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Emmanuel Macron and the Mass Murderer

Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L) welcomes French President Emmanuel Macron (R) at the Royal Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Bandar Aljaloud / AP)

President Macron is meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ostensibly to discuss peace in the Middle East during his three-day state visit just as a political crisis threatens to topple the French government.  The agenda includes ways to strengthen Lebanon’s military and the so-called “Two-State Solution” for Israel and Palestine. The optics of such a conference looks benevolent.  In 2021, Macron became one of the first Western leaders to meet Prince Mohammed in Saudi Arabia after the 2 Oct 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul.

But in reality, a President Macron is in Riyadh to drum up business for the French economy. A caravan of 50 senior officials from major French companies including TotalEnergies, EDF and Veolia, as well as start-ups in artificial intelligence and quantum physics accompanied him. Importantly, Paris wants Riyadh to acquire French-made Rafale fighter jets and all the incidental, technical, and training contracts worth billions that would come with it. This is directly meant to deal with oil-producing Shia-led Iran.

Rafale F3R Fighter Jet (Photo: Dassault Aviation / A. Pecchi)

Under the thin veil of finding peace in the Middle East, Emmanuel Macron is dealing with Muhammad bin Salman, the man behind the heinous torture, murder, and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. On 2 Oct 2018, the sadistic MBS listened in gleefully to the transmitted sounds of the butchery sent by his clumsy assassins. Linked at bottom is the official ODNI redacted version of this atrocity. Caught but embarrassed, the Saudi government eventually ‘punished’ the hit team calling it a ‘rogue operation’, but MBS walked away unscathed, becoming an international pariah along the way.

Undated photo of the late Jamal Khashoggi, Time’s Person of the Year in 2018.

But worse than this grisly murder which President Biden said was “unacceptable and won’t be tolerated,” MBS is responsible for the man-made famine in Yemen which killed an estimated 130,000 innocent Yemeni Shiites.

The Houthis are a Shia minority in Yemen, seen as apostates by the majority Sunnis on the Saudi Peninsula. After the Yemen government collapsed earlier this century, Saudi Arabia, led by the king and Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS), supported the Yemeni Sunnis in the ensuing civil war. After the Yemeni Shias defeated and humiliated the Saudi Army in 2015, MBS instituted a Saudi air and naval blockade of Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. This created a humanitarian disaster of starvation and disease. The UN estimates an estimated 130,000 deaths from lack of food, health services, and infrastructure as of December 2020.

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.

The famine and blockade propelled the beleaguered Shia Yemenis into the arms of Tehran and Lebanese Hezbollah, their fellow Shia co-religionists.  This is why we see Houthi drone counter-strikes against Western maritime targets in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden after Israel conducts an Extra-Judicial Killing (XJK) in Lebanon, Syria, or sovereign Iranian territory (via drone, missile, jet, or assassin). The Shia Houthis are simply supporting the two groups that are helping them to survive. This humanitarian catastrophe can be laid squarely at the feet of the notorious MBS.

Emmanuel Macron meeting up with the fabulously wealthy but odious Crown Prince for the sake of the stumbling French economy should come as no surprise. The President of the Fifth Republic recently stated that France won’t honor the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against PIFWC Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, unlike most of the EU. And France is the home of INTERPOL in Lyon. Jerusalem may have threatened to withhold the ceasefire with Lebanese Hezbollah (LH) to coerce that public comment from Macron, desperate to maintain influence in the Middle East.

While Macron (who heads La Francophonie and has a sizeable domestic Arab constituency) and MBS perform a kabuki dance about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank and calling for elections in Lebanon, they are really making mega-business deals. Arguably, Beijing has done more for the Palestinians than Paris or Riyadh.

Mahmoud al-Aloul from Fatah (L), Chinese FM Wang Yi (C), and Mussa Abu Marzuk, from Hamas (R) in Beijing on 23 July 2024. China successfully reconciled their differences. For decades Beijing has pushed for international recognition of Palestine; France, the UK, and the US have not.  (Photo: Pedro Pardo / AFP / Getty Images)

In all fairness to France, they are like the US in opposing Vladimir Putin’s Nakba against Ukraine and support his ICC arrest warrant. Both are sending Kiev military and economic assistance. France does not oppose Benjamin Netanyahu’s “special military operation” against the Palestinians and oppose his arrest warrant, like the US. If the French diplomatic corps can’t understand why their influence in the Arab world has waned considerably over the decades, their myopia is worse than I thought.

Sources:

Assessment-Saudi-Gov-Role-in-JK-Death-20210226v2.pdf

France, Saudi Arabia sign strategic partnership, call for fresh elections in Lebanon

Macron’s Saudi visit targets arms deals and economic diversification

Saudi crown prince approved murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi: U.S. intelligence report | CBC News

Hamas and Fatah sign agreement in Beijing ‘ending’ their division, China says | CNN

Saudi Court Sentence Five To Death For Journalist Khashoggi’s Murder – SKN News

Xi pledges more Gaza aid and talks trade at summit with Arab leaders | AP News

California Man Arrested for Allegedly Exporting Shipments of Firearms, Ammunition, and Other Military Items to North Korea

Kim Jong-un firing an automatic pistol. The photographer is ill-positioned as he is down-range of the weapon and no one seems to be wearing hearing or eye protection. (Undated image)

The FBI arrested Shenghua Wen (41) of Ontario, CA, for allegedly exporting shipments of firearms, ammunition, and other military items to North Korea that were concealed inside shipping containers bound from Long Beach through Hong Kong to North Korea.

The FBI seized two devices that he intended to send to North Korea for military use: a chemical threat identification device and a hand-held broadband receiver that detects eavesdropping devices. Law enforcement also seized approximately 50,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition that Wen allegedly obtained to send to North Korea.

(Photos: FBI)

(Photos: FBI)

Wen is a Chinese national who is illegally in the US after overstaying his student visa and is therefore prohibited from possessing any firearms or ammunition. Wen lacks the required licenses from the US government to export ammunition, firearms, and the other devices that law enforcement seized at his home to North Korea.

Wen is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

The MSS is a vast apparatus and unknown is whether the Chinese government was aware of this conspiracy or whether they looked the other way. Espionage continues to be a less expensive way of acquiring sensitive technology from the West. The 50,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition would most likely be intended for North Korean espionage agents or their Special Forces, like the ones who deployed to Russia to fight against Ukraine.

The Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol above is issued to North Korean spies and commandos.

North Korean supremo Kim Jong-un enjoying a cigarette and light refreshment while his people starve. Nine out of ten North Koreans suffer from food insecurity.  (Photo: 13 Jun 2022, Reuters)

A criminal complaint 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 | California Man Arrested for Allegedly Exporting Shipments of Firearms, Ammunition and Other Military Items to North Korea | United States Department of Justice

COVID Map Update Reveals New States With ‘Very High’ Wastewater Activity

More states are detecting “very high” levels of the COVID-10 virus in wastewater.

According to the US CDC, Idaho, New Mexico and South Dakota all had “very high” levels of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in their wastewater during the week between 17 and 23 Nov., Between 10 and 16 Nov, only New Mexico’s wastewater had this level of the virus present.

Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire currently have “high” levels of COVID-19, while “moderate” levels were detected in Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wyoming.

Nineteen states had “low” levels, while 14 states and Wash DC had “minimal” levels of the SARS-CoV-2 virus present in wastewater.

The COVID-19 virus is spreading but cases of illness are not exploding because of the previous vaccination program. If Americans do not want to endure another nightmarish lockdown, they should take annual booster shots and maintain good hygiene habits. Covering the mouth when sneezing or coughing, as well as washing the hands constantly will help.  The US Senate can assist by not confirming any of the frauds or quacks the President-elect seems to have in mind for his imminent administration.

Source:

https://www.newsweek.com/covid-wastewater-map-cdc-virus-levels-variants-very-high-levels-1994758

Why Israeli Men Volunteered to Fight, But Now Refuse to Return to Gaza

Excerpted from Fergal Keane’s excellent article. She is a Special Correspondent to the BBC.

Look at these heavily armed IDF soldiers warn this Palestinian child riding a bicycle. The troop on the left seems to be aiming his assault rifle at this waif. (Photo: circa 2012)

Yuval Green (26) is among those refusing to continue fighting in Gaza.

Yuval immediately answered his country’s call to arms after the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attack by armed Palestinian groups in southern Israel. It was a mission to defend Israelis. Then came the fighting in Gaza itself. Things seen that could not be unseen. Like the night he saw cats eating human remains in the roadway.

“Start to imagine, like an apocalypse. You look to your right, you look to your left, all you see is destroyed buildings, buildings that are damaged by fire, by missiles, everything. That’s Gaza right now.”

“Start to imagine, like an apocalypse. You look to your right, you look to your left, all you see is destroyed buildings, buildings that are damaged by fire, by missiles, everything. That’s Gaza right now.”

IDF soldiers pass by destroyed homes inside the Gaza Strip. (IDF Handout via REUTERS)

One year on, the young man who reported for duty on 7 Oct 2023 is refusing to fight. There have been social media posts from soldiers in Gaza abusing prisoners, destroying property, and mocking Palestinians, including numerous examples of soldiers posing with people’s possessions – including womans’ dresses and underwear.

“I was trying to fight that at the time as much as I could,” says Yuval. “There was a lot of dehumanizing, a vengeful atmosphere.”

His personal turning point came with an order he could not obey.

“They told us to burn down a house, and I went to my commander and asked him: ‘Why are we doing that?’ And the answers he gave me were just not good enough. I wasn’t willing to burn down a house without reasons that make sense, without knowing that this serves a certain military purpose, or any type of purpose. So, I said no and left.”

That was his last day in Gaza.

Yuval is the co-organizer of a public letter signed by more than 165 – at the latest count – IDF reservists, and a smaller number of permanent soldiers, refusing to serve, or threatening to refuse, unless the hostages are returned – something that would require a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The UN has said reports of alleged torture and sexual violence by Israeli guards were “grossly illegal and revolting” and enabled by “absolute impunity.”

Ten years ago, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, warned about this phenomenon in what he called the ‘religification’ of the IDF.

“Within this context, messages about Jewish superiority and demonization of the enemy are fertile ground for fostering brutality and releasing soldiers from moral constraints.”

Michael Ofer-Ziv (29) was an operations officer in a brigade war room. (Photo: Getty Images)

The decisive moment for Michael Ofer-Ziv came when the IDF shot three Israeli hostages in Gaza in Dec 2023. The three men approached the army stripped to the waist, and one held a stick with a white cloth. A soldier had felt threatened and opened fire, killing two hostages. A third was wounded but then shot again and killed, when a soldier ignored his commander’s ceasefire order.

“I remember thinking to what level of moral corruption have we got… that this can happen. And I also remember thinking, there is just no way this is the first time [innocent people were shot]… It’s just the first time that we are hearing about it, because they are hostages. If the victims were Palestinians, we just would never hear about it.”

Coriolanus wishes these young fellow warriors well in a future of justice, peace, and tranquility in the Middle East.

The numbers of war-resisters in Israel will grow as war-related guilt, pangs of conscience, memories of horror, and PTSD spread throughout the ranks. This is an all too familiar pattern with war. As noted in a previous post, high school girls will be refusing induction into the IDF, as did a young man who will face judicial consequences for his moral stand.

Gil Zalsman, the Chair of the Israeli National Council for Suicide Prevention, had warned about the “tsunami of mental illnesses” among IDF personnel in the occupied territories and the potential increase in suicide cases after the end of the war. He stressed that referrals to crisis and mental health centers in the occupied territories increased by 40% last year.

On 22 Nov, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper wrote that at least six IDF soldiers who fought in Gaza and Lebanon, committed suicide in recent months. In the US, an average of 20 veterans dies from suicide every day.

Our special thanks to Fergal Keane at “the BeeB.” Her complete article may be read at the link below.

Source:

IDF refusers: The men who volunteered but now won’t fight in Gaza

Israeli official warns against increase in mental illnesses in occupied territories – IRNA English

United States military veteran suicide – Wikipedia

Food Recall in California: Raw Farm Milk and Cream 

Raw Farm, LLC is voluntarily recalling its raw milk and cream products due to possible bird flu contamination. Californians are strongly encouraged not to consume any raw milk or cream products in their possession or still on store shelves. Pasteurized milk remains safe to drink.  

Raw Farm milk products have tested positive for bird flu at both retail and dairy storage and bottling sites in recent days. 

Customers should immediately return any remaining product to the retail point of purchase. 

While this voluntary recall only applies to raw whole milk and cream, due to multiple bird flu detections in the company’s operation the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) urges consumers to avoid consuming any Raw Farm products for human consumption including raw milk, cream, cheese, and kefir, as well as raw milk pet food topper and pet food kefir marketed to pet owners. 

In addition to the statewide voluntary recall, CDFA has placed the farm under quarantine, suspending any new distribution of its raw milk, cream, kefir, butter and cheese products produced on or after 27 Nov. 

No human bird flu cases associated with the product have been confirmed to date, and the state is working closely with federal and local partners to investigate the situation and better understand how it might impact consumers. California continues to monitor and respond to bird flu outbreaks in dairy cows and poultry. Bird flu virus levels have been demonstrated to be high in raw milk from infected cows, and sporadic human cases identified in workers in close contact with infected dairy cows and their milk indicate that raw milk is infectious to humans.   

Public health experts have long warned consumers against consuming raw milk or raw milk products due to elevated risks of foodborne illness. Outbreaks due to Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, toxin producing E. coli, Brucella, Campylobacter, and many other bacteria have all been reported related to consuming raw dairy products. Raw milk products are not pasteurized, a heating process that kills bacteria and viruses such as bird flu.

Pasteurized milk and pasteurized milk products are safe to consume because the heating process kills pathogens, including bird flu, that can cause illness.

Drinking or accidentally inhaling raw milk containing bird flu virus may lead to illness. In addition, touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands after touching raw milk with bird flu virus may also lead to infection. Symptoms of bird flu infection in humans include eye redness or discharge, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue, trouble breathing and fever. Anyone who has consumed these specific products and is experiencing these symptoms, should immediately contact their health care provider or local health department.

Pet Safety and Raw Milk Pet Food Products

​CDPH advises consumers to avoid raw milk “pet food topper” and “pet food kefir” products marketed to pet owners. They should neither eat this food themselves nor feed it to their pets. Cats, dogs, and other animals may become sick with bird flu after drinking raw milk. Cats on infected dairy farms in multiple states have died from bird flu, most likely from drinking raw milk from infected cows. CDPH encourages pet owners to avoid feeding their pets raw pet food products in general, including raw milk-based products. To further limit risk to pets, pet owners should also keep their pets away from sick or dead birds.​​

Pasteurized milk is safe to drink. Pasteurization, one of the most significant scientific food safety discoveries in human history, is the process of heating milk to specific temperatures for a certain length of time to kill many microorganisms and enzymes that lead to spoilage and illness. Pasteurization kills the bird flu virus and other harmful germs that can be found in raw milk. CDPH advises consumers not to drink raw milk or eat raw milk products due to the risk of foodborne illnesses.

Since early October, California has reported 31 confirmed human cases of bird flu, 30 of whom had direct contact with infected dairy cows. No person-to-person spread of bird flu has been detected in California or the US. 

Farmers should contact the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s bird flu hotline at 866-922-2473 if they suspect their animals are infected with bird flu.

Source:

State Secures Broad Voluntary Recall of Raw Milk and Cream to Protect Consumers

Stowaway On Delta Airlines NYC-Paris Flight Bypassed Security Checkpoints at JFK

Different flight paths between NYC and Paris.  

A Russian woman who stowed away on a flight from New York to Paris last week was able to sneak through the security checkpoint by starting off in a lane reserved for airline flight crews. Ms. Svetlana Dali (57) was able to get through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at JFK and dodge document and ID checks during the security process.

Once the woman proceeded to the gate, she placed herself in the middle of what appeared to be a family traveling together.

Investigators believe a contributing factor may have been the massive holiday weekend crowds at the airport. The TSA said it screened nearly 2.7 million passengers at US airports on that Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

TSA checkpoints at JFK (Photo: TSA)

The woman is attempting to claim asylum in France. But French authorities are apparently denying Svetlana Dali entry to the country because she doesn’t meet the criteria for asylum nor did she have a visa, leaving her in limbo in the airport.

The Russian national remains in France after allegedly causing a disturbance and refusing to board a return flight to the US a couple of days ago.

While Ms. Dali hasn’t been arrested or detained in France, she could face charges such as criminal trespass and theft of services upon her return to the US.

But it remains unclear how she was able to board the plane.

Once on board, Ms Dali moved from one bathroom to another and never took a seat until flight attendants began to notice. Once confronted, The stowaway repeated: “I do not want to go back to the USA. Only a judge can make me go back to the USA.”

The woman was expected to be accompanied by six US marshals on her flight back to NY.

Inspectors from the TSA are preparing a civil case against the stowaway after reviewing airport security video from inside JFK. The TSA cannot bring criminal charges, though it can refer them to the Justice Department. It’s unclear whether any criminal charges will be filed.

Delta Airlines has not said how the woman was able to board the plane once she made it past the TSA checkpoint but “is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred.”

This clever and determined woman was evidently hell-bent on departing the US. She may have been absconding justice or the prospects of living in the US under the incoming Trump administration may have been too much for her. Wealthy people have already begun their exodus, like actress Eva Longoria.

Investigators will soon determine Ms. Dali’s motive for fleeing the US and if she was genuinely seeking asylum in France. Instead of fining and punishing this woman, TSA, Delta Airlines, and the FAA should learn from her experience. Should federal charges be brought before Ms. Dali, they would be in the Eastern District of NY where some compassionate judges are sitting at the bench.  

Sources:

Stowaway caught on Paris flight attempts to claim asylum

Woman who sneaked onto Paris flight bypassed checkpoints by jumping into different security lines, TSA says | CNN

Mystery Disease in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Kills 143 People

The DRC has a population of 115,403,027; 75% of them live under the poverty line. (Map: CIA)

A flu-like disease that has killed dozens of people over two weeks is being investigated in southwestern DRC, not to be confused with neighboring Congo-Brazzaville to the west.

The deaths were recorded between 10 and 25 Nov in the Panzi health zone of Kwango province. Symptoms include fever, headache, coughing, and anemia.

The deputy provincial governor reported that between 67 and 143 people had died. He warned the population to exercise caution and refrain from contact with dead bodies to avoid contamination. WHO is aware of the unidentified disease and has a team on the ground working with local health services to collect samples.

Congo is already dealing with massive food insecurity as eight million internally displaced people (IDP) require daily humanitarian assistance.

Bulengo IDP Camp. (Photo: Concern Worldwide)

Moreover, Congo is also plagued with the mpox epidemic. More than 47,000 suspected cases and over 1,000 suspected deaths from the disease have been recorded in the Central African country. Readers may recall this terrifying, but controversial, bestseller below about the Ebola virus which became a TV series.

The DRC has one of the largest reserves of potential wealth, including 200 million acres of cultivable land and large reserves of gold, diamonds, copper, zinc, coltan, and cobalt. Yet, the DRC is the sixth-lowest country on the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI). 75% of the population live below the poverty line and GDP per capita is $1,500.

Since independence, the former personal territory of King Leopold II of Belgium has suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, corruption, and centuries of both commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation. Just recently, Belgium has just been found guilty of crimes against humanity for the forced removal of five mixed-race children from their mothers in colonial Congo. Five plaintiffs were forcibly removed from their Congolese mothers between 1948 and 1953 as small children and sent to a Catholic mission far from their homes. The total number of such inhuman abductions by the Belgian colonial government has not yet been uncovered.  

The above Tintin book written in 1931 was once banned in several countries for its naive and racist portrayal of the natives while highlighting “benevolent” Belgian rule. Herge was, of course, a Belgian and conservative Catholic who survived Nazi occupation.  

Sources:

Health officials investigate mystery disease in southwest Congo after 143 deaths | AP News

World Health Organization

CIA

Democratic Republic of the Congo | World Food Program

The Democratic Republic of the Congo crisis, explained: Five things to know in 2024 | Concern Worldwide

Belgium found guilty of crimes against humanity in colonial Congo | Belgium | The Guardian

Why Humans are So Obsessed with Cats

International Arrest Warrants Finally Issued for Benjamin Netanyahu

The Israeli government did its utmost to fight the indictment and issuance of the arrest warrant but failed to stop justice at the Hague. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued the following statement:


“The Chamber issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest.”

“The arrest warrants are classified as ‘secret’, in order to protect witnesses and to safeguard the conduct of the investigations.”

Any nation that is a signatory to the ICC has an obligation to execute these arrest warrants.

The US, India, Indonesia, and China are not state parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which founded the ICC in 2002. The US has observer status at the ICC where Special Counsel Jack Smith completed an assignment prosecuting PIFWCs (Persons Indicted For War Crimes) before investigating Donald Trump.


An arrest warrant was also issued for Palestinian resistance leader Mohammed Deif who the IDF killed without trial and Yoav Gallant, the ex-Defense Minister. The Israeli PIFWCs can therefore safely travel to those four countries without fear of being detained.


This was a long time coming and a national black eye for Israel. Moreover, at the nearby International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague, several countries have charged the State of Israel with committing genocide. See official charging document at link below. But none of these actions dissuaded Netanyahu from continuing his Murder-Death-Kill campaign against Arabs. At time of publication, the IDF killed 133 victims in AKZ-L, AKZ-G, and AKZ-S.

Palestinian residents and civil defence teams launch a search and rescue operation following an Israeli attack on the Remal Clinic on al-Wehda Street in Gaza City (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas / Anadolu Agency)

The Israeli Death Forces pounded northern Gaza, killing 88 Palestinians in two waves of attacks on Beit Lahiya and the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City (AKZ-G). The IDF also killed nine in Tyre (AKZ-L) and 36 in Palmyra (AKZ-S).

The Likud Party and the IDF have killed at least 43,985 Palestinians and wounded 104,092 since 7 Oct 2023. An estimated 1,139 Israelis were killed during the attack to seize hostages for a prisoner swap; more than 200 were taken alive.

In AKZ-W, the IDF continued ethnic cleansing operations, arresting four Palestinians arrested near West Bank’s Hebron, Nablus. Israeli forces stormed the nearby village of Qabalan and tore down a barracks.

In Lebanon (AKZ-L), at least 3,558 people have been killed and 15,123 wounded in IDF since Oct 2023. UNICEF stated that increased Israeli violence is the ‘horrific new normal’ for children in Lebanon.

