBI)

Second, Jeremy Groseclose (41) of Elliston, Virginia, was sentenced to 40 months in prison, 24 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 by the Honorable US District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.

Groseclose was found guilty on 21 Nov 2023 of felony civil disorder and felony obstruction of an official proceeding, in addition to the misdemeanor offenses following a bench trial.

Groseclose was among a mob of rioters illegally on the Capitol grounds. During his time inside the Capitol building, Groseclose wore a gas mask and interfered with US Capitol Police (USCP) officers as they attempted to prevent the mob from progressing farther into the Capitol. As USCP tried to close a security door located on the east side of the Crypt, Groseclose and others prevented the door from closing by placing chairs, trash cans, and other objects under the door. Groseclose and others also used their hands to lift the door as it was closing. Ultimately, Groseclose and the mob prevented the door from closing and moved toward the retreating USCP officers.

Security footage captured Groseclose taking pictures and recording videos of the chaos inside the Capitol building. In particular, at about 2:39 PM, Groseclose documented a physical struggle between law enforcement officers and a member of the mob. Later, Groseclose captured an image of a dark red substance – believed to be blood — on the floor of the Capitol Building just outside of the Rotunda. The images and videos that Groseclose appeared to capture were not found on his phone, and in the days following the attack, Groseclose sent messages to others discussing the deletion of evidence.

The FBI arrested Groseclose on 25 Feb 2021 in Elliston.

Lastly, one lunatic was just convicted.

Jay Matthew Kenyon (47) of Harrisonburg, VA, was found guilty of felony civil disorder and four misdemeanor offenses. The Honorable US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson will sentence him on 10 Jan 2025. After breaching the US Capitol, USCP was able to escort Kenyon from the building. But the defendant returned and resisted law-enforcement efforts to eject him. USCP then finally removed him one hour after he trespassed.

A US Capitol Police Officer identified Kenyon with brandishing a knife during the ordeal. The complaint read: “Officer _ recalled the individual swinging the knife and perceived that the individual was trying to attack officers. Officer _ disarmed the individual.”

According to online court records, Kenyon has faced additional charges for assault and battery of a family member, contempt of court and additional traffic violations dating back to 2011.

The FBI arrested Kenyon on 28 Feb 2023, in Harrisonburg, VA.

Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

These dangerous fanatics represent America’s Fedayeen Saddam (FS), white supremacist dead-enders who are trying to cling on to the last vestiges of white privilege in the US. In addition to Fox News and social platforms that disseminate hate speech, hundreds of American AM radio stations broadcast radically right Republican talking points which these miscreants listen to and believe. According to the 2021 Congressional articles of impeachment, then-President Donald Trump incited his supporters to attack the US Capitol, made easier for him by this ugly cesspool of hate speech dominating the internet and airwaves.

Sources:

District of Columbia | Maine Man Arrested for Assaulting Law Enforcement and Other Charges During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

dl (justice.gov)

District of Columbia | Brothers from Iowa and Utah Arrested for Assaulting Law Enforcement and Other Charges During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

dl (justice.gov)

District of Columbia | Connecticut Man Arrested for Felony Civil Disorder and Other Charges During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

dl (justice.gov)

District of Columbia | New Jersey Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Assaulting Law Enforcement and Other Charges During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

District of Columbia | Virginia Man Sentenced to Prison on Felony and Misdemeanor Charges for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

District of Columbia | Virginia Man Convicted of Felony and Misdemeanor Charges for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

Harrisonburg ‘Patriot’ who brandished knife on Jan. 6 convicted (augustafreepress.com)

Virginia Judiciary Online Case Information System (state.va.us)

Why do right-wing voices dominate the AM dial? Decades of change cemented shift. • Kansas Reflector

Trump impeached for ‘inciting’ US Capitol riot in historic second charge (bbc.com)

Israel Continues Bombing Beirut; Biden Says Hitting Iran’s Oil Sector Under Discussion

Smoke rises following an explosion over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an air strike late on 3 Oct. (Reuters)

Multiple explosions from Israeli air strikes rocked the suburbs of Beirut late on October 3 as the United States said it is discussing strikes on Iran’s oil facilities as retaliation for Tehran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this week.

Giant balls of flames could be seen shooting into the night sky around the Lebanese capital hours after the Israeli Army had sent evacuation orders to residents in several areas of the city.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported “more than 10 consecutive strikes,” which it called “one of the strongest raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israeli war on Lebanon.”

Earlier on 3 Oct, an IDF strike on an apartment building in downtown Beirut near the Lebanese parliament killed nine people. More than 1,100 people have been killed since Israel launched its aerial bombardment on 23 Sep. About 1.2 million people have been displaced, a fifth of the population, in the biggest displacement in the country’s history. In Beirut, schools, universities, mosques, and even soccer stadiums have been converted to shelters for refugees. Even then, thousands have nowhere to go and are sleeping on beaches, in parks and squares, or in their cars.

Displaced children sleep on the sidewalk in downtown Beirut. Photo: Patrick Baz / AFP

The Lebanese military is unable to defend its sovereign airspace, territory, or population. Lebanese Hezbollah will fire rockets into northern Israel and avoid head-to-head confrontations with the modern, US-funded IDF, employing guerilla tactics in this modern-day David versus Goliath clash.

US President Joe Biden, when asked by reporters in Washington on 3 Oct whether the White House supports strikes on Iran’s oil facilities, said: “We’re discussing that. There is nothing going to happen today.” Biden also said he would not support an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites.

Iran’s military has warned it would launch broader strikes if Israel responds to its 1 Oct missile counterattack on Israel.

Nothing would please Israeli Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more than US military intervention against Iran. American military casualties would be the “icing on the cake,” feeding his Islamophobic rhetoric and further cementing the ionic bonds between the US and Israeli right-wing, even though war against Iran is not in the best interest of the hard-working American taxpayer or military servicemember.

For years Israeli PM Netanyahu has been vilifying Iran and assassinating their nuclear scientists while maintaining his own atomic arsenal. Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (NPT) Treaty; Israel is not. Then-POTUS Barack Obama wasn’t so easily fooled. Illustration source: Cleveland.com

And besides immense loss of civilian life, a protracted conflict keeps Netanyahu’s bribery and corruption trial in abeyance, threatens oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, and endangers US military personnel in CENTCOM AOR. After Pres. Biden extricated the US from the “forever wars,” he is letting the US get sucked into Netanyahu’s “forever wars.” Benjamin Netanyahu is no closer to getting the remaining hostages freed and will go down in history as Israel’s worst prime minister. Moreover, he is tarnishing Joe Biden’s legacy as his presidency winds down. Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate may siphon off disenfranchised Muslim and Arab Democratic voters in Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin this November. While Dr. Stein has no chance of ever winning the White House, she could play the part of spoiler for Kamala Harris.

Sources:

Massive Explosions Rock Beirut; Biden Says Hitting Iran’s Oil Sector Under Discussion (rferl.org)

Sleeping On Beaches, In Cars: Lebanon’s Displaced Have Nowhere To Go Amid Israeli Bombing (rferl.org)

Jill Stein surges ahead of Kamala Harris among Muslim-American voters in key swing states – Middle East Monitor

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein attracting Muslim voters (usatoday.com)

Assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists – Wikipedia

Pakistan: Chikungunya Cases on Rise in Karachi

Pakistan is seeing an increase in the chikungunya virus as patients seek relief for bone and joint pain at physiotherapy clinics. The virus is spread by two types of mosquitos: Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, which mainly bite during the day. The virus may circulate within a number of animals, including birds and rodents. The risk of death is around 1 in 1,000. The very young, old, and those with other health problems are at risk of more severe disease.

Local hospitals, including the Police Hospital, report dozens of new cases every month, as patients seek treatment for symptoms such as muscle pain, fatigue, and inflammation.

Last month, Karachi saw a surge in chikungunya cases over the past five months, with 140 individuals confirmed to have contracted the disease from May to September.

During this period, 211 suspected cases of chikungunya was reported, with 189 individuals screened for the disease. Out of those screened, 140 tested positive.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) issued an advisory on controlling and preventing the spread of chikungunya, a disease similar to dengue fever. The Ministry of Health directed relevant authorities to take immediate measures to combat the outbreak.

As noted previously on Coriolanus, the mosquito is man’s acme predator and global climate change is helping spread them with longer summers and warmer temperatures.

Sources:

Chikungunya cases on rise in Karachi (arynews.tv)

Chikungunya – Wikipedia

Justice Department Disrupts Russian Intelligence Hacking Group

The Justice Department disrupted a hacking group tied to Russian intelligence. The group tried to break into the computer systems of former US military and intelligence staff as well as NGOs, US companies, and others.

A US court unsealed documents authorizing Microsoft and the Department of Justice to seize more than 100 website domain names associated with the hacking group, known as the Callisto Group of Star Blizzard.

The group targeted individuals with e-mails that appeared to come from a trusted source, a tactic known as spear phishing. Once links inside these e-mails were opened, the hackers would attempt to access the victims’ internal systems as a way of stealing information and disrupting their activities.

Star Blizzard’s actions were persistent and sophisticated, according to Microsoft, and the group often did detailed research on its targets before launching an attack. Star Blizzard also went after civil society groups, US companies, American military contractors, and the Department of Energy, which oversees many nuclear programs, the company said.

Authorities haven’t provided details about Star Blizzard’s effectiveness but said they expect Russia to keep deploying hacking and cyberattacks against Washington and its allies, and the US pledged to continue its vigilance.

US authorities charged two Russian men last year in connection with Star Blizzard’s past actions and remain at large.

Along with American targets, Star Blizzard went after people and groups throughout Europe and in other NATO countries, particularly supporters of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.

Source:

Office of Public Affairs | Justice Department Disrupts Russian Intelligence Spear-Phishing Efforts | United States Department of Justice

Pyongyang Dismantles Key Railway Bridge Severing Inter-Korea Relations

Tourists visit the Dorasan station in the Civilian Control area near the demilitarized zone in Paju, South Korea, on 13 Sep 2017. North Korea has been taking actions to sever connections with South Korea, including dismantling a key railway bridge along the line. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

Recent satellite imagery revealed that North Korea has been dismantling a key railway bridge and planting landmines along the Gyeongui Line, as Pyongyang continues to sever relations with Seoul.

The images show most of the iron bridge, heading toward Panmun Station near the Kaesong Industrial Complex, has been reduced to only pillars. In February, the bridge appeared in satellite imagery fully intact. Moreover, landmines have been buried along Gyeongui Line.

Once considered a symbol of inter-Korea cooperation, the Kaesong Industrial Complex has been shuttered since 2016 as relations between Seoul and Pyongyang frayed.

Relations between the two countries have only worsened since the 2019 Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then US President Donald Trump failed to produce tangible outcomes.

Early this year, Kim announced that unification was no longer a goal and that South Korea was now the “principal enemy.”

North Korean supremo Kim Jong Un said this week that cutting ties with Seoul allows North Korea to “strike and destroy the South,” threatening the use of nuclear weapons against South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae visit the Ministry of National Defense on the occasion of the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army in Pyongyang, DPRK 9 Feb 2024, Korean Central News Agency via Reuters.

The people of South Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan are watching in horror as they see the next generation of lunatics becoming groomed to ascend the nuclear throne of the Hermit Kingdom.

Sources:

Pyongyang dismantles key railway bridge as it severs inter-Korea relations – UPI.com

N Korean leader shuns talks with South, threatens ‘annihilation’ — Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

Kim Jong Un threatens nuke strikes on South Korea if sovereignty ‘infringed’ | NK News

Republican Yells at Native American Candidate: ‘Go Back to Where You Came From!’

Dan Foreman, a retired USAF Colonel and former police officer, has previously landed in the news for unruly behavior. In a viral video in 2017 taken from police body camera footage at the Latah County Fair, he shouted at a constituent, calling him a “son of a b—-” and telling him to “go to hell.” (image via Idaho Republican Party).

Far-right Idaho state Sen. Dan Foreman got into a heated argument with a Native American candidate during a forum this week that culminated with him shouting at her to “go back to where you came from!”

Trish Carter-Goodheart, a member of the Nez Perce tribe and candidate for House Seat A, said in a statement that the incident occurred at a “meet the candidates” gathering Tuesday in the northern Idaho town of Kendrick, where voters posed questions to Senate and House candidates in the area. The dispute began when Foreman categorically proclaimed discrimination did not exist in Idaho, reported Boise State Public Radio on Thursday.

Carter-Goodheart took issue with this, pointing out that there is an extensive and painful history of white supremacist organizations in northern Idaho. The state GOP has on multiple occasions had to fight off takeovers by those white supremacist groups.

“[J]ust because someone hasn’t personally experienced discrimination, doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Racism and discrimination are real issues here in Idaho, as anyone familiar with our state’s history knows,” she explained in a statement issued after the forum. “I highlighted our weak hate crime laws and mentioned the presence of the Aryan Nations in northern Idaho as undeniable evidence of this reality.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are 25 active hate, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist groups in Idaho.

In response to Carter-Goodheart’s words at the forum, Foreman “stood up and angrily interjected, using an expletive to criticize what he cast as the liberal bent of the response.”

He then told her she should “go back to where you came from,” Carter-Goodheart said, before storming away. Carter-Goodheart’s Republican candidate, incumbent Rep. Lori McCann, was among the attendees who corroborated the incident.

Trish Carter-Goodheart (above) and the Nez Pierce indigenous peoples, including Chief Joseph and his ancestors, were in North America long before the Foreman family. Maybe the Foreman family should go back to where they came from.

Dan Foreman retired from the USAF after 30 years as a Colonel. US military personnel had to salute this so-called “officer.” He then served as a police officer in the Moscow (Idaho) PD, making you wonder what kind of policeman this Republican was. Worse, this man has seven children and 20 grandchildren. What kind of values has he inculcated his family with? Oof!

Sources:

Republican yells at Native American candidate to ‘go back to where you came from’: report – Raw Story

Idaho | Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org)

Feline Hiding on the Stairs of Subway Station Turns Into Total Lap Cat Within Days

Photo: PuppyKittyNYCity

A feline found hiding on the stairs of a NYC subway station turned into a total lap cat in just a few days. Meagan, president of PuppyKittyNYCity (an animal rescue), was on her way to work when she received an urgent message about a cat found in a subway station.

The cat crouched down on the stairs, frozen in fear. Though terrified, there wasn’t a mean bone in his body, and he even allowed his finder to pet him. As soon as Meagan received the location, she sprang into action.

Her shelter was already full, but “there are some situations you can’t say no to. There is no way we could let this baby stay in the subway station all day long,” Meagan shared.

Photo: PuppyKittyNYCity

The cat had likely been abandoned as no one came to claim him. Somehow, he ended up in the subway station. Overwhelmed by the noise of the city, he pressed himself against the stairs, trying to hide.

Despite needing to report to work that morning, Meagan rerouted and headed to the scene while one of their volunteers stayed with the cat to keep him safe.

Photo: PuppyKittyNYCity

Estimated to be one year old, Subway is still a kitten at heart. As much as he loves to play, he craves human affection even more. “He’s literally perfect and so friendly. He’d be a great first cat or an amazing addition to any home.”

Subway has regained his confidence and no longer cowers. He saunters up to his people for pets and attention, his purr engine rumbling loudly.

Photo: PuppyKittyNYCity

He’s incredibly gentle and sweet with every loving stroke he receives from his people. The cherry on top is that Subway also adores the company of other cats and has a heart of gold.

Source:

Cat Hiding on the Stairs of Subway Station Turns into a Total Lap Cat within Days – Love Meow

Ukraine Withdraws from Vuhledar as Russia Attacks Strategic Grain-Exporting Port on Danube River

The Ukrainian military has confirmed that it is pulling out of the strategic city of Vuhledar as Moscow continues its grinding offensive. Vuhledar, a deserted former mining town with a prewar population of some 14,000, has been at the center of ferocious battles since the start of Russia’s unprovoked invasion in Feb 2022. Russian Telegram channels posted videos of troops waving the Russian flag over shattered buildings.

Russian forces used repeated attacks on the flanks of Vuhledar to exhaust the Ukrainian defenses, threatening to surround the hilltop city. Although razed, this location is strategically important for Russia to protect its supply routes. Vuhledar could also act as a springboard toward Pokrovsk, a communications hub some 80 km to the north that Moscow has been eying for months.

Moscow’s troops, overwhelmingly superior in numbers and equipment, have been slowly advancing in eastern Ukraine despite huge losses, as Ukraine has been desperately appealing to its Western allies to provide it with more advanced weapons and give it permission to strike military objectives deeper inside Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s critically important Danube port of Izmayil was again targeted by waves of Russian drone strikes that raised the alarm in neighboring NATO member Romania. Izmayil, on the border with Romania, is Kiev’s only gateway to exporting its grain and other produce. Two people, including a Turkish citizen, were wounded in the attack.

Vladimir Putin is waging war against grain and global food security to disrupt the Western and Ukrainian economies. As previously reported on Coriolanus, the Kremlin recently ordered jets to attack a cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea to Egypt.

Sources:

Ukraine Withdraws From Vuhledar As Russia Resumes Strikes On Danube Port (rferl.org)

Azerbaijani Opposition Figure Brutally Murdered in France

Vidadi Isgandarli (undated web screenshot).

Vidadi Isgandarli, an Azerbaijani opposition figure in exile well-known for his fierce criticism of the government, has died in France after being brutally beaten and stabbed in an attack at his apartment that his family says was politically motivated.

The deadly attack on Isgandarli follows a similar pattern of violence against Azerbaijani opposition figures in exile; in 2021, another politician in exile, Mohammad Mirzali, survived being stabbed.