The Likud Party and the IDF are robbing the happiness, health, and future of Arab children within arm’s length of their US-provided weapons.

Members of a family rest in a tent after fleeing their home in Lebanon. (Photo: UNICEF/Fouad Choufany)

Meanwhile the US Senate voted overwhelmingly against three resolutions sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would have blocked the sale of certain US weapons to Israel. Even this token measure failed.

And, of course, the US cast the single veto against a Gaza ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council supported by 14 of the 15 UNSC members. US representative Ambassador Robert Wood said that the US could not support an unconditional ceasefire unless it was tied to releasing the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza by resistance fighters. This statement mirrors Likud Party policies.

Tor Wennesland, the out-going Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General stated bluntly without naming the US: ‘We are at the point where diplomacy has failed.’

To no one’s surprise, US President Joe Biden called the ICC war crimes arrest warrant for Netanyahu “outrageous” and vetoed a ceasefire initiative at the UNSC. Biden and the Democrats will be out of office in two months, just like in 1968 when Hubert Humphrey and his coterie were ingloriously kicked out over the Democrat’s failed policies on Vietnam. “Crime Minister” Benjamin Netanyahu will maintain his firm grip on power while receiving enormous amounts of lethal aid from the hard-working American taxpayer. The IDF will continues its vindictive Nakba across several Arab Killing Zones (AKZ). Over 50,000 Arabs will be killed by 1 Jan 2025. While the Cold Warrior got it right dealing with the Kremlin these past three years, Joe Biden just didn’t get it at all dealing with Israel. We trust President Biden enjoys his retirement next year.   

Sources:

LIVE: Israel kills dozens in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria; US defends UNSC veto | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

United States vetoes Gaza ceasefire resolution at Security Council | UN News

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_the_International_Criminal_Court

Bolivia files a declaration of intervention in the proceedings under Article 63 of the Statute

Dozens of Palestinian detainees abused, Israeli rights groups say – Ya Libnan

The Ukrainian military destroyed a location where North Korean generals could have been present alongside senior Russian military leaders.

According to Ukrainian outlet Defense Express, the use of multiple Storm Shadow missiles indicates the likely presence of high-ranking military personnel in the area or High-Value Targets (HVTs).

Debris analysis confirmed the use of UK-provided Storm Shadow missiles rather than French SCALPs.

(Credit: Will Stewart)

Defence Express highlighted the use of these cruise missiles on similar high-value military targets in the past, including a reserve command post of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The attack underscores the strategic importance of targeting such facilities, noting the implications of Ukraine’s authorization to use Storm Shadow missiles within Russian territory.

Hours later, the Defense Secretary announced the Armed Forces will be hit by £500 million worth of cuts, The Telegraph reports.

The announcement came after the US gave Kiev permission to use ATACMS long-range missiles against Russian targets. Britain initially allowed Storm Shadows to target Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine, but it now appears Kiev has permission to use them against targets inside Russia.

The £800,000 missiles are highly effective, designed to evade air defenses and hit targets with GPS-guided precision at speeds of up to 600mph. With a range of 180 miles, these weapons can strike deep into Russian territory.

As pointed out in a previous post, the Ukrainians must “strike firstest with the mostest” against North Korean military interlopers sent to help Russia. Eliminating the North Korean High Command in Russian territory will de-moralize the troops and ruin their command and control. Kiev and NATO have two months to maximize their offensive before the next US presidential administration takes over and cuts military, intelligence, and economic aid to Ukraine.

Source:

Fiery moment ‘British Storm Shadow missiles explode inside Russia targeting underground control room’ | The US Sun

Danish Military Keeps Watch on Chinese Ship Suspected of Baltic Undersea Cable Sabotage

(Photo of the Yi Peng 3 by Mikkel Berg Pedersen / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images)

The Danish Defense Command is monitoring the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3, which is anchored off the coast of Denmark and suspected of being involved in recent damage to fiber-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea.

Suspicions have been growing in Western capitals that damage to two key Baltic Sea cables was likely the result of deliberate actions.

The Chinese ship, reportedly captained by a Russian naval officer, was sailing from the Russian port of Ust-Luga. The Yi Peng 3 is suspected of having traveled over the area in the Baltic Sea where the cables connecting Sweden and Lithuania are located.


European governments and Washington have not tied Moscow directly to the damage, but they have accused Russia of orchestrating “hybrid attacks” on Western infrastructure to punish European countries for their assistance and support for Ukraine’s military as it tries to repel invading Russian forces.

Some analysts say the ship may have damaged the cables when dragging its anchor. Ukraine’s allies pointed to past incidents of alleged sabotage by Moscow, especially following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which recently hit the 1,000-day mark amid devastating losses on both sides.

Authorities in states bordering the Baltic Sea are investigating the cutting of the cables — the second connects Finland to Germany — following similar suspicious occurrences in the sea in recent years. Denmark and Germany are already NATO allies and share critical intelligence with Washington.

A year ago, Finland said it couldn’t exclude that a “state actor” was responsible for damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable in the Baltic Sea. The pipeline was damaged by an anchor dropped from the deck of the Chinese container ship Newnew Polar Bear. The ship was not detained and sailed away. Neutral Finland joined NATO on 4 Apr 2023 out of concern of Russian aggression, as did Sweden on 7 Mar 2024.

Moscow has said such allegations are being fabricated by the West to discredit Russia. Chinese officials have not commented on the situation surrounding the Yi Peng 3.

This is a troubling sign that China seems to be working with Russia to conduct sabotage against NATO and the EU. Beijing and Moscow have been increasing their military cooperation. Chinese and Russian jets were intercepted near the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) this past 24 July 2024.

(24 Jul 2024 Photo: NORAD)

Any future Chinese military invasion against the island republic would involve severing such communications cables to isolate Taiwan. Taipei would then be forced to communicate in a less secure digital environment vulnerable to MSS interception and hacking. Two Taiwanese undersea cables were sabotaged in 2023.

(Illustration: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

The Chinese and Russians don’t have to rely on frog-men or spy subs to sabotage these cables. The Russians have a special naval sabotage unit called the GUGI. But why deploy them when Russia and China have access to hundreds of commercial ships?

Once vulnerable telecommunication or energy cables/pipes are located, the Russians or the Chinese can sever or break them cheaply with tremendous anchors like above from ships like the Yi Peng 3. The ship captain can claim ignorance if he is boarded by NATO naval personnel.

This recent maritime sabotage incident in the Baltic Sea may be a Chinese rehearsal on behalf of the Kremlin. Sabotage against gas/power lines during winter would bring hardship to energy-dependent European countries while punishing them for supporting Ukraine.


Sources:

https://www.rferl.org/a/danish-defense-chinese-ship-yi-peng-baltic-sea-cable-damage/33209361.html

https://www.norad.mil/Newsroom/Press-Releases/Article/3849184/norad-detects-tracks-and-intercepts-russian-and-prc-aircraft-operating-in-the-a/

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_213448.htm

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_223446.htm

The Future Will Look Like the Past: Texas Offers Trump 1,402 Acres for Mass Deportation Camps

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is offering the incoming Trump administration 1,402 acres the state purchased along the Texas-Mexico border to be used in a mass deportation operation. The Extermination Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau reportedly covered 500 acres and it was the largest camp in the Third Reich.

In a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, Buckingham said she’s offering the land “to be used to construct deportation facilities.”

So, Madame Commissioner, here is what America will look like thanks to Donald Trump and people just like you.


Jews in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Oswiecim, Poland, in Jan 1945. (Photo: EPA)


Bosnian Muslims in Serbian concentration camp circa 1995. (Photo: ICTY)

DHS camp for Hispanic migrants of separated children during Trump’s first reign of terror.


Palestinian children crammed in Israeli prison cell circa 2016. (Photo: AP)


Sub-Saharan migrants in detention center in Zawiyah, Libya, in Jun 2017. (Photo: Taha Jawashi / AFP/ Getty Images)



Loyal Japanese-Americans dining in their mess facility in an internment camp (photo circa 1942).

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is a true humanitarian, isn’t she?

Source:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-land-commissioner-offers-acres-trump-deportation/story?id=116048937

Nationwide Food Recall: Wolverine Packing Co. Recalls 167,000 Pounds of Ground Beef Products Due to Possible E. Coli

Wolverine Packing Co. in Detroit, MI is recalling approximately 167,277 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the USDA Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The fresh products have a “use by” date of 11/14/2024 and the frozen products are labeled with production date 10/22/24.

Please check these links: View full product list. View labels.

The products subject to recall bear establishment number “EST. 2574B” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to restaurant locations nationwide. 

The problem was discovered when FSIS was notified by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture of a group of 15 patients who had reported that they consumed ground beef prior to their illness.

Anyone concerned about an illness should contact a healthcare provider. E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause dehydration, bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps 2–8 days (3–4 days, on average) after exposure the organism. While most people recover within a week, some develop a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). This condition can occur among persons of any age but is most common in children under 5-years old and older adults. It is marked by easy bruising, pallor, and decreased urine output. Persons who experience these symptoms should seek emergency medical care immediately.

FSIS is concerned that some product may be in restaurant refrigerators or freezers. Restaurants are urged not to serve these products. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

Consumers and members of the media with questions about the recall can contact Don Tanner, company representative at (248) 762-1533.

Consumers with food safety questions can call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-MPHotline (888-674-6854) or send a question via email to MPHotline@usda.gov.

For consumers that need to report a problem with a meat, poultry, or egg product, the online Electronic Consumer Complaint Monitoring System can be accessed 24 hours a day at https://foodcomplaint.fsis.usda.gov/eCCF/.

Sources:

Wolverine Packing Co. Recalls Ground Beef Products Due to Possible E. Coli O157:H7 Contamination | Food Safety and Inspection Service

Wolverine Packing Co. | Your Complete Protein Solution

French Defense Minister Calls on Arab Gulf States to Aid Lebanese Forces

Lebanese children wave French flags as they stand in front of a Lebanon’s national flag, at a ceremony to open a French-built bridge by the coastal town of Naameh, south of Beirut, on 18 Sep 2006. (Photo: Petros Karadjias / AP)

“I have reiterated to each counterpart that we need them to support the Lebanese armed forces,” French DM Sébastien Lecornu said after visits to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Lecornu’s appeal came following talks with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed of the UAE in Abu Dhabi.

“To secure the border between Israel and Lebanon, and to reinforce Lebanon’s sovereignty, the armed forces must be properly armed,” he added.

Israel expanded the focus of its lethal operations from Gaza to Lebanon in Sep 2024, making southern Lebanon inhospitable to Shias while devastating the country’s medical infrastructure. More than 3,510 people in Lebanon have been killed, with most fatalities recorded since late September.

Last month, a conference in Paris raised $200 million to support the Lebanese armed forces, on top of $800 million in humanitarian aid for the country.

The Lebanese military, which plays a crucial role in maintaining stability in the deeply divided country, struggles to meet the basic needs of its 80,000 soldiers. The Lebanese Army previously received financial assistance from Qatar and the US to pay salaries.

Lebanese Army Soldiers at double time. The IDF has killed at least 41 of them over the past few weeks. (Undated photo: Getty Images).

Next month French President Emmanuel Macron travels to Saudi Arabia. His visit is expected to focus on defense contracts and investment in new technologies. Perhaps he can persuade Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman (MBS) to withdraw the hideous blockade on Shia Yemenis which has caused them a man-made famine. The Sunni Saudi alliance with Sunni Yemenis is what drove the Shia Houthis right into the Shia Crescent led by Tehran. This is why the Houthis fire drones at Western or Israeli shipping in the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden: Gratitude and loyalty to their Shia benefactors in Lebanon and Iran.

There was a time when France was seen as Lebanon’s big brother and protector. An estimated 23,000 French citizens live in Lebanon and more than 300,000 Lebanese reside in France.

But now Paris has become a schnorrer asking other countries to step in.

Quite simply, France has lost its political clout in Lebanon: “In 10 years French influence has collapsed,” said a political scientist. Another French diplomat noted the dramatic drop in the use of French.  

“Years ago, if you went to bars where middle-class youth gathered, you’d hear Arabic or French. If you go there now, you’ll hear Arabic and English – people under the age of 30 don’t speak French.”

Cuts in the French diplomatic corps did not help. A former senior French official describing Paris’ diplomacy as “disoriented.” Moreover, France miscalculated by supporting Sunni rebels against Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. Germany paid the price of absorbing thousands of Syrian refugees. Berlin then put a stop to France’s policy of using EU funds to favor its foreign policy, notably in Lebanon.

France “no longer has a say” in Beirut: the foreign powers that matter are Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the US.

David Schenker, once in charge of Near East affairs at the US State Department, told the Lebanese on a visit to Beirut: “‘Don’t forget! It’s the Americans and the Saudis who sign the cheques.'”

Sources:

France’s defence minister calls on Gulf states to aid Lebanese forces

Macron promises €100m for Lebanon at aid conference in Paris

From protector to onlooker: how France lost its influence in Lebanon

Laos: Methanol-Tainted Alcohol Kills Several Tourists; Dozen Stricken

Laos has a population of nearly eight million people. Real GDP per capita is $8,400 (2023 est.)

Several Western tourists died after drinking tainted alcohol in the tourist town of Vang Vieng in Laos. So far, two Danish, one unidentified American, and a British citizen have been reported dead and at least ten have been stricken. The numbers could be more.

The late lawyer Simone White (28) from the UK was travelling South East Asia. (Image: Facebook)

The parents of two 19-year-olds from Melbourne are at their bedsides in separate Thai hospitals — one in Bangkok and the other in Udon Than.

Bianca Jones (L, 19) and Holly Bowles (R, 19) below were staying at a backpacker hostel in Vang Vieng, a popular party town north of Vientiane. Their parents from Melbourne are at their bedsides in separate Thai hospitals — one in Bangkok and the other in Udon Than. Sadly, a late report indicated that Ms. Holly Bowles (R) succumbed to the poison.

(Undated images: Social media)

Vang Vieng is a popular destination for backpackers travelling in Laos. (Photo: Basile Morin via Wikimedia Commons)

Duong Duc Toan, the manager of Nana Backpack hostel displays a bottle of vodka, in the bar of the hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos, Tuesday, 19 Nov 2024. (Photo: AP / Anupam Nath)

Methanol is a clear liquid chemical that is often illegally added to alcoholic beverages as a cheaper alternative to ethanol. Consuming even a small amount can be fatal.

Westerners seeking inexpensive vacations in exotic locations should take heed of this cautionary tale. Drink cocktails from a Western-owned hotel or stick to bottled or canned beer that should be opened in one’s presence (like bottled water).

Sources:


https://apnews.com/article/australian-laos-thailand-alcohol-poisoning-a5a4035fff9ac6e0960c0ffa4a2ef576

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/11/22/laos-methanol-poisoning/5591732171277/


https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/fifth-person-died-methanol-laos/

CIA

Canada Fears Trump’s Mass Deportations Will Push Migrants North

RCMP officers confront migrants arriving at the Roxham Road border crossing in Quebec from New York State in 2023. (Photo: Nasuna Stuart-Ulin for The New York Times)

Story written by Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Hamed Aleaziz and extracted from the New York Times.

Canadian authorities fear that Mr. Trump’s promised mass deportations will push migrants north, while Republicans have raised alarms over a recent spike in undocumented migrants crossing from Canada to the US.

Canadian officials are planning to add patrols, buy new vehicles and set up emergency reception facilities at the border between New York State and the province of Quebec in preparation for a surge of undocumented migrants following Donald Trump’s promised mass deportation program.

The new border czar, Tom Homan, who is a native of a NY town near the US-Canadian border, called the northern border a “huge national security issue.”

Mr. Homan said “special interest aliens” — a term used for migrants with possible criminal links, including to terrorism — might use the northern border because there are “a lot less, fewer officers here.”

Concerns over the northern border highlight a key shift in Canada’s view of migration between the first and second Trump administrations. During the first, PM Justin Trudeau made clear that asylum seekers were welcome in Canada just as Mr. Trump was tightening asylum rules and introducing policies like family separation at the US southern border.

Today, the mood in Canada is very different. Many Canadians believe the arrival of more legal migrants since the end of the COVID pandemic has strained resources such as affordable housing and access to medical care. Many blamed Mr. Trudeau’s government, which is now taking steps to significantly limit legal immigration.

The Canadian authorities also intend to wield a key agreement between the two countries to send back people crossing into Canada to seek asylum. The agreement designates Canada and the US as “safe third countries” in which to make asylum claims, so when asylum seekers travel from one country to the other, they can be sent back, with few exceptions.

Provincial leaders in Quebec are also anxious about the need to harden its border with New York and have already raised complaints about the growing number of legal immigrants and refugees who have settled there in recent years.

From Oct 2023 to Sep 2024, more than 19,300 undocumented migrants were apprehended by US authorities at the border between Quebec and Vermont, NYS, and New Hampshire, a 300-percent jump from the 6,925 apprehended during the same period the previous year. The figure for Oct 2020 to Sep 2021 was just 365 people.

More than 12,000 of the 19,300 people detained were Indian nationals, underscoring a booming migrant smuggling route from India to the US via Canada.

Some of this smuggling is encouraged online. Videos circulate on TikTok from “travel agencies’’ marketing smooth transport to the US in exchange for thousands of dollars.

One TikTok ad shows a group of men with US flag emojis hiding their faces advertising a “100% safe route.” The provider says it can take travelers from Brampton, a city outside Toronto with a large South Asian population, to New York, by taxi.

Six Indian nationals, aged 19-21 years, were arrested by the US border authorities after they were apprehended on a sinking boat during a failed attempt to be smuggled into America from Canada.  They were charged with “Improper Entry by Alien.” (Undated photo: Reuters)

Despite the immigration agreement between the US and Canada, the process to turn back people claiming asylum can take weeks at a time as migrants try to find a lawyer and gather evidence to try to make a case to avoid being sent back to Canada.

With minimal resources at the northern border, few people were being sent back to Canada earlier this year. Instead, migrants were being released from custody with notices to appear in US immigration courts, which face an enormous backlog.

But starting this summer, US officials deployed more federal officials to the northern border to help process people and transferred more people into detention.

They also made a key change to make the process to return migrants to Canada easier: Starting in Aug 2024, migrants who had been detained had only four hours to find a lawyer and collect evidence for their case. Before, migrants were given at least a day to do both.

Since then, the numbers of crossings have dropped dramatically — from roughly 3,600 crossings in June to around 1,800 in September — while the number of migrants returned to Canada has increased. More than 400 people were returned to Canada between Aug and Oct 2024.

Migrants who had crossed the border from Canada, many of them from India, talking to taxi drivers in Plattsburgh, NY, who were offering rides to NYC. (Credit: Anna Watts for The New York Times)

Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman from upstate NY who has been chosen by Mr. Trump to serve as UN Ambassador, called the increase in arrivals an “invasion” in a social media post.

Still, Canadian officials say they are fortifying the border and will deport migrants who attempt to enter Canada to escape Mr. Trump’s crackdown.

Xenophobia is tragically affecting both sides of the world’s largest undefended border, whose G-7 economies grew thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears of millions of immigrants toiling in the farms, factories, mines, fisheries, and slaughterhouses for two hundred years in the US and Canada. Every year thousands of migrants sacrifice their life savings or indeed their very lives trying to make their way to places such as the US, Canada, the EU, or Australia just to merely survive.

 

At least 8,565 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2023 according to the International Office of Migration (IOM). Undated photo above of migrants courtesy of the Vatican News Service.

Sources:

Canada Prepares for Immigration Surge After Trump Vows Mass Deportation – The New York Times

Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement – Canada.ca

Mysterious Chemical By-Product in US Tap Water Finally Identified

Scientists discover formula and structure of chlorine-related molecule and urge tests for possible toxicity.

A mysterious byproduct of a chemical used to disinfect the tap water of about one-third of Americans has finally been identified, and the international research team behind the discovery is advocating rapid assessment of its potential toxicity.

The research, reported in the journal Science, does not claim the byproduct is unsafe to drink or that the finding represents any kind of emergency. All water, including bottled water, contains contaminants.

But the discovery of a new and previously unknown chemical, called chloronitramide anion, could have implications for municipal water systems that use a class of chlorine-based disinfectants called chloramines. For decades these disinfectants, derived from the mixture of chlorine and ammonia, have been added to many municipal water supplies to kill bacteria and prevent waterborne illnesses.

“We need to investigate it. We don’t know the toxicity,” said environmental engineer Julian Fairey, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas and lead author of the paper. “This work was 40 years in the making in terms of trying to identify the compound, and now that we have identified it, we can delve into how toxic is this thing.”

Cigarettes like the ones advertised above were once touted as a cure for asthma, wheezing, or coughing. Medical quackery like the above example has killed countless victims over the centuries.

Now the US is on the verge of official government medical quackery with the potential Trump nominations of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead HHS and Dr. Mehmet Oz to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Therefore, the FDA, USDA, HHS, EPA, CDC, have two months to solve this issue before it’s swept under the carpet in 2025. Anti-Vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr can use a case like this to ban fluoride from American drinking water or come up with other wacky solutions.

Blue States will have to step up their Air Quality Index (AQI), food, health, workplace, and environmental inspections over the next four years to protect their citizens. Red State governors and their constituencies don’t seem to mind if they are killed by firearms violence, sickened by spoiled food, work in dangerous work sites, breathe polluted air, or drink unsafe water.

Sources:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk6749

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2024/11/21/tap-water-byproduct-chloronitramide-anion/

Minnesota Authorities Restore EagleCam to Delight of Viewers Worldwide

Watch eagle emerge from snow-covered nest after storm.

America Has Spoken: “The South Shall Rise Again!”

In 2020, the Biden/Harris ticket won 81,283,501 votes against 74,223,975 votes for Trump/Pence (51.3% to 46.8%). But in 2024, the Harris/Walz ticket won only 66.8 million votes while Trump/Walz won the popular election (and Electoral College) with 71.7 million votes.  Democratic votes disappeared between 2020 and 2024, a short span of four years.

In 1865, the Union Army defeated the Confederacy to eradicate slavery, abolishing the physical Mason-Dixon Border Line after the US Civil War. But the War Between the States did not eliminate the myth of white supremacy and the Mason-Dixon Line remained a constant nefarious meta-physical border ever since. POTUS Joe Biden won the battle against the neo-Confederacy in 2020, but his successor lost the war to them in 2024.

What happened to the Democratic Party turnout?

Many Democrats simply didn’t vote for Harris/Walz in 2024 compared to the 2020 Biden/Harris ticket, as the numbers reflect. And Democrat declines were acute in blue states:  900,000 votes in NY, 500,000 in NJ and Maryland, 300,000 in Massachusetts, and 180,000 in Virginia. Democrats either stayed home or voted for Jill Stein. Kamala Harris was down 10% in Red states and about 4% in swing states. The reasoning may have been the lack of democracy in the process when POTUS Joe Biden anointed Kamala Harris as the POTUS candidate (without a convention vote or primary process), simple personal dislike of the candidate, or the Biden Administration’s handling of the incessant murderous Israeli rampage against Palestinians.

VPOTUS Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff botched the origin of Hanukkah in a social post in Dec 2023. The DNC did not allow Arab-Americans to have a voice at the 2024 convention in Chicago resulting in massive demonstrations outside.  79% of American Jews reportedly voted for Kamala Harris, but 45% of New York Jews voted for Donald Trump. On election night, a Jewish voter at Trump HQ in Florida told a PBS reporter that she voted for Trump because “he would be better for Israel.” Arab-Americans in Michigan punished the Biden Administration’s atrocious mishandling of the Israeli Nakba by either voting for Donald Trump or Jill Stein. Some may have simply stayed home in disgust.

Critically, the GOP also won over 46% of the Latino vote (despite Latinas turning out for Kamala Harris) and Trump won more black votes in 2024 than he did in 2020.

Other factors that led to this disaster for the Democrats (and the American people) included the appearance that the Democratic Party became the party of the status quo and the elite, supported by “intellectual snobs” and wealthy Hollywood celebrities. Liberal TV icons like Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Stephen Colbert were derided as “elitist snobs” by blue collar working-class Republicans.  To this point, Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL), while Donald Trump appeared on the blue-collar racist Joe Rogan podcast (to a record number of viewers). While the Democratic Party raised millions of dollars, so did the GOP. Fueled by Elon Musk’s donations and supported by his social platform “X,” the Democratic Party had no counter to this.

The biggest issues for voters in 2024 turned out to be immigration and the economy. While high prices affected all Americans, the right-wing was successful in making migrants– the “others”– an important issue. This is similar to why right-wing political parties in Europe gained traction over the past few years: Xenophobia and post-COVID inflation.

Democratic strategists may have been misled by the full, raucous rallies attended by Kamala Harris supporters, observing the flat and unfilled rallies of Trump. While Democrats ridiculed Trump’s loathsome comments and infirmities, perhaps they should have focused on the evils of Project 2025 during this first Presidential election after Roe vs Wade was overturned by SCOTUS. Trump’s clownish and boorish behavior became the focus of the Democrats. Now the Democratic Party will conduct their autopsy of what went wrong. They will discover that shooing out Joe Biden because of his age and anointing Kamala Harris may have been a mistake. Kamala Harris had 107 days to campaign, she selected an excellent VPOTUS candidate, and she raised a record number in funds. Her “ground game” was touted as formidable.

But while Americans were ready for a female President in 2016 when Hilary Clinton won 65,844,954 votes (48.2%) to Trump’s 62,979,879 (46.1%), in 2024 Americans were not ready for a female president of color. Regrettably, Kamala Harris was not a transformative figure like former POTUS Barack Obama. Moreover, some critics within the Democratic Party also found her disingenuous and disconnected to life on Main Street, unlike the popular VPOTUS candidate Tim Walz.

What’s next for America and the World?

Hint: The Trump Administration won’t be like JFK’s fabled Camelot.

Americans will have to hold their noses for four years while the Trump Administration fills the cabinet and government with reactionary right-wing loyalists regardless of competence or experience who will implement the Taliban-like Project 2025.

Former D/DNI and Congressman John Ratcliffe staring dumbly above will be the new D/CIA. He is a Trump acolyte and spreads conspiracy theories about a “deep state” in the US.

TV Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth (44) will oversee and lead the $842 billion budget DOD. He previously said that women should not serve in combat and now wants to purge the US military of “woke” personnel. This nomination is tantamount to a bat-boy being promoted to manage the World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers (Photo: wikimedia.org)

Donald Trump (L) mocks Marco Rubio (R) drinking water during his rebuttal to the 2013 State of the Union address. But Trump selected him to be US Secretary of State. As a Senator, Rubio did his utmost to undermine Obamacare (the ACA) and Rubio is happy send someone else’s American children to fight Iran on behalf of Israel.

Pro-Settler, ultra-Christian reactionary Mike Huckabee gesticulating above will be US Ambassador to Israel. Expect more Palestinian evictions and deaths in the West Bank over the next four years. (Photo: 18 Nov 2016, NYC courtesy of Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

The new D/Homeland Security nominee proudly wrote in her autobiography that she murdered a disobedient 14-month-old puppy, as well as a defenseless goat. Governor Kristi Noem was banned from indigenous reservations in her home state of South Dakota. This psychotic will gleefully carry out mass deportations to ensure America remains a white-majority population.  

Tulsi Gabbard, a practicing Hindu and former Democrat, as DNI will overlook Indian PM Narendra Modi’s homicidal plots against Sikhs and Muslims in India, the US, Canada, and other countries. Gabbard has never worked in the IC and she nefariously parrots the same talking points as the Kremlin.

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, previously under FBI investigation for having sex with under-aged girls, is Trump’s selection for US Attorney-General. Thanks to his father’s connections, he had previously escaped DWI convictions in Florida. A former senior Justice Department official said: “He is the least qualified person ever nominated for a position in the Department of Justice.”

Who else will the President-Elect choose for his Cabinet?

Americans should expect more Conservative Republican federal judge appointments, the possibility of two young reactionary SCOTUS judges replacing Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, an increase in Christian advertising in the media, increased Christian proselytizing in the military academies, the potential of a massive deportation of migrants and refugees, a purge of enemies and progressives from government (including Special Counsel Jack Smith), and increased defense, space and telecommunications contracts for Elon Musk (with no oversight). Donald Trump’s USSS detail will remain a phalanx of white Praetorian Guards as we have witnessed over the past eight years.

The US averages 42,000 firearms-related deaths per annum. This will no doubt increase as the Trump Regime will reduce federal safeguards to gun and ammunition ownership. Public lands, like in Alaska or the American southwest, will be made available to commercial interests. The GOP will gut food safety, transportation, and environmental regulations for the sake of profits. Social safety nets like Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, the SNAP program, as well as social security, will be vulnerable to cuts. Trump will pardon 6 January insurrectionists duly processed by the Justice Dept.  

Internationally, war criminal Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will have carte blanche to continue decimating and depopulating Palestinians. The US will reduce military and financial support for Ukraine in their fight for survival against Vladimir Putin, and the potential of military strikes against Iran increased (unless Putin somehow dissuades Trump from obeying Netanyahu).

Ambassadorships will be filled with loyal lickspittles of varying competencies, like Mike Huckabee noted above. America’s allies will share less critical intelligence with CIA, DIA, NSA, and the FBI out of concern the information will be leaked to the Kremlin or Jerusalem, and the Board of Governors of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) will be filled with Christian and ultra-nationalistic acolytes. With Russia no longer the international bogeyman for the GOP, hate-radio and Fox News will laser in on China, Iran, and Palestinian “terrorists,” while accusing Ukraine of corruption, nepotism, and unworthy of American taxpayer support. One mantra already heard is that the US govt sent more aid to Ukraine than to American citizens in Hawaii whose homes were destroyed by volcanic lava.  

The National Targeting Center (NTC) will discontinue tracking Russian oligarchs and the US DOJ OSI will stop investigating Russian war crimes perpetrated in Ukraine. President-elect Trump, enjoying his mandate, will abuse his AUMF powers (Authority to Use Military Force) under a GOP-controlled Congress. More Shia (and Sunni) Muslims will be killed globally.

These truly are dark times for Ukrainians, Palestinians, and Iranians, as Putin and Netanyahu will continue their Murder-Death-Kill campaign without respite. And in America, the Trump Regime portends poorly for the poor, non-Christians, women, and people of color.

In a troubling sign of things to come under the Trump Cabal, a white supremacist detective in Long Island, NY was charged with a hate crime after he called a phone service worker “nigger,” spewing a racist tirade: “We don’t want you or your kind in the neighborhood.”

John Murphy (40) allegedly erupted into a hateful rage after spotting a black cellular service subcontractor inside an SUV in his Manorville neighborhood. Murphy identified himself as a police officer, ignored the employee’s identification card, and damaged the victim’s SUV. The Rockville Centre Police Dept suspended the bigoted imbecile who was ordered to stay away from the victim. Nota Bene: This incident occurred just before election night.

Racist Rockville Centre detective John Murphy (Undated photo: Newsday)

The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. All factual recitations are derived from documents filed in court and statements made on the record in court.

President Joe Biden can still recover some bit of his legacy. He should consider resigning the Presidency on grounds of “health” before Inauguration Day in Jan 2025, thereby making Kamala Harris the first female POTUS (and one of color). As Donald Trump churlishly did not hand over power in person on Inauguration Day in Jan 2021 to snub Joe Biden, he can return the favor in spades. Even though Kamala Harris will be a temporary, unelected President, the history books will record her achievement forever. To their eternal chagrin, white supremacist Republicans will always have female, black Kamala Harris’ official portrait staring at them in the halls of power in every federal institution in America.

American schoolchildren rendering the Pledge of Allegiance circa mid-1930s. This is what white Americans voted for in 2024.  Heil Trump!

Sources:

Interactive: How key groups of Americans voted in 2024 | PBS News

How many Jews voted for Donald Trump? How many for Kamala Harris? – Jewish Telegraphic Agency

How Trump broke GOP losing streak in Dearborn with support of Arab-Americans | AP News

Home | FEC

FBI Arrests Alleged Leaker of US Intelligence Related to Israel’s Attack Plans Against Iran

(Undated photo of Asif W. Rahman courtesy of thenightly.com.au.)

The FBI arrested Asif William Rahman on 12 Nov in Cambodia. He is charged with allegedly leaking highly classified US intelligence about Israel’s plans to attack Iran. He is to appear before a federal magistrate in Guam. Court documents indicate that he was employed by the US government, reportedly the CIA. The New York Times said that Rahman was indicted on a charge related to the posting of the intelligence on Telegram in mid-Oct 2024. The documents posted included Israeli plans for moving munitions and IDF exercises involving air-to-surface missiles.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. All factual recitations are derived from documents filed in court and statements made on the record in court.

As previously predicted here on Coriolanus, a government employee frustrated with the unshakeable ionic bonds between the US and Israel leaked this information on social media. His motive was to either help Iran defend itself or deter Israel from conducting another homicidal attack on Tehran.

Sources:

us-national-security-leak_redacted.pdf

France: Prosecutor Seeks Prison and Election Ban for Right-Wing Politician Marine Le Pen

(Undated photo of the right-wing xenophobic fraud, Marine Le Pen: AFP)

The Paris prosecutor has asked for a prison sentence of five years and a five-year ban from political office for far-right leader Marine Le Pen in an illegal party funding case. Nicolas Barret asked for the ban to become effective immediately after the verdict, even if the defence team appeals, ruling Le Pen out of standing again for president in 2027.

She and more than 20 other senior party figures are accused of hiring assistants who worked on party business, rather than for the European Parliament which paid them.

Le Pen, who denies the charges, told reporters the requested sentence was an “outrage”, and accused the prosecution of trying to “ruin” her National Rally (RN) party.

“I think the prosecution’s wish is to deprive the French people of the ability to vote for whom they want,” she said after the hearing in the French capital, where she is on trial with 24 other defendants.

Le Pen was defeated by Emmanual Macron at the last presidential election in 2022 by 58.55% to 41.45% but RN is the biggest among the numerous parties in the National Assembly.

As well as the prison sentence and ban from political office, a fine of €300,000 (£249,000; $319,000) is being sought against the RN leader.

The proposed prison sentence is “convertible” and France’s AFP news agency says that Le Pen “would not necessarily go to prison”.

However, the ban on political office would take effect immediately and would not be delayed by the appeals process, as some had been expecting.

The prosecutor asked for the ban to apply to all 25 defendants.

The defendants plus the party itself, as a legal entity, are accused of syphoning EU parliamentary funds to pay the salaries of party workers.

According to the prosecution case, Le Pen presided over a system for several years in which RN staff members from Paris were “taken on” as EU parliamentary assistants in Brussels. These RN officials rarely set foot in the EU parliament and had no role there. The trial is due to continue until 27 November.

This should come as no surprise that a right-wing, racist fanatic hypocritically took advantage of a generous, socialist EU budget to enrich herself and her staff while spewing hate-messages about immigrants and “one world government,” and other agit-prop designed to sow discord in France, the EU, and NATO.   

Source:

Marine Le Pen: Prosecutor seeks jail and election ban in party funding case

Canada: First Avian Flu Case in British Columbia

Map courtesy of Worldatlas.org

A teenager in British Columbia Children’s Hospital is infected with a human case of avian influenza (also known as bird flu) caused by influenza A (H5N1) virus in Canada. The patient is in critical care in hospital. His symptoms included conjunctivitis, fever, and coughing.

The teenager had no farm exposure but had been exposed to dogs, cats and reptiles, and the infection source has not been identified

This is Canada’s first domestically acquired human case of H5N1 avian influenza.

Health officials in BC continue to undergo contract tracing and testing to determine if the virus spread further, but provincial health officers do not believe anyone else has been infected.

Human infection with avian influenza A (H5N1) is rare and usually occurs after close contact with infected birds, other infected animals or highly contaminated environments.

A colorized transmission electron micrograph of three H5N1 virus particles. Photo: CDC & NIAID via Flickr

Public Health Canada informs:

“This detection was picked up via hospital-based influenza surveillance, confirming that human influenza surveillance in British Columbia and Canada is effective at detecting avian influenza A(H5). We must continue to remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent the spread of avian influenza between animals and to humans.”

Sources:

Statement from the Public Health Agency of Canada: Update on Avian Influenza and Risk to Canadians – Canada.ca

Teenager in critical condition with Canada’s first human case of bird flu | Canada | The Guardian

Man Dead After Explosions Outside Brazil Supreme Court Ahead of G20 Summit

Police vehicles in front of the Brazilian Supreme Court after explosions in the Three Powers Square in Brasilia ahead of the G20 Summit. (Photo: Tom Molina/Reuters)

A man killed himself with a bomb outside Brazil’s supreme court after trying to enter the building, stirring security concerns before the country hosts global leaders from the Group of 20 major economies.

The blasts come five days before the G20 heads of state meet in Rio de Janeiro, followed by a state visit to the capital Brasília by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The first of two explosions went off on Wednesday evening in a parking lot near the court building and a second blast came seconds later in front of the court, where the man’s body was found.

Federal District vice-governor Celina Leao said preliminary information suggested the man had killed himself with explosives after trying to enter the supreme court. She said he owned a nearby car in which another explosion blew open the trunk.

Leao said she hoped it was the crime of a “lone wolf,” but she could not be sure.

“We are considering it as a suicide because there was only one victim. But investigations will show if that was indeed the case.”

Police said they had not made a final identification of the dead man as they were confronting the risk of additional explosives on the body.

The explosions took place around the Plaza of the Three Powers, an iconic square in Brasília connecting the principal buildings of Brazil’s three branches of federal government.

It was the scene of riots on 8 January last year when supporters of former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro ransacked the buildings to protest his electoral defeat.

Police deployed a bomb squad with an explosive disposal robot to the square in the heart of Brazilian capital to investigate the blasts. The supreme court justices had just ended a plenary session when the blasts happened and were quickly evacuated safely. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had left the executive palace on Wednesday night shortly before the explosions.

This is a serious security matter for Brazil with world leaders convening there for the imminent G20 Summit. Luckily there were no casualties other than the alleged suicide bomber. Investigators must determine if this was a “lone actor” with psychiatric issues and what the motive was. People who commit suicide usually leave behind a note or reasoning for their actions. In this case, none were uncovered yet. Investigators must also learn where the individual obtained the explosives and how he learned to fashion them. Some terrorist groups have used involuntary suicide operatives, where the person is tasked with delivering an innocuous item. But unbeknownst to them, the courier was carrying a remote-controlled IED.  

Source:

Man dead after explosions outside Brazil supreme court ahead of G20 | Brazil | The Guardian

Iran: 70 Students Stricken with Food Poisoning

70 students of the Rajai Teacher Training University in Tehran were sickened with food poisoning and were taken to hospitals. The students were poisoned after eating dormitory dinner, which included tuna and potato puree.

Students began to feel ill early the next day and went to the university housing official for help.

On 30 Oct, Hamdan Industrial University reported that a number of students had been poisoned because of food served at the university. Videos and published reports also showed that students of Hamdan Industrial University staged a hunger strike on 2 Nov to protest food poisoning in support of their stricken colleagues.

Earlier this month, the Amir Kabir University student news bulletin reported that students of Zahra University in Tehran objected to the quality of food in the university restaurant. Students complained of expired foodstuffs and finding insects in their salads.

The Iranian government remains under US sanctions and their economic priorities are national security against Israel as well as assisting her few allies: Lebanese Shias, Saudi-embargoed Houthis, and Russia. Civil society and students seem to be the big losers of the “Guns versus Butter” argument in Iran.

Source:

Dozens of Iranian Students Poisoned After Eating Contaminated Food In Their University Residence | Iran International

Confluence of Major Events in Early November

Within the space of a few days, the US Presidential Election occurred, on 10 Nov Turks all over the world commemorated Kemal Ataturk Remembrance Day while US Marines celebrated their 249th birthday, and Veteran’s Day (Armistice Day) was observed throughout the Western world on 11 Nov.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln of modern Turkiye. On 10 Nov (the 86th anniversary of his passing), 1,092,000 visitors paid their respect to Mustafa Pasha at the Anitkabir, his final resting place. This was the highest turnout ever recorded for 10 Nov. No matter what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does for Turkiye, he realizes he can never supplant Ataturk.

From Coriolanus to all of his USMC buddies and friends worldwide, Happy Belated 249th Birthday. May we all meet again under peaceful circumstances. Semper Fi!

A Sentinel from the 3d US Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, VA. (Undated US Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser).

Over the past 76 years, only 731 Soldiers have earned full status as guards, earning the title of Sentinel and the right to wear a Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification Badge. The two newest Sentinels were awarded their badges this Veterans Day.

US Army Major General William Zana is one of those elite 731 Sentinels and he chose to retire after completing one final shift guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on 24 May 2024.

MG William Zana examines a ceremonial M14 rifle as he prepares to stand one final watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. (US Army photo, 31 May 2024 / SFC Jon Soucy)

Qualifying for duty as a Tomb Guard remains largely unchanged from the process MG Zana went through in 1989. The first cut-off is genetic — men must be between 5-foot-10 and 6–foot-4, while women must be 5-foot-8 and 6-foot-2. Volunteers must be in “superb physical condition” with an “unblemished military record.”

After an interview, Zana was given a two-week trial period, by the end of which he had to repeat back seven pages of Cemetery history verbatim.

MG Zana points to a photo from his assignment as a Tomb Sentinel (Jun 1989 to Sep 1991). (US Army photo by SGT Ethan Scofield).

For his first hour on duty, several of the guards joined him at the post. For the second hour, Zana stood alone.

“And that was some of the most profound time of my military career,” Zana said. “I look back, 37 years and you can do the math on the number of hours and minutes. But when you get down to [it], there’s just two hours. Then just this one hour. Tonight, you know the clock strikes, we change the guard. And I depart the cemetery as a retired soldier.”

A line MG Zana memorized in his original shift at the Tomb echoed in his mind.

Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day, alone in the thoughtful peace of night, this soldier will in honored glory rest under my eternal vigilance.

Sources:

Record-breaking visits to Anıtkabir on Atatürk Remembrance Day – Türkiye News

An Army general’s final ‘walk’ at the Tomb of the Unknowns

Two Tiny Rescue Kittens Have So Much Energy They Impress Family Dog

Kittens Cheeto and Frito with Kano (L); (Photo: Asa)

Cheeto and Frito, two ginger tabbies, were two weeks old when they came to Today Tomorrow Forever Animal Rescue for a chance at a better life.

A volunteer stepped up to provide round-the-clock feeding and plenty of TLC. After each meal, the kittens cuddled together and even cleaned each other’s faces. Thriving on bottle-feeding, they grew into plump, happy, and wiggly kittens.

After being adopted, the two kittens were delighted to find a canine companion named Kona who was impressed by their energy.

“They are non-stop purr machines. The only time they’re not purring is when they’re running around the room wreaking havoc.”

Our thanks to Today Tomorrow Forever Animal Rescue in southern California for rescuing these two tiny dynamos and sharing this heart-warming story.

Source:

Kittens Brought in at 2 Weeks Old for New Start, Now Have So Much Energy They Even Impress Family Dog – Love Meow

Murder-Death-Kill: IDF Warpath Continues With US Elections Days Away

The IDF and the Likud Party are doing the best they can, young lady, so please be patient. (Undated image)

Israeli strikes killed at least eight people, including six health workers in south Lebanon. The killing of the six Lebanese health workers and the wounding of four others in three separate strikes across south Lebanon brought the death toll of health workers to 178 over the last year, while 279 health workers have been injured. Beirut long accused Jerusalem of targeting its medical personnel and infrastructure, a violation of the Geneva Convention. The IDF also struck reported Hezbollah weapons depots and bases in Syria. In Gaza, at least 46 Palestinians were killed in IDF strikes across the enclave, primarily in the north, where one attack hit a hospital. The Israeli military accuses Palestinians of using the hospital for military purposes and said “dozens of terrorists” have been hiding there, which health officials denied.

An Israeli attack in the occupied West Bank killed three Palestinians. Since Oct 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 763 Palestinians in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) to facilitate the seizure of lands and homes by fanatical Settlers. A few of these maniacs have been sanctioned by the Biden Administration as a token measure, as you read in previous posts.

Over the past 24 hours, Israel amassed at least 67 deaths in all three Arab Killing Zones (AKZ): AKZ-L, AKZ-G, AKZ-W. (Russian President Vladimir Putin has established a Ukrainian Killing Zone or UKZ, which is discussed later.)

Lebanese fighters counterattacked with projectiles, killing one Israeli farmer and four foreign workers. Their nationalities were not disclosed.

One of the IDF strikes in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza killed at least 16 Palestinians, including a paramedic and two local journalists.

In AKZ-L, Israel issued an evacuation warning to residents of Baalbek for a second consecutive day. The IDF conducted heavy airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in and around the city famed for its Roman temples.