“My brother had no idea who the attackers were or what motivated the assault…. They did not speak, and they wore masks, making it impossible to identify them,” said Oktay Isgandarl.

“I have no doubt this is a politically motivated assassination. My brother survived a previous attack by approximately 15 assailants in 2022 here in France.”

Oktay Isgandarli said he received a desperate video call from his brother early on 29 Sep as he clutched a pillow to his abdomen to try and staunch the bleeding after being attacked by three masked men who had broken into his apartment in Mulhouse in eastern France.

Vidadi Isgandarli was stabbed at least 21 times in the abdomen as well as blows to the body and head.

Medics managed to resuscitate him, but he never regained consciousness and succumbed to his injuries on 1 Oct.

Vidadi Isgandarli was known as a vocal critic of the Azerbaijani government and President Ilham Aliyev, who has maintained a tight grip on power since 2003. Azerbaijani Supremo Ilham Aliyev gestures as he addresses the nation in Baku, Azerbaijan, 20 Oct 2020. Israel supplied Azerbaijan with nearly 70% of its arsenal between 2016 and 2020 — giving Azerbaijan an edge against Armenia and boosting Israel’s large defense industry. Aliev has also been deepening ties with Vladimir Putin. (AP Photo)

In 2010, Vidadi Isgandarli participated in parliamentary elections, which he denounced as fraudulent after opposition candidates failed to get elected. He then helped organize protests against the official election results.

Arrested in 2011 and charged with various offenses, including assault and interference with election officials, Vidadi denied the allegations, claiming they were politically motivated.

He was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison but was released early in Dec 2012 in a presidential amnesty. Fearing further persecution, Vidadi, his brother, and their families emigrated to France in 2015.

With Azerbaijan set to host the climate conference COP29 in November, right groups have said it is imperative that the event is used also to shine a spotlight on the country and the deteriorating human rights situation there.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups had documented the “widespread abuse” by the Azerbaijani authorities of the criminal justice system to crack down on human rights including the right to freedom of expression, often “detaining and falsely charging their critics with economic crimes.”

Editorial cartoon on the 2015 Baku European Games from Meydan TV (Image: Meydan TV)

These cowardly murderers took advantage of world attention being focused on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and Russia’s campaign against Ukraine to eliminate this political opponent of the Aliev regime which has been in power for 21 years. The Amnesty International report contains several instances of political opponents being bullied or imprisoned on fabricated charges. The Aliev regime has the wealth and security apparatus, the DTX, to maintain power and target opponents at home and abroad. The petroleum industry in Azerbaijan produces about 873,260 barrels (138,837 m³) of oil per day and 29 billion cubic meters of gas per year as of 2013.^[1] Azerbaijan is one of the birthplaces of the oil industry. This attack is reminiscent of the brutal 2018 murder and butchery of political dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, which was directly linked to Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.

Sources:

Azerbaijani Opposition Figure Dies After Brutal Attack In France (rferl.org)

Human rights in Azerbaijan Amnesty International

Israeli weapons quietly helped Azerbaijan retake Nagorno-Karabakh — sources, data | The Times of Israel

CIA Makes It Easier for Potential Informants to Share Tips

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) wants to make it easier — and safer — for people in Iran, China, and North Korea to share information with America’s premier spy agency.

CIA posted online instructions in Korean, Mandarin, and Farsi detailing steps that potential informants can take to contact US intelligence officials without putting themselves in danger.

The instructions include ways to reach the CIA on its public website or on the darknet, a part of the internet that can only be accessed using special tools designed to hide the user’s identity. The CIA posted similar instructions in Russian two years ago following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“People are trying to reach out to us from around the world and we are offering them instructions for how to do that safely,” the agency said in a statement. “Our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we’re open for business.”

The tips, presented in text-only videos and infographics, include using a virtual private network, or VPN, to circumvent internet restrictions and surveillance, and the use of a device that can’t easily be traced back to the user. The CIA also urged any potential informants to use private web browsers and to delete their internet history to cover their tracks.

The messages in the three languages were posted on Telegram, YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Several of those platforms are blocked in China, Iran, and Russia but can still be accessed using a VPN.

Authoritarian leaders around the world have used the internet as a tool of mass surveillance and as a way to deliver propaganda and disinformation while blocking sites and views deemed unfavorable to the government.

China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran all block access to American platforms like Facebook, for example, and use web access to control which sources of information users can access.

VPNs and other tools offer ways around this censorship and surveillance, but that ability has made them a target. In its instructions to potential sources, the CIA warned its audience to be selective, as their well-being could depend on choosing the right program.

“Use a VPN provider not headquartered in Russia, Iran, or China, or any other country that is considered unfriendly to the US,” CIA wrote in its instructions for Mandarin users.

This system apparently worked with informants operating in Russia. For the technologically savvy who are confident of remaining undetected, this method may provide the USIC with useful information from Iran, China, and North Korea. Of course, the information would be evaluated for quality and access. For years Wikileaks has used a system to allow people to anonymously download information without detection.

Sources:

CIA

CIA makes it easier for potential informants to share tips (voanews.com)

Denmark: Three Arrested Following Explosions Near Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen

Security personnel inspect the site of two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Wednesday. Police are conducting initial investigations at the scene of two blasts for a possible connection to the Israeli embassy located in the area, Copenhagen police said on social media platform. No injuries were reported in the incident, the police added. Photo by Emil Helms/EPA-EFE.

Police in Denmark arrested three people Wednesday following a pair of explosions overnight near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, probably two hand grenades. There were no injuries or damage to the Israeli facility.

The first suspect was arrested within the Danish capital before two others were taken into police custody on a train at Copenhagen Central Station. The three suspects are Swedish males between the ages of 15 and 20 years old. The pair of explosions occurred at around 3:20 AM at the intersection of Strandagervej and Lundevangsvej near the Israeli embassy in Hellerup, north of Copenhagen. Police said they had launched an investigation to see if the explosions were in relation to the Israeli embassy.

Israel’s offensive against the Palestinians and Lebanon with the increasing death toll has resulted in growing criticism and anger directed toward the Middle Eastern country. Last month, German police shot and killed an armed man near Munich’s Israeli embassy after he opened fire on security forces. In June, a man with a crossbow attacked police outside the Israeli embassy in Belgrade, Serbia.

Meanwhile, Israel continues pounding Lebanon. At least six people have been killed and eight wounded in Israeli air strikes targeting central Beirut overnight. A further 46 people were killed and 85 injured in IDF attacks across Lebanon in the previous 24 hours. More than 1,900 people have been killed and about 9,000 wounded in Lebanon in almost a year of cross-border fighting, with most of the deaths occurring in the past two weeks.

Destruction at the site of an overnight Israeli air raid on the Bir el-Abed neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on 1 Oct 2024 [Anwar Amro/AFP]

As written here on Coriolanus, Israel and the West will be dealing with asymmetric reprisals, ranging from rank amateurish like this hand grenade episode to highly professional attacks, because of the Likud government’s brutal campaign against the Palestinians and its offensive against Lebanon. Innocent Jews and Israelis, who may be Labor Party members or peace activists like the young woman on the left seated next to Greta Thunberg below, are vulnerable worldwide thanks to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. The right-wing in Israel and the West will denounce attacks like this hand grenade folly with the standard lines that it’s “antisemitism,” when it’s really an anti-Likud gesture and an expression of anger and frustration that people of a darker color and a different religion should be killed so easily in the name of “self-defense.”

Sources:

3 arrested following explosions near Israel’s embassy in Copenhagen – UPI.com

At least 8 killed, 9 wounded in Tel Aviv mass shooting at rail station – UPI.com

Live: Israel hits Beirut, killing 6, Hezbollah fights Israeli army in south | Israel attacks Lebanon News | Al Jazeera

Israel Bars UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from Country

Israel Wednesday banned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country because in Israel’s opinion he was not sufficiently unequivocal about condemning Iran’s missile attack on Israel. After Iran’s attack Tuesday Guterres condemned the escalation of violence in the Middle East and called for it to stop. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Israel Wednesday banned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country, citing his comments immediately following Iran’s attack on Tel Aviv..

“I decided today to declare UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres an undesirable personality in Israel and to ban his entry into Israel,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X. “Anyone who is unable to unequivocally condemn Iran’s criminal attack on Israel, as almost all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israel’s soil.”

Tuesday Guterres said in a statement after Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel, “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a cease-fire.”

Guterres added, “An all-out war must be avoided in Lebanon at all costs, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon must be respected.”

Katz alleged that Guterres “has not yet denounced the massacre and sexual crimes committed by the murderers of Hamas on 7 Oct, and has not led to decisions to declare them a terrorist organization.”

In Oct 2023 in remarks at the UN Security Council, Guterres said, “I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 Oct acts of terror by Hamas in Israel.”

“Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets,” he said at the time.

In his Oct 2023 remarks, Guterres cited Israeli occupation in the West Bank:

“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” he said. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

In remarks before the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Guterres said the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop.”

“The events of the past week, the past month and indeed nearly the past year make it clear: It is high time for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, with the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, the effective delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and irreversible progress to a two-state solution,” Guterres said. “It is high time for a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, real action towards full implementation of Security Council resolutions 1559 and 1701, paving the way for diplomatic efforts for sustainable peace.”

“It is high time to stop the sickening cycle of escalation after escalation that is leading the people of the Middle East straight over the cliff. Each escalation has served as a pretext for the next.”

Guterres told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati that the entire UN system in Lebanon is mobilized to assist all those in need in the country as Israel continued it military attacks on Hezbollah.

As it attacked Hezbollah, Israel has also killed civilians with its attacks and has forced dislocation of civilian residents in the country. Guterres said the UN will continue efforts to de-escalate the situation.

Katz said in his statement Wednesday that the global terrorism of Iran will be remembered as a “forever blot in the history of the UN.”

Guterres maintains that the UN must demand that all parties uphold and respect obligations under international law, including how warfare and occupation are conducted.

Katz’ X statement Wednesday said, “Israel will continue to protect its citizens and maintain its position and national honor with or without Antonio Guterres.”

Israel and the UN have clashed over the role of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian humanitarian relief. Israel accused several of the agency’s staff of being involved in the 7 Oct 2023 attack on Israel.

That surprise attack killed hundreds of Israelis, including civilians as well as military personnel, when armed Palestinians gunmen crossed into Israel from Gaza. These gunmen kidnapped hostages in order to conduct a prisoner swap with Israel as over 7,000 Palestinians have been held in military detention without trial or hearing. Israel massively attacked Gaza in response to the 7 Oct attacks.

Guterres has not yet publicly responded to being banned from Israel nor should he dignify this childish edict.

The Israeli government has a long, rich tradition of ignoring UNSC Resolutions. Former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon is depicted above bullying UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. This cartoonist caricaturized Ariel Sharon as a pig with hooves and a tail. Note the bottom of Ariel Sharon’s hoof is (regrettably) an American flag. Since 2023, over 300 aid workers have been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

This diplomatic blunder by Israel should not surprise anyone. Bullies and authoritarian regimes exercise censorship tactics to prevent a counter-narrative inimical to their position. Mr. Guterres will probably not personally respond to this idiotic measure taken by the Israeli Foreign Minister. A member of the Likud Cabinet had previously called for another “nakba” against the Palestinians and another lunatic minister advocated the use of a nuclear device against the Gazans. The Likud government was more upset of a leaked video showing IDF soldiers gang-raping a Palestinian man, not at the unforgivable crime of rape perpetrated by those Israeli miscreants. That grim episode was posted here on Coriolanus. Both the Israeli Prime and Defense Ministers have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague for war crimes.

Sources:

Israel bars U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from country over response to Iran attack – UPI.com

Aid Worker Security Database | Aid Worker Security Database

68 Dangerous California White Supremacists from “SFV Peckerwoods” Gang Indicted

The letters SFV for the Peckerwoods gang signify “San Fernando Valley” and the acronym of “Searching for Victims.”

A massive law enforcement sweep targeting the SFV Peckerwoods, what federal prosecutors call a San Fernando Valley based white supremacist street gang has led to the arrests of 42 members of the racist criminal organization.

A total of 68 alleged members of the SFV Peckerwoods were named in a 76-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday that details a litany of crimes related to what prosecutors call a “years-long pattern of racketeering activity that included trafficking of drugs — including fentanyl — illegal firearms possession, and COVID-19 benefits and loan fraud.”

A massive cache of guns and drugs was seized by the Joint Terrorist Task Force in sweeps targeting the SFV Peckerwoods, a violent white supremacist street gang. Photo: Department of Justice

Of those caught up in a series of federal and local law enforcement sweeps, twelve alleged Peckerwood members were hit with federal racketeering charges, while another 56 defendants were charged with conspiring to distribute drugs. Another 13 defendants were already behind bars.

The Peckerwoods use Nazi tattoos, graffiti, and iconography to indicate their violent white supremacy extremist ideology. Among the monikers its members use include nicknames like “Bezerker,” “Rascal,” “Monster,” and “Meat,” while inked with “tattoos and iconography” that “include swastikas, the symbol “88”, used by violent white supremacy extremists as code for “Heil Hitler”, and images of Nazi aircraft.”

The gang has a large number of females, who call themselves “Featherwoods,” including “SFV Mama,” whose real name is Claire Patricia Haviland, who was among those arrested Wednesday.

During the investigation, law enforcement seized large quantities of illegal firearms, and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin, according to the indictment. The AUSA aid “the Peckerwoods’ violent white-supremacist ideology and wide-ranging criminal activity pose a grave menace to our community. By allegedly engaging in everything from drug-trafficking to firearms offenses to identity theft to COVID fraud, and through their alliance with a neo-Nazi prison gang, the Peckerwoods are a destructive force. In prosecuting the members of the Peckerwoods criminal organization, our office is carrying out its mission to protect the public from the most dangerous threats.”

When these dangerous maniacs are convicted, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will no doubt incarcerate them at separate maximum security facilities throughout the US to prevent them from re-organizing behind prison walls. But these miscreants will join the Aryan Brotherhood, Proud Boys, or other neo-Nazi white supremacist gangs in federal prison.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | Sixty-Eight Defendants Charged in Indictment of Dozens of Members and Associates of California White Supremacist Gang | United States Department of Justice

Dozens of Suspected White Supremacists Based in L.A. Busted in Federal Racketeering Case – LAmag

Canada: Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Geckos Kills One, Infects 25

Orange phase crested gecko (Public domain imagery).

A salmonella outbreak linked to reptiles has left one person dead and three others hospitalized in Canada. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said at least 25 people have been infected across seven provinces in this outbreak, which is the second one linked to geckos in 2024.

Cases have been reported in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Many of the individuals who became sick reported having direct or indirect contact with geckos, or the environments where these pets are kept, before their illnesses occurred,” the PHAC announced.

“Some people who became sick did not touch or handle the geckos themselves, but lived in the same house where they were kept.”

The illnesses occurred between Aug 2020 and Sep 2024. Most of the people infected were females (64 per cent) and in the age range 1 to 103.An investigation into the outbreak is ongoing and PHAC said that the number of cases is likely higher than what has been reported so far.

Salmonella is a bacterial infection commonly transmitted through contaminated food and water and it poses a significant health threat, especially to children and older adults, as it can lead to severe gastrointestinal symptoms, dehydration, and, in extreme cases, death.

People can also get sick with salmonella infection by directly touching reptiles or their environments, as well as through indirect contact by touching contaminated surfaces where these animals are kept.

To prevent infection, the agency has the following advice among other recommendations in its public health notice:

always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after touching a reptile or rodent, and anything they eat, or after being in the area where they live, play or touch
if visiting an exhibit or event with reptiles, wash your hands when you leave animal areas, even if you do not touch the animals directly
clean any surfaces or objects your reptile or rodent touches with soapy water followed by a household sanitizer
never kiss a pet reptile
always supervise children when they touch or play with reptiles
keep reptiles and rodents and all their food, containers, enclosures, and any objects that have been in their enclosures, such as plants or enrichment items, away from the kitchen and other places where food is made or eaten
clean or bathe reptiles in a dedicated plastic bin, not in the kitchen or bathroom sink

Symptoms of salmonella infection typically start between six and 72 hours after exposure and can last anywhere from four to seven days. They may include fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, or abdominal cramps.

If you suspect you have salmonella, PHAC recommends seeing a health-care provider. Most people recover on their own after a few days without any medical treatment.

At least 36 people got sick with salmonella infection between March 2020 and March 2024 in a separate outbreak linked to geckos. The salmonella strain of that outbreak was traced back to a gecko habitat at a home of a person who was infected.

Sources:

Public Health Notice: Outbreak of Salmonella Muenchen infections linked to geckos – Canada.ca

Salmonella outbreak linked to geckos kills 1, infects 25 in Canada – National | Globalnews.ca

‘Make Them Riot’: Politico Pulls Six Key Details from Jack Smith’s Massive Trump Filing

“We will never concede,” President Trump told his supporters at a rally in front of the White House. Credit: Pete Marovich for The New York Times

Special counsel Jack Smith’s massive new filing with new evidence against former President Donald Trump contains at least six telling revelations.

Politico legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney shared his immediate takeaways on the 165-page document Smith filed in a Washington DC federal court.

In the filing, Smith asserts his case against the former president within the context of the Supreme Court ruling that Trump enjoyed partial presidential immunity in the lead-up to the US Capitol riots on 6 Jan 2021.

Smith argues Trump can still be tried on election interference charges as he acted as a private citizen seeking personal gain and not a US official seeking to protect the integrity of national elections.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to those charges and contended Wednesday, as he has in the past, that Smith is mounting a political witch hunt.