Displaced children, who fled Baalbek city and the nearby towns of Douris and Ain Bourday with their families amid the Israeli onslaught, listen to a story at a school being used as a shelter in Deir Al-Ahmar, east Lebanon, 31 Oct 2024.

Dozens of cars could be seen speeding out of the area after Thursday’s warning, with wafts of black smoke still visible emanating from the town of Douris, where an Israeli strike the previous day destroyed Hezbollah fuel stocks.

Lebanese Shia fighters aim to keep Israeli forces out of Khiyam to prevent the IDF from detonating homes and buildings, as has happened on a large scale in other border towns.

Israeli bulldozers damaged the office of UN aid agency UNRWA in the West Bank’s Nur Shams camp, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s chief.

The office “can no longer be used,” Lazzarini grimly posted on social media platform X.

An IDF bulldozer operates at the parameter of the Nur Shams refugee camp during the ongoing army operation, in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, 31 Oct 2024. This is what Lebanese Shias are trying to prevent the IDF from doing to their homes. An IDF bulldozer like this killed American peace activist Rachel Corrie in 2003.

The late Rachel Corrie (Undated photo: Wikipedia)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding that Lebanese Hezbollah pull back to north of the Litani River, about 30 km from the Israeli frontier. In addition, Israel wants the Lebanese army to deploy along the border, an international intervention mechanism to enforce the truce, and the IDF to remain free to respond militarily in case of threats. And after abandoning their ancestral homes, where would these Lebanese Shias live?

(Map: worldatlas.com)

Lebanese Hezbollah did not exist before 1982. They organized as a resistance to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Everyone in Lebanon, regardless of their faith, remembers the horrific 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre. The aftermath led to the resignation of Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon (but he was kept in the cabinet as a “minister without portfolio”). As people in the Middle East did not forget 1982, neither will they forget 2023-24.

Israel’s offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza has killed more than 43,100 people, with Israel claiming the death toll includes thousands of militants. Nakba 2024 has devastated much of the Gaza Strip, while the fighting and Israeli evacuation orders have displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people. At this rate of homicide, by year’s end the IDF will have killed close to 50,000 Palestinians while maiming 150,000. Coriolanus has not yet calculated the predicted death toll for of Lebanon.  

The Vietnam War destroyed the legacy of President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ). How will history judge retiring, kind-hearted President Joe Biden? (Artwork: Mr. Dave Chappatte)

Sources:

Middle East fighting rages on several fronts, killing dozens (voanews.com)

Sabra and Shatila massacre – Wikipedia

Finnish Prosecutor Charges Russian Ultranationalist Leader with War Crimes

Russian radical nationalist and accused war criminal Voislav Torden AKA Yan Petrovsky. (Photo: Antifascist-europe,org)

The Finnish Prosecutor-General’s Office has charged Voislav Torden, AKA Yan Petrovsky, a Russian ultranationalist and former commander of the Rusich sabotage group, with war crimes committed in Ukraine in 2014.

Torden faces five counts stemming from his involvement with Rusich, which fought against Ukrainian forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Torden and his group are linked to the deaths of 22 Ukrainian soldiers and the injury of four others. He is accused of war crimes and committing acts of cruelty against both injured and deceased enemy combatants.

Born Yan Petrovsky in 1987 in St. Petersburg, Torden relocated to Oslo in 2004 with his mother. He then regularly visited Russia, where he met former paratrooper and nationalist Aleksandr Milchakov. In 2014, they traveled to Ukraine’s Donbas region to support Russia-backed separatists in their fight against Ukrainian forces.

In Sep 2014, Rusich ambushed a column of the Ukrainian battalion Aidar near Shchastya, with Milchakov later boasting about photographing himself with the bodies of slain Ukrainian soldiers, while members of Rusich reportedly mutilated some of the remains.

In 2016, Torden was deported from Norway to Russia, where he changed his name from Yan Petrovsky to Voislav Torden. He entered Finland in 2023 as a family member of his wife, who received a study permit. Torden was detained on 20 Jul 2023, at Helsinki Airport while attempting to board a flight to Nice, France.

Following his arrest, Ukrainian authorities sought his extradition, but Finland’s Supreme Court denied the request, citing concerns over conditions in Ukrainian prisons and the potential for Torden to face humiliation in custody. Ukraine has charged him with war crimes from the 2014-15 conflict, and he was sanctioned by the US in 2022 for extreme cruelty during combat in the Kharkiv region.

The specifics of his activities in Ukraine during that time remain unclear.

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

Meanwhile, USSECSTATE Antony Blinken said that Russia has been suffering some 1,200 casualties a day in eastern Ukraine, more than at any other time during the war. 8,000 North Korean troops are ready for combat in what will most likely be “meat attacks” against Ukrainian defenders. Blinken stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin turning to North Korean troops “is a clear sign of weakness.”

President Volodimir Zelensky again asked NATO for permission to attack deep targets in Russia following a lethal drone attack on a residential building in Kharkiv.

Police officers stand next to the bodies of people found under the debris of an apartment building that was hit by a Russian air strike in Kharkiv on 31 Oct. Three were killed and scores wounded. Two boys, aged 11 and 15, were among the dead. Putin has turned Ukraine into a killing zone (UKZ), like Netanyahu’s AKZ in the Middle East. (Photo: Reuters)

Sources:

Finnish Prosecutor Charges Russian Ultranationalist Leader With War Crimes (rferl.org)

The Prosecutor’s Office of Finland has charged the leader of the neo-Nazi group “Rusich” Petrovsky with committing war crimes in Ukraine (currenttime.tv)

U.S. Says 8,000 North Korean Troops Ready For Combat In Kursk Region (rferl.org)

Thousands of Passenger Flight Signals Jammed Over Warzones in Ukraine, Middle East

The navigation systems of thousands of passenger aircraft are being disrupted every day as they fly close to conflict zones who warn that the blocking or spoofing technology could one day put lives at risk.

Over the past two years, electronic warfare technology has been deployed to disrupt drones or missiles that use global positioning system or other satellite navigation technology to home in on their targets.

However, the blocking or spoofing of GPS signals also affects commercial aircraft, explained Raphael Monstein, a research associate at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland.

“Spoofing is when an actor sends out malicious signals to all the receivers that are in the coverage area. And it tricks the receiver into believing that it is in a different position than it actually is. And particularly in aviation, that has quite some consequences, which can be quite negative.”

“It has a lot of side effects in the cockpit, and they can range from spurious warnings — obviously the loss of situational awareness because you’re not quite sure when your GPS indicates you’re somewhere else. You can have very different reactions of the aircraft, depending a bit on the aircraft type.”

Monstein and his team in Zurich track GPS interference of civilian aircraft in real time and publish it on an online map.

They have detected an increase in such incidents since the beginning of 2024.

“And they are mainly around conflict zones. One of them would be the Middle East. One would be the Black Sea and around Russia,” he said. “We talk about on an average day about 1,000 aircraft at least being affected by that. And that is a very big scale. That is novel. We haven’t seen that kind of [interference] anywhere in the world so far.”

The disruption isn’t only happening above war zones. In April, Finnair, Finland’s national carrier, suspended flights to Tartu in eastern Estonia near Russia after GPS disruptions prevented two aircraft from landing at the airport. Finnair resumed the flights in June after the airport installed navigation systems that do not rely on GPS. Experts say most airports have such alternative equipment already installed.

Finnair previously reported similar problems when flying close to the Finland-Russia border and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The interference began in 2022, the year Finland applied to join NATO, after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of that year.

At the time, Estonia’s defense minister said it was a deliberate Russian tactic.

“We all understand that these hybrid attacks are still very acute. We have to be ready also for these.”

Russia denies seeking to disrupt GPS signals of commercial aircraft.

The Swiss-based researcher contends that back-up systems will help prevent catastrophes, such as the ground proximity warning system. GPS blocking and spoofing also affects navigation systems on the ground. Residents of Moscow have recently complained of malfunctioning smartphone applications, such as map, taxi-hailing or food delivery apps. Experts have linked the disruption to Russian attempts to defend against Ukrainian drone attacks.

Sources:

Thousands of passenger flight signals jammed over war zones in Ukraine, Middle East (voanews.com)

France: Former Intelligence Chief Faces Trial for Attempted Extortion

Bernard Bajolet, former head of France’s foreign intelligence service, is due to face trial for attempted extortion of a businessman who the spy agency claims owes it millions of euros linked to murky investments. © AFP / BERTRAND LANGLOIS

Bernard Bajolet allegedly instructed DGSE agents, which he led from 2013 to 2017, to pressure entrepreneur Alain Duménil, with whom the agency was engaged in a lengthy dispute.

Duménil claims he was detained at a Paris airport as he prepared to board a flight and threatened with harm to himself and his family unless he handed over 15 million euros, an account the DGSE contests.

Now a judge has ruled there is sufficient evidence to try Bajolet for complicity in attempted extortion over the 2016 incident. Bajolet has been ordered to appear in criminal court outside Paris, where he will face the charge of “arbitrary infringement of individual liberty as a holder of public authority.”

The case has provided a rare glimpse into the financial interests of the DGSE, which is entrusted with managing a war chest designed to secure the state in the event of a national emergency. 

Seeded by the reparations damages paid to France after World War I, the capital was kept separate from the agency’s operational budget and placed in investments that helped it grow substantially over the decades. But by the turn of the 21st century, with little external oversight to monitor them, the DGSE’s investments had turned risky and were losing it considerable sums, according to an investigation by Le Monde. 

Seeking to extricate itself from loss-making companies and recover its funds, the service entered into a deal to exchange shares with Duménil in the early 2000s. But the French-Swiss businessman – who has since been sanctioned for tax fraud and other wrongdoing – promptly transferred the remaining assets and liquidated their holding companies, leaving the DGSE with now worthless shares.

The DGSE pursued the case in the courts for over a decade, but failed to recoup a loss it estimates at some 15 million euros.

In March 2016, Duménil alleges, the DGSE resorted to shadier means.

According to statements to investigators seen by Le Monde, he claims he was stopped by border police at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and handed over to two plain-clothes DGSE agents.

“‘You robbed the government of 13 million, which today makes 15 million with interest’,” Duménil said one of the agents told him. “‘You have to give it back to us’… He was very threatening, talking about me ending up in a wheelchair or worse.” 

The businessman says the agents also showed him pictures of his family and friends: “They wanted to make me understand that they could also go after any of these people.” 

Multimillionaire Alain Duménil (undated photo)

Duménil was allowed to leave and subsequently filed a complaint, which has been dismissed several times but allowed to stand on appeal. While the identity of the DGSE agents remains classified, director Bajolet was indicted in late 2022 for allegedly ordering their actions. 

A career diplomat, he acknowledges approving the plan to intercept Duménil at the airport, but told investigators he did not give detailed instructions and hoped only to revive discussions between each side’s lawyers. The DGSE denies Duménil was ever detained or threatened. It has not commented on the latest developments in the case.

Bajolet’s trial, for which a date has not yet been set, threatens to bring the agency further scrutiny.

After the judge’s ruling on 23 Oct, Duménil’s lawyers said in a statement: “Beyond the trial of Bernard Bajolet, this will be the trial of the DGSE and the twisting of its work to private ends.”

To raise funds to fight the Vietminh insurgency, the intelligence services traded in opium during the French colonial occupation of Vietnam, as did the Viet Minh. Both sent their agents to peddle the opium in Thailand. French intelligence agencies also raised funds in Southeast Asia by manipulating the overvalued Vietnamese currency, the Piaster, on the black market. The French intelligence services have a mixed bag reputation during their history. They were accurate about an eventual Taliban victory in Afghanistan, but dead wrong about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And as this incident exposes, there is little oversight of the DGSE.  

On 10 July 1985 in Auckland, NZ, the DGSE sank the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace ship protesting nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean.  A Portuguese photographer was killed.  30 years later Jean-Luc Kister, the DGSE frogman responsible for the explosion, apologized on French national TV.

Sources:

France’s former intelligence chief faces trial for attempted extortion (rfi.fr)

French Indochina: Opium Espionage and “Operation X” (akha.org)

Dirty Wars: French and American Piaster Profiteering in Indochina, 1945-75 ダーティー・ウォーズ　インドシナにおける仏米ピアストル暴利　1945-75年 – The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (apjjf.org)

The French secret service and its ‘war chest’ caught in the nets of the justice system (lemonde.fr)

Italy: Botulism Sickens Eight; Kills One

Bar Necci, a typical bistro in Rome’s multicultural Pigneto neighborhood with working-class Roman roots.

After six patrons at an unspecified bar in the Pigneto district of Rome recently ate sandwiches contaminated with botulism, two other cases emerged. One woman died and her daughter has been hospitalized with serious symptoms after they had eaten frozen artichoke soup, purchased in a supermarket. The two women began to feel seriously unwell shortly after eating. For the older of the two, the poisoning would have been fulminant and she died shortly after admittance to the Sant’Eugenio hospital in Rome. Her daughter spent a week in intensive care. 

The public prosecutor’s office in Rome has opened an investigation. The prosecutor, Fabio Santoni, delegated the Nas carabinieri for the investigation. When the investigators went to the commercial establishment where the product was presumed to have been purchased, they realized that the batch had already been replaced. Investigators are trying to determine how the chain of preservation of the frozen foods led to the death of one person and the serious illness of the other. There is no information suggesting the six bar patrons who dined in the Pigneto bar died from the botulism.

According to the CDC, botulism is a rare but serious illness. It is caused by a toxin that attacks the body’s nerves and causes difficulty breathing, muscle paralysis, and even death. The toxin is made by Clostridium botulinum and related bacteria. There are five main kinds of botulism and all are medical emergencies. Improperly home-canned, preserved, or fermented foods can provide the right conditions for spores to grow and make botulinum toxin.

Sources:

Rome, botulinum in artichoke soup: a woman died – LaPresse

Colorado Animal Murderer Sentenced to Prison for Assaulting Law Enforcement During 6 Jan Attack on US Capitol

(Photo: FBI)

Patrick Montgomery (51) of Littleton, CO was sentenced to 37 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release by the Honorable US District Judge Randolph D. Moss for assaulting law enforcement personnel on 6 Jan 2021.

On the morning of 6 Jan 2021, Montgomery and co-defendants Brady Knowlton and Gary Wilson met at the Yours Truly hotel in Washington, DC and attended the “Stop the Steal” rally. After the protest, the three defendants made their way to the West Front of the US Capitol building, crossing over inside the restricted perimeter.

When they confronted a police line, Montgomery grabbed a law enforcement officer’s baton and attempted to wrestle it away from him. The officer held onto the baton and fell to the ground with Montgomery. The two then attempted to wrestle control of the baton from each other while Knowlton and Wilson watched nearby. During the scuffle, Montgomery kicked the police officer in the chest.

The three maniacs then made their way near the Senate Floor, where they confronted a USCP officer. Knowlton yelled at the officer: “This is not about us. This is bigger than me, it’s bigger than you. It’s about this – everyone’s right to self-government . . . We’re with you guys. You think these people in this building would fight for you?” Montgomery yelled: “You gotta stop doing your job sometime and start being American. You gotta quit doing your job and be an American!” Wilson yelled: “We came all the way from our job to do your job, and the freaking Senators’ job!”

After this confrontation, the defendants exited the Capitol building. The FBI arrested Montgomery on 17 Jan 2021 in Colorado.

Here Patrick Montgomery proudly poses with two other miscreants on 6 Jan 2021, presumably Brady Knowlton and Gary Wilson. Co-defendant Brady Knowlton is awaiting sentencing. Gary Wilson was previously sentenced to 30 days incarceration followed by 12 months supervised release for his heinous conduct on 6 Jan 2021.

In the nearly four years since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,532 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 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.

This abomination proudly murdered a defenseless mountain lion. Cretinous Patrick Montgomery told Colorado gaming officials that he had killed the animal during a March hunt, but a background check unearthed a 1996 conviction that barred the Capitol rioter from owning a firearm. (Undated photo: mediate.com; the-sun.com.)

Patrick Montgomery, Brady Knowlton, and Gary Wilson come from exactly what 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton hailed as a “basket of deplorables.” These “useful idiots,” white supremacist supporters of Donald Trump, heeded his imbecilic call and then threw away the shambles of their lives with these felony convictions.

For the odious animal-killing Patrick Montgomery, the state of Colorado hosts at least three federal prisons to house him for the next three years. The BOP guards should be issued clothespins for their nostrils.  

Sources:

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

Capitol riot suspect, 48, under house arrest after shooting mountain lion in breach of ex-con’s gun ban | The US Sun (the-sun.com)

Unheard Frédéric Chopin Work Discovered

Frédéric Chopin (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Last month, a German library unearthed a previously unknown Mozart composition. Now, a Manhattan museum curator has found what appears to be a long-lost composition by Frédéric Chopin, the first of its kind to be discovered in over half a century.

Curator Robinson McClellan, who is also a composer, found the piece while sorting through a collection of cultural memorabilia in the vault of the Morgan Library & Museum. It’s written on a scrap about the size of an index card, with Chopin’s name written. After a lot of testing and, presumably, many experts’ corroborations, they confirmed that it’s almost certainly a genuine Chopin composition. Before the Polish composer died in 1849 at age 39, he wrote only about 250 known works — much less than his more prolific contemporaries — so there’s some extra magic in coming across a previously unheard piece by him.

Curators are confident that the work is authentic. There are doodles on the page and an oddly-drawn bass clef, which correlate to other original Chopin findings, despite the music itself sounding a bit different than other works. Lang Lang recently recorded the waltz for the New York Times; he told the publication that while it’s “not the most complicated music by Chopin, it is one of the most authentic Chopin styles that you can imagine.”

You may listen to it here.

Sources:

A Previously Unheard Chopin Work Has Been Found (stereogum.co

A Post-Halloween Emeth

Arab Killing Zones (AKZ): IDF Strikes Kill 115 in North Gaza, 60 in Lebanon

Palestinian first responders remove a body from the rubble of a five-story residential building hit by an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on 29 Oct 2024. (Photo: AFP)

Palestinian health officials said an Israeli airstrike Tuesday hit a five-story residential building in northern Gaza, killing at least 115 people.

The Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and to a great extent the West Bank, is an “AKZ” or “Arab Killing Zone” for the Likud Party and the IDF. The Israeli term is “Nakba,” which is Arabic for “catastrophe.” Over the past 24 hours, the IDF liquidated 175 victims in the AKZ without trial,  judicial hearing, or concern for collateral damage and nearby innocent victims. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch use the term “XJK,” short for “Extra-Judicial Killings.” The Likud Party definition of “co-existence” with Arabs is child-like in simplicity: “We exist, you do not.”

In the northern sector of the IDF AKZ, at least 60 people were liquidated in IDF attacks on Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley. Two children were among those killed in strikes which targeted 12 areas in the Baalbek region. 58 Arabs were wounded and rescue efforts were under way. Baalbek governor Bachie Khodr called the attacks the “most violent” in the area since Israel began its “special military operation” against Hezbollah last month.

Map: BBC News.

Israel has carried out thousands of air strikes across the northern AKZ (Lebanon) over the past five weeks. Unverified video posted on social media showed damage to buildings and forests ablaze, as rescuers searched for the injured.

Hezbollah fighters resisted Israeli troops near Lebanon’s southern border and fired rockets at a naval base inside Israel near Haifa.

Cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah broke out after the armed Lebanese group started firing rockets in and around northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 8 Oct 2023, the day after its ally conducted a brazen raid to seize Israeli citizens in order to conduct a future prisoner swap. Over 2,000 Palestinians (may be more by other accounts) had been held in IDF security detention without hearing or trial according to Amnesty International.

Israel invaded the northern AKZ (Lebanon) in a dramatic escalation on 30 Sep to destroy Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure in “limited, localised, targeted raids.” But Israeli Likud PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s “special military operation” has internally displaced up to 1.3 million Lebanese people, killing 2,600 of them and wounding over 12,400 in the AKZ. Lebanon’s medical infrastructure is being destroyed by the IDF in what Beirut says is deliberate and a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized legislation passed by the Israeli parliament banning the main UN aid agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA. The law is set to go into effect in 90 days, which Guterres said “could have devastating consequences” for Palestinian refugees.

The Likud Party and the IDF do not want witnesses to ethnic cleansing nor do they want Palestinians to receive any humanitarian or medical assistance. We are witnessing the Gaza Strip become the most inhospitable place in the universe for human beings.  

In the north AKZ, the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah announced that Sheikh Naim Kassem is its new leader, following the killing of longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in a Sep 2024 Israeli airstrike in Beirut.

The group’s Shura Council elected Kassem, announcing that these Shia Muslims would continue Nasrallah’s policies of resistance to Israel and support for Sunni Palestinians. Kassem served as Hezbollah’s deputy leader for more than three decades.

Israel’s Nakba against Gaza, the southern and western portion of the AKZ, has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians (half of them women and children). Israel alleges the death toll includes thousands of terrorists. At this rate, by year’s end approximately 50,000 Palestinians would have been eradicated while 150,000 will have been maimed. The Israeli Nakba campaign has devastated much of the Gaza Strip, while the fighting and Israeli evacuation orders have displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Arabs.

Rene Lichtman, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, said on 24 Jan 2024: “Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza. We’ve got to fight back.”

Holocaust survivor Rene Lichtman at a protest against Israel’s Nakba against Gaza. (WSWS© Photo: New York Post)

Monsieur Lichtman, these brave young Israeli teenagers below may have heard you.  

Israeli conscientious objectors. Approximately 63 high school students signed a public letter declaring that they will refuse to be drafted into the IDF to participate in the Nakba. One brave young man has already been imprisoned for refusing induction into the IDF. (Image by AFSC.org)

Meanwhile, International Criminal Court (ICC) war crimes prosecutor Karim Khan KC is patiently awaiting Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and DM Yoav Gallant at the Hague for creating the horrendous AKZ in the Middle East called the Gaza Strip. (Photo: BBC)

Sources:

Lebanon says 60 killed in Israel strikes on Bekaa Valley in east (bbc.com)

Israeli strike kills at least 60 in northern Gaza, health officials say (voanews.com)

Israeli Teens Tell Netanyahu They Won’t Serve IDF (forward.com)

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

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 115, most in apartment building in Beit Lahia in the north – UPI.com

Israel/OPT: Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests   – Amnesty International(7) Middle East Live Updates: Israel’s Parliament Passes Bill That Threatens UNRWA’s Work – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Drones Attack ‘Spetsnaz University’ In Russia’s Chechnya

Fire atop the roof of a building on the campus of “Spetsnaz University” after drone attacks on 29 Oct. (Photo: RFE/RL)

For the first time since Moscow launched its full-scale of illegal invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022, the territory of Russia’s North Caucasus region of Chechnya has been targeted by drone attacks. Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed authoritarian leader Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on Telegram on 29 Oct that drones had attacked the building of the so-called “Spetsnaz (Special Forces) University” named after President Vladimir Putin in the Chechen city of Gudermes, some 500 km from Ukraine’s borders and west of the capital, Grozhny.

(Map: worldatlas.com)

According to Kadyrov, there were no casualties and a fire atop the roof was extinguished. Kiev did not comment. The Chechen warlord had said thousands of men went through special training in the facility before joining Russian troops in Ukraine. 

Chechen personnel in Ukraine. Akhmat Special Forces have distinguishing trademark sideburns. Undated photo: east2westnews.com via www.ar15.com)

Russian air defenses were unable to neutralize this drone attack which made it completely through Chechen territory. This symbolic attack alerts the Chechens that the Ukrainians can reach out to them and that there is a price to pay for assisting Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin satrap Ramzan Kadyrov stands proudly in the center. (Undated photo: Yelena Afonina /TASS / Reuters)

Sources:

Drones Attack ‘Spetsnaz University’ In Russia’s Chechnya (rferl.org)

Ukrainian Imprisoned for Assassinating Ex-Commander of Russian Submarine

The late Stanislav Rzhitski fired drones at Ukrainian civilians. (RFE/RL file photo)

The Krasnodar regional court in Russia’s southwest has sentenced Serhiy Denysenko, a Ukrainian-Russian dual citizen, to 25 years in prison for killing the former commander of a Russian submarine implicated in the shelling of Ukrainian territories in 2022.

The court also ordered Denysenko to pay five million rubles ($51,350) to the father of Stanislav Rzhitsky as compensation in the shooting death.

The court pronounced the ruling on 29 Oct after finding Denysenko, who obtained Russian citizenship in March 2023, guilty of murder, illegal weapon possession, and high treason.

Denysenko was arrested on 11 July 2023, a day after Rzhitsky (42) was killed in the city of Krasnodar while jogging. The assailant fired several shots from a pistol with a silencer and struck Rzhitsky four times. Rzhitsky, who served at the time as a deputy head of the department for mobilization work in Krasnodar, died at the scene.

(Map: Britannica.com)

Russian prosecutors claimed that the Security Service of Ukraine was behind the attack. The chief of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, rejected the claim, saying the anti-war sentiments among Russian military may have triggered the assassination.

Rzhitsky used to command the Krasnodar submarine in the Russian Navy.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Krasnodar is a diesel-electric submarine built for the Black Sea Fleet and designed “to fight surface ships and submarines, lay mines, and conduct reconnaissance.”

The Krasnodar is equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, and Ukrainian authorities claimed that the vessel had participated in the shelling of the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsya in July 2022, firing its Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea.

(Graphics: iswnews.com)

In addition, a person with the same name as Stanislav Rzhitski is in the database of a Ukrainian website that collects information on war crimes allegedly conducted by the Russian military.

The website claims that Rzhitski was the commander of the Alrosa submarine and was directly involved in the military invasion of Ukraine. Unclear is when Rzhitsky left the submarine fleet for the post of deputy head of the department for mobilization work in Krasnodar.

Serhiy Denysenko, a karate black belt, will suffer a brutal sentence in a Russian prison or gulag. Sensei Serhiy has a slight glimmer of hope, though. Since he was not executed, he may be exchanged in a future prisoner swap between Kiev and Moscow.   

Sources:

Ukrainian Jailed For Murdering Ex-Commander Of Russian Submarine (rferl.org)

Disgraced US Navy Reserve Officer Sentenced for Bribery Scheme Involving State Dept Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) Program

Heroic-looking Cmdr. Jeromy Pittmann, seen here as a lieutenant commander in Afghanistan in 2014. (Photo: Patrick Gordon / US Navy)

Disgraced US Navy Reserve Commander Jeromy Pittmann (53) of Pensacola, FL, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for his role in a years-long bribery scheme involving Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghan nationals.

He accepted bribe payments from Afghan nationals in exchange for drafting, submitting, and verifying fraudulent letters of recommendation for Afghan nationals who applied for SIVs with the US Department of State.

Pittmann signed over 20 letters in which he fraudulently represented that he personally knew and had supervised the Afghan national visa applicants while they worked as translators in support of the US military and NATO. Pittman testified in those letters that the applicants’ lives were in jeopardy because the Taliban considered them to be traitors. He also wrote that he believed the applicants did not pose any threat to the national security of the US. In fact, Pittmann had no knowledge of the applicants whatsoever. In exchange for the fraudulent letters, Pittmann received several thousands of dollars in bribes.

To avoid detection, Pittmann received the bribe money through an intermediary and created false invoices purporting to show that Pittmann was receiving the money for legitimate work unrelated to his military service.

The SIV system has come under scrutiny after an Afghan man living in Oklahoma was charged earlier this month with allegedly plotting a terror attack on Election Day on behalf of the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi (27) worked for CIA as a security guard in Afghanistan before entering the US in 2021 on a SIV. Authorities assess that Tawhedi became radicalized after he arrived in the US.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi is seen making the “Tawhid” gesture in an undated photo. He is under arrest. (Photo: FBI)


This disgraced USNR field grade officer endangered US national security and threw his life and career away over sheer greed. As a US Navy Reserve Commander (O-5) on active-duty, Pittmann’s monthly base pay was between $6,725.70 to $11,426.70.

If any of Pittmann’s Afghan SIV applicants conduct an attack in the US, his sentence has the potential to be reviewed and increased. There is no public information available whether the US Navy is recalling him to active-duty for court-martial, reduction in grade and pay, or dishonorable discharge under the UCMJ.


Source:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-navy-reserve-officer-sentenced-bribery-scheme-involving-department-states-approval

US: Iowa Resident Dies of Rare Lassa Fever

The current risk of Lassa virus transmission in the US is “incredibly low,” Iowa’s medical director says. (Image: CS Goldsmith, P. Rollin, M. Bowen/CDC)

A resident of eastern Iowa who had recently traveled to West Africa died after catching Lassa fever. The virus, which is in the same viral hemorrhagic fever category as Ebola, is rarely seen in the US.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced the death Monday but did not release the person’s name and disclosed few details about them. Preliminary tests were presumptively positive for the virus and the CDC is working to confirm the diagnosis.

The department said the person was middle-aged and had traveled to West Africa, where it is believed they contracted the virus. The current risk of transmission in the US is “incredibly low,” according to Iowa State Medical Director Dr. Robert Kruse.

Each year, about 100,000 to 300,000 people become infected with Lassa fever in West Africa, where the disease is endemic, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota. Since 1969, there have been only eight known cases in the US, all of them travel-related.

It’s even rarer for someone to die from Lassa fever. The disease has an overall fatality rate of just 1%, according to the World Health Organization. In severe cases, the patient may have bleeding; difficulty breathing; pain in the chest, back and abdomen; and vomiting. Someone with milder symptoms may develop a slight fever, feel tired or have a headache. Most people who are infected with Lassa virus have no symptoms at all.

Lassa fever can spread between humans but not through casual contact. Typically, the virus spreads only when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.

Lassa fever most commonly spreads through the multimammate rat in West Africa. People can get sick after touching objects contaminated with rat feces or urine, or after eating food that’s been contaminated. Some people also get sick after eating the rats themselves, according to the CDC.

Natal multimammate rat. (Photo: http://www.iNaturalist.org)

Prompt treatment is considered key for Lassa fever. Ribavirin, a broad-spectrum antiviral that works well against RNA viruses and is also used to treat hepatitis C, is the primary treatment.

The Iowa Department of Health is investigating and monitoring the situation in conjunction with the CDC and local public health partners. The agencies are trying to determine who may have had close contact with the patient, who had been treated in isolation at the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center.

The CDC says the patient was not sick while traveling, so the risk to other airline passengers is extremely low.

Sources:

State and Hospital Officials Follow Federal Guidance After Lassa Fever Death | Health & Human Services (iowa.gov)

About Lassa Fever | Lassa Fever | CDC

Iowa resident dies of rare Lassa fever, officials say | CNN

Vladimir Putin Oversees Large-Scale Nuclear Response Drills as Tensions with NATO Run High

RS-24 Yars (MIRV-equipped, thermonuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missiles AKA SS-29s),  Each missile is thought to be able to carry up to four warheads.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen an extensive nuclear exercise simulating a retaliatory strike involving missile launches, putting Russia’s nuclear capabilities front and centre as tensions with the West over Ukraine continue to escalate. 

Speaking via video with military leaders on Tuesday, Putin confirmed the drills are designed to simulate the actions of top officials in a nuclear response, involving launches of both ballistic and cruise missiles.

Defence Minister Andrei Belousov stated that the exercise aims to practice “strategic offensive forces launching a massive nuclear strike in response to a nuclear strike by the enemy”. 

The drills included the test-firing of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk launch site, intercontinental ballistic missiles launched from submarines in the Barents Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk, and long-range cruise missiles deployed by Tu-95 strategic bombers. 

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that all missiles successfully hit their targets.  

Putin, who has frequently highlighted Russia’s nuclear capabilities to discourage Western support for Ukraine, described Russia’s nuclear arsenal as a “reliable guarantor” of sovereignty and security. 

He reiterated Russia’s stance that nuclear weapons are a last resort, and announced ongoing modernization efforts for Russia’s nuclear forces to improve their precision, speed, and resistance to missile defenses. 

In recent months, Putin has also issued a stern warning that if Western arms donors permit Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with weapons they have supplied, they would be risking a direct war between his country and the NATO alliance.

He has also revised Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which now considers a conventional attack by a non-nuclear country allied with a nuclear power as grounds for a joint response, potentially including nuclear weapons. 

These exercises follow other recent drills with Belarus, a Russian ally hosting some of Moscow’s tactical nuclear arms.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is saber-rattling ahead of the US presidential election. These drills are a message that the Kremlin is serious about Western assistance to Ukraine. Nuclear delivery systems do undergo routine readiness drills, but the timing of this is political. After many years, the US relocated nuclear delivery systems closer to Europe after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Source:

Vladimir Putin oversees large-scale nuclear response drills as tensions with NATO run high | Euronews

Illinois Militant Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Law Enforcement During 6 Jan Attack on US Capitol

Joseph Bierbrodt

Joseph Bierbrodt (55) of Sheridan, IL pleaded guilty to obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, both felony offenses, for his atrocious conduct on 6 Jan 2021. The Honorable US District Judge Christopher R. Cooper will sentence Joseph Bierbrodt on 3 Feb 2025.

Bierbrodt and his brother, William Bierbrodt, attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on 6 Jan 2021, in Washington, DC and then made their way toward the US Capitol building. The two eventually arrived at the Northwest Terrace and approached the Parliamentarian Door, which was locked to prevent rioters from further accessing the building. William Bierbrodt then used his cane to smash the door window and reach his hand inside, unlocking the door.

William Bierbrodt used his cane to break into the Capitol. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt / AFP via Getty Images)

With the door now open, Joseph Bierbrodt and other rioters entered the Capitol. Immediately upon entering the Capitol, Joseph Bierbrodt grabbed a USCP officer by the upper torso and pushed him into a wall.  He then spun the officer around and shoved the officer into the arms of another rioter. After the assault, Joseph Bierbrodt moved to a location in the Senate Wing, where he met a line of police officers restricting his access further into the building. Both brothers finally departed the US Capitol hours later.

Joseph Bierbrodt (L) and William Bierbrodt (R) at the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021. Both brothers are military veterans. (Photo: FBI)

The FBI arrested both Joseph Bierbrodt and William Bierbrodt on 26 July 2023, in Sheridan, IL. William Bierbrodt is still on trial.

In the nearly four years since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,532 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 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 whiteist neanderthals, US military veterans, heeded the idiotic call of Donald Trump that the US is being undermined by liberals and the minorities stole the 2020 election. After the cane-swinging imbecile is found guilty in court, both siblings would have thrown their lives away with these federal felony convictions over ignorance and hatred.

Source:

District of Columbia | Illinois Man Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Law Enforcement During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

Joseph Bierbrodt Statement of Facts.pdf (justice.gov)

French Brand Tops Mercury Contamination in Europe’s Tuna

Mercury contamination has been found in cans of tuna tested across Europe, with some samples containing four times the permitted level, two NGOs warned. The highest level was found in cans sold by French brand Petit Navire.

Bluefin tuna fished off Calabria, Italy. (According to the NGOs, tuna remains the most consumed fish in Europe. Photo: Reuters / Tony Gentile)

Tests carried out by NGOs Bloom and Foodwatch showed all 148 cans tested positive for mercury contamination. The samples were bought in France, Germany, England, Spain and Italy.

Mercury is “one of the ten substances of greatest concern in the world, like asbestos or arsenic,” said the organisations. Its derivative, methylmercury, is classified as a “possible carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

More than half the tested cans contained mercury levels higher than those permitted for other fish species.

While mercury content in fish like pollack or cod must not exceed 0.3 mg/kg, the limit for tuna is set at 1 mg/kg.

The NGOs criticized this discrepancy and called for authorities to impose the lower 0.3 mg/kg limit on tuna – Europe’s most consumed fish.

“This metal is a powerful neurotoxicant and low doses consumed regularly are enough to cause serious disorders of the nervous system in children and attack the brain functioning of adults,” said the NGOs.

The highest concentration was found in French brand Petit Navire at 3.9 mg/kg. Spain’s Carrefour products followed with 2.5 mg/kg, while Italian brand As do Mar showed levels up to 1.5 mg/kg.

Bloom and Foodwatch demanded authorities stop the sale of tuna products exceeding 0.3 mg/kg of mercury. They also called for bans in nurseries, hospitals, maternity wards, retirement homes, and school canteens.

Source:

French brand tops mercury contamination in Europe’s tuna (rfi.fr)

https://www.iarc.who.int/

A Mutt Known as ‘Houdini’ for Ability to Elude Capture Finally Nabbed in New Orleans

(Photo: Brett Duke / The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Dubbed on social media as the “Houdini” of New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood, Scrim — a scruffy, mixed-breed dog that was on the lam for more than six months after escaping his yard — has finally been caught.

The 13-pound runaway was captured with the use of a tranquilizer dart. New Orleans news outlets report that he is missing a chunk out of his ear and has various abrasions. Also, X-rays revealed two projectiles — possibly small bullets or air rifle pellets — were lodged inside his little body.

Veterinarian Dr. Mary Miller told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate she couldn’t be positive what type of weapon had been used, since she decided to leave the projectiles embedded in the dog’s flesh. “We’re probably not going to remove them,” Miller said, “because they’re not going to cause an issue.”

Despite his injuries, Miller said, Scrim’s condition “wasn’t awful.”

Michelle Cheramie, owner of the nonprofit Zeus Rescues in New Orleans, said she had rescued Scrim from a south Louisiana dog pound where he was in jeopardy of euthanasia. Scrim was eventually adopted by a family in Mid-City, but soon escaped.

He soon became the talk of the neighborhood, and a bit of a star on social media where people posted videos from cellphones and security cameras whenever he was spotted. He managed to elude traps and would-be captors with nets and tranquilizer guns.

Finally, Cheramie got a call that Scrim had been sighted. She grabbed her tranquilizer gun and a group of volunteers showed up at the scene.

“WE GOT HIM!!!!” Cheramie posted on social media.

Once he’s fully healthy, he will be adopted again. Tammy Murray, co-founder of the nonprofit New Orleans Animal Welfare Society, told the newspaper she plans to take him in.

Scrim being taken for walk at animal hospital in New Orleans, LA. (Photo: Brett Duke / The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Source:

Dog dubbed ‘Houdini’ finally captured in New Orleans | AP News

Gaza De-Population Campaign Continues

Palestinians waiting for bread 28 Oct 2024. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a famine. (Photo: Mohammed Salem / Reuters)

96 Palestinians were killed and 277 wounded in the Gaza Strip over the last 48 hours. At least 43,020 people have been killed and 101,110 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since 7 Oct 2023. At this rate of homicide, by year’s end the Likud Party and the IDF will have killed close to 50,000 Palestinians while maiming 150,000 in the Gaza Strip. The IDF detained approximately 100 Palestinians at Kamal Adwan Hospital. The people apprehended included fighters who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians, an army statement claimed. The IDF reported that weapons, funds and intelligence documents were found in the hospital and surrounding area. Israel’s forces “arrested and deported all the medical staff” at Kamal Adwan Hospital, except one unidentified individual.

IDF jets attacked the city of Tyre, Lebanon, killing at least seven people and wounding 17 others. Beirut accuses Jerusalem of intentionally trying to destroy its medical infrastructure. (Photo: Ahmad Kaddoura / Anadolu)

Hard working CIA Director William J. Burns was meeting in Qatar with his Israeli counterpart, David Barnea of the Mossad, to re-start negotiations for a cease-fire and a release of the hostages.  Mr. Barnea, who studied in the US years ago, had urged Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate with Palestinian resistance leaders immediately in order to release the Israeli captives. At the time of the surprise attack on Israel (7 Oct 2023), at least 2,000 Palestinians were being held in security detention without hearing or trial. Other reports cited larger numbers of detentions and torture. In Nov 2023 the first prisoner swap between the Palestinian captors and the IDF concluded. Afterwards, Netanyahu opted for a permanent solution to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. USSECSTATE Antony Blinken met with Israeli leaders at least 11 times for cease-fire negotiations, but this was all kabuki theater. According to some people close to Joe Biden, he felt betrayed by being pushed out in favor of VPOTUS Kamala Harris to take on GOP candidate Donald Trump. Then, Biden felt “humiliated” by Netanyahu who only played lip-service to him about a cease-fire before the all-important US presidential elections. Netanyahu, indicted as a war criminal by the Hague like his fellow war-monger Russian President Vladimir Putin, effectively tarnished Joe Biden’s legacy as he winds down his multi-decade career of American public service.  

Sources:

(4) Updates LIVE: Israel’s three-week siege of northern Gaza kills at least 1,000 (aljazeera.com)

U.S. and Israeli Spy Chiefs Meet for Gaza Cease-Fire Talks: Live Updates – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Barnea takes over Mossad; Cohen: Mossad struck deep into Iran’s heart – Israel News – The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

Israel/OPT: Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests   – Amnesty International

Kim Jong-Un’s Close Aide in Russia Overseeing North Korean Troops

Kim Jong Un (C) inspecting a special operations training base of the Korean People’s Army while enjoying a smoke. General Kim Young Bok, Vice Chief of the Korean People’s Army General Staff, is second from right. (Undated photo: Rodong Sinmun·News1)

General Kim Young Bok, a close aide to leader Kim Jong Un, has arrived in Russia to oversee North Korean troops there helping Russia in its war against Ukraine.

The North Korean troops are mobilizing near the front lines in Ukraine. An estimated 12,000 North Korean troops, including 500 officers and three generals, were in Russia undergoing training.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to deny or confirm that North Korea had sent troops to help his army. The arrival of the North Koreans has raised fears in Ukraine, its Western allies and South Korea about what they see as a dangerous escalation of the Ukrainian war.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency that Russia was transporting North Korean soldiers to the front lines in trucks with civilian license plates. Russian police stopped a Kamaz truck with civilian license plates on the Kursk-Voronezh highway which was reportedly loaded with North Korean military personnel, but the driver did not have documented combat orders.

South Korean NIS (FKA KCIA) reported that North Korean soldiers will receive $2,000 per month in pay, but the Ukrainian government-run news platform United24 said that that most likely this money would “remain with the state.”

Separately, The New York Times reported that the first North Korean troops had made the nearly 6,500 km (4,038 mile) journey to the Kursk region, with thousands more arriving daily.

Citing troop movement data from a senior Ukrainian military officer, the newspaper said that as many as 5,000 North Korean soldiers were expected to have arrived this week.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) released a satellite image by Airbus Defense and Space showing Russia’s Khabarovsk military facility, where the NIS said North Korean personnel are gatherung. (Photo: AFP)

As expected, (and posted here on Coriolanus) Ukraine initiated a PSYOP program to induce these North Korean soldiers to surrender.

“We appeal to the soldiers of the Korean People’s Army who were sent to support the Putin regime. Don’t die senselessly on foreign soil. Do not repeat the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who will never return home.”

(Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate, or GUR, prepared this Korean-language message on its Telegram messaging channel).

“Surrender! Ukraine will provide you with shelter, food, and warmth,” it added, introducing its surrender hotline “I Want to Live.”

Ukraine promises food and shelter to North Korean soldiers if they surrender. The “I Want to Live” project released a video offering food and shelter to North Korean soldiers who surrender during the war in Ukraine. (RFA English)

There should be no surprises in this reporting that North Korean supremo Kim Jong-Un would send a trusted aide to overwatch the deployment of his cannon fodder and that Pyongyang would keep the soldier’s renumeration for fighting and dying against Ukraine. Kiev’s PSYOP program was to be expected as they have been inducing Russian soldiers to surrender since Putin’s brutal invasion began in Feb 2022. The next development to monitor is whether South Korea begins transferring potent mass casualty weapons and trainers to Ukraine in response.

Sources:

Kim Jong Un’s close aide in Russia overseeing North Korean troops: report – Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

Ukraine urges North Korean soldiers to surrender, offering food, shelter – Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

Russia pays North Korean soldiers about $2,000 a month: South’s spy agency – Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

France: Why Are They Suddenly Deporting Kurdish Activists?

Demonstrators hold the Kurdistan flag during a rally in Paris in 2016 to protest against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after 11 HDP lawmakers were detained as part of a terror-related investigation. (Photo: Francois Mori / AP)

In March and April, France deported three Kurdish activists to Turkiye: Firaz Korkmaz (24), Mehmet Kopal (37), and Serhat Gultekin (28). All were suspected of having close ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been in conflict with the Turkish state for 40 years. France, along with its Western allies, considers the PKK a terrorist organisation. Approximately 150,000 Kurds reside in France.

The Kurdish Democratic Council of France (CDKF), an umbrella group of 27 Kurdish associations, has condemned the deportations and warned that more cases are under investigation.

In late April, eight Kurdish men were arrested, accused of extorting funds from the Kurdish community to support PKK activities, which is seen as financing terrorism.

French authorities also raided exiled Kurdish broadcasters Sterk TV and Medya Haber TV in Belgium at the request of the French judiciary. The CDKF says this level of action is unprecedented. Prior to April, no Kurdish activists had been handed over to Turkiye since 2019, when diplomatic relations between Paris and Ankara hit a low point.