1) A Trump campaign employee sought to foment chaos at the TCF Center in Detroit where ballots were being processed.

“When a colleague at the TFC Center told [redacted] ‘We think [a batch of votes heavily in Biden’s favor is right, [redacted] responded, “find a reason it isn’t,” “give me options to file litigation,” and “even if itbis [sic],” the filing reads.

“When the colleague suggested that there was about to be unrest reminiscent of the Brooks Brothers Riot, a violent effort to stop the vote count in Florida after the 2000 presidential election, [redacted] responded, ‘Make them riot’ and ‘Do it!!!'”

2) Trump sidelined his campaign legal team on 13 Nov and put Rudy Giuliani in charge because he was willing to lie about the election results.

“As the defendant placed alternating phone calls to [redacted] and [redacted] throughout 13 Nov [redacted] informed [redacted] , another private Campaign advisor, of the change,” the filing states, “writing, “Close hold don’t tell anyone Trump just fired [redacted] and put [redacted] in charge.”

3) Vice President Mike Pence told Trump he saw no evidence of fraud over the course of many conversations detailed in his book and cited by prosecutors.

“In the post-election time period, Pence, the defendant’s own running mate, who he had directed to assess fraud allegations told the defendant that he had seen no evidence of outcome-determinative fraud in the election.”

“The defendant disregarded [redacted] and Pence in the same way that he disregarded dozens of court decisions that unanimously rejected his and his allies’ legal claims, and that he disregarded officials in the targeted states including those in his own party–who stated publicly that he had lost and that his specific fraud allegations were false.”

4) Trump repeatedly promised to provide election fraud evidence to Govs. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) and Brian Kemp (R-GA) but never did.

“The defendant was on notice that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud in Arizona within a week of the election.”

“The defendant also raised claims of election fraud, and [redacted] asked the defendant to send him supporting evidence. Although the defendant said he would, stating ‘we’re packaging it up,’ he never did.”

5) Mark Meadows and a White House attorney exchanged messages on 3 Dec 2020 confirming that dead voters statistics were false.

“During the hearing, Chief of Staff [redacted] and [redacted] exchanged text messages on their personal phones confirming that a Campaign attorney, [redacted] had verified that [redacted] claim of more than 10,000 dead voters was false and that the actual number was around 12 and could not be outcome-determinative.”

6) A US senator helped facilitate a 8 Dec call between Trump and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.

“US Senator [redacted] told [redacted] that the defendant had heard that [redacted] was ‘whipping,’ or lobbying, other state attorneys general against filing amicus briefs in support of Texas.”

“[Redacted] asked [redacted] if he would speak with the defendant about it, and [redacted] agreed.”

Trump supporters heeded his call and stormed the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021. Many of them have now been convicted and incarcerated. VPOTUS Mike Pence did not abandon his duty as Trump wanted; instead, he stayed to certify the election. Photo: Roberto Schmidt AFP via Getty Images

Special Counsel Jack Smith is competent and experienced, having convicted war criminals at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague. Nevertheless, the American electorate should not rely on Mr. Smith, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, NYSAG Letitia James, or any part of the US legal system to stop Donald Trump and Project 2025. The Democratic strategy should be to register voters as many voters as possible and overwhelm Republican ballots so that even GOP voter suppression tactics will be ineffective.

Sources:

‘Make them riot’: Politico pulls 6 key details from Jack Smith’s massive Trump filing – Raw Story

United States v Donald J. Trump Superseding Indictment (justice.gov)

India’s Rhino Stronghold Sees 86% Drop in Poaching and Five-Fold Increase in Population

Greater one-horned rhino – CC 4.0. Nejib Ahmed

Since 2016, poaching of one-horned rhinoceroses in India’s Assam state has fallen 86% after the government took decisive steps to protect them

By expanding protected areas and bolstering ranger patrols, 3,000 rhinos grace the Assam savannah.

“Rhinos are synonymous with the identity of Assam. They are our pride and the crown jewel of our biodiversity. Ever since we assumed office, we have taken various initiatives to protect the prized species, expand its habitat and ensure its safety,” Assam state’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote on X.

In India, the Chief Minister, often abbreviated CM, is the equivalent on an American governor, and the state of Assam which Sarma governs is India’s rhino stronghold, with 88% of all the rhinos in the country located in Kaziranga, Manas, and Orang national parks, and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.

The remaining 12% is spread widely across the country. CM Sarma’s tenure which began in 2021 oversaw the addition of nearly 50,000 acres of habitat in Orang National Park, and another 50,000 to two other protected areas.

Last year, GNN reported that for the first time since 1977, zero rhinos were poached in India.

Sarma ordered the rhinos to be treated like “presidents”, with sophisticated police commando teams patrolling the parks with night vision equipment and drones during moonlit nights.

Since then, the population of Assam’s rhinos has grown by 105 to 3,000; up from a low of 600 during the 1960s. The government released these figures on World Rhino Day (22 Sep) to show that “if the will to protect these animals is there, the most poached megafauna species on Earth can thrive.”

Source:

India’s Rhino Stronghold Sees 86% Drop in Poaching and Five-Fold Increase in Rhinos (goodnewsnetwork.org)

Mexico’s First Female President Takes Oath of Office, Promises to Help Poor

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum addresses supporters during a rally in the Zocalo, Mexico City’s main square, on her inauguration day, 1 Oct 2024. Photo: AP

Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in Tuesday as Mexico’s new president, becoming the country’s first female president and the first president of Jewish descent in the largely Roman Catholic country. Her win comes 70 years after women in Mexico won the right to vote. President Sheinbaum is also the first woman to lead a government in North America. Should Kamala Harris win the US election next month, the continent will have two women in charge of their nations, another first.

The daughter of activist academics, Sheinbaum (62) was also the first female mayor of Mexico City, Mexico’s capital. She stepped down from that position last year for her presidential campaign, which had the support of her predecessor and political mentor, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

She has promised to continue the social welfare programs for the country’s poor that Lopez Obrador initiated, despite Mexico’s current massive budget deficit and sluggish economy.

Sheinbaum is also facing a country beset with violence, such as battles between drug cartels that often erupt onto the streets of the northwest city of Culiacan, where many cartels are located. Local security forces have had little luck in quelling the violence.

As mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum was applauded for reducing the city’s homicide rate by increasing the salaries of an expanded police force, a strategy she has promised to duplicate across the country.

Sheinbaum is also assuming Mexico’s helm just as the country is implementing a judicial overhaul, a move spearheaded by Lopez Obrador. The controversial reform will eventually replace all of Mexico’s judges with new ones elected by popular vote.

Former President Ernesto Zedillo, who has been critical of the overhaul, said in a recent guest essay in Britain’s Economist magazine that “our hard-won democracy will be transformed, for all practical purposes, into a one-party autocracy.”

Sheinbaum, however, said, “The reforms to the judicial system will not affect our commercial relations, nor private Mexican investments, nor foreign ones. Rather, the opposite. There will be a greater and better rule of law and democracy for everyone.”

The first trip for the new president, a former climate scientist who has a doctorate in energy engineering, will be to Acapulco, the resort on Mexico’s Pacific coast, which was brutalized last week by the rains of Category III Hurricane John, after being devastated last year by Hurricane Otis.

Population of Mexico: 130,739,927; GDP per capita: $22,400 (2023 est.) Data and map: CIA

Sources:

Mexico’s first female president takes oath of office, promises to help poor (voanews.com)

Mexico Factsheet – The World Factbook (cia.gov)

Russian Forces Execute 16 Ukrainian POWs Near Pokrovsk

In 2022, Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old tank commander, was sentenced to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian in Ukraine’s first war crime trial following Russia’s invasion. He had pleaded guilty to killing a 62-year-old citizen in north-eastern Ukraine. There will be more war crimes trials in the future. Photo Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Russian forces appear to have shot 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in Donetsk Oblast, the largest recorded case of mass execution of surrendered soldiers on the battlefield, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said on 1 Oct.

Evidence of the execution appeared on social media earlier on 1 Oct. The POWs were reportedly killed after surrendering on the front line near Pokrovsk. The Prosecutor General’s Office said it was verifying the material published online and investigating the circumstances around the case.

The execution of POWs is a “cynical and gross violation of the Geneva Conventions,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

“This is the most massive known case of execution of Ukrainian POWs on the front line,” Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said.

“The murders and torture of prisoners are not an accident, but a purposeful policy of the Russian military and political leadership,” he added.

In early September, Russian forces executed three Ukrainian POWs near Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast. The Prosecutor General’s Office said earlier this year that it was investigating more than 50 cases of execution of Ukrainian POWs.

The US Department of Justice has been investigating Russian war crimes as well. Last year the DOJ charged four Russian soldiers with torture, inhumane treatment, and unlawful confinement of a US national in Ukraine.

Sources:

Russian forces execute 16 Ukrainian POWs near Pokrovsk, prosecutors say (kyivindependent.com)

Office of Public Affairs | Four Russia-Affiliated Military Personnel Charged with War Crimes in Connection with Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine | United States Department of Justice

Russian soldier jailed for life in Ukraine’s first war crime trial (brusselstimes.com)

Iran Counterattacks Israel on Behalf of Lebanese Hezbollah with Ballistic Missiles

Photo: AP

Iran launched a massive ballistic missile attack at Israel on 1 Oct in retaliation for Israel’s campaign against Lebanon’s Hezbollah in a new escalation of the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed resistance group.

Israeli air defenses intercepted many of the estimated 180 missiles that were fired, though some landed in central and southern Israel. There were no reports of any injuries and after about an hour after the attack was launched it was safe for them to leave their bomb shelters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack “a big mistake” and said Tehran “will pay for it.” He added: “Whoever attacks us, we attack them.”

US President Joe Biden said he would discuss a response with Netanyahu. Asked what the response would be, Biden replied: “That’s in active discussion right now. That remains to be seen.”

He added that the attack appears to have been “defeated and ineffective, and this is a testament to Israeli military capability and the US military” and said the US is “fully supportive of Israel.”

Israeli police reported that at least six people were killed and nine wounded in a shooting and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv. Police said it was a “terrorist” attack carried out at a light rail station and the two attackers were later killed by civilians and inspectors using their own firearms. There has been no claim of responsibility.

While the missile attack sent Israelis scurrying to take cover in bomb shelters, it prompted people in Iran to celebrate. State television broadcast images from the city of Mashhad showing people in the streets waving the yellow flag of Hezbollah and portraits of the group’s slain chief, Hassan Nasrallah. Similar celebrations also took place in the capital Tehran and in several provincial cities.

World leaders urged Iran and Israel to step back from the brink and negotiate a cease-fire.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the “broadening conflict in the Middle East” following fighting in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

To a hammer, everything is a nail as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is demonstrating. He has ignored the entreaties of the UN and world leaders for a cease-fire, as well as the pleas of his citizens to make a deal to release the remaining hostages. The widening conflict will keep Netanyahu’s bribery and corruption trial in abeyance while casualties begin to mount. In this “David versus Goliath” conflict, Israel and her supporters should expect asymmetric attacks or lone-actor reprisals against soft civilian targets, ranging from runamok knife attacks (like in Germany earlier this year), vandalism against synagogues, or bomb threats against Jewish hospitals (like earlier this year in Canada).

Lebanese man stands in remains of a building destroyed by the IDF in Beirut on 1 Oct 2024. The Lebanese economy was already in shambles before the Israeli onslaught. Photo: Fadel Itani / UPI.

A French naval ship is deploying to Lebanon to assist with any evacuations of French citizens. Approximately 23,000 French and Franco-Lebanese residents live in Lebanon. The French embassy in Beirut has established a hotline and started coordinating evacuation options for civilians who wish to leave. Two French nationals have already been killed by the IDF.

Sources:

Iran Launches Massive Ballistic Missile Attack On Israel (rferl.org)French navy deploys near Lebanon as Israel launches ground raids on Hezbollah (rfi.fr)

Florida Man Found Guilty of Felony Destruction of Property and Other Charges During 6 Jan Capitol Breach

Supporters of then-US President Donald Trump enter the US Capitol’s Rotunda on 6 Jan 2021, in Washington, DC. Photo: NBC News.

A federal jury in the District of Columbia found Marcus Smith (47) of Fleming Island, FL, guilty of a felony offense of destruction of government property and several misdemeanor charges during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Joining the mob that stormed the US Capitol, Smith noticed some rioters trying to breach a locked door inside the building. The defendant joined them in breaking down the door. The Architect of the Capitol later determined that the value of the damage to the door, which was part of the original construction of the Senate Wing of the Capitol and dated back to the 1850s, necessitated the door being replaced at a cost of approximately $21,000.

After further trespassing within the US Capitol, this runamok finally departed at approximately 2:50 PM. The FBI arrested Smith on 26 Jan 2024, in Fleming Island.

This brontosaurus represents America’s Fedayeen Saddam (FS), dead-ender white supremacists clinging on to the last vestiges of white privilege in the US. Marcus Smith is lucky that he wasn’t charged with any crimes of violence against USCP officers. The Honorable US District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich will sentence Smith on 10 Jan 2025.

Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

Source:

District of Columbia | Florida Man Found Guilty of Felony Destruction of Property and Other Charges During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

US Targets Israeli-Occupied West Bank Settler Violence with Sanctions

Hilltop Youth settlers in West Bank (Photo credit: REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen)

The US sanctioned one informal organization and two people as the Biden administration continues to tighten its financial grip on those it accuses of perpetrating violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The US Treasury designated Hilltop Youth, an extremist group of West Bank settlers accused of attacking Palestinians and destroying their homes and property. The US government listed Hilltop Youth as a “criminal organization.”

The Treasury said the group of settlers has “conducted a campaign of violence against Palestinians,” which includes killings, arson, assaults and intimidation, with the goal of driving Palestinians out of the West Bank. It conducts what are called “price tag” assaults, which are revenge attacks conducted in reprisal for actions carried out against settlers.

The late author and Israel Prize laureate Amos Oz who was known as: “The humane heart of Israel.”

In 2014, the late Amos Oz condemned the perpetrators of “price tag” attacks, saying “‘Price tag’ and ‘Hilltop Youth’ are cute nicknames for a monster that needs to be called what it is: Hebrew neo-Nazi groups.” Oz went on to say that the only difference between neo-Nazis around the world and those who commit hate crimes in Israel is that “our neo-Nazi groups enjoy the support of numerous nationalist or even racist legislators, as well as rabbis who give them what is in my view pseudo- religious justification.”

The State Department sanctioned Eitan Yardeni and Avichai Suissa, who leads Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli non-government organization the US sanctioned in late August.

Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory and the establishment of settlements are widely viewed as illegal under international law and have attracted the repeated criticism and condemnation of the UN and the wider international community.

The US has been a critic of Israel’s occupation and has said it represents an obstacle to a two-state solution. The Biden administration has sanctioned 27 individuals and entities accused of perpetuating violence there under an executive order that President Joe Biden signed in February.

The Biden administration has used the sanctions to criticize Israel for not doing more to curb violence in the West Bank, while critics have called on the administration to use its sanctioning power against those in the Israeli government who enable the violence against Palestinians.

“The Biden administration imposes more sanctions on settlers for violence against West Bank Palestinians but still hasn’t imposed sanctions on any of the Israeli officials who are encouraging the settler violence,” Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and current visiting professor at Princeton, said on X.

According to an update from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there have been some 1,390 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians between the start of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 Oct and 23 Sep.

Of those attacks, 135 involved the killing and wounding of Palestinians, 1,110 saw Palestinian property damaged and about 150 caused both casualties and property damage. The report added that some 1,628 Palestinians, including 794 children, have been displaced by the settler violence. The AP reported that 623 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank.

Sources:

Sanctions List Search (treas.gov)

U.S. targets Israeli-occupied West Bank settler violence with sanctions – UPI.com

Amos Oz: Hilltop youth are Hebrew neo-Nazis – The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

French Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen on Trial for Misusing EU funds

Marine Le Pen sits in the European Parliament, Strasbourg, in Jan 2017. She looks quite pleased with herself. Photo: AP / Jean-Francois Badias

Marine Le Pen, her father, and 25 colleagues – including current and former French lawmakers and MEPs – are accused of embezzling public funds and collusion. Prosecutors claim that the defendants set up a fake jobs scheme using European parliamentary funds to pay for assistants who in fact worked for her National Rally party, formerly called the National Front, rather than on European affairs.

The scheme, which ran from 2004 to 2016, was in breach of EU rules.

The EU Parliament estimated in 2018 that 6.8 million euros had been embezzled. Marine Le Pen has always denied any wrongdoing.

The trial runs through to 27 Nov. If found guilty, Le Pen could face a maximum ten years behind bars and a €1 million fine. That’s unlikely, but she also faces a possible five-year ban on standing for public office. This would rule her out of the 2027 presidential election she is preparing for, and which a recent poll suggests she has a stronger than ever chance of winning.

A total of 11 members of the European Parliament, 12 of their parliamentary assistants and four party collaborators are to be tried as well, while the RN party itself faces charges of concealing the wrongdoing. Among the high-profile figures are Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, her former partner Louis Aliot – the mayor of the southern city of Perpignan – and RN spokesperson Julien Odoul.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is 96 years old, will not be present in court after a medical report in July diagnosed him as “unfit” to stand trial.

The National Rally is not the only party to be accused of misappropriating MEP funds.

In February this year the centrist MoDem party, currently part of President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble coalition, was fined €350,000 for similar charges.