The friction was partly due to France’s support for the Kurdish YPG, which was fighting the Islamic State in Syria, but is viewed by Turkiye as an extension of the PKK.

Since April, French authorities have revoked refugee status from 50 Kurdish militants and deported the three activists. The case of Serhat Gultekin has drawn particular concern.

A member of Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish HDP party, Gultekin had been reportedly tortured and persecuted in Turkiye before fleeing to France in 2017. He applied for political asylum and continued his activism in exile. In April 2023, Gultekin and ten others were found guilty of extortion and financing terrorism.

He was sentenced, but in a highly unusual move the anti-terrorist state prosecutor specifically warned of the dangers of sending him and the others back to Turkiye “in view of the danger they had faced” and “the risks that an expulsion would expose them to”.

The court agreed, but French authorities took a different view. On 12 April, the day before the judge was set to rule on Gultekin’s asylum claim, the Interior Ministry issued a deportation order.

“Plainclothes police officers put him in a truck, handcuffed him, tied him up and took him to the airport,” said Gultekin’s lawyer.

“In the truck, they told him: ‘Serhat, we’re going to send you to Turkiye. Whether you like it or not’.”

When Gultekin landed, members of Turkey’s MIT secret services were waiting. He is now serving a six year and three-month sentence in an Istanbul prison.

On 26 Sep, the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal declared Gultekin’s deportation “illegal”, stating it violated Article III of the European Charter of Human Rights, which prohibits torture.

The CDKF is also fighting to prevent the deportation of Idris Kaplan, another activist sentenced in absentia to life in Turkiye as an alleged PKK leader.

“You can’t hand your allies over to their enemies in the name of security or diplomatic agreements. That’s a basic moral principle,” argued CDKF spokesperson Agit Polat in Le Monde, pointing to Kaplan’s role in fighting the Islamic State armed group alongside French special forces in Iraq.

On 8 Oct a court suspended Kaplan’s expulsion order.

So why have French authorities taken a tougher stance on Kurdish activists? One theory is that economic interests are now outweighing human rights concerns. Ratings agency Moody’s recently downgraded France’s outlook from “stable” to “negative,” opening the door to a potential credit rating cut citing concerns over the country’s finances. The downgrade reflects “increasing risk that France’s government will be unlikely to implement measures that would prevent sustained wider-than-expected budget deficits and a deterioration in debt affordability,” said Moody’s Ratings. Moody’s affirmed France’s credit rating at Aa2, saying this was supported by its “large, wealthy, and diversified economy.”

Kostas Pikramenos, co-author of a book on Turkey’s MIT intelligence service, says Kurdish activists may be used as bargaining chips in intelligence negotiations. The expulsion of the three Kurds is most likely part of a “seduction operation by France to sign commercial contracts” with Turkiye, Pikramenos told Marianne news magazine, pointing to a $40bn order of 200 Airbus aircraft by Turkish Airlines (THY) in late 2023.

(Image: Airbus.com)

The CDKF believes France may be paying Turkiye for its intelligence cooperation. Ankara reportedly shared information on planned ISIS-K attacks during the 2024 Olympics, according to an anonymous French intelligence source. French President Emmanuel Macron publicly warned that ISIS-K had attempted several attacks on French soil in recent months.

Meanwhile, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra) emphasised that it “independently assesses” Interior Ministry requests to revoke refugee status. These decisions can be appealed in the National Asylum Court.

The CDKF has warned that five more Kurdish activists could face deportation in the coming months.

Sources:

What’s driving France’s sudden deportation of Kurdish activists? (rfi.fr)

Prosecutor seeks prison terms for alleged PKK members on trial in Paris

Turkey opens another ‘Kafkaesque’ trial against scholar exiled to France

Moody’s downgrades France to ‘negative’ credit outlook (rfi.fr)

Alaska and US Military History: The “Eskimo Scouts”

The USS Concord is a typical late 19th-century US gunboat (Photo: Edward Hart circa 1890).

The US Navy recently apologized for the 1882 shelling and burning down of Angoon, a Tlingit village of 420 people in Alaska (highlighted in red).

Years after this atrocity at Angoon by the USN, Uncle Sam would ask the Eskimo population to help defend Alaska from Imperial Japan. The indigenous men proudly formed and served in the “Alaska Territorial Guard” AKA the “Eskimo Scouts.” Note the age range of those who served: 12-80.


Note the resemblance between the Inuits of North America (above) and the Buryats of Siberia (below) from across the Bering Strait.

The Free Buryatia organization announced that around 150 Buryat soldiers who were serving in the Russian Army in occupied territories of Ukraine have resigned their positions and asked to be returned home. (Source and Photo: 150 Buryat Soldiers in Russian Army Resign kyivpost.com)

Canada’s military similarly employs indigenous tribes in their northern provinces called “the Canadian Rangers.” Above former Tory Canadian PM Stephen Harper is on the rifle range for a photo-op with these tundra experts.



Sources:



https://apnews.com/article/navy-1882-tlingit-village-alaska-bombing-apology-b7da179eb05bd30afa373f9fc093305e

US Army

Taiwan: 60 People Sickened from Suspected Food Poisoning

Taiwan has a population of 23,595,274 and GDP per capita is $47,800 (2019 est.) (Map and Data: CIA)

60 people have reported symptoms of food poisoning after buying boxed meals from an eatery in Kaohsiung. The health department said patients fell ill with symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea and fever after eating boxed meals purchased from a small storefront restaurant in the city’s Sanmin District the previous day.

46 patients sought medical attention, while 14 others were found via contact tracing. Seven of the 46 patients have been hospitalized, and one was treated in the emergency room.

29 students from Kaohsiung Medical University were among the customers who had bought lunch from the eatery and 20 of them had to seek medical attention.

Personnel from the Kaohsiung Department of Health collect food samples from a storefront restaurant in the city’s Sanmin District for testing in this undated photo. Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung Department of Health.

City officials inspected the eatery and ordered its closure for seven days, citing several violations of food safety regulations. The violations included open trash bins, no records of fridge temperatures, and no records of employee health checks.

While no leftovers from the 410 boxed lunches sold were available for testing, health officials took samples of the food items in the eatery. Samples were also taken from the sick customers and the kitchen workers at the eatery and will be tested for pathogens.

The eatery will have to pass another inspection before it could be allowed to reopen. The source pathogen of the food poisoning is still being investigated.

Sources:

60 people fall ill from suspected food poisoning in Kaohsiung – Focus Taiwan

Florida Militant Arrested for Assaulting Law Enforcement and Other Charges During 6 Jan 2021 Attack Against US Capitol

Jeremy Michael Miller (Photo: FBI)

Jeremy Michael Miller (45) of Florida was arrested and charged by the FBI for felony and misdemeanor offenses of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.

Miller was identified in video footage on 6 Jan 2021 on the Lower West Plaza of the US Capitol grounds fighting with police along a line of metal bike rack barricades. Miller allegedly grabbed a bike rack and tried to pull it away from police. Police quickly reestablished their line and video footage show Miller allegedly linking arms with other rioters and using their backs to push into the barricades; however, the group was unable to break through the police line.

(Photo: FBI)

Rioters, including Miller, violently resisted police on the Upper West Terrace. The defendant allegedly pushed his body against a police riot shield, attempting to stop or push through a line of officers.

(Photo: Getty Images)


Video footage shows that this maniac then tried to pull a riot shield away from another police officer, grabbing with both hands in an attempt to wrest the shield away. After several failed attempts, Miller retreated back into the mob.

In the 45 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,532 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 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.

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

Jeremy Michael Miller represents one of America’s Fedayeen Saddam (FS), a white supremacist holding on to the last vestiges of white supremacy in the US. He heeded the idiotic call of Donald J. Trump that minorities stole the 2020 election and now will either plead guilty to a lesser count or be found guilty in a trial. Either way, this 45-year-old lunatic threw his life away over racism and ignorance.

Source:


https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/florida-man-arrested-assaulting-law-enforcement-and-other-charges-during-jan-6-capitol-4

Sneaky Alabama Bear Steals Trash Can from Garage

UN Official: “The Nightmare is Intensifying.” IDF Kills More Than 100 Palestinians in Gaza

Unqualified US support for Israel has made “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” completely impossible for the Palestinian people and totally rubbishes any concept of a “two-state solution.” Hard-working Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be wasting his time and US taxpayer funds in a kabuki dance when he meets with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu this week. The indicted Israeli war criminal has effectively tarnished President Biden’s legacy who is winding down his multi-decade career in US politics.   

In the past 24 hours 108 people had been killed and 40 injured in bombings across the territory, part of the IDF’s ferocious renewed assault in the Gaza Strip. “The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying. Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern strip amidst relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis,” Tor Wennesland, said the UN special coordinator for the Middle East.

“Nowhere is safe in Gaza … We owe it to the families suffering in Gaza and Israel. The war must stop now,” he added.

The Likud pogrom against the Palestinians is certainly satisfying this young demonstrator’s desires. Undated photo courtesy of the Washington Post.

The daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict, according to Oxfam, an international NGO. The right-wing Likud cabal is depopulating Palestinians much more efficiently than ultra-nationalist Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” against the Ukrainians.   

An image from the Political Cartoon Gallery in central London Photograph: Political Cartoon Gallery via the Guardian.

IDF bombardment this past weekend in the town of Beit Lahiya flattened several houses and an apartment block, killing members of several families. Among the dead were two parents and their four children, and a woman, her son and daughter-in-law and their four children.

The internet and phone services have been down in parts of Gaza, complicating the rescue operation.

In a post on X, Mounir al-Bursh, the director general of the health ministry, said the flood of injured people from the strikes compounded “an already catastrophic situation for the healthcare system” in northern Gaza.

Unclear during this Israeli offensive is what opportunities are given Palestinian combatants to either surrender to the IDF or turn themselves over to the Israeli police for judicial process in a court of law.

The IDF have nominally held complete control of northern Gaza since January, but launched a new assault on the area two weeks ago to prevent any resistance groups from re-constituting.

Gaza’s civil defense service said it had recovered at least 500 bodies since the operation began on 6 Oct.

Sweeping evacuation orders for the estimated 400,000 people still living in the northern third of the territory, the blockage of aid and food deliveries and the targeting of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals have led rights groups to accuse Israel of the war crime of seeking to forcibly displace the remaining population.

Israel has denied it is systematically removing Palestinians from the area.

Several struggling hospitals have been unable to evacuate patients, and two people at the Indonesia hospital in Beit Lahiya died from a lack of oxygen after electricity and fuel shortages.

Top-secret US documents that allegedly reveal details about Israel’s plans to attack Iran had been leaked and published online.

The papers supposedly date from 15 and 16 Oct, and allege that Israel has fortified underground warplane bunkers at the Hatzerim airbase, where there are signs of preparation for arming plane-launched ballistic missiles. The blood-thirsty Likud regime can’t wait to attack Iran with an American imprimatur, regardless of collateral damage or escalating the conflict.  

An Israeli source told the Israeli daily Haaretz that the US had apologized to Israel for the leak and US House speaker Republican Mike Johnson said that an investigation into the incident had been launched. 100 US servicemembers deployed with the THAAD air-defense system are in harm’s way in Israel.

Israel and Hamas, however, have so far stuck to their irreconcilable demands. Internationally mediated talks aimed at a lasting truce in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Palestinian armed groups during the 7 Oct 2023 attack broke down in August. That raid to capture Israeli hostages in order to release the 7,000 Palestinians being held in IDF prisons in security detention without hearing gave the Likud regime the green light to activate Nabka 2023 to de-populate the Gaza Strip. Simultaneously, rabid Israeli settlers increased their rampages to seize Palestinian properties in the West Bank, killing over 700 Palestinians.  

An American intelligence officer or servicemember opposed to Israeli’s Nakba may have leaked the files out of anger. The other possibility is he or she may be attempting to thwart the IDF plan to pummel Iran which could escalate this conflict even further out of control than it already is. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has loyally worked hard for the Biden Administration, but Netanyahu has scotched all of his good faith attempts at reaching a ceasefire and releasing the remaining 100 hostages. Meanwhile, the bodies of Palestinians keep piling up.

Sources:

More than 100 people killed in latest Israeli bombings in Gaza, say medics | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian

Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict – Oxfam | Oxfam International

“Beirut in Flames”: Israel Attacks Hezbollah-Linked Bank; Hundreds More Lebanese Made Homeless

Fire and smoke after an IDF airstrike at Dahieh in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, late 20 October 2024. More than 2,400 people have been killed and over 11,400 others have been injured in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s offensive. (Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE)

Israeli fighter jets struck dozens of targets in Beirut and other areas of southern Lebanon overnight, including branches of a bank accused of holding funds used by Hezbollah.

The military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee, had earlier in the night issued several evacuation orders for buildings throughout southern Lebanon he said were in the vicinity of facilities belonging to the US-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association Bank.

“Get away from it immediately,” he said in a video statement.

Jeanine Hennis, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, said that after the IDF issued its evacuations, said there was “widespread panic” in Beirut.

Israel FM Israel Katz said 15 buildings in Beirut were struck as the IDF carried out a wide-scale attack targeting Hezbollah’s financial infrastructure.

“Beirut in flames,” Israeli FM Katz proudly released in a statement.

The IDF attacked not only Beirut, but throughout southern Lebanon and deeper into the country. The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported that an IDF bulldozer had deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence at its position in Marwahin in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s army, which has remained on the sidelines during the Israel’s campaign, said three of its soldiers were killed by an IDF strike while travelling in an army vehicle in the south of the country.

As previously posted, the IDF does not care about collateral casualties nor does it want any witnesses to its actions, hence the three Lebanese Army soldiers were killed and the UNIFIL post bulldozed. The Likud government wants to make southern Lebanon inhospitable and kill as many Shia combatants as possible. Lebanon, already fractured by its multiple religions and a dilapidated economy, is powerless to protect its citizens, much less house the thousands of displaced people Israel is creating. With winter approaching, the government of Beirut will face much more challenges.

Source:

‘Beirut in flames’ as Israel attacks Hezbollah-linked bank – UPI.com

https://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?id=299259

Whooping Cough at Decade-High Level in US

This 2016 illustration based on electron microscope imagery depicts bordetella pertussis bacteria, which causes whooping cough (Image: CDC).

Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, according to the CDC. 18,506 cases of whooping cough have been reported so far. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.

The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.

Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.

Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin received the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.

Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. Treated with antibiotics, whooping cough used to be common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations (along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines). The combo shot is recommended for adults every ten years.

“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That’s why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.

But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens.

It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, KY. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.

“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”

Source:

Whooping cough is at a decade-high level in US (voanews.com)

About Whooping Cough Outbreaks | Whooping Cough | CDC

NGO: French Water Supply Contaminated with Untested Toxic Chemicals

The byproducts of pesticides can seep into soil, surface water and groundwater before making their way into drinking water supplies. (Photo: © AFP – MIGUEL MEDINA)

The NGO Générations Futures found that 56 pesticide byproducts known as metabolites – substances formed when chemicals break down – are not being monitored in groundwater or drinking water, despite likely exceeding legal safety limits.

Their analysis, based on research from French health and safety agency, found these metabolites probably contaminate groundwater above the legal limit of 0.1 micrograms per liter.

The substances can seep into soil, surface water and groundwater before making their way into drinking water supplies.

Twelve of the unmonitored metabolites pose particular risks – including trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which was found at alarming levels in Paris.

“With our colleagues from the Pesticides Action Network Europe, we have taken samples of river water and tap water, and analysed for TFA … and we found it in many places, in very large quantities,” said François Veillerette, of Générations Futures.

“We found TFA at over two micrograms per liter [in the Seine] … and in tap water, about the same quantity. So, two micrograms per liter is 20 times the [legal limit of] 0.1 micrograms per liter,” he said.

The findings raise questions about whether some French regions face higher contamination risks than others.

The threat spans nationwide – water quality in at least one third of France is at risk from TFA contamination alone.

TFA comes from the breakdown of “forever chemicals” called PFAS, found in pesticides, non-stick coatings, and cosmetics.

The NGO warned French authorities cannot ignore TFA’s dangers, noting that German health officials suggest classifying it as toxic for reproduction. More worrying still is the uncertainty around long-term exposure to these substances in drinking water.

“What is really astonishing is that it is an ‘unknown’ … nobody knows [the potential effects] because there are no requisite studies on metabolites,” said Veillerette, warning that if research comes too late and “they’re everywhere, then there’s nothing we can do”.

While data on safe levels remains insufficient, the group cautions these chemicals accumulate over time and could create a dangerous “cocktail effect“.

With France’s water safety at stake, experts are warning this invisible but growing crisis demands urgent attention.

Pesticides have already despoiled French Martinique. This case is the result of competing interests in France: Farmers versus Environmentalists. The agrarian sector relies on pesticides to protect their harvests (e.g. grains, grapes, etc), ignoring the long-term impact of these chemicals in the water supply and the potential health hazards they may cause in the future.

Sources:

French water supply contaminated with untested toxic chemicals, NGO warns (rfi.fr)

man-spraying-herbicides – Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog

Fethullah Gulen, Rival of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Dies in Exile

The late Fethullah Gulen at his home in Saylorsburg, PA. This is the man disgraced retired US Army General Michael Flynn wanted to abduct and extradite to Turkiye. (Photo: Reuters)

US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, once an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but later accused of masterminding a failed coup attempt in 2016, has died at the age of 83 of an unspecified ailment he was being treated for. Gulen had lived in exile in the US since 1999 and was stripped of his Turkish citizenship in 2017.

The 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan and the government was a turning point in the country. Some 250 people were killed when rogue soldiers hijacked warplanes, tanks, and other heavy military equipment as they tried to push the president out of power.

That event led Ankara to declare an all-out war on Gulen’s network — known as Hizmet, which means “service” in Turkish — saying he was responsible for the coup, charges that Gulen fiercely denied.

Ankara considers Hizmet to be a terrorist organization. It is an opaque but influential group mainly involved in educational activities and promoting civil society.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in confirming Turkish intelligence reports saying Gulen had died, described Gulen as the leader of a “dark organization.”

Tens of thousands of dismissals and detentions followed the coup attempt in Turkiye, as well as increasingly tense relations between Ankara and any country where Gulen had connections — mostly through the network of his private schools.

Turkish soldiers accused of involvement in an attempted coup in 2016 arriving at court inside the Sincan Prison in Ankara in 2017. Photo: Adem Altan / AFP— Getty Images.

The campaign against Gulen spread into regional allies of Turkiye. Some Central Asian governments intensified a crackdown on institutions linked to the cleric that had started before the coup attempt.

In recent years, there have been reports of Turkish citizens accused of having links to Gulen being arrested and forcibly taken to Turkiye.

In one such incident, Turkish-Kyrgyz educator Orhan Inandi was abducted by Turkish agents in 2021 in Kyrgyzstan and brought to Turkey against his will in 2021. Inandi, who is a dual Kyrgyz-Turkish citizen, was handed 21 years in prison on a charge of “establishing of an armed terrorist group.”

Critics of Erdogan contend that he used the coup aftermath as an excuse to purge the government of thousands of secular Turks, Kurds, AK Party opposition members, and others unaffiliated with the coup or the Gulenists, sweeping them up as so-called “Enemies of the State.”

Opposition politicians Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksekdağ had been arrested on terrorism charges. These two certainly look like members of Al-Qaida or ISIS. (Undated photo courtesy of Wikimedia.org)

Sources:

Fethullah Gulen, Rival Of Turkey’s Erdogan, Dies In Exile (rferl.org)

Purges in Turkey following the 2016 Turkish coup attempt – Wikipedia

Mike Flynn and the Insane Alleged Plot to Kidnap a Turkish Cleric (vice.com)

18 North Korean Soldiers in Russia Reportedly Deserted

North Korean supremo Kim Jong Un (Center-R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) walk past children attend a welcoming ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea on 19 Jun 2024. (Photo: Vladimir Smirnov / POOL / AFP)

Russia recently assembled a “special Buryat battalion” made up of North Koreans. The number of personnel in the unit is estimated at up to 3,000, and likely to be involved in combat activities around the settlements of Sudzha and Kursk. 18 of these North Korean soldiers have deserted their positions, according to Ukrainska Pravda citing sources in Ukraine’s special services. The alleged escapes took place seven km from the border with Ukraine.

The reasons for the North Koreans’ desertion were unknown. Russian forces have begun looking for them while attempting to conceal this information from the High Command.

“Life for North Korean conscripts is brutal and harsh, even without a war, and the consequences for refusing to fight would be extremely dire,” said Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder earlier this year. North Korean troops would become “cannon fodder” if they joined Russian forces on “meat assaults” reported an analyst in Ukraine.

The South Korean government summoned the Russian Ambassador and demanded the North Korean soldiers be immediately withdrawn from Russia, saying this move violated UN resolutions and posed a threat to South Korea.  

The Korean People’s Army (KPA) is the fourth largest in the world in terms of personnel, with 1,280,000 active members and 600,000 in reserve. Only China, India, and the US have bigger standing armies. North Korea spent 36.32% of its entire gross domestic product on defense in 2023. North Korean society is heavily militarized and all citizens are required to serve — reportedly 10 years for men, and eight for women. North Korea can provide two material items to the Kremlin: cannon fodder for the front and ammunition and artillery shells from a vast arsenal dating back to the 1950s.

The reported introduction of 1,500 North Korean special forces may present a separate asset to the Kremlin. But these highly-trained soldiers are also inexperienced in combat and how they perform against experienced Ukrainian defenders remains to be seen.

Kim Jong-Un has no regard for the safety or welfare of his own people and will do everything he can stay in power, including starving his own people and executing his uncle.

Jang Song-thaek escorted into court handcuffed by uniformed guards: a special military tribunal found him guilty of treason in Dec 2013 and he was executed. Jang Song-thaek was once one of the DPRK’s most powerful men and uncle of Kim Jong-Un (Photo: Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images)

Sources:

Russia formed ”Buryat battalion” staffed by North Koreans, but 18 soldiers have already deserted – Ukrainska Pravda sources | Ukrainska Pravda

South Korea summons Russian envoy over North Korean troop deployment | South Korea | The Guardian

This is how North Korean troops could be used in Russia’s war in Ukraine (kyivindependent.com)

North Carolina Militant Sentenced for Assaulting Law Enforcement During 6 Jan Attack on US Capitol

Curtis Davis (R). Tonya Bishop (L) faces charges, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, plus charges of disorderly conduct and illegally demonstrating at the Capitol building. (Photo: FBI)

Curtis Davis (45) of Snow Hill, NC was sentenced to 24 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, the first six months of which to be served on home detention, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution by the Honorable US District Judge Amit P. Mehta for violent actions on 6 Jan 2021.

At about 3:00 PM on 6 Jan 2021, Davis entered the US Capitol building where law enforcement officers were attempting to disperse a crowd of rioters. Inside the Rotunda, while pressed against a line of police officers, Davis forcibly attacked a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer and attempted to grab hold of the officer’s baton. Davis then punched an MPD officer in the face shield and refused law enforcement orders to leave the building. A short while later, Davis punched another MPD officer in the head and forcibly pulled away a riot shield from another. Davis then used the shield to press against the backs of a line of rioters in an attempt to resist the efforts of police.

After being expelled from the Rotunda, Davis returned with other rioters and again attempted to breach police lines. This maniac punched a riot shield held by an officer three times.

Later that night, Davis filmed a group of police officers with his cell phone camera before turning it around, filming his fist, and stating, “Them knuckles right there, from one of those m—f— faces at the Capitol.”

The FBI arrested Davis on 8 Dec 2023 in Snow Hill.

In the 45 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,532 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 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.

This violent lunatic represents America’s Fedayeen Saddam (FS), die-hard white supremacists clinging on to the last vestiges of white privilege in the US. Heeding the idiotic call of Donald J. Trump that the minorities stole the 2020 election, Curtis Davis threw his life away with this federal conviction.

Sources:

District of Columbia | North Carolina Man Sentenced for Assaulting Law Enforcement During the Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

Stray Cat Approaches Kind Stranger, Soon Filling Home with Look-alike Kittens

When a volunteer from Be Their Voice Animal Rescue (BTV) in Atlanta, Georgia, went to pick up a cat, another friendly stray came around the corner and walked right up to her.

“She could tell that the cat was pregnant and very skinny,” Aimee, COO for BTV. With no home to call her own, the volunteer scooped her up and took her for her first vet visit.

After the vet, the sweet “house panther” named Jazz inspected her new room, pausing only to rub against the furniture. Finding everything to her liking, she weaved around her foster mom’s legs and purred her thanks.

Though quite underweight, Jazz was in good spirits and grateful for her endless supply of food. She took her time to feast and regain strength, making up for those hungry and weary days on the streets.

“She ended up finally delivering sometime in the middle of the night, and unfortunately, she didn’t know what she was doing.”

Jazz had comfortable nesting boxes to choose from but decided to have her eight kittens in the litter box.

Thankfully, her foster family quickly acted, cleaning the babies one by one and making sure they were all latching.

Over the next few weeks, the kittens grew by leaps and bounds, reaching many milestones, discovering their penchant for mischief-making, and romping around with boisterous energy. Now they are ready for new forever homes.

A happy and grateful Jazz made a lot of people happy.

We can thank the good people at Be Their Voice Animal Rescue in Georgia for their kindness, this story, and the photos.

More on the family and BTV (in GA) on Instagram @_catz4life_ and @fostercatsfordays.

Source:

https://www.lovemeow.com/stray-cat-home-void-kittens-2669446352.html

This little tigress is ready for a forever home.

Gaza/Lebanon Nakba Continues: IDF Attacks Kill at Least 50 People

In Gaza, at least  50 people were killed in several IDF strikes, including children, according to hospital officials and AP reporters.

After armed Palestinian groups conducted a raid on Israel on 7 Oct 2023 that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages, Israel’s Nakba in Gaza has killed more than 42,400 Palestinians, with more than half of them women and children. The reprisal rate is close to 40:1.

Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and forces opened fire at the hospital’s building and its courtyard, causing panic among patients and medical staff. At the Awda hospital in Jabaliya, strikes hit the building’s top floors, injuring several staff members.

In central Gaza, at least ten people were killed, including two children, when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda. Another strike killed 11 people, all from the same family, in the Maghazi refugee camp, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where they were taken. Two Associated Press journalists counted the bodies at the hospitals. Attacking medical staff or facilities is a war crime.

The war has destroyed vast swaths of Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, and left them struggling to find food, water, medicine, and fuel. The UN has warned of an imminent famine for the people of Gaza.

In the West Bank, the UN reports that between 8-14 Oct, Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including a child, and injured 104 people, including nine children.

“Israeli forces accused most of those fatalities of being involved in attacking Israelis,” a UN official said.

“Yesterday, a Palestinian woman was reportedly killed while she was harvesting olives in Jenin. That follows 32 attacks by Israeli settlers this month on Palestinians engaged in the olive harvest. Hundreds of olive trees and saplings have been vandalized, sawed off or stolen. The olive harvest is an economic lifeline for tens of thousands of Palestinian families.”

Meanwhile, James Elder, a UNICEF spokesperson who recently returned from another mission to Gaza, called the Palestinian enclave “the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth for its one million children. And it is getting worse, day by day, as we see the horrific impact of the daily airstrikes and military operations on Palestinian children.”

In Dec 2023, UNICEF stated: “The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.”

Meanwhile, families of hostages still held in Gaza demanded the Israeli government restart negotiations to bring home their loved ones. There are about 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says are dead.

In Lebanon, an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle on a main highway north of Beirut, killing two people.

According to Lebanese authorities, more than 2,300 people have been killed and over 11,000 injured since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began in Oct 2023, while more than 1.2 million people have been displaced.

UNIFIL Peacekeepers near the southern Lebanese town of Marwahin, 12 Oct 2023. 48 countries contribute Soldiers to this mission, including Finland, China, Turkiye, France, Italy, Ireland, Malaysia, and Spain. Approximately 800 Peacekeepers are women.

A UN official accused the IDF of repeatedly targeting UN peacekeepers along the blue line, the provisional border between Israel and Lebanon.

“We have been targeted several times and deliberately attacked once inside the borders in Naqoura, injuring two peacekeepers,” said Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for UNIFIL in Geneva.

“The Israelis hit the communication system very close to the bunkers where peacekeepers were sheltering. And there was an instance when IDF troops entered a UNIFIL position and remained there for 45 minutes. So, all these elements are clear, and we have been very vocal that these are deliberate attacks against the mission.”

Israel has rejected accusations that it is going after the peacekeepers, but acknowledged injuring two UNIFIL peacekeepers on 11 Oct when forces fired on what an IDF statement on X called “an immediate threat.” The IDF has stated that Hezbollah militants in Lebanon deliberately operate near UNIFIL posts and bases, “thereby endangering UNIFIL personnel.”

Demands by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for the UN mission to move its positions away from the blue line were ignored by the UN.

Tenenti said that incursions into Lebanese territory by the IDF in the proximity of the blue line in both UNIFIL sectors, east and west, “constitute a violation of Lebanese sovereignty, and also a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”

Security forces near Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea, Israel, 19 Oct 2024. Neither he nor his wife were home and there were no casualties when a drone crashed nearby.

Israeli forces do not want witnesses to their offensive in Lebanon (or in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank for that matter). After the IDF attacked the USS Liberty spy ship on 8 Jun 1967 during the Six-Day War, James Bamford, an NSA historian, wrote that the USS Liberty SIGINT personnel intercepted IDF communications about Israeli soldiers massacring unarmed Egyptian POWs. To eliminate damaging evidence of war crimes the naval eavesdropping platform might be gathering, the Israeli High Command allegedly ordered an airstrike on the USN ship, killing 34 Americans and wounding 173.

Of a crew of 294 officers and men (including three civilians), the ship suffered 34 KIA and 173 WIA. The ship itself, a $40,000,000 state-of-the-art signals intelligence (SIGINT) platform, was so badly damaged that it never sailed on an operational mission again and was sold in 1970 for $101,666.66 as scrap.

Sources:

Strike launched toward Israeli prime minister’s house; Gaza strikes kill at least 21 (voanews.com)

USS Liberty incident – Wikipedia

USS Liberty Veterans Association |

Israel denies UN accusations that it’s targeting peacekeepers in Lebanon (voanews.com)

Infographics | UNIFIL (unmissions.org)

Drone targets Israeli prime minister’s house as strikes in Gaza kill 50 (scrippsnews.com)

Russia, Ukraine Conduct Prisoner Swap, Exchange Fallen Soldiers

Ukrainian prisoners of war seen following a prisoner swap at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, on 18 Oct 2024 (AFP Photo/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout)

Russia and Ukraine swapped 190 prisoners of war on 18 Oct under an agreement completed with the help of the United Arab Emirates who mediated the exchange.

95 returning Russian servicemen were undergoing medical checks in Belarus. There was no immediate word of the exchange from Ukrainian authorities.

Russia and Ukraine also exchanged the bodies of fallen servicemen. 501 servicemen returned to Ukraine and 89 to Russia.

The bodies will be taken to Ukrainian morgues for identification, after which they will be handed over to relatives for burial.

The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet commented on the exchange of bodies, which the two sides have regularly done since 2022. The International Committee of the Red Cross acts as an intermediary in the exchanges.

In the meantime, South Korean intelligence confirmed Ukrainian President Zelensky’s accusation  on TV that North Korea is sending troops to fight Ukraine. NIS (once called KCIA) reported Pyongyang began moving special forces to Russia earlier this month to help support the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine. One report indicated 1,500 special forces were en route to Russia and a total of 10,000 troops would be ready to fight in Nov.

Satellite images released by South Korea’s intelligence services show North Korean special forces troops boarding Russian ships and being transported to the mainland. (Via UK Latest News.)

Large Russian transport planes (AN-124s) have been observed frequently sortieing between Vladivostok and Pyongyang. North Korean soldiers were provided with Russian uniforms and Russian-made weapons, as well as fake identification cards of residents of the Siberian region of Yakutiya Buratiya (Attachment 5) who have a similar appearance to North Koreans. They are being disguised as Russian soldiers in order to conceal their participation in the war.

NIS assessed that North Korea has provided more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles, anti-tank rockets, and other lethal aid to Russia on more than 70 occasions since Aug 2023.

The Ukrainian military should make targeting these North Koreans with HIMARs or other catastrophic weapons a priority to immediately demoralize them. These DPRK soldiers may be well-trained and disciplined, but Coriolanus can not uncover the last time these commandos were involved in a real shooting war since 1953.  Some commandos have conducted pin-prick raids against the South Korea coast, but nothing large-scale like this conflict. Seoul can be of assistance to Kiev by providing linguists and messages in order to begin a PSYOP campaign directed at these North Koreans. The old terminology was “leaflets and loudspeakers” to induce surrenders or get them to question why they are so far away from their families.

Serhii Hnezdilov, a Ukrainian soldier and activist, at a court hearing in Kiev this month after his arrest on a charge of desertion.  He wanted to draw attention to the need to discharge worn-out soldiers and replace them with fresh conscripts. (Photo: Stanislav Yurchenko / Reuters)   

The Ukrainian population is beginning to fatigue from the stresses of this 21-month long war while these fresh North Korean soldiers bolster the Russian army. As posted here on Coriolanus, the Ukrainian military is seeking out military-age males who have not registered for conscription or served at the front. Appeals to the Ukrainian diaspora to return home to fight have failed. Reports of Ukrainian military desertions are increasing and they seem not to stem from cowardice or lack of patriotism, but sheer exhaustion. Serhii Hnezdilov, pictured above, is protesting the never-ending combat tours.

Sources:

Russia, Ukraine Conduct Prisoner Swap, Exchange Of Bodies (rferl.org)

A Soldier Chose a Radical Way to Publicize Troop Fatigue: He Deserted – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

UAE resets a decade of muscular foreign policy (ft.com)

Press Release Details | News | NIS National Intelligence Service

Zelenskyy says 10,000 North Koreans could join Russian forces in Ukraine as he pushes ‘victory plan’ | AP News

US/Canada/Mexico: 16 Defendants Charged in Cocaine Smuggling Network; Four Murders

Ryan James Wedding (43) a Canadian citizen residing in Mexico and Andrew Clark (34) a Canadian citizen also residing in Mexico, were charged with running a continuing criminal enterprise, murder, and conspiring to possess, distribute, and export cocaine. Clark was arrested 8 Oct by Mexican law enforcement and is detained. Wedding is a fugitive.

Wedding, whose aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant,” and “Public Enemy,” and who competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, UT, is head of the Wedding Drug Trafficking Organization (WDTO).  Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the 20 Nov 2023, murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California. They ordered the murder of another victim on 18 May 2024, over a drug debt

Cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, stored in stash houses, then delivered to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks. 

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for any information leading to his arrest.

Law enforcement seized more than one ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, $255,400 in US currency, and more than $3.2 million in cryptocurrency.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

If convicted, Wedding, Clark, and Cunningham would face a mandatory minimum penalty of life in federal prison on the murder and attempted murder charges. The continuing criminal enterprise charges also carry a mandatory minimum penalty of life in federal prison. The drug trafficking charges carry mandatory minimum penalties between 10 and 15 years in prison. 

Olympian Ryan James Wedding competing in happier times. (Undated photo . Getty Images)

This is only a matter of time before Wedding is either caught by law-enforcement or disposed of by other nefarious elements south of the border. Wedding is no longer of any utility and now presents a threat to lucrative criminal operations with the spotlight shining on him as a fugitive with a reward for his capture.   

Sources:

Central District of California | 16 Defendants Charged in Superseding Indictment Alleging Bulk Shipments of Cocaine to Canada, Four Murders | United States Department of Justice

Canadian former Olympic snowboarder wanted in double homicide: DOJ | CTV News

France: Local Transmissions of Dengue Fever Reach Record High

The tiger mosquito bites throughout the day and carries dengue fever, chikungunya, and Zika. (Photo:  © AP – James Gathany)

Since the beginning of May, the onset of tiger mosquito activity, 80 people have contracted the tropical disease without travelling to endemic regions.

This marks a new record, surpassing the 65 locally transmitted cases reported in 2022 and 45 in 2023. 

It follows a recent report from the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (Anses) that suggests the risk of an epidemic of dengue, chikungunya or Zika – all diseases transmitted by tiger mosquitoes – is high.

On a scale of 0 to 9, the agency rated the likelihood of such an outbreak occurring in mainland France within the next five years at 6 to 7.

Map: Welt-Atlas.de

Currently, dengue cases are localised mainly in the south-eastern Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, which has reported 58 infections this year alone. The main factors contributing to potential outbreaks are warm temperatures – between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius – and the importation of viruses from areas experiencing epidemics.

Since the beginning of the year, Santé Publique France has recorded 3,938 imported dengue cases, alongside 22 cases of chikungunya and five of Zika – 1.5 times the number reported in 2023. 

A significant majority of these cases – 68 percent – involved travelers returning from the French Caribbean territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique, in the grip of extensive outbreaks for over a year.

The tiger mosquito first arrived in mainland France in 2004, establishing a foothold in the southern town of Menton before spreading across the entire country. Once an area is colonised by mosquitoes, eradication becomes a daunting challenge. Residents are urged to eliminate standing water and other mosquito breeding sites in their surroundings.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the spread of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases in recent years is “an alarming trend that demands a coordinated response across sectors and across borders”.

The UN health agency said the number of dengue cases reported globally has approximately doubled each year since 2021, with over 12.3 million cases, including more than 7,900 deaths, reported in the first eight months of 2024 alone.

An estimated four billion people worldwide are currently at risk of contracting dengue, chikungunya, or Zika, according to the WHO, with that number estimated to swell to five billion by 2050.

Dengue symptoms include high fever, often accompanied by headaches, nausea and vomiting, lasting two to three weeks.

Global warming has been a benefit to man’s apex predator, the mosquito. Longer summers and warmer temperatures help expand their spread, as well as their feeding/mating times.  

Sources:

Local transmissions of dengue fever reach record high in France (rfi.fr)

Chikungunya, dengue et zika – Données de la surveillance renforcée en France hexagonale 2024 (santepubliquefrance.fr)

What are the risks and impacts of diseases transmitted by the tiger mosquito? | Anses – Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail

Paris wards off tiger mosquito scourge ahead of Olympics

Dengue and severe dengue (who.int)

Tel Aviv Man Arrested for Allegedly Spying for Iran; Planned Assassination of Israeli Scientist

Vladimir Varkhovsky (Photo: Regtechtimes)

Israeli authorities have arrested a Tel Aviv resident on suspicion of carrying out missions for Iranian intelligence, including graffiti, distributing flyers, and gathering information on Israeli targets.

Vladimir Varkhovsky allegedly agreed to assassinate an Israeli scientist for $100,000 and had obtained a weapon for the task. The Shin Bet said communication with his handlers was in English.

Varkhovsky communicated with an Iranian agent via the Telegram messaging app and carried out several tasks for the agent between Aug and Sep 2024. These included spraying anti-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu graffiti around Tel Aviv, placing plastic containers with tracking devices near Segula Cemetery in Petah Tikva and filming protests in Tel Aviv in an attempt to connect with another demonstrator.

Varkhovsky was reportedly instructed to retrieve a pistol intended for the assassination of the Israeli scientist. The foreign agent promised him $100,000 and assistance in fleeing to Russia after the murder. Varkhovsky collected the gun and matching magazine at a pre-arranged location as part of the plot. He received payment for his activities in digital currency.

The intelligence network that led to Varkhovsky’s arrest was uncovered through a joint investigation by the Shin Bet and the Israeli police’s serious crime Lahav 433 unit, often dubbed “the Israeli FBI.” (Photo: Regtechtimes)

The Shin Bet and police warned that Iranian intelligence has used social media platforms to recruit unsuspecting Israelis for various tasks. “While some assignments may initially seem harmless, they pose a genuine threat to national security. Many Israelis who received suspicious outreach did not respond and alert the authorities,” the statement added.

Superintendent Maor Goren, head of the security division at Lahav 433, added: “This case is part of a series of serious investigations where Israeli citizens were recruited by foreign agents. However, this case stands out due to its severity and boldness: the defendant had already armed himself with a pistol, magazine and bullets, after agreeing to carry out the murder of a scientist for $100,000 and planning to flee the country with the foreign agent’s help to Russia immediately after the attack.”

The indictment follows a similar case just days earlier, in which a couple from the nearby city of Ramat Gan was charged with contacting an Iranian agent and agreeing to assassinate Israeli officials.

Vladislav Victorsson (30) and his partner Anna Bernstein (18) are accused of working under the direction of an Iranian agent to carry out various criminal activities. (Photo: Yuval Chen)

The alleged plot against an Israeli scientist is most likely a response to the murder of nuclear physicists in Iran. Between 2010 and 2020, five Iranian nuclear scientists (Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh) were killed in foreign-linked assassinations.

Sources:

Tel Aviv man arrested for allegedly spying for Iran, planned assassination of Israeli (ynetnews.com)

Israeli couple indicted in Iranian plot to assassinate Israeli officials (ynetnews.com)

Assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists – Wikipedia

Main Zoo in North Macedonian Capital Shut Down After Avian Flu Case Detected

Map: CIA

The main zoo in North Macedonia’s capital Skopje was closed Saturday after authorities confirmed the presence of a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu.

According to a press statement, the flu was detected in a goose that died in a pond.

“Laboratory results confirmed a case of the presence of a pathogenic strain of the Avian influenza H5N1 virus,” the statement said.

Authorities immediately put down dozens of ducks, geese, chickens and one jackdaw, which inhabited the same pond.

The zoo will be closed for at least three weeks. During that period, authorities will disinfect the place, inspect other animals and apply other biosecurity measures aimed to prevent the spread of the disease.

The last cases of bird flu in North Macedonia, all in wild birds, were detected in 2022.

You can see more fauna in the Skopje Zoo here: ZOO Skopje photo gallery – Quest Macedonia (Photo: Aleksandar Ristevski)

The virus can cause heavy losses in the poultry industry and lead to restrictions on the import and export of live birds and poultry products. Highly pathogenic strains of avian flu can also be transmitted to humans.

Founded in 1926, Skopje’s zoo is one of the most visited places in the capital, with hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, not only from the country but also from across the Western Balkans.

In the past, the zoo had been the target of much criticism over the animals’ living conditions. Starting in 2008, authorities poured large sums of money into improvements, working with the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) to bring the zoo up to modern standards.

Sources:

Main zoo in North Macedonian capital shut down after avian flu case detected – ABC News (go.com)

ZOO Skopje photo gallery – Quest Macedonia

US/Canada: Frozen Waffles Sold at Walmart, Target Recalled Over Listeria Risk

This is a voluntary recall of the product. (Photo: Treehouse Foods)

Hundreds of varieties of frozen waffles sold under brands like Kodiak Cakes, Simple Truth, Walmart’s Great Value and Target’s Good & Gather have been recalled because of a possible listeria contamination.

Manufacturer TreeHouse Foods voluntarily announced the recall on Friday after the contamination was discovered during routine testing.

There have been no confirmed reports of illness linked to the recalled products to date, the company said.

The recalled frozen waffles were distributed throughout the US and Canada and packed in various formats.

Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to ten weeks after eating contaminated food, according to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

The infections are especially dangerous for older people, those with weakened immune systems or who are pregnant.

Consumers who have purchased any of the products listed in the recall should dispose of them or return the product to the place of purchase for credit. Further questions can be directed to the company at (800) 596-2903.

Sources:

TreeHouse Foods, Inc. – TreeHouse Foods Announces Voluntary Recall of Certain Waffle Products Due to the Potential for Listeria monocytogenes Contamination

Frozen waffles sold at retailers like Walmart, Target recalled for listeria risk (scrippsnews.com)

American Warzone: Mass Shooting After Mississippi High School Homecoming; 3 KIA; 8 WIA

Whether people in the US want to admit it or not, Americans suffer from wartime casualties every day without having to go to war with another country. This is why Coriolanus uses these brutal, military terms. According to the CDC, in 2022 there were more than 48,000 firearm-related deaths in the US. The US military suffered 58,281 KIA in Vietnam. In this photo, US Army medics are providing aid to a casualty. (Image: US Department of Defense)

Three people were killed and at least eight more were wounded during a shooting in Mississippi early Saturday morning.

The shooting happened just after 12:30 CDT during a trail ride in Holmes County, approximately five miles from the city of Lexington, Miss.

(Map: thedirectory.org)

Police are still searching for suspects, with agents from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation assisting local authorities.

Officials say a group of people were riding together following a homecoming event at a local high school when a confrontation broke out, leading to the mass shooting.

Police identified two men from Durant, MS and a woman from Kosciusko in neighboring Attala County, as those who were killed.