MoDem’s leader, Francois Bayrou, was acquitted due to reasonable doubt, but the eight people found guilty were ordered to pay fines, sentenced to prison terms of 10 to 18 months and were banned from serving in public office.

Sources:

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on trial for misuse of EU funds (rfi.fr)

Far right election gains ensure a financial jackpot for Le Pen’s National Rally

Germany Arrests Chinese Woman Accused of Spying

German police arrested a Chinese woman accused of spying on the country’s defence industry while working in a logistics company.

Named only as Yaqi X., she allegedly reported to another suspected Beijing agent now under arrest, Jian G., who was working in the office of a German far-right member of the European Parliament, Maximilian Krah. The woman arrested on Monday is “strongly suspected of acting as an intelligence agent for a Chinese secret service.”

Yaqi X. worked for a company that provides logistics services at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany.

She allegedly used her position to gather information on “the transport of military equipment and persons with connections to a German arms company.”

Between mid-2023 and February, she “repeatedly sent information on flights, cargo and passengers at the airport to an employee of a Chinese secret service — namely Jian G., who is being prosecuted separately,” prosecutors said.

Jian G., a German national, was arrested in April on suspicion of spying while working in the Brussels office of German MEP Krah of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Her Leipzig home and workplace were also searched.

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann told Bild daily that “the arrest of a suspected Chinese spy in Leipzig shows us once again that foreign intelligence services have long had Germany in their sights.

Citing unnamed security sources, news site Der Spiegel reported that Yaqi X., a 38-year-old, in particular had targeted the arms giant Rheinmetall, which is involved in making Leopard tanks and which uses Leipzig airport for cargo flights.

Her alleged handler Jian G. was arrested on suspicion of sharing European Parliament information with a Chinese intelligence service and of spying on Chinese opposition figures in Germany.

The European Union assembly, which had listed Jian Guo as an accredited assistant to Krah, moved to suspend him earlier this year. Krah posted on X at the time that prosecutors had confirmed to his lawyer that he was “not a suspect in the investigation”. The allegations involving China were among a series of controversies to hit Germany’s AfD, including claims that some of its members have links to Russia.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the allegations against Guo “very serious” and said that, if confirmed, it was “an attack on European democracy from within”.

According to German broadcasters ARD, RBB, and SWR, Guo was no stranger to German intelligence. He had reportedly offered his services as an informer at least a decade ago but was turned away on suspicion he might be a Chinese double agent.

Source:

Germany Arrests Chinese Woman Accused Of Spying | Barron’s (barrons.com)

California Wildfires One Million Hectares This Year

Map: FIRMS US / NASA

The total hectares burned in California this year surpassed one million as spiking temperatures Tuesday added to the challenges facing firefighters struggling to contain a stubborn blaze in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles that flared up over the weekend.

Evacuation orders were expanded again Monday for remote communities northeast of Los Angeles as the Line Fire that has been burning for nearly a month spread over nearly 176 square kilometers (68 square miles) of the San Bernardino Mountains, and containment dropped from 83% to 76%.

“The dry vegetation, steep slopes and wind aligned … to create conditions for the rapid fire spread,” according to a statement late Monday from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

The risk of wildfires increased across California as an autumn heat wave scorched much of the state. Some inland areas could see temperatures up to 20 degrees above average for this time of year, according to the National Weather Service.

San Francisco, where residents typically break out the sweaters in October, could hit 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit), while triple digits 38 C were predicted for Sacramento. The weather service office in the state’s capital urged residents to stay indoors during the heat of the day on Tuesday.

Dry, hot winds in the northern part of the state prompted Pacific Gas & Electric to pre-emptively cut power to small clusters of customers in high-risk areas. The utility routinely stops electricity service in counties where weather conditions increase the probability of fires.

In Southern California, the Line Fire’s surge pushed the total hectares burned across the state in 2024 to 405,492 (1,001,993 acres) as of Tuesday morning, according to Cal Fire. The milestone surpasses the total scorched during the same time last year — 118,719 hectares (293,362 acres) — but is roughly on par with the five-year average for the period, the Los Angeles Times reported.

At its height, the blaze threatened more than 65,000 homes in and around the Big Bear Lake area.

A 34-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to starting the Line Fire on 5 Sep. Justin Wayne Halstenberg of Norco, CA, was charged with 11 arson-related crimes.

Firefighters monitor the advancing Line Fire in Angelus Oaks, CA, 9 Sep 2024.

Sources:

Wildfires in California have burned 1 million hectares so far this year (voanews.com)

NASA | LANCE | FIRMS US/Canada

Vietnam: 25 Students Suspected of Poisoning After Drinking Free Soft Drinks; Other Cases of Possible Food Poisoning Reported This Summer

Pediatric patient treated at the hospital. Photo: BVCC

After drinking free soft drinks at the gate of Binh Minh Secondary School, Thanh Oai, 25 students showed signs of poisoning; 12 were hospitalized with headaches, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Physicians suspect food poisoning. Three more serious patients were transferred to Intensive Care, the rest were treated at the Infectious Diseases Department. The children drank free bottled soft drinks outside the school gate. There is no information yet regarding the brand or the ingredients, but the product was distributed for free for advertising purposes.

Authorities recommend that schools in the area, as well as parents, educate their children not to eat snacks outside the school gate and absolutely not to accept food from strangers.

On 21 Sep, 70 people at Primary and Secondary School in Nong Thuong commune, Bac Kan city vomited, had abdominal pain, diarrhea, headache, and were hospitalized. The day before, 88 students and five teachers ate rice, fried chicken, vegetable soup with melons, stir-fried potatoes, and watermelon.

The next morning, 20 students appeared with hot fever, abdominal pain, headache, diarrhea, and were admitted to the emergency city health center. The number of sick patients increased to 70 with similar symptoms. The cause is unknown.

On 16 Sep, 34 students of Ton Duc Thang Secondary School in Pleiku drank milk tea at the Mid-Autumn Festival. Within a few hours, 21 students had abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness, and vomiting. They received emergency medical treatment and doctors suspected food poisoning.

The City Health Center took food samples for testing to find the cause.

Without further information, these incidents appear to be isolated examples of poor quality control over food and beverage production in Vietnam, and not a sinister plot to murder innocent children.

Sources:

25 students suspected of poisoning after drinking soft drinks are given out for free – VnExpress Health Newspaper

70 people in Bac Kan were hospitalized with the same symptoms of vomiting and headache – VnExpress Health Newspaper

21 students suspected of poisoning after the Mid-Autumn Festival party – VnExpress Health Newspaper

Used Baby Incubators Help Save Orphaned Kangaroos by Imitating Their Mother’s Pouch

Story: Andy Corbley; Photo: Mandy Watson

When an Australian nurse working at a hospital with outdated incubators happened upon a kangaroo rescue center, she realized she could help save lives.

Once used to help save premature human babies, the incubators are now mimicking the conditions of a mother kangaroo’s pouch, where her joey will live for the first eight months of its life.

Every year dozens of orphaned joeys and pinkies, or marsupial pups who haven’t opened their eyes yet, are brought into Kununurra Kangaroo Rescue Haven in East Kimberly, Australia.

Since they are the largest terrestrial animal in Australia, an adult kangaroo rarely has to worry about predators and their populations can balloon quite dramatically. This, unfortunately, renders them much like whitetail deer in the US—at extreme risk of becoming roadkill.

Mandy Watson, director of the Kununurra Haven, has saved hundreds of orphaned joeys from their moms who have been hunted or struck by vehicles. Young, pinky joeys can struggle to survive without the warmth and humidity of their mother’s pouch. She has seen hundreds of orphans return to the wild, but thousands not make it to adulthood.

“In 20 years, we’ve released 823 back into the wild. It’s really hard, especially in the dry season, for us to keep up that constant temperature,” Watson told ABC News Down Under. “The humidicrib (incubator) is going to be a constant temperature that’s going to dramatically help [to] save a few more lives.”

The humidicribs were donated by nurse Jane Darlington, a clinical pediatric nurse at the Kununurra District Hospital. The hospital needed to get rid of them as the rapid march of medical technology had seen them become obsolete.

Darlington got the idea while shopping in town. She saw a volunteer from the rescue center helping to raise awareness of their work by walking around in a wallaby costume, holding one of their orphaned joeys.

Mandy Watson (left) and a volunteer play with some joeys next to their truck-mounted incubator. Photo: Jane Darlington

Source:

Old Incubators Help Save Orphaned Kangaroos by Imitating Their Mother’s Pouch (goodnewsnetwork.org)

“What? The right-wing in Europe is linked to Russian and Chinese intelligence? And involved in financial chicanery? Who knew?!”

Israel Invades Lebanon

IDF tanks and armored personnel carriers (APC) in northern Israel, 30 Sep 2024.

Israel invaded Lebanon early Tuesday to drive Hezbollah forces away from the Israeli border. The ground operation follows hours of artillery fire across the border and airstrikes in southern Beirut. Over the past 24 hours, Lebanon’s health ministry said nearly 100 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and Beirut.

As predicted by Coriolanus, in support of Lebanon’s Shias, Houthis began targeting Western ships with maritime drones in the Red Sea which sees $1 trillion worth of cargo passing through it every year.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike on a southern suburb of Beirut [Fadel Itani / AFP] 800 people have been killed and approximately 2,000 have been injured since Israel began its offensive against Lebanon with the booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies attack last month (which the OHCHR deemed a “war crime.”)

Filippo Grandi posts on ‘X’:

“The number of people who have crossed into Syria from Lebanon fleeing Israeli airstrikes — Lebanese and Syrian nationals — has reached 100,000. The outflow continues. UNHCR is present at four crossing points alongside local authorities and @SYRedCrescent to support new arrivals”.

Back in Israel, an unpopular prime minister received an earful from his constituents.

A group of protesters held a demonstration outside the private residence of Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, calling on the Israeli prime minister to reach a deal with the Palestinian leadership in Gaza to repatriate the 95 or so hostages. Police were unable to control the crowd, which made it through barriers to Netanyahu’s home.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), seven thousand Palestinians were being held in security detention by the IDF without hearing or trial in 2023. With no way to extricate them, armed Palestinian groups captured a total of 251 Israelis during its surprise attack at the Nova music festival near the Israel-Gaza border on 7 Oct 2023. The first prisoner swap freed 180 of those 7,000 Palestinians and 69 Israelis in Nov 2023.

Nota Bene: The International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague indicted Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with PM Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes. Inexplicably, their international arrest warrants have inexplicably not yet been issued. You may read the specific charges here: Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC: Applications for arrest warrants in the situation in the State of Palestine | International Criminal Court (icc-cpi.int)

Sources:

Israel launches limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon – UPI.com

Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC: Applications for arrest warrants in the situation in the State of Palestine | International Criminal Court (icc-cpi.int)

Israel Gaza war: ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders (bbc.com)

Why Does Israel Have So Many Palestinians in Detention and Available to Swap? | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)

A drone boat loaded with explosives has struck a ship in the Red Sea in a suspected Houthi attack – ABC News (go.com)

Exploding pagers and radios: A terrifying violation of international law, say UN experts | OHCHR

Anti-Semitic Lunatic Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Attempting to Murder Two Jewish Men Leaving Los Angeles Synagogues

Jaime Tran (30) was sentenced to 35 years in prison for shooting and wounding two Jewish men last year as they left religious services in the Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles. He had pleaded guilty on 3 Jun to two counts of hate crimes with intent to kill and two counts of using, carrying, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. Tran had a history of personally threatening Jews. He described himself as a “ticking time bomb” and maintained social media accounts with the handle “k1llalljews.”

As a result of previous mental health holds, Tran was prohibited from purchasing firearms. In Jan 2023, Tran asked someone in Arizona to buy two firearms for him. That person has since pleaded guilty to firearms violations.

In early Feb 2023, Tran sent an online message stating: “it’s time to kill all Jews.” On the morning of 15 Feb 2023, shot a Jewish victim wearing a yarmulke as he was leaving religious services at a synagogue. Tran shot him at close range centimeters from his spine, intending to kill him. Tran then fled the scene in his car. The next morning Tran shot a second Jewish victim, also wearing a yarmulke and leaving a synagogue after attending religious services. Tran shot the victim at close range, intending to kill him, as the victim crossed the street. Tran again fled the scene.

Both victims survived the attacks. Law enforcement arrested Tran on 17 Feb 2023, after a witness reported seeing someone shooting a firearm behind a motel. When he was arrested, Tran told law enforcement that he was “practicing” with his assault weapon. The AUSA stated that if the defendant wasn’t caught the night of his second shooting, Tran’s campaign of terror would likely have continued.

This miscreant needs intensive psychiatric care. For the next 35 years Tran will not be contributing towards social security and will therefore be destitute when he finally departs federal prison at the tender age of 65.

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | Former California Man Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Attempting to Murder Two Jewish Men Leaving Los Angeles Synagogues Last Year | United States Department of Justice

Central District of California | Ex-Riverside Man Agrees to Plead Guilty to Hate and Gun Crimes for Shooting Two Jewish Men Leaving L.A. Synagogues Last Year | United States Department of Justice

US Ports Shut Down as Dockworkers Strike

Talks have been stalled for months and the current contract between parties expired on Monday. Getty Images

Tens of thousands of dockworkers have gone on strike indefinitely at ports across much of the US, threatening significant trade and economic disruption ahead of the presidential election and the busy holiday shopping season. Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) walked out on Tuesday at 14 major ports along the east and gulf coasts, halting container traffic from Maine to Texas. The action marks the first such shutdown in almost 50 years.

Time-sensitive imports, such as food, are likely to be among the goods first impacted.

The ports involved handle about 14% of agricultural exports shipped by sea and more than half of imports, including a significant share of trade in bananas and chocolate. Other sectors exposed to disruption include tin, tobacco and nicotine, Oxford Economics said. Clothing and footwear firms, and European carmakers, which route many of their shipments through the Port of Baltimore, will also take a hit.

Imports in the US surged over the summer, as many businesses took steps to rush shipments ahead of the strike. The stand-off injects uncertainty into the US economy at a delicate time.

The economy has been slower and the unemployment rate is ticking higher as the US election approaches in six weeks. President Joe Biden has the power to suspend the strike for 80 days for further negotiations, but the White House has said he is not planning to act.

This is a challenge for the incredibly competent Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to help mediate during this critical run-up period before the November election. Pres. Biden’s international legacy has already been tarnished thanks to bellicose Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu; POTUS gave his farewell address at the UN General Assembly with the world at war. One columnist used the term “purgatory” to describe the state of the world after Biden’s speech. Now, this domestic economic challenge can further damage Joe Biden’s legacy and potentially harm Kamala’s chances in November.

Source:

US ports strike: Trade warning as dockworkers walk out (bbc.com)

American Warzone: Suspect in Fatal Los Angeles Bus Hijacking Charged with Murder

A man suspected of fatally shooting a bus passenger and hijacking the vehicle in Los Angeles before leading police on a pursuit for more than an hour has been charged with multiple counts, including murder and kidnapping.

One victim died of gunshot wounds at a local hospital. A SWAT team rescued the bus driver and a passenger. Lamont Campbell (51) was immediately arrested and charged with 12 felony counts,including murder, attempted murder, carjacking, kidnapping, assault, and robbery. Campbell faces more than 90 years to life in prison if convicted as charged. He is set to be arraigned on October 1, according to the DA’s Office.

The charges stem from the six victims who were on the bus when it was carjacked: The driver, the gunshot victim, identified asAnthony Rivera (48), a woman who was robbed, and three other passengers. The suspect’s motive remains unclear and he has a history of being in and out of California prisons.

The bus hijacking is one of the latest examples of ordinary Americans being terrorized by gun violence in places they once believed were safe, from schools to supermarkets to public transit.

In an average year, 3,299 people die by guns in California. With a rate of 8.2 deaths per 100,000 people, the Golden State has the 45th-highest rate of gun deaths in the US. Nationally, 44,341 people die by guns in an average year, a rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people.

Sources:

LA bus hijack: 1 dead and suspect in custody, Los Angeles police say | CNN

EveryStat – EveryStat.org

Accused LA bus hijacker previously spent time in prison – NBC Los Angeles

Former Iranian President Says Mossad Infiltrated Iranian Intelligence Unit Charged with Spying on Israel

Iran’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The former president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, alleged that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency managed to infiltrate the top echelons of Iran’s intelligence service.

Mr. Ahmadinejad says an intelligence group tasked primarily with spying on Israel was all-but taken over by Mossad, which managed to recruit the head of the Iranian group — as well as most of his lieutenants — as a double agent. The goal of the Mossad operation, according to Mr. Ahmadinejad, was to steal information about Iran’s nuclear program.

Mr. Ahmadinejad — who was barred from running in this year’s special presidential election following the death of President Raisi in a helicopter crash — made the claims during a recent interview with CNN Türk.

Mr. Ahmadinejad said “the highest person in charge of the counter-Israel unit at the Iranian Intelligence Ministry was an Israeli agent.” The former president claims that Mossad infiltrated the intelligence services in order to conduct “complex operations,” including stealing “crucial nuclear documents.”

He says that nearly two dozen Iranians were a part of the Mossad operation, according to a report in Turkiyetoday, which reports that Mr. Ahmadinejad made the comments shortly after his plan to run again for the top office was rejected.

This would not be the first time Israel has operated within Iran’s borders to obtain classified information about the country’s nuclear development program. In 2018, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that his country had obtained a trove of files related to Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon. He later delivered a presentation of those documents from a stage at Tel Aviv.

In a daring operation six years ago, Mossad agents infiltrated a warehouse at Tehran in the middle of the night and stole more than 100,000 documents detailing Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, according to the New York Times. Over the course of just six hours, more than two dozen agents cut through safes inside the warehouse to access the documents, which were later verified as authentic by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Mr. Netanyahu conducted a private briefing for President Trump after the documents were in his possession, which then motivated the American president to recklessly pull out of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran.

Coriolanus cannot confirm these allegations, but both the MOIS (AKA VAJA) and Mossad are familiar with each other’s practices. For years the Mossad and CIA trained the Shah’s notorious SAVAK, the predecessor to the MOIS. Many of those SAVAK officers remained in place out of pragmatism. History is full of examples of highly-placed spies, moles, informants, and traitors operating in elite or tightly-guarded environments. One of the IRA’s most prolific assassins was in reality a British military spy. Freddie Scappaticci, codenamed STAKEKNIFE, was linked to 14 murders and 15 abductions; he worked in a ruthless IRA unit known as the “Nutting Squad.” The “Cambridge Five” were well-placed Kremlin spies operating in the halls of British power and espionage during the Cold War, like Kim Philby below.

MI6-KGB double agent Kim Philby bragged about how he smuggled top-secret documents out of the Secret Intelligence Service HQ and betrayed British and American CIA spies during Philby’s hour-long espionage masterclass to East German Stasi spies in 1981.

Sources:

Former Iranian President Says Mossad Infiltrated Iranian Intelligence Unit Charged With Israel Spying | The New York Sun (nysun.com)

Stakeknife spy report a damning indictment of the state, says solicitor for victims’ families – BBC News

Cambridge Five – Wikipedia

Ministry of Intelligence (Iran) – Wikipedia

‍Kim Philby: Who Is the Real MI6-KGB Spy Behind ‘A Spy Among Friends’? (spyscape.com)

Mosquito-Borne Illnesses Increasing Worldwide

Photo: iStock, AbelBrata.

Mosquitos are man’s acme predators, not sharks in the oceans, grizzly bears in North America, or dangerous hippos in African rivers. Mosquitoes are the most dangerous creatures on Earth regarding the number of human deaths they cause yearly. And because of global climate change, mosquitos have more opportunities to prey on mankind because of longer summers and increased latitudinal migration into new territories.

In Bangladesh, in 24 hours eight people died of dengue fever and 1,221 were hospitalized, bringing the 2024 death toll to 158 people. Five deaths were reported from Dhaka South City Corporation, one from Dhaka North City Corporation and one each from Barishal and Khulna divisions.

Of them, 206 dengue patients were admitted in the hospital under Dhaka North City Corporation while 228 were hospitalized in Dhaka South City Corporation. Some 830 patients are receiving treatment in different hospitals across the country.

A total of 29,786 dengue cases have been reported since 1 Jan 2024.

Last year, Bangladesh recorded 321,179 cases of dengue fever. 1,705 people died, making it the deadliest year on record. As reported previously on Coriolanus, Trinidad and Tobago is experiencing a dengue fever outbreak.

In New Hampshire, two patients are being treated for Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). Their cases reportedly bring to four the number of encephalitis cases in the Granite State so far this year. The last cases diagnosed in the state date back to 2014.

To avoid mosquito bites, people should use mosquito nets and insect repellent. Wearing long sleeve shirts and clothing to cover the legs will help, as well as staying indoors from dusk to dawn. Stagnant water should be removed from residential areas as these are breeding grounds for mosquitos.

Sources:

Health Officials: Two New Hampshire Residents Treated for Eastern Equine Encephalitis – The Pulse of NH

New Age | Eight die of dengue in Bangladesh in 24 hours (newagebd.net)

Where Do Mosquitoes Go During Daytime? » ScienceABC

South Korea Unveils Missile That Can Destroy North Korea’s Bunkers

The Hyunmoo-5 surface-to-surface missile on parade the 76th anniversary of Korea Armed Forces Day, in Seongnam, South Korea, 1 Oct 2024. Dubbed the ‘monster missile,’ the Hyunmoo-5 is reported to have capacity comparable to that of a nuclear weapon. The missile can carry a warhead weighing up to nine tons and is capable of striking deeply buried command centers.

South Korea unveiled its latest domestically produced ballistic missile, the Hyunmoo-5, on Tuesday as President Yoon Suk Yeol warned North Korea that it would face the end of its regime if it attempted to use nuclear weapons.

Incorporating an advanced cold-launch system, compressed gas is used to propel the missile from its launcher before ignition, minimizing damage to the launcher and increasing operational stability.

Media have drawn parallels between the Hyunmoo-5 and China’s Dongfeng-31 intercontinental ballistic missile, with the former estimated to have a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,107 miles), capable of targeting critical infrastructure in North Korea and beyond.

The new missile is a centerpiece of the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation plan, designed to respond to damage caused by a North Korean nuclear weapon by targeting its leadership and military headquarters in a retaliatory strike.

“Our military will immediately retaliate against North Korea’s provocations based on its robust combat capabilities and solid readiness posture,” Yoon said at a ceremony to mark the 76th founding anniversary of the founding of South Korea’s armed forces, where the new missile was showcased for the first time.

“If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, it will face the resolute and overwhelming response of our military and the South Korea-US alliance. That day will be the end of the North Korean regime,” Yoon added.

Denouncing North Korea for threatening the South with its nuclear weapons and missiles, as well as other provocations, Yoon urged the North to abandon “delusions” that nuclear weapons could guarantee its security

“False peace, based on the enemy’s goodwill, is nothing but a mirage. History has proven that the only way to safeguard peace is by strengthening our power so the enemy cannot dare challenge us,” he added, vowing to build a strong military and strengthen security based on the strong alliance with the US, as well as trilateral cooperation involving Japan.

The South Korean military would reportedly aim to use dozens of Hyunmoo-5s to destroy the North Korean military command’s underground bunkers and devastate Pyongyang in the event of war.

In Japan, Shigeru Ishiba was sworn in as Prime Minister and his platform is one of increased security cooperation with South Korea, Taiwan, and the US, because of the growing nuclear menace of North Korea and China’s increasing military power. The only person in the Universe NOT afflicted with “Kim Jong-Un fatigue” is Russian President Vladimir Putin who receives military aid from him.

Source:

South Korea unveils missile that can hit the North’s bunkers — Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

Barn Cat Gets Upgraded to House Cat

Hitchcock is a lucky cat. Undated photo: Jennifer Whipple

Jennifer Whipple wrote on Cat Stories:

“I first saw him on one of my trips to the barn where I board my donkey; a tiny black kitten with his left ear still healing from a TNR tip. The other barn cats bullied him, and he seemed starved for attention, so I wound up bringing him home. He was more than happy to turn in his barn cat card and has taken to indoor-only life like a duck to water! There was never a sweeter, funnier, snugglier cat. I guess some cats just aren’t cut out to be barn cats. Hitchcock is definitely one of these!”

Source:

Tiny Cat Stories – Spring/Summer 2024 – Modern Cat

Israel Attacks Shia Houthis in Yemen

Israel’s military attacked the Yemeni port city of Hodeida held by Shia Houthis while it intensified air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon. IDF planes and rockets attacked Ras Issa and Hodeida areas of Yemen, targeting a power plant and seaport used to import oil and to allegedly receive Iranian food and weapons. The vast majority of humanitarian aid arrives through Hodeida’s deep-water port, although much of that has been disrupted since the Houthis seized the facility. Four people were killed, 49 wounded in the Israeli attack.

Hashem Mahmoud Atin, a 10-month-old displaced child suffering from acute malnutrition and who is unable to reach a hospital for treatment, is held by his mother at a refugee camp in Yemen. 2020 photo: Sky News

Yemen has endured a civil war since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, prompting Saudi Crown Prince Muhamad Bin-Salman (MBS) to intervene in support of his fellow Sunnis on the Arabian Peninsula. After the Saudis and Sunni Yemenis were defeated and humiliated, MBS ordered a sea, air, and land blockade of the Houthis which led to a massive humanitarian disaster and man-made famine. When no other country assisted the starving Shia Houthis, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah— Shia co-religionists— filled the vacuum. In gratitude, the Shia Houthis afterward became loyal proxies to Tehran and Lebanese Hezbollah. MBS effectively drove the starving Yemenis into the Shia Crescent, although Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi reportedly doesn’t see himself as subordinate to Iran’s supreme leader.

The Houthis have been targeting ships in the Persian Gulf and launching missiles toward Israel over the past year in support of Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip. And we see Shia Houthis counter-attacking against Western or Israeli maritime targets in the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden almost immediately after the IDF attacks a Shia target in Lebanon, Syria, or Iran.

US national-security spokesman John Kirby earlier warned that all-out war would not help Israel safely return people to their homes in the north of the country near the Lebanese border, where many thousands have been evacuated.

Demonstrators hold pictures of Hassan Nasrallah, late leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, during a protest vigil in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on 28 Sep. Photo: AFP

Lebanese people rank among the world’s angriest populations, according to a Gallup report on global emotions. Lebanese anger can be attributed to a number of events, as the country has been witnessing an exacerbating political and economic crisis since October 2019.

The country’s unprecedented economic meltdown and the government’s disastrous policies have thrusted two-thirds of the population into poverty. Rising unemployment and sharp increases in food, medicine, and everyday goods prices have also impacted on millions of lives, according to the UN.

Public services in Lebanon are also experiencing a major decline in efficiency. Homes and even offices experience long-lasting power cuts throughout the day, while hospitals continue to struggle with supply shortages. Netanyahu’s continued attacks on the dilapidated Lebanese infrastructure, people, and economy will only increase Lebanese anger, most likely towards Israel and possibly the US for not stopping Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and providing the IDF with billions of dollars of military aid.

Sources:

Israel Extends Attacks To Huthis In Yemen As Fears Of All-Out War Rise (rferl.org)

Israel’s offensive against Yemen, Syria, Lebanon is ‘dangerous escalation’ supported by US: Hamas (aa.com.tr)

Yemen in ‘a desperate situation’ as famine looms and hundreds of thousands face starvation | World News | Sky News

Famine in Yemen (2016–present) – Wikipedia

Lebanese, Iraqis among world’s angriest populations: report (newarab.com)

Austrian Far Right Party Scores Historic Win in National Vote

Since taking over at the helm of the Freedom Party (FPOe) in 2021, Herbert Kickl has rejuvenated the scandal-tainted party. Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer reiterated his refusal to work with Kickl, who has called himself the future “Volkskanzler”, the people’s chancellor, as Adolf Hitler was termed in the 1930s. © Alex HALADA / AFP

While the Freedom Party (FPOe) has been in government several times, this is the first time it has won a national vote. But even with the victory, it is not certain it will be able to form a government.

In line with far-right parties elsewhere in Europe, the FPOe has seen its popularity surge, fed by voter anger over migration, inflation, and Covid restrictions.

The FPOe won 29.1% of votes cast, against 26.3% for the conservative People’s Party (OeVP), according to projections based on more than 60 percent of the votes counted.

Kickl regularly attacks EU sanctions against Russia and espouses the far-right concept of “remigration”: expelling people of non-European ethnic backgrounds deemed to have failed to integrate.

Long a political force in Austria, the FPOe’s first government with the Conservatives in 2000 set off widespread protests and sanctions from Brussels.

“The FPOe mainly stirs up fears and never has anything constructive to contribute,” researcher Theres Friesacher told AFP, citing corruption scandals that have frequently engulfed the party.

The Kremlin has been supporting right-wing groups throughout Europe, including Austria. The far-right AfD party recently won a statewide election in Germany, stoking fears amongst non-white immigrants and refugees in Germany. And Western intelligence agencies are also concerned about Russian penetration of Austria’s intelligence services. A damaging espionage scandal recently rocked Vienna and exposed Russian spying operations across Europe. Any right-wing electoral gain in Europe is a plus for the Kremlin and a concern for immigrants.

Sources:

Austria far right scores historic win in national vote (rfi.fr)

An espionage scandal rocks Austria, laying bare alleged Russian spying operations across Europe | AP News

Spy scandal revives fears of Austrian exposure to Russia (bbc.com)

A Lithium Battery Fire Sent Toxic Gas Over Montreal

The smoke was so thick that it was nearly impossible to see what lay beyond the cloud as a lithium battery fire burned in the Port of Montreal. (Yannick Gadbois/Radio-Canada)

Residents, chemists, and firefighters are raising concerns about prevention and emergency preparedness after 15,000 kilograms of lithium batteries inside a shipping container caught fire at the Port of Montreal on Monday. The fire started at 2:40 PM. About two hours later, the city issued a precautionary lockdown notice through landlines to some nearby residents. A reminder alert was sent at 6:51 PM.

At 6:53 PM the Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough posted a warning on Facebook, and the comment section quickly filled with residents saying they were never notified or didn’t see the post until much later.

Meanwhile, about 100 people were evacuated from the area near the fire, but there was no mandatory evacuation order. Residents were free to leave or stay and were offered transportation to a safe location while awaiting confirmation that the fire posed no danger.

The Port of Montreal is Canada’s second largest and handled 35.3 million tons of cargo in 2023. The longshoreman’s union may order a strike this week if negotiations with corporate management fail.

But it wasn’t just the fire that worried experts. Lithium battery fires emit hazardous pollutants like hydrogen fluoride and small particles that can penetrate the lungs.

Montreal firefighters wore self-contained breathing apparatuses as they went out into the neighborhood, urging people to shelter in place or leave the area. Residents, on the other hand, had nothing covering their eyes, noses, and mouths.

Exposure to high levels of hydrogen fluoride can cause chemical burns, eye irritation and respiratory distress. Acute exposure can even lead to a risk of heart attack or stroke. Health risks depend on the length of exposure, pollutant concentrations, and individual vulnerability.

Residents living close to where the fire occurred, firefighters, and first responders were advised to monitor their health over the next week.

Source:

A lithium battery fire sent toxic gas over Montreal. Are we ready for such emergencies? | CBC News

Statistics (port-montreal.com)

Trinidad and Tobago: 1,500 Mosquito-Borne Dengue Cases, 19 Deaths

Dengue fever has killed 19 people and sickened 1,579 in Trinidad and Tobago.

Dengue Fever may be spread by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito. Symptoms appear within five to six days of being bitten, last for up to two weeks, and can include: Fever, headaches, (sometimes severe), pain behind eyes, muscle and joint pains, skin rash, nausea / vomiting, and diarrhea.

The Ministry of Health said anyone showing signs or symptoms of dengue fever should seek immediate medical treatment at their doctor or the nearest health facility.

The Ministry reminded citizens that the best means of reducing the incidence of mosquito borne diseases is through the elimination of the breeding sites of the Aedes species mosquito.

The public is urged to:

1. Dispose of all unwanted articles, derelict vehicles or appliances in the yard or environs which can collect water and become mosquito breeding grounds.

2. Cover water containers such as tanks, barrels, drums or buckets with a mosquito proof covering.

3. Cut down and remove all bush or undergrowth that can harbour mosquitoes.

4. Clean drains and guttering to allow for the free flow of water.

5. Use mosquito nets and insect repellent, when appropriate as a means of personal protection.

Source:

Dengue cases cross 1,500, 19 deaths recorded | Loop Trinidad & Tobago (loopnews.com)

FOIA: F22 Raptor Shoots Down Strange Object Over Canadian Airspace in 2023, Image Finally Released

CTVNews.ca obtained an image of this unidentified object shot down by an F-22 Raptor over Canada’s Yukon territory in February 2023. (Department of National Defense via Access to Information Request. Senior Airman Meghan Hutton/USAF)

Canada’s CTV News obtained a report from their nation’s Department of National Defense on the 11 Feb 2023 Yukon incident, the contents of which include a brigadier general’s description of the unknown object as “cylindrical,” with a metallic top quarter and the rest of it white. It also mentions a package attached to the object by a 20-foot wire.

The report contains an unclassified image of the object, which CTV says “appears to be a photocopy of an email printout.”

Due to the poor resolution, it remains difficult to tell exactly what the object is. CTV noted that they’ve requested a higher resolution version. As you could see above, the object has circular shape containing a gap on the left side.

The Stealth F22 Raptor is the USAF’s leading platform for air-to-air missions against peer adversaries. Whatever the object was over Canadian airspace, NORAD sent its premier aircraft to deal with it. The RCMP, FBI, US military, Public Safety Canada, and USCG conducted a massive search for the debris between Dawson City and Mayo, but eventually called it off on 17 Feb 2023 because of snowfall.

Sources:

Did a US F-22 shoot down a UFO? Photo of aerial object adds to mystery (militarytimes.com)

2023 Yukon high-altitude object – Wikipedia

Congress Uncovers Major US Secret Service Failures and Urges Changes

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is covered by USSS agents at a campaign rally, 13 July 2024, in Butler, PA. 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was killed by a USSS counter-sniper. He was not known to the FBI. Evan Vucci / AP

Despite heightened partisan tensions heading into a consequential election, Congress has put aside its usual divisive rhetoric to investigate the dual Trump assassination attempts in a serious, bipartisan way.

Among the more stunning failures identified by the US Senate report, which is based on 2,800 pages of documents and a dozen transcribed interviews with USSS personnel:

A Pennsylvania State Police lieutenant involved in a planning meeting on site five days before the rally said the USSS couldn’t answer basic questions, including where the stage would be.

Counter-snipers were added to the security plan due to credible intelligence of a threat, relayed by Mr. Trump’s detail, but the USSS SAIC in charge of the rally was never notified of that threat.

The USSS and local law enforcement communicated on separate radio frequencies and their communications teams were operating out of separate locations more than 100 yards apart. That is an unusual departure from the norm of a single unified command center and hampered quick sharing of information.

The USSS agent running a system for countering drones, which the shooter used to surveil the area, only had about three months of experience using that equipment. When technical problems arose, he had to call a toll-free 888 hotline, delaying deployment of the system.

In the aftermath, USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned and at least five USSS agents were re-assigned or put on modified duty. The preliminary report is linked below.

Sources:

politico.com/f/?id=00000192-26b6-d338-a9da-7eb6556f0000

Trump assassination attempts: Secret Service failed on key fronts, Congress finds – CSMonitor.com

UK: Two Squirrel Travelers Force Train Cancellations

Photo: Great Western Railway

A morning train to Gatwick Airport was cancelled after two squirrels boarded and one refused to get off – forcing passengers to move away from the “frightened and erratic” animals to another carriage.

The rodent pair jumped on the Great Western Railway (GWR) service from Reading to Gatwick on Saturday and could have become scared after being trapped in the confined space, a spokesperson for the train operator said.

GWR explained that passengers made their way along the train after the rodents boarded the rear carriage, where the train manager locked them in.

A Network Rail member of staff unsuccessfully tried to shoo the animals off the train at Redhill, where the 08:54 BST service had to be terminated, GWR said.

The squirrel that refused to leave was returned to Reading in the train.

A GWR spokesperson said: “We can confirm that the 0854 Reading to Gatwick was terminated at Redhill after a couple of squirrels boarded the train at Gomshall without tickets, breaching railway byeclaws.

“We attempted to remove them at Redhill, but one refused to leave and was returned to Reading to bring an end to this nutty tail.”

In Dec 2023, a hedgehog was found hiding under a train seat on a service between Weybridge and London Waterloo.

The animal, named Hector, was taken in by a rail worker and his family.

Photo: South Western Railway

Sources:

Two squirrel travellers force Gatwick train cancellation (bbc.com)

Hedgehog found on train taken in by rail employee as sanctuary full (bbc.com)

IDF Deploys to Northern Border as Fears of Ground Offensive in Lebanon Grow; 33 Killed by Israeli Airstrikes

The IDF will deploy formidable Merkava tanks in their ground offensive into Lebanon. Adjusting for inflation, US aid to Israel from 1951 to 2022 totaled $317.9 billion, making Israel the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II as well as the 17th most powerful country in the world according to the Global Firepower Index (GFI). The Lebanese Army is ranked 118/145. Photo: AP

Israel has deployed troops near the border with Lebanon, a day after the air strikes in Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Lebanon is currently observing three days of mourning following Nasrallah’s killing but Israeli warplanes have continued to bombard Beirut, killing 33 people across Lebanon.

Meanwhile, hundreds of displaced Lebanese families have been sleeping in public spaces in Beirut as the Israeli aerial assault continues.

“We just want a safe place, we do not need clothes or aid or food or drink. We just want a safe place so that our children are not afraid, we left the Syrian war for the sake of the children, we came here and the same war happened,” said Syrian refugee Fatima Ziyada.

The wave of displacement comes alongside a rapid escalation over the past week that has killed more than 700 people in Lebanon and culminated with a massive barrage of strikes Friday and overnight that levelled at least six multi-story buildings.

And across the border in Israel, Tel Aviv residents took shelter as sirens sounded throughout the city.

The Israeli military said a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted shortly after the sirens were heard. There were no reports of injuries. It was not immediately known if the missile strike was aimed at PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s flight who cut short a trip to the US to return to Israel.

Israel first invaded Lebanon in 1978 and then again in 1982 which led to the 16-18 Sep 1982 “Sabra and Shatila massacres” of between 1,300 and 3,500 Palestinians and Lebanese Shias in Beirut by Christian militias. Israeli defense minister Ariel Sharon was forced to resign “for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge” during the massacre in which the IDF stood passively by and allowed the Falange militias to murder the unarmed and defenseless captives. The 1982 Israeli invasion was the genesis of Lebanese Hezbollah. In 2017, Janes assessed Hezbollah’s strength at more than +20,000 full-time fighters and approximately +20,000 reservists.

Remarkably, a former senior Republican official wrote a recent editorial that “a new Gang of Four has emerged: [the leaders of] China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia,” completely ignoring Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, a man indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague. 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip and 623 in the West Bank.

Just before becoming Special Counsel investigating former president Donald Trump, Jack Smith was a prosecutor at the ICC. Karim Khan at the ICC is now prosecuting a war crimes case against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chief prosecutor Karim Khan KC of the ICC is seeking an international arrest warrant for indicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he was indicted for war crimes committed against the people in Gaza.

The Lebanese military or Hezbollah will be unable to stop the imminent IDF offensive. Somehow, in a “David versus Goliath” battle, Palestinian fighters in Gaza were able to disable one Merkava tank in Oct 2023. The fate of the IDF tank crew is not clear.

.Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Sources:

Israel deploys troops to northern border as fears of ground offensive in Lebanon grow | Euronews

Sabra and Shatila massacre – Wikipedia

ICC statement on arrest warrants of Israeli and Hamas leaders (bbc.com)

How much aid does the US give to Israel? (usafacts.org)

How Many Armored Vehicles Has Israel Lost Fighting Hamas? (popularmechanics.com)

2024 Israel Military Strength (globalfirepower.com)

NTSB Issues Urgent Safety Recommendations on Boeing 737 Rudder System

The rudder control system could jam or become restricted on some 737NG and 737MAX airplanes. Image: jetnews.com.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued urgent safety recommendations to The Boeing Company and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in response to the potential for a jammed or restricted rudder control system on some 737 airplanes.

The NTSB is investigating a 6 Feb 2024 incident in which the rudder pedals on a United Airlines Boeing 737-8, a MAX variant, were “stuck” in their neutral position during the landing rollout at Newark Liberty International Airport, NJ. The captain used the nosewheel steering tiller to control the airplane’s direction after touching down. There was no damage to the airplane or injuries to the 155 passengers and six crewmembers.

NTSB investigators tested one of the rudder control components from the incident airplane, a rollout guidance actuator, at the component’s manufacturer, Collins Aerospace. When the incident actuator and an identical unit from another airplane were tested in a cold environment, the actuators’ function was significantly compromised.

Investigators found evidence of moisture in both actuators, which failed testing. Collins Aerospace subsequently determined that a sealed bearing was incorrectly assembled during production of the actuators, leaving the unsealed side more susceptible to moisture that can freeze and limit rudder system movement.

Collins notified Boeing that more than 353 actuators that Collins had delivered to Boeing since February 2017 were affected by this condition.

The NTSB has recommended that Boeing “determine appropriate flight crew responses besides applying maximum pedal force” for such situations in flight or during landing. The NTSB also recommended that Boeing notify flight crews operating 737s with affected actuators that the rudder control system can jam due to moisture that has accumulated inside the actuators and frozen.

To report an incident/accident or if you are a public safety agency, please call 1-844-373-9922 or 202-314-6290 to speak to a Watch Officer at the NTSB Response Operations Center (ROC) in Washington, DC (24/7).

Sources:

NTSB Issues Urgent Safety Recommendations on Boeing 737 Rudder System

Aviation Investigation Report

AIR-24-06 Incident investigation webpage

‘Asian NATO’ Supporter Shigeru Ishiba to Become Japan’s Prime Minister

Former Japanese defense minister Shigeru Ishiba waves as he is elected as new head of the ruling party in the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership vote and is set to become Japan’s next prime minister in Tokyo, Japan, 27 Sep 2024

Veteran Japanese lawmaker Shigeru Ishiba, who supports the creation of an “Asia version of NATO,” will become the next prime minister after winning a closely fought contest to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The LDP chose Ishiba as Japan grapples with increasing security threats and risk of war in the region, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and China’s growing military assertiveness.

The 67-year-old Ishiba said changes in the security environment were the reason he announced his candidacy. He advocates deterrence, strongly backs Taiwanese democracy, while also calling for deeper engagement with China.

The former defense minister expressed his desire to create an “Asian version of NATO” and bring equality to the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement.

Ishiba announced he would consider revising the SOFA, or Status of Forces Agreement, which set the rules for US military operations in Japan in 1960. He has considered establishing a base in the US to train Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.

He wrote in his memoir that conflating the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan was driven by emotion, not a pragmatic assessment of Chinese threats and the impact on Japan.

“I want to protect Japan, protect the people, protect the local regions, and want to be the LDP that follows the rules,” Ishiba said during the campaign.

He will be officially announced as prime minister at a special legislative session on 1 Oct, the same day Mexico inaugurates its first female President, Claudia Sheinbaum.

Sources:

‘Asian NATO’ supporter Ishiba to become Japan’s prime minister — Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

US, South Korea, Japan to finalize trilateral secretariat establishment

‘Too early’ for an Asian NATO: US official

Front-runner for next Japanese leader eyes better North Korean ties

Russia Convicts Nearly 800 Foreign Nationals Fighting for Ukraine Since 2014

Undated photo of Georgian national Giorgi Goglidze. Russia Ministry of Defense

Russia has convicted 785 foreign nationals for fighting on the side of Ukraine since hostilities between the two countries first broke out in 2014, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Thursday.

Investigators disclosed the figure while announcing criminal charges against Georgian citizen Giorgi Goglidze, accusing him of fighting for Kiev “for monetary compensation.”

In Nov 2023, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces captured Goglidze, releasing an interrogation video where he claims to have been promised $300 for every Russian soldier he killed. The ministry alleged he was recruited in Germany and said he fought with Ukraine’s 2nd International Legion.

In the days following Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of an international territorial defense legion consisting of foreigners fighting on behalf of Kiev. Among the most prominent pro-Ukraine foreign units are the Freedom of Russia Legion, the Belarusian Kastus Kalinouski Regiment, and the Georgian National Legion.

Russia labeled the Georgian National Legion as a terrorist organization earlier this year, accusing the group of organizing sabotage and terrorist acts on Russian territory and torturing Russian military personnel and civilians.

In March, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its forces had killed nearly 6,000 foreign volunteers fighting for Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, including 561 fighters from Georgia.

Russia’s military is also known to enlist the help of foreign volunteers as it continues to wage war against Ukraine, recruiting men from African countries, Cuba, Nepal, and India, among others. Many of the volunteers from India and Sri Lanka have escaped the Russian army, claiming they were duped into combat service by unscrupulous recruiters offering contracts of employment to be either helpers or security guards.

Russia had discharged dozens of the 91 Indians who were duped into fighting for Russian forces in the country’s war with Ukraine. Several of them have since returned home, while the process to bring others back is still under way. Undated photo: BBC

Sources:

Russia Convicts Nearly 800 Foreign Nationals Fighting for Ukraine Since 2014

EXPLAINED: International Legionnaires – Pay, Enlistment, Conditions (kyivpost.com)

Indians tricked by promise of work in Russia instead die fighting in Ukraine, investigators say | World News | Sky News

Ukraine war: Indians who fought in Russia return home with tales from war zone (bbc.com)

Marburg Virus Kills Six in Rwanda

With 13,623,302 people, Rwanda is one of Africa’s most densely populated countries. Map: CIA

Rwanda has confirmed six deaths and 20 cases of Marburg disease; the majority of victims are health workers in an intensive care unit.

“We are counting 20 people who are infected, and six who have already passed away due to this virus. The large majority of cases and deaths are among healthcare workers, mainly in the intensive care unit,” the health minister said.

Marburg disease, a viral hemorrhagic fever, can cause death among some patients, with symptoms including severe headache, vomiting, muscle aches and stomach aches. Institutions and partners are working to trace those who have been in contact with the virus-affected individuals.

With a fatality rate of as high as 88%, Marburg is from the same virus family as the one responsible for Ebola and is transmitted to people from fruit bats. The virus then spreads through contact with bodily fluids of infected people. Neighboring Tanzania had cases of Marburg in 2023, while Uganda had a similar outbreak in 2017.

Sources:

Marburg virus kills 6 in Rwanda, health minister says (voanews.com)

CIA

South Africa: 17 Killed in Mass Shooting

In total, 15 women and two men were killed in the shootings, which also sent one additional person to the hospital in critical condition. Photo courtesy of South African Police Service/EPA-EFE

A manhunt is underway after at least 17 people died in shootings in a small village in South Africa on Saturday. Police confirmed the deaths occurred at two separate rural properties in Lusikisiki, a town of around 4,000 people.

In one home, 13 people were killed, with four others found dead on the second of the two properties, which sit slightly over a half-mile apart. In total, 15 women and two men were killed in the shootings, which also sent one additional person to the hospital in critical condition.

Four adult women, one man and a 2-month-old baby survived, according to police.

Authorities have not elaborated on a potential motive behind the crimes.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) reported over 6,000 murders took place between April and June this year. An average 58 people are murdered every day in South Africa. Like the US, these are war-time casualty figures without going to war.

South African Police Special Task Force in action (public domain image circa 2017).

Sources:

17 dead, manhunt underway after South Africa mass shooting – UPI.com

saps.gov.za/services/downloads/2024/2024-2025_-_1st_Quarter_WEB.pdf

FACTSHEET: South Africa’s crime statistics for 2019/20 – Africa Check

China’s Newest Nuclear Submarine Sank in Dock Last Year

Chinese nuclear-powered submarines in the South China Sea in 2018. Photograph: China Stringer Network/Reuters

China’s efforts to achieve maritime military parity with the US have suffered a serious blow after its newest state-of-the-art nuclear submarine sank in a dock, American officials have confirmed.

The incident happened last May or June at the Wuchang shipyard near Wuhan – the same city where the Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have originated – and came to light, thanks to satellite imagery, despite efforts by the country’s communist authorities to stage a cover-up.

The Zhou-class vessel – first of a new kind of Chinese submarines and distinctive for its X-shaped stern that aids maneuverability – is believed to have been next to a pier when it sank.

It is not known if there were any casualties – or if the submarine had any nuclear fuel onboard at the time, although experts have deemed that likely, according to the Wall Street Journal. The submarine was eventually salvaged but it is believed that it will take many months before it can be put to sea.

There has been no acknowledgment of the incident from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) or any indication that Chinese authorities have checked the water or nearby environment for radiation.

The incident and the wall of silence shrouding it raised serious questions about the Chinese military’s competence and accountability which has been plagued by corruption, including the PLA rocket forces command.

As of 2022, China had six nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear-powered attack submarines and 48 diesel-powered attack submarines. That submarine force is expected to grow to 65 by 2025 and 80 by 2035. Beijing wants to counteract US moves to come to Taiwan’s aid in a conflict and establish “maritime superiority” in a string of islands stretching from the Japanese archipelago to the South China Sea. As posted previously on Coriolanus, a Chinese military hospital ship recently treated thousands of patients for free along Africa’s coasts, fostering goodwill with people while making political inroads on the so-called “Dark Continent”.

Source:

China’s newest nuclear submarine sank in dock, US officials confirm | China | The Guardian

Philadelphia Cat Recovering Well After Being Shot with Bow and Arrow

Kimiko is recovering at a PSPCA shelter which posted a clip of the kitty playfully stretching in an open-crate. Kimiko is still loving towards humans despite ample reason to be cautious and even fearful. Image: PASPCA/Instagram

A depraved miscreant shot a cat with a bow-and-arrow and left her to die on a Philadelphia street before she was miraculously saved by a volunteer.

Kimiko was found last week with an arrow protruding from her thigh in an apparent act of animal cruelty, according to the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA).

The friendly feline was found by the caretaker of a cat colony in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia on Friday September 20th with the metal arrow jutting out from the side – left to die a slow and painful death.

An x-ray image posted on Facebook shows an arrow point wedged into Kimiko’s right leg – just inches away from her bones. PSPCA surgeons at the Philadelphia Animal Specialty and Emergency hospital rushed to save her life.

Nicole Wilson of the PSPCA said of the heartless attack, “Not only is it senseless, the suffering that that causes. That cat was clearly injured for hours, suffering for hours before somebody was able to find it and bring it to help.”

“This person severely injured this cat,” adding ” we don’t know that an individual who would make that choice wouldn’t make the next choice of potentially injuring a person.”

Pennsylvania recorded 50,000 cases of animal abuse since the year 2017 – when the state introduced Libre’s Law which created stricter punishments for animal abusers including making aggravated assault on an animal a felony.

An x-ray image showed how close the arrow point was to her bones. PASPCA/Instagram

The PSPCA’s Animal Law Enforcement is investigating the incident and asking anyone with information about the person or persons responsible to call the PSPCA’s cruelty hotline at 866-601-7722 or email cruelty@pspca.org.

Source:

Cat shot with bow and arrow in Philadelphia (nypost.com)

Israel Launches Massive Attack on Beirut Killing Lebanese Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah

Undated photo courtesy of the Washington Post. Several ministers in the Likud government agree with this young lady.

Israeli launched a massive strike on what it said was Iran-allied Hezbollah’s central headquarters in a Beirut suburb shortly after PM Benjamin Netanyahu warned the UN that actions against Lebanese Hezbollah would not stop. The IDF announced that the strike killed Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Ali Karki, and other commanders. At least four buildings were destroyed in the strikes, six people were killed, and more than 91 were injured. The intensified fighting has killed hundreds and tens of thousands more have been displaced.

Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, 28 Sep 2024.

Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that “the path to diplomacy” was still open in the Middle East despite Israel’s latest massive strike in Lebanon, but he insisted Israel and Hezbollah must both “stop firing.” This diplomatic effort has been rendered moot by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Elsewhere, Iran, Russia, and their allies condemned the strikes on Beirut as a “war crime.”

The attacks against Hezbollah began when many world leaders — including those from the Middle East — were in New York for the annual UN General Assembly gathering on 27 Sep. Before these airstrikes, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Lebanese Hezbollah operatives- and civilians– simultaneously exploded last week, killing 42 people and maiming hundreds.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the global community to “stop” Israel from waging a “genocidal war” against Lebanon.

“This new Israeli aggression proves that the Israeli enemy doesn’t care about all the international efforts and calls for a cease-fire,” Mikati said.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said: “It is time to face the truth, and the truth is unless Netanyahu is stopped, unless this government is stopped, war will encompass all of us.”

We are probably too late.

Adjusting for inflation, US aid to Israel from 1951 to 2022 totaled $317.9 billion, making it the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II. Israel’s behavior is a poor return for the hardworking American taxpayer who does not enjoy universal health care like Israelis do.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will do anything to hold on to power and keep his nettlesome bribery and corruption trial in Jerusalem held in abeyance, at the cost of Arab lives which the IDF and Likud Cabinet consider disposable. Last year Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter said Israel was going to roll out “Nakba 2023” and Heritage Minister Amihal Eliyahu suggested deploying a nuclear weapon against the people in Gaza.

The constant drumbeat of amalgamating all Muslims as terrorists, all Palestinians as Hamas, all Lebanese as Hezbollah may work with the Western audience, but the rest of the world and the UN sees through the propaganda.

The death toll in the tiny Gaza Strip has surpassed 40,000. The Associated Press (AP) provided the following data:

Palestinians killed in Gaza: at least 40,005

People killed in Israel: about 1,200

Palestinians killed in the West Bank: 623

People killed in Lebanon: approximately 530

Civilians

Civilians killed in Gaza: 5,956 women; at least 10,627 children.

Civilians and foreigners killed in Israel: 860

Children killed in Israel: 53

Civilians killed since 7 Oct in Israel along its northern border: 24

Civilians killed in Lebanon: 97

Meanwhile, the belligerent Netanyahu regime has practically guaranteed denying his principal ally, Democratic US President Joe Biden, a small diplomatic victory before he leaves office. A ceasefire and deal to release the 100 or so remaining hostages held by armed Palestinian groups would have been a final achievement to Biden’s long political career and a boost for his successor VPOTUS Kamala Harris. But now Pres. Biden and the West must expect escalation and asymmetric warfare retaliation by Lebanese Hezbollah and the possibility of a wider war with Iran.

While Netanyahu doesn’t mind if he angers the UN, he should mind upsetting the Biden Administration. Biden felt Netanyahu had humiliated both Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Biden himself with his back-and-forth palaver about a cease-fire proposal with Hezbollah. Netanyahu at first told US officials he supported a pause in fighting with the Lebanon-based militant group, then roundly rejected the cease-fire proposal once it was made public and began this well-planned onslaught on Lebanese Hezbollah, regardless of how many innocent civilians are killed, injured, or maimed.

Netanyahu has made Pres. Biden and his cabinet look ineffectual right before the November presidential election. Democratic President Jimmy Carter also appeared ineffectual during the 1980 “Iranian hostage crisis” and he would go on to lose the election to Republican Ronald Reagan. Does Netanyahu want Donald Trump to win in November?

And thanks to “Crime Minister” Netanyahu, US military personnel in CENTCOM AOR are in harm’s way in the Middle East. US forces are scheduled to depart Iraq next year, but other Americans are based throughout the region. Shia Houthis may attack Western maritime targets in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden on behalf of the people who previously helped them during the Saudi-caused famine in Yemen.

The US military maintains an outsized basing presence for ground troops in the Middle East, which tempts policymakers to use force in a region increasingly marginal to US national security interests. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group and an attack submarine have recently deployed to the region. Map: defensepriorities.org.

As posted previously on Coriolanus, the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague has indicted Netanyahu (and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant) for war crimes, but their international arrest warrants have inexplicably not yet been issued. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague has also rebuked the Israeli government for its military operations against the Palestinians.

Psychological Theory: At the famous 4 July 1976 “Raid at Entebbe,” Israeli commandos rescued hostages whose plane was hijacked by Palestinian and German gunmen and flown to Uganda. The one Israeli military casualty was Yonatan Netanyahu, the brother of the current prime minister. Aleksandr Ilyich Ulyanov, the older brother of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, was hanged in May 1887 for a failed assassination attempt of Czar Alexander III of Russia. After the deaths of their beloved siblings, Muslims (Palestinians, Iranians, Arabs) became anathematic to Benjamin Netanyahu, like the Romanovs became abominable to V.I. Lenin and hence the “no quarter given” policies of both leaders.

Yoni Netanyahu, in a photograph taken shortly before his death at Entebbe in 1976. Yoni was described as a “talented, sensitive man.” His death may have forever impacted his brother’s attitudes towards Palestinians or Iranians. (GPO, Wikimedia)

All official and news sources are linked below.

Sources:

Israel Targets Hezbollah Leader In Massive Beirut Attack (rferl.org)

Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC: Applications for arrest warrants in the situation in the State of Palestine | International Criminal Court (icc-cpi.int)

Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in (icj-cij.org)

The ICJ and ICC put Israel on notice but cannot stop the war | Chatham House – International Affairs Think Tank

Israel right-wing ministers’ comments add fuel to Palestinian fears (nbcnews.com)

With Gaza’s death toll over 40,000, here’s the conflict by numbers | AP News

Biden told allies that Netanyahu doesn’t want to end fighting in Lebanon – POLITICO

Bases, logistics, and the problem of temptation in the Middle East – Defense Priorities

Yonatan Netanyahu – Wikipedia

Aleksandr Ulyanov – Wikipedia

How much aid does the US give to Israel? (usafacts.org)

Pennsylvania Brothers Plead Guilty to Felony Charges for Actions During 6 Jan Capitol Attack

Center: Matthew Valentin, circled in yellow, and Andrew Valentin circled in red. Clockwise from top right: Enlarged image depicting Matthew Valentin grabbing a police officer through a metal barrier; Matthew Valentin’s hand, circled in yellow, can be seen grabbing a police officer’s baton; body-worn police camera footage allegedly shows Matthew Valentin pepper spraying officers; Matthew and Andrew Valentin climbing the media tower on Capitol grounds (all images via Department of Justice court records.)

Matthew Valentin (31) of Stroudsburg, PA, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers. His brother, Andrew Valentin (26), also of Stroudsburg, PA, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

The Honorable US District Judge Reggie B. Walton will sentence the two on 17 Jan 2025.

On 6 Jan, at approximately 2:29 PM, the brothers rushed a police line while rioters yelled, “push, push, push.” The two then pushed a metal barricade into a line of Capitol Police officers.

The officers retreated and formed a new protective line on the south side of the West Plaza. Matthew Valentin then approached the line and sprayed a chemical irritant towards the officers. The brothers then moved from the Lower West Terrace to the Upper West Terrace, arriving at approximately 2:50 p.m. At about 3:30 PM, the mob, including Matthew Valentin, rushed the line of officers. Matthew grabbed a police baton and attempted to tear the baton out of that officer’s hands.

At approximately 5:12 PM, Andrew Valentin threw a folding chair at the line of officers that were protecting the Upper West Terrace, striking one officer’s shield.

The FBI arrested the Valentin brothers on 11 and 12 Feb 2024 in Pennsylvania.

Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

These two young siblings threw their lives away over white supremacy and Donald Trump.

Sources:

District of Columbia | Pennsylvania Brothers Plead Guilty to Felony Charges for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

France: Banned Pesticides Found in Imported Foods

Signs reading “pesticides = cancer” and “pesticides = murder” are seen near entrance of the International Agriculture Fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on 22 Feb 2024. AFP – LUDOVIC MARIN

According to Vert de rage (Green with Rage), produced by public French television, seven of 22 samples of fruits and vegetables purchased in large French supermarket chains contained pesticide residues banned in Europe.

A grapefruit from China contained two banned products: chlorpyrifos (recognized as neurotoxic, toxic for reproduction, and an endocrine disruptor, and propiconazole (recognized as toxic for reproduction). The EU banned chlorpyrifos in 2020, propiconazole since 2009.

Grapes from Peru contained residues of imidacloprid (part of the neonicotinoids family – known to be harmful to bees), and myclobutanil, a fungicide, which was banned in 2021. An orange from Tunisia contained malathion, a pesticide classified as “probably carcinogenic”, banned in the EU since 2008.

Analysis was conducted by the NGO network Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) and the European Food Safety Authority.

Pesticides banned in Europe were more prevalent in products such as coffee, tea, spices, and some vegetables. Tahitian limes, passion fruit and plums are the most affected, while rice, zucchini and plantain bananas were also found to contain pesticides.

“Imported foods are twice as likely to contain pesticides banned by the EU as foods grown in the EU,” reported the EFSA.

In France, in 2022, the French public agency in charge of food safety Directorate General for Food (DGAL) issued 2,446 food recalls. 328 of them were linked to the presence of pesticides. Among them, 296 contained at least one banned pesticide or pesticide residue “exceeding the maximum limit authorized in food.”

In 2022, the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) reported that pesticide residues were the leading cause of food warnings. Among the products distributed in France, 104 out of 114 notifications concerned the presence of banned pesticides. In 2023, RASFF issued 292 notifications for products containing pesticides, of which 77 contained at least one banned pesticide or pesticide residue.

In three years, “26.46 percent of products distributed in France containing banned pesticides came from India”, making this country “the most frequent origin” for this type of problem.

Vert de rage also discussed pesticides that have been withdrawn from the European market, but which are still produced in France to be exported to countries where they remain authorized.

According to the Swiss NGO Public Eye, the top five destinations for French-made pesticides in 2023 were Brazil, followed by Ukraine, the US, Russia, and the UK.

Despite the ban on sales in France, there are concerns that the production of these pesticides is affecting drinking water, surface water, and groundwater in the towns where the factories are located.

Sources:

Banned pesticides found in imported foods in France, data shows (rfi.fr)

French food authority finds traces of banned pesticide in drinking water (rfi.fr)

US Charges Iranians with Hacking Attack on Trump Campaign

Montage courtesy of the FBI

The US Justice Department unsealed criminal charges accusing three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and trying to disrupt the 5 Nov election. The indictment is the latest effort by the Biden administration to counter foreign efforts to interfere in the presidential election between Trump, a Republican, and his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris. The US Treasury Department also said it was imposing sanctions on seven members of the IRGC.

Photo: Carlo Allegri / Reuters

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, whose mental faculties have been called into question more and more by psychologists, threatened to criminally prosecute the Internet search engine Google for allegedly favoring Democratic opponent Kamala Harris in its search results if he wins in November,

Without providing evidence, Trump claimed in a post on his Truth Social site that Google is trying to interfere with the 2024 presidential election by purposely displaying only “bad stories” about him.

“It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris,” he wrote in the post.

Recently the oldest man to seek the Presidency of the United States asked at a rally for the return of iconic TV legend Johnny Carson: “Where Is Johnny Carson? Bring back Johnny.”

The “King” of late-night comedy died in 2005.

The immortal Johnny Carson as the clairvoyant “Carnac the Magnificent”. “Hmm, I see an obese orange-haired alte cocker losing an election and calling for a mulligan.”

Sources:

U.S. Charges Iranians With Hacking Attack On Trump Campaign (rferl.org)

United States Sanctions Iran-Backed Malicious Cyber Actors That Have Attempted to Influence U.S. Elections – United States Department of State

Joint ODNI, FBI, and CISA Statement

Trump threatens to criminally prosecute Google for displaying ‘bad stories’ about him – UPI.com

Donald Trump Wants Johnny Carson’s Late Night Return: Fallon Is Dying (variety.com)

French Polynesia: Chinese ICBM Landed ‘Not Far’ From Its Economic Zone

Screenshot of the WeChat channel of China’s Defense Ministry showing the launch of an ICBM that would land in the Pacific, 25 Sep 2024. © Screengrab WeChat via agencies

China’s Defense Ministry had announced the rare trial on Wednesday, saying that the missile was carrying a dummy warhead and “fell into expected sea areas”.

The launch sparked protests from countries in the region, with Japan saying it had not been given advance notice, and Taiwan expressing “solemn condemnation”.

Australia said it was seeking an explanation, while New Zealand called the launch “an unwelcome and concerning development”.

French Polynesian President Moetai Brotherson said “the missile fell not far from … the Marquesas Islands”, an archipelago that is part of its exclusive economic zone.

Hawaii seems to be in range of this Chinese ICBM. Map: Brittanica.com

“The Chinese authorities previously notified their French counterparts of this test,” the French High Commission said in a statement. The US also received “some advanced notification of this ICBM test”, describing this as “a step in the right direction” that would help prevent “misperception or miscalculation”.

China’s military on Thursday released imagery of the missile, showing the projectile soaring into the air in a plum of smoke from an undisclosed location.

The Chinese Defense Ministry described the test launch as a “routine arrangement in our annual training plan” than is “in line with international law and international practice and is not directed against any country or target”.

Analysts said the imagery suggested the launch could be of a Dongfeng-31 AG ICBM, unveiled during a military parade in 2017.

As previously reported here on Coriolanus, Beijing has been rooting out corruption in the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) leadership. At least a dozen executives or officers have been recently purged. This launch, the first of its kind in four decades, is a readiness and capability test and may be a progress report that the anti-corruption measures are working and that the systems are copasetic.

Sources:

French Polynesia says Chinese missile landed ‘not far’ from its economic zone (rfi.fr)

The Shakeup in China’s Rocket Force Continues – The Diplomat

American Warzone: Twenty-Year Old Suspect Attacks California Courthouse, Five Injured

Nathaniel McGuire – Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office via AP

Santa Barbara resident Nathaniel James McGuire (20) was charged with maliciously damaging a building by means of explosive. McGuire allegedly lunged through the Santa Maria Courthouse doors and tossed an explosive at the local arraignment room. When McGuire entered the courthouse, he yelled “Liberty or death!”

After escaping he was quickly detained. McGuire allegedly yelled that the government had taken his guns and that everyone needed to fight, rise up, and rebel. In a recorded interview with investigators, McGuire said he arrived at the courthouse with the intention to kill deputies working the security desk inside the courthouse.

McGuire allegedly was going back to his car to get a shotgun, a lever action rifle, and Molotov cocktails and he planned on re-entering the courthouse to kill a judge. The suspect’s alleged motivation was his 28 July arrest for an alleged firearms violation. Deputies had seized a loaded, concealed, unregistered revolver that was in McGuire’s pants pocket.

If convicted on his federal charge, McGuire faces a minimum sentence of seven years in prison and a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.

Ten Molotov cocktails, one bomb, and several weapons were recovered from his car outside Santa Maria Courthouse. EOD rendered the bomb safe. Image: US Attorney

If law-enforcement personnel hadn’t quickly detained McGuire after he hurled the explosive, there would have been a lot more victims and carnage. This 20-year-old man threw his life away over his gun craze.

Sources:

Feds charge 20-year-old suspect in California courthouse attack that left 5 injured – ABC News (go.com)

EveryStat – EveryStat.org

Poll: Half Of Russians Wants Putin to Withdraw Troops from Ukraine

Women walk past a banner that depicts Russian President Vladimir Putin as Hitler and says ‘Killer’ and ‘Nuremberg for Putin’ in Wroclaw, Poland. Photo: SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images

Nearly half of the Russians surveyed this month support an immediate military withdrawal from Ukraine and negotiations for a peace deal. The independent poll, which found 49% want to end the invasion that began in Feb 2022, also revealed that only 32% were prepared to join the fight if ordered by the Defense Ministry, according to the Kyiv Independent. Another 29% reportedly said they weren’t willing to wage war against Ukraine.

But 53% said they supported ousting Ukrainian troops from the territory seized in Russia’s Kursk region since launching a cross-border incursion 6 Aug. And 29% said they favored another wave of conscription to boost Russia’s military.

The findings are based on a survey of 800 Russians over 18 by the ExtremeScan and Chronicles polling organizations, according to the Kyiv Independent, which cited a Russian-language report on the currenttime.tv website. The results were reportedly released to coincide with the two-year anniversary of Russia’s first call-up of draftees to fight in Ukraine.

The results reflect an increase of about ten percentage points in favor of ending the war since February, according to earlier polling by ExtremeScan and Chronicles. The companies were founded by Russian antiwar activists following the invasion of Ukraine. Russian polling outfits show more popular support for the war. In February, the Levada Center said 77% of those it surveyed backed the war, which the Kyiv Independent said at the time was consistent with the center’s previous findings.

Staggering casualties are being felt by the Russian people and relatives miss their loved ones. As previously posted here, mothers and children of soldiers sent to the war against Ukraine protested outside the Ministry of Defense recently demanding their fathers and husbands come home.

Source:

Half Of Russians Wants Putin To Withdraw Troops From Ukraine: Poll | IBTimes

Unwanted Shelter Dogs Pampered With Supermodel Treatment to Find Them Forever Homes

All Dogs Matter, a rescue shelter in London, England, organized a photoshoot to promote lonely canines for adoption. They featured some of their older, bigger, and less ‘photogenic’ pooches, as well as pairs of pups that need to be adopted together.

Whether in foster care or housed at the shelter, these poor dogs were treated to a day of extra attention in the countryside where they were pampered with ‘supermodel treatment’.

Photo shoot for All Dogs Matter – by Wex Photo Video via SWNS

Brian and Cody, a very sweet and bonded pair (10 months – one year old) are up for adoption or fostering at All Dogs Matter. Wex Photo Video / SWNS

Three-year-old brothers Rumi and Ryan are gentle spirited and regal; up for adoption at All Dogs Matter shelter-by Wex Photo Video/ SWNS

“Much like a dating profile, pictures tell a thousand words,” said a worker at the shelter.

“If these wonderful photos help even one pup find a home, we’ll consider it a job well done.”

Last year All Dogs Matter rescued 331 dogs and placed them with new owners.

Source:

Unwanted Shelter Dogs Get the Supermodel Treatment to Help Them Find New Forever Homes (LOOK) (goodnewsnetwork.org)

Two Florida “Proud Boys” Plead Guilty to Felony Charges for Attacking Capitol on 6 Jan

Trump supporters sprayed tear gas and trampled police officers when they stormed the US Capitol in Washington, DC on 6 Jan 2021. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

Tom Vournas (63) of Bradenton, FL, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon and inflicting bodily injury. Leonard Lobianco (53) of North Port, FL, pleaded guilty on 23 Sep 2024 to a single felony charge of civil disorder.

The Honorable US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth will sentence Vournas on 17 Jan 2025 and Lobianco on 28 Jan 2025.

On 6 Jan 2021, Vournas and Lobianco, members of the “Zone 5” Proud Boys joined in an attack against a police barricade. Members of this mob violently trampled the metal barriers, moved the barriers aside, and surged past officers to advance toward the Capitol. For the next hour, police struggled to contain the mob, while certain members of the Proud Boys assaulted and engaged with police. Vournas sprayed pepper gel, a dangerous weapon, twice toward a line of police officers, hitting a USCP officer in the face and causing bodily injury. After penetrating police lines, Vournas and Lobianco blithely took pictures together in the “Crypt” before leaving through the Senate Wing Door at approximately 2:25 PM.

The FBI arrested the two men on 4 Jan 2024 in Florida.

Leonard Lobianco (L), Tom Vournas (R). These two runamoks represent America’s Fedayeen Saddam (FS), white supremacist dead-enders clinging on to the last vestiges of white privilege in the US.

MAGA supporters and white supremacists heeded the call of Donald Trump, but the Proud Boys have since turned on him. “Trump will go down as a total failure,” one member of the Proud Boys said in a chat on Telegram; another called Trump a “shill.” Imagery: SITE Intelligence Group

Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

Sources:

District of Columbia | Two Florida “Proud Boys” Plead Guilty to Felony Charges for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

Proud Boys turn on Donald Trump calling him a ‘total failure’ | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

Two Russian Nationals Charged in Connection with Operating Billion Dollar Money Laundering Services

The US imposed sanctions on an alleged Russian money-laundering operation that caters to cybercriminals around the world and unsealed indictments against two Russian nationals for their alleged involvement in the operation.

The US and the Netherlands shut down the “prolific” money-laundering operation known as Cryptex and recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.

The two Russians named in the indictment, Sergei Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov, remain at large. They are charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering using stolen credit and debit card information, and other charges. The State Department announced rewards of up to $10 million each for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Ivanov or Shakhmametov.

Ivanov’s services have been used by cybercrime marketplaces, ransomware groups, and hackers responsible for significant data breaches of major US companies.

Cryptex advertises its virtual currency services in Russian and has received over $51.2 million in funds derived from ransomware attacks.

Ivanov also allegedly created and operated Russian payment and exchange services UAPS, PinPays, and PM2BTC, which provided money-transfer and -laundering services directly to criminals.

For nearly two decades, Ivanov operated as a professional cyber-money-launderer, advertising his services to other cybercriminals on exclusive Russian-speaking criminal forums.

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Ivanov and Cryptex, which is based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines but operates in Russia.

The Treasury Department also identified PM2BTC as a “primary money-laundering concern” in connection with Russian illicit finance. PM2BTC has long-standing ties to Russian or Russian-affiliated financial institutions that are under U.S. sanctions or other restrictions.

Individuals visiting the sites now see a message indicating that the site has been seized by the federal government. The seizure prevents the owners and third parties from using the sites for money laundering.

Law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands seized the servers hosting PM2BTC and Cryptex. Those servers have been taken offline, and the Dutch have seized cryptocurrency from those servers worth more than $7 million.

The State Department is also offering rewards of up to $1 million each for information identifying the leaders of PM2BTC and stolen credit-card marketplaces PinPays and Joker’s Stash.

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | Two Russian Nationals Charged in Connection with Operating Billion Dollar Money Laundering Services | United States Department of Justice

Imposition of Special Measure Prohibiting the Transmittal of Funds Involving PM2BTC | FinCEN.gov

U.S. Moves To Break Up Cyber-Money-Laundering Operation Allegedly Run By Russians (rferl.org)

US Offers $20M for Details About Iranian Allegedly Behind Plot to Kill John Bolton

The US State Department announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind a plot to assassinate former Republican White House official John Bolton.

In Aug 2022, US officials uncovered a plot by Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to kill Bolton, who served as national security adviser to former President Donald Trump. The announcement came as Donald Trump (78) claimed there were “big threats” on his life by Iran.

Bolton, considered a foreign policy hawk, is a fierce critic of Iran and advocated that Trump unilaterally and recklessly withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.

Poursafi allegedly offered an unidentified person inside the US $300,000 to kill Bolton in the capital area. The plan was likely set in motion after the US killing of top IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq on 3 Jan 2020 by a US drone strike outside Baghdad Int’l Airport (BIAP). But the reprisal plot never made headway because the ostensible assassin became an informant of the FBI. Iranian authorities have dismissed the allegations as “fiction.”

General Qasem Soleimani was a popular figure and hero in Iran, as well as an effective combat leader against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. When the US invaded Afghanistan in Oct 2001 after the 11 Sep 2001 attacks, General Soleimani’s Quds Force collaborated with the US and led the 2001 uprising in Herat against the Taliban. Ethnic Hazaras, the Northern Alliance, and the Quds Force liberated the city before US forces entered. Undated image: Wikimedia

The United States designated the entire IRGC a “foreign terrorist organization” in 2019, after previously designating its external operation wing, the Quds Force.

On 4 Dec 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333. Part 2.11 of E.O. 12333 reiterates a proscription on US intelligence agencies sponsoring or carrying out an assassination. It reads:

No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.

Sources:

Rewards for Justice – Reward Offer for Information on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Member Shahram Poursafi – United States Department of State

US offers $20M for details about Iranian allegedly behind plot to kill official (voanews.com)

Iranian Special Forces Reportedly Fight Alongside US in Battle for Herat – SpongoBongo Blog (wordpress.com)

Federal Register :: Executive Order

Bashkirs, Tatars Bear Brunt of Putin’s War Against Ukraine

Tatarstan soldier Ruslan Sadykov was killed near Ukraine’s Mariupol in 2022.

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, more soldiers from the central Russian regions of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan have died than any other region in the country. The burden of the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine is disproportionately falling on more distant regions of Russia, further away from the wealthy population centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The reason for the recent increase in minority casualties is unclear, but it comes two years after President Vladimir Putin stunned the country by announcing a “partial” mobilization that called up some 300,000 men to fight.

Overall, Russian casualties — killed or wounded in action — are believed to exceed 500,000 according to Western estimates, with more men killed over the past 30 months than in an entire decade of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The last official casualty announcement from the Kremlin came in September 2022, with 5,937 Russian soldiers reported killed. At the time, Ukraine was reporting Russian losses at nearly ten times that figure. Analysis reveals that nonethnic Russians, like Bashkirs and Tatars, have been disproportionately represented among the country’s military casualties.

Bashkortostan, a mid-Volga republic with a population a little over four million, had 3,026 confirmed deaths as of 26 Sep according to open-source analysis. In Tatarstan, which has a similar population, 2,740 deaths were registered.

Recent analysis by BBC Russian/Mediazona, which used a similar methodology, listed 2,705 confirmed deaths in Bashkortostan and 2,259 in Tatarstan.

Russia’s Bashkortostan region has borne more fatalities in the Ukraine invasion than any other region of Russia.

In Jan 2024, Bashkortostan saw a wave of nonviolent protests over the sentencing of Fail Alsynov, a popular activist longtime advocate for minority rights and the Bashkir language and culture, to four years in prison for purportedly stoking interethnic enmity. The protests were fueled in part by simmering discontent about the costs of the Ukraine war for the region. Map: kickassfacts.com

In addition to mobilized soldiers sent to fight in Ukraine, other fighters include prison inmates and private military company mercenaries, as well as “kontraktniki”— men who voluntarily sign contracts to fight, induced by extraordinarily high wages and veterans benefits for widows and survivors. Among kontraktniki, Bashkortostan leads Russia in the number of confirmed deaths: 965, according to the RFE/RL tally. Tatarstan ranked second, with 557 volunteer deaths.

By comparison, only 135 volunteers from Moscow — with an official population of more than 13 million — have been confirmed killed. Over the last four weeks, RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service has added 575 names to its list of dead soldiers from the two regions, nearly 20 per day.

The confirmed figures are assumed to be a major undercount given the difficulty in identifying deaths amid official secrecy. The exact number of men, kontraktniki, prison inmates, or mobilized troops sent from Bashkortostan and Tatarstan to fight in Ukraine is unclear.

Moscow is paying “special attention” to the Volga region, Tatar political analyst Ruslan Aysin said, as part of what he said was a deliberate Kremlin attempt to “confuse the political status” of the so-called ethnic republics, as the regions of Russia with large nonethnic-Russian populations are called.

Putin’s government, he said, is trying to bolster support for the war — or at least temper discontent — among ethnic Russians in large cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg by minimizing their casualty burden.

Aysin said that for the Russian authorities, each military death is “just a statistic. But for the republic, for the ethnic group, for the individual family, this is a great tragedy. There is a big gap between the leadership and the average citizen.”

Bashkortostan region head Radiy Khabirov (L) meets with volunteer soldiers near the front line in Ukraine earlier this month. In July 2022, Khabirov was sanctioned by the British government for openly supporting the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He is a member of the ruling United Russia party.

As pro-Ukraine Chechens have been fighting against pro-Kremlin Chechens (Kadyrovtsies), Kazan Tatars have been battling pro-Ukrainian Crimean Tatars. During the American Civil War, approximately 7,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Union and 3,000 for the Confederacy; some 600 of them were killed in combat. Irishmen fought for both the Union (150,000) and the Confederacy (30-40,000; including six rebel generals). They fought each other fiercely during the day, but at night argued with each other across the picket lines about whose cause was right. The Northern Irish contended the Southern Irish were betraying the country that adopted them. The Southern Irish countered the Confederacy was like Ireland, seeking independence from an oppressor (Great Britain). You wonder what discussions today’s combatants would have with each other if circumstances allowed.

Our immense gratitude to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, designated by the Kremlin as an ‘Undesirable Organization” in Feb 2024, for their comprehensive analysis.

Source:

RFE/RL Reveals Spike In War Deaths From Russia’s Ethnic Regions (rferl.org)

Military history of Jewish Americans – Wikipedia

‘The Violence is Getting Out of Hand’: Crime Grips Cuba’s Streets

19-year-old Jan Franco (L) was stabbed to death in Havana. “So many young people have been killed this year… The violence is getting out of hand,” said his sister, Samantha Gonzalez.

Few could deny that Cuba’s streets have traditionally been among the safest in the Americas. But this is changing. Samantha González will be the first to tell you. Her younger brother, an aspiring music producer named Jan Franco, was murdered two months ago in an apparent gang-related dispute. From the low-income Havana neighborhood of Cayo Hueso and just 19 years old when he was killed, Jan Franco was stabbed twice in the chest outside a recording studio. He was caught in the middle of an argument when someone pulled a knife. Cuba has a growing drug and gang problem where disputes are settled with knives, machetes, or sometimes guns.

The situation has been worsened by a new drug in Cuba called “quimico” – a cheap chemical high with a cannabis base. Samantha says that it’s increasingly popular among Cuban youth in the parks and on the streets.

The Cuban authorities have always been fiercely protective of their island’s reputation as crime-free and quick to point out that the streets are demonstrably safer than those of most cities in the US. Anything that highlights Cuba’s social problems is generally painted as biased criticism of their socialist system or as anti-revolutionary fabrications originating from Miami or Washington.

In August, an edition of nightly talk program Mesa Redonda – in which Communist Party officials are invited on air to deliver the party line – was titled Cuba Against Drugs. During the broadcast, Colonel Juan Carlos Poey Guerra, the head of the interior ministry’s anti-drug unit, acknowledged the existence, production, and distribution of the new drug, químico, and its impact on Cuba’s youth. He insisted the authorities were tackling the issue.

“Quimico” is allegedly prepared with epilepsy pills, formaldehyde, and animal anesthesia, and smoked in cigarettes like marijuana. Michael Fischer /Pexels/ Getty Images

For its part, the government largely blames the old enemy, the US, for both the existence of synthetic opioids in Cuba and for the decades-long US economic embargo on the island which they say is the reason some Cubans have resorted to crime.

According to http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com, 82 people died in Cuba from drug use in 2020. By contrast, drug use killed 3,686 people in Canada.

Sources:

Cuba’s crime rate soars, fuelled by gang crime and drugs (bbc.com)

Drug Use in Cuba (worldlifeexpectancy.com)

People Exposed to Pigs at Minnesota State Fair Contract Variant Flu Strain

A pig is guided through a showing during the closing weekend of the Minnesota State Fair. Nicole Neri for MPR News 2024

The Minnesota Department of Health has reported two human cases of H3N2v, a strain of influenza A, after people were exposed to pigs at the State Fair. The CDC said the two fairgoers are under the age of 18 and sought health care in early September.

One patient is said to have had direct contact with pigs while the other had indirect contact. Neither of them had been in contact with one another at the fair.

The Minnesota Department of Health does not anticipate further spread. A spokesman said that “typically, humans don’t pass it to another human in the way that they would a normal human flu strain.” She added infection can occur in cases where people who are not typically exposed to pigs come in close contact and are exposed to respiratory droplets, but it does not always happen.

“It’s not a very severe illness in humans, it’s like the regular flu. It can be mild to severe, but it’s not symptomatically, or in terms of severity, all that different from human flu.”

The Minnesota Department of Health encourage people to wash their hands after visiting agricultural farms or events and to maintain distance from the animals.

Both fairgoers have recovered from their symptoms and were not hospitalized.

The CDC reported that nine other variants of influenza have been reported during the 2023-2024 season.

Sources:

People exposed to pigs at the Minnesota State Fair contract variant flu strain | MPR News

ROK Intelligence: North Korea May Conduct Nuclear Test After US Election

Getty Images / STR / Contributor; iStock / KREMLL

North Korea may conduct its seventh nuclear test after the US presidential vote in November, according to the NIS (formerly known as KCIA).

This would be North Korea’s first nuclear test since 2017. North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. All six have been underground.

The NIS also reported that the North possesses about 70 kgs of plutonium and a significant amount of highly enriched uranium (HEU), enough to build dozens of nuclear weapons.

Regarding the North’s disclosure of an HEU facility for the first time this month, the NIS said Pyongyang appeared to have the US election in mind, but it could be also trying to “instill confidence” in the domestic audience struggling with a crippled economy and food insecurity.

North Korea unveiled details of its uranium enrichment facility for the first time this month, with leader Kim Jong Un calling for increasing the number of centrifuges for uranium enrichment so it can build up its nuclear arsenal for self-defense.

The South Korean intelligence agency said the North’s test launch of new tactical ballistic missiles on 18 Sept was aimed at verifying its precision strike capability.

Calling it a “slight improvement from the past,” the NIS said one of the two missiles fired successfully reached the target, adding that the agency recognized it as a “grave threat” to South Korean security.

The NIS also said that North Korea-Russia relations were “improving and strengthening considerably and continuously” and that it was “watching closely with concerns about Russia’s economic support to North Korea, including the supply of refined oil and technical cooperation such as reconnaissance satellites, as a compensation for North Korea’s weapons supply.”

On Sino-North Korea relations, the NIS reported that they had “deteriorated over the crackdown on North Korean foreign currency earners operating in China.”

This undated photo released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency via KNS on 13 Sep 2024 shows North Korean supremo Kim Jong Un inspecting the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the production base of weapon-grade nuclear materials, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. STR/KCNA via KNS/AFP

North Korean supremo Kim Jong-Un keeps holding his neighbors hostage with his growing nuclear prowess while his people starve. The US, South Korea, and Japan will continue their policy to contain and deter North Korea, as the alternatives are grim, including catastrophic radioactive fallout. Beijing disapproves of Pyongyang’s nuclear progress, but is also concerned about the massive instability if North Korea collapses.

Sources:

North Korea may conduct nuclear test after US election: South’s spy agency — Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

National Intelligence Service (nis.go.kr)

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2017/08/contain-deter-transform-a-winning-strategy-on-north.html

Bear Charges at British Columbia Man Inside His Garage

A British Columbia man came face-to-face with a bear inside his garage and the startling encounter was caught on camera.

Coquitlam resident Alex Gold posted a security camera footage to Instagram showing what happened when he was recently unloading groceries from his vehicle in front of his garage.

The video shows Gold’s extremely close encounter with a bear that wandered in through the open garage door.

“I came back to my car and I bumped into the bear,” Gold told CTV News. “She was kind of hissing.”

The video shows the bear charging at Gold multiple times as he claps his hands, makes loud sounds and slowly backs away.

Gold was able to get back into his SUV and honk the horn, which finally scared the mother bear — and her nearby cub — away from his property.

Lisa Lopez of the non-profit WildSafeBC praised Gold’s behavior during the tense encounter.

“The important thing to always remember is to not run,” Lopez said. “Because then it could become a predator-prey kind of situation.”

Source:

Watch: Bear charges at British Columbia man inside his garage – UPI.com

Coriolanus

Informed analysis on global affairs and intelligence matters

Author: Coriolanus

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