The remaining victims were taken to hospitals in Jackson, MS, including by air ambulance, with varying degrees of injuries.

The incident took place following a homecoming event and football game at Holmes County Central High School.

In an average year, 804 people are murdered and 2,101 are wounded by guns in Mississippi. The Magnolia State has the 2nd-highest rate of gun violence in the US.

Mississippi has the 2nd-highest societal cost of gun violence in the US at $3,323 per resident each year. Gun deaths and injuries cost Mississippi $9.9 billion each year, of which $307.2 million is paid by taxpayers.

Sources:


https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/10/19/mississippi-high-school-shooting-homecoming/4021729354393/

https://www.cdc.gov/firearm-violence/data-research/facts-stats/index.html

EveryStat – EveryStat.org

Massachusetts Governor Grants Reprieve to Beaver

Nibi was found on the side of a road when she was just a baby. Efforts to familiarize her with other beavers were not successful and she preferred to be near humans, according to Newhouse Wildlife Rescue who provided this photo.

The question of whether a two-year-old beaver named Nibi can stay with the rescuers she has known since she was a baby or must be released into the wild was resolved when the Massachusetts governor stepped in to protect Nibi.

The state issued a permit to Newhouse Wildlife Rescue for Nibi to remain at the rehabilitation facility and serve as an educational animal.

“Nibi has captured the hearts of many of our residents, mine included,” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said Thursday. “We’re excited to share that we have issued a permit for Nibi to remain in Newhouse’s care, continuing to educate the public about this important species.”

Nibi’s fate had made it all the way to the state courts before Healey stepped in.

A judge on Tuesday had said that Nibi would be allowed to stay in her home at the rescue center in Chelmsford, located northwest of Boston. A hearing had been set in a case filed by the rescuers against MassWildlife, the state’s division of fisheries and wildlife, to stop the release.

Nibi’s rescuers at Newhouse Wildlife Rescue said on their Facebook page that they were “beyond grateful” for Healey’s decision.

Nibi has been a hit on the rescue group’s social media since she was a baby, and posts about her impending release garnered thousands of comments.

An online petition to save Nibi from being released into the wild has received over 25,000 signatures, lawmakers have weighed in, and earlier this week Healey pledged to make sure Nibi is protected.

“We all care about what is best for the beaver known as Nibi and all wild animals throughout our state,” Mark Tisa, director of MassWildlife, said. “We share the public’s passion for wildlife and invite everyone to learn more about beavers and their important place in our environment.”

Jane Newhouse, the rescue group’s founder and president, has said that after Nibi was found on the side of the road, they tried to reunite her with nearby beavers who could have been her parents but were unsuccessful. After that, attempts to get her to bond with other beavers also didn’t work.

“It’s very difficult to consider releasing her when she only seems to like people and seems to have no interest in being wild or bonding with any of her own species,” she said.

Nibi has a large enclosure with a pool at the rescue operation, and will also wander in its yard and rehabilitation space, Newhouse said. “She pretty much has full run of the place. Everybody on my team is in love with her,” she said.

Newhouse said she had asked MassWildlife if she could get a permit for Nibi to become an educational beaver, allowing her to take the beaver to schools, libraries and town halls. Newhouse said she feared a release would mean certain death for her beloved “diva” beaver, who doesn’t know how to live in the wild.

“It doesn’t give her much time… to figure out how to build a lodge for the first time, how to build dams for the first time, how to store all of her food before winter sets in,” she said.

Newhouse said that beavers usually leave their parents between the ages of 2 and 3, so it’s possible that over the next year Nibi will show more interest in wanting to be in the wild. But unless that happens, she wants to keep her safe.

Beavers are common and abundant throughout Massachusetts. A keystone species, beavers play an important role in fostering biodiversity of ecosystems, according to state officials. By damming rivers and streams, and forming shallow ponds, beavers are vital for creating healthy wetlands that support a tremendous diversity of plants, bugs, and wildlife, and store floodwaters during storms.

They are also North America’s largest native rodents, weighing between 35 and 80 pounds and reaching 2–3 feet in length as adults. Adult beavers have very few predators and can live for 20 years or more.

In almost all cases, it’s best to leave wildlife alone, officials said, so they don’t come to rely on humans for food and shelter.

Sources:

Nibi the ‘diva’ beaver to stay at rescue center, Massachusetts governor decides | AP News

download (mass.gov)

Undated photo of Nibi, courtesy of Jane Newhouse, Newhouse Wildlife Rescue

Unending Nakba: 61 Palestinians in Gaza Killed, Ten from Same Family; Ten Lebanese Killed; IDF Attacks UNIFIL Peacekeepers

Hunting for Hamas, no matter the collateral damage (Tjeerd Royaards, 9 Nov 2023)

Israeli attacks killed at least 61 people across Gaza on Tuesday, including 10 members of the Abu Taamiya family in the south of the territory. At least ten people have been killed in Israeli bombings of homes and a healthcare center in Qana, a Lebanese village that suffered Israeli massacres in 1996 and 2006.

Residents trapped in the Jabalia refugee camp face continued “carnage” with Israeli forces carrying out “systematic destruction” as the siege of northern Gaza enters a twelfth day.

The IDF attacked the al-Aqsa Hospital compound in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, in the early hours of Monday, igniting a fire that burned makeshift shelters for displaced people. At least four people were killed and dozens injured, mostly women and children.

One mother called it “one of the worst scenes we’ve witnessed”, while an injured girl said she heard screaming as people tore down their tent to get them out. A man said he had “broken down” as he was “unable to do anything” to help those who burned to death.

Warning: People may find this video, corroborated by the BBC, disturbing:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1845689850369835255

In Lebanon, at least ten people have been killed in Israeli bombings of homes and a healthcare center in Qana, a village that suffered Israeli massacres in 1996 and 2006. Multiple Israeli strikes targeted Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, taking a hospital in the city of Baalbek out of service. The strikes came as Netanyahu vowed ruthless reprisals after Hezbollah counter-attacked with a drone that killed four IDF troops on 13 Oct. Israel’s sophisticated air defenses have usually shot down Hezbollah’s rockets without problems.

Netanyahu said that Israel would continue to strike the group “without mercy, everywhere in Lebanon — including Beirut.”

Following the Hezbollah counterattack, IDF reprisals killed 41 people and injured 124 in Lebanon on 14 Oct. More than half of the victims were killed in the northern village of Aito, which lies outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds. The UN’s human rights office in Geneva called for an independent investigation after receiving credible reports that a dozen women and children were among the dead.

The Israeli war machine also attacked UNIFIL when two Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate and forced entry into a UN peacekeeping position.

“The IDF requested multiple times that the base turn out its lights,” UNIFIL said in a statement.

The tanks left about 45 minutes later after the Mission protested through its liaison mechanism, saying that IDF presence was putting peacekeepers in danger.

UN personnel suffered effects from smoke after several rounds were fired in its vicinity.

“Despite putting on protective masks, fifteen peacekeepers suffered effects, including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions, after the smoke entered the camp,” UNIFIL reported. 50 nations contribute Soldiers to UNIFIL, including Ireland, France, Turkiye, China, Italy, Armenia, and Finland.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on 15 Oct that he will take into account the position of the US — Israel’s main ally — but will have his country’s own “national interests” as a top priority as it ponders a response to a massive Iranian counterattack earlier this month.

“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest,” his office said in a statement.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within the next 30 days or it could risk losing access to US weapons funding. The warning came in a letter to their Israeli counterparts dated 13 Oct that restates US policy toward humanitarian aid and arms transfers. The US election takes place in less than 30 days.

Adam Zyglis / Cagle Cartoons

Fears of an all-out regional war grew as signs indicated Israel could be preparing to launch a direct strike on Iran in retaliation for Tehran’s counterattack on 1 Oct. POTUS Joe Biden has warned Netanyahu against striking Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities to avoid a further escalation of the conflict.

On 13 Oct, Biden announced that he had ordered the Pentagon to send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and troops to Israel as part of US efforts to defend its ally, putting American service-members into harm’s way on behalf of Israel.

Just as the 9/11 attacks on the US gave Republicans a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, the 7 Oct 2023 attacks gave Israeli “Crime Minister” Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likudniks a casus belli to depopulate the Gaza Strip, appropriate Palestinian homes in the West Bank, attack Lebanese Hezbollah (an organization which first formed as resistance to the 1982 Israeli invasion), attack Iran, Yemen, and Syria, regardless of collateral damage to Arab civilians. The American taxpayer has made Israel a rich, militarily powerful country, having provided them $317.9 billion since 1951, making it the largest recipient of US foreign aid since World War II.

The American taxpayer is watching the “Beast of Bethlehem,” rabid and unleashed, wreak havoc in the Middle East with the US election weeks away and the Biden Administration appearing enfeebled. Worse, Netanyahu’s special military operation is tarnishing forever Pres. Biden’s legacy before his very eyes, (Illustration: Osama Hajjaj, 2 Nov 2022)

Sources:

Israel Launches Fresh Strikes On Lebanon After Netanyahu Warning (rferl.org)

(4) Updates Live: Israel kills 10 in Lebanon’s Qana; endless ‘carnage’ in northern Gaza (aljazeera.com)

Lebanon: IDF tanks force entry into UN peacekeeping position, UNIFIL reports | UN News

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

UNIFIL Troop-Contributing Countries | UNIFIL (unmissions.org)

To Boost Ukraine’s Army, Feared Patrols Hunt for Potential Conscripts

Officials looking for men stalk nightclubs, concerts, and subway stations but some accuse the patrols of dubious measures.

A patrol inside a subway station in Kiev checks the conscription status of men of fighting age [Image: Al Jazeera]

A stone’s throw from advancing Russian troops, Volodymyr refuses to leave his eastern Ukrainian town.

The daily Russian pummelling has killed some of his neighbors and destroyed buildings around his house, but the 34-year-old does not want to move to a safer area because he would be forcibly conscripted.

“I’ll be herded back home but with a gun in my hands,” he told Al Jazeera as fighting raged just six miles away.

He has no qualms about what Ukrainian generals might call unpatriotic behaviour. “Way too many guys” he knows have been killed, wounded, or incapacitated since 2014 when Russia-backed separatists sparked a conflict in eastern Ukraine that killed more than 13,000 people, about a quarter of them civilians, and displaced millions.

A local resident rides a bike near a recruitment advert for the Ukrainian army, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the village of Hrushivka, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region [File: Alina Smutko/Reuters]

Casualties soared after Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Russian army chiefs have no misgivings about the loss of tens of thousands of their servicemen for each Ukrainian town they take, mostly in the Donetsk region, where Volodymyr lives.

But he accused Ukraine’s top brass and front-line officers of adopting a somewhat similar approach.

“The commanders care about their bosses’ opinion, not about the men serving under them,” he said, citing conversations with his enlisted friends.

He and other men interviewed for this story asked for their last names and personal details to be withheld because they fear reprisals.

About 1.3 million Ukrainians serve in the military and at least 80,000 soldiers of eligible age (25 to 60) have died since 2022, according to Western estimates.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government does not divulge the official death toll. He has said the army needs to enlist 500,000 out of about 3.7 million men of fighting age who are eligible for service.

These days, many potential recruits all over Ukraine think twice before leaving their homes. If they do, they look over their shoulder for “man-hunting” patrols.

Each patrol consists of police and conscription officers, groups of four to six officials that comb public areas such as subway stations, bus stops, shopping malls, city and town centers. They have also operated at rock concerts, nightclubs, and pricey restaurants.

Al Jazeera has witnessed the work of several such patrols. Each time, the officers refused to comment and be photographed. They approach any man in sight to check his ID and conscription document, a printout or a scan in a mobile phone that has a QR code.

The code gives access to the man’s “conscription status” in a central database.

That status had to be updated by mid-July when a conscription law took effect after months of deliberations and thousands of amendments. Every potential conscript had to provide details on his address, contacts, health, prior military service, and ability to handle weaponry, military equipment, and vehicles.

At the time, hours-long lines formed in front of conscription offices where staff were often interrupted by air raid sirens and blackouts caused by Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.

In May, the government launched Reserv+, an app allowing Ukrainians to update their conscription status from their mobile phones. Those who did not now face punishment – their driving licences could be revoked or bank accounts frozen. If potential conscripts live abroad, consular services could be denied.

Vitaly (23) studies engineering at a German university and was denied services at a Ukrainian consulate. He was told to ignore the app and return to Kiev to “personally” update his status.

“Of course, he didn’t because they wouldn’t let him go back” to Germany, his mother said.

“That’s how Ukraine lost one more national” because her son now plans to apply for German citizenship after graduation, she said.

Back in Ukraine, the patrols are feared by some.

“They round people up randomly, pack them into minibuses,” Boris (31) from the northeastern city of Kharkiv said. He said the patrols are able to detain men without checking their papers.

“Five or six [officers] twist one’s arms and, oops, tomorrow you’re at the Desna boot [camp]” in the northern region of Chernihiv.

Boris could be immune to conscription if he becomes a legal caregiver for his disabled father, who had a heart attack this year. But he is afraid to even set foot in a conscription office with the paperwork.

“People walk in there and end up in Desna a day later,” he said, referring to the camp Russian forces struck in May 2022 with two missiles, killing at least 87 conscripts.

In late August, an official on patrol detained Andriy (27) as he was entering a subway station in Kiev.

A doctoral student who cannot be drafted, Andriy showed his QR-coded card. But he was forcibly taken to the nearest conscription office, where officers told him he would be on his way to a boot camp “within an hour.”

“They pressured me skillfully,” he said. “It’s an assembly line of coercion.”

But then a medical doctor refused to sign Andriy off because of myopia and astigmatism, and he was let go to get “additional paperwork. It was a miracle,” he said.

There have also been multiple reports of violence towards potential conscripts.

In late May, Serhiy Kovalchuk (32) was beaten in a conscription office in the central city of Zhitomir and died in hospital six days later. Officials said Kovalchuk suffered a head trauma during an epileptic fit after several days of heavy drinking.

Frequent violent detentions and the denial of access to the lawyers of potential conscripts constitute human rights abuses, according to Roman Likhachyov, a lawyer and member of the Center for Support for Veterans and Their Families, a group in Kyiv.

However, the use of violence is two-pronged as both conscription officers and potential conscripts resort to it, he said.

“Each case has to be considered differently,” he told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, the conscription crisis is mirrored by the skyrocketing number of desertions. More than 100,000 servicemen deserted since 2022, Likhachyov said, often in groups of 20 to 30 people.

Draft dodging breeds graft in Ukraine, a country that has been notorious for corruption.

Bribes vary, several men told Al Jazeera. In some cases, $400 can be paid to a patrol team on the spot to let a man go. In others, thousands of dollars can buy permission to flee the country or purchase a “white ticket,” a document that makes one immune to the draft.

In Aug 2023, Zelensky fired every regional head of conscription offices throughout Ukraine. Dozens of lower-ranking officers were sacked and arrested for bribery.

Zelensky’s government has also tried to persuade Western nations that accepted hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees to deport each man of fighting age, but their governments refused.

Efforts to attract ethnic Ukrainians from the multimillion members of the diaspora scattered from Poland to Canada also failed.

The government’s enlistment campaign was “wrongly” outsourced to the army, according to Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, a former deputy head of the General Staff of the armed forces.

He believes the government should have started an awareness campaign to “explain, convince, engage the recruits”, but said that ultimately, “there are big problems to be solved”.

Potential conscripts should “realize that if there’s no one to defend [Ukraine], it will end badly for us all”, he told Al Jazeera.

Draft evasion and avoidance are not a new phenomenon. Long wars of attrition require manpower. Thousands of Americans fled to Mexico to avoid conscription during the First World War. Boxing champion Jack Dempsey fenagled his way out of the draft during the First World War and bank robber-to-be John Dillinger reportedly hacked off his own toe, making him 4-F and ineligible to fight the Kaiser. During the Vietnam War, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), the son of Gov. George Romney (R-MI), used a religious angle to avoid being drafted, and former President and avid golfer Donald Trump was able to secure a medical waiver from a local physician claiming he had “bone spurs.” Thousands of other young educated Americans fled to Canada, increasing the populations of Ontario and other provinces, probably for the better.

On 28 Apr 1967, the greatest boxer of all time refused induction into the US Army on principle and was stripped of his heavyweight championship title. The Immortal Muhammad Ali quipped: “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.”

During the First World War, Australian mothers and wives didn’t want to see their sons and husbands fighting and dying in a faraway European war.

Sources:

To boost Ukraine’s army, feared patrols hunt for potential conscripts | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

Muhammad Ali refuses Army induction | April 28, 1967 | HISTORY

Powerful Indian Gang Reportedly Involved in Killing Canadian Sikh Dissident

Lawrence Bishnoi has been in prison since 2015, now held far from his native Punjab state in Gujarat. (Photo: Getty Images)

The Canadian RCMP recently alleged at a press conference that agents of the Indian government were using “organised crime groups like the Bishnoi group” to target leaders of the pro-Khalistan movement, which calls for a separate Sikh homeland in India.

This was hours after both countries expelled top diplomats as tensions escalated over last year’s assassination of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil. Delhi dismissed the allegations as “preposterous”, accusing PM Justin Trudeau of catering to Canada’s sizeable Sikh community for political gain.

The Canadian police were referring to Lawrence Bishnoi (31), an infamous gangster from India.

Indian police say his gang is allegedly linked to the killing of a prominent politician in Mumbai. Three suspects are in custody. An alleged aide of Bishnoi has posted on social media that the gang is behind the murder. Once among India’s most wanted, Bishnoi has been in prison since 2015, held far from his native Punjab state in Gujarat.

Bishnoi is the prime suspect in the sensational murder of Sidhu Moose Wala, the popular Punjabi singer gunned down near his village in Oct 2022.

In 2018, Bishnoi gained notoriety for threatening Bollywood star Salman Khan, accusing him of allegedly poaching two blackbuck antelopes – a revered species for Rajasthan’s Bishnoi community to which Lawrence belongs.

When Bishnoi appeared in court, he openly told the waiting media: “Salman Khan will be killed here, in Jodhpur… Then he will come to know about our real identity.” Incidentally, the murdered politician was a close friend of the Bollywood star.

Federal investigators estimate Bishnoi continues to control a gang with 700 members across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi, involved in extorting celebrities, smuggling drugs and weapons and carrying out targeted assassinations. His partner Goldy Brar leads the gang remotely from Canada. Bishnoi faces a medley of charges in more than 30 cases, with 19 currently being tried in court.

“He runs his gang seamlessly from prison without needing to co-ordinate everything,” says a senior officer in Punjab’s anti-gangster task force. “Unlike other gangsters confined to a region, he thinks big.”

Punjab, Bishnoi’s home state, is overrun with gangs that fuel drugs and weapon smuggling, extortion and the local film and music industry. A cash-driven economy, bolstered by drugs, real estate, and illegal liquor sales, has fueled this rise, creating an ecosystem that blends crime with Punjabi pop culture, many say.

Punjab’s gangsters don’t enter the underworld for wealth alone – they crave notoriety, a deep-seated desire to “be somebody,” according to a senior police officer.

This twisted pursuit of fame finds roots in feudal, patriarchal culture. Social media amplifies it, with many gangsters showcasing their lives online. They flaunt their lifestyles on social media, where crime is often seen as a path to quick money and glamour. This has lured retired sportsmen and young recruits across Punjab to the dark side.

Police reported dismantling more than 500 gangs and arresting more than 1,400 gangsters since mid-2021. In clashes with the police, 16 gangsters had been killed and over 80 wounded, while three officers lost their lives and 26 more were injured. According to police, Bishnoi has been convicted in four cases, though none yet for serious crimes like murder.

With his neatly trimmed beard, the hoodie pulled over watchful eyes, Bishnoi often wears the casual look of a young man. When the stakes are high, he demonstrates a shrewdness in managing his image. During one court appearance, he wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the image of Bhagat Singh, the revered Indian revolutionary.

In a widely circulated video, reportedly recorded in prison, the bearded gangster declares, “There is a desire for revolution in our hearts. Let’s see how much strength the enemy has.” The exact meaning of his words remains ambiguous.

Bishnoi’s rise is unlike any other. “Despite being in prison, he appears to be running his gang. Who provides him logistics or media access? Such control would be impossible without powerful allies,” says a senior police official.

In two cases no doubt connected to this diplomatic feud, an Air India flight bound for Chicago made an emergency landing in Canada after a bomb threat. This abrupt landing comes a day after flight from Mumbai to New York was diverted to Delhi after a false bomb threat. Threats to Air India flights from Canada are likely to revive memories of the 1985 Air India bombing, which was orchestrated by Sikh extremists. Three hundred and twenty-nine people died when Air India flight 182 from Montreal exploded off the coast of Ireland. 

Bishnoi is the prime suspect in the Oct 2022 murder of Sidhu Moose Wala, a popular Punjabi singer. (Photo: Getty Images)

As previously written here on Coriolanus, the nexus between organized crime and espionage is not new. In the 1960s, rumors flew that CIA attempted to use American mobsters to overthrow the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba. The scourge of the Viet Cong was Saigon’s criminal underworld. Iran has been hiring contract killers from the Hell’s Angels to liquidate dissidents. Dawood Ibrahim and his notorious D-Company crime syndicate have been linked to the Pakistani ISI. Russia itself is considered a modern crime syndicate rather than a nation. The Canadian government should expect other reprisals, such as cyber-attacks from nefarious actors emanating from India or the Indian diaspora.

Sources:

Air India plane makes emergency landing in Canada after bomb threat | Canada | The Guardian

Lawrence Bishnoi: The Indian gangster pulling strings from jail (bbc.com)

Russia Releases Man Jailed After His Daughter Drew Anti-War Picture

Aleksei Moskalyov described his punitive cell as a “torture chamber” and said the 2-meter by 1-meter cell was rat-infested and so cold “it was impossible to sit on a metal bench inside.” (AP file photo)

A Russian man sentenced to prison on a charge of discrediting Russia’s armed forces after an anti-war drawing by his teenage daughter drew attention to him was released on 15 Oct, saying conditions inside the institution were horrible and that he fears he may not be free for long.

Aleksei Moskalyov was embraced by his daughter, Masha, as he left the IK-6 prison in the Tula region after serving 19 months in detention in a case that attracted global attention. Masha was placed in the custody of her estranged mother during her father’s imprisonment.

Moskalyov told reporters upon his release that security officers questioned people from his unit in the penal colony, raising fears the authorities were preparing new charges against him.

Moskalyov was sentenced to two years in prison, following his outspoken online posts against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which came to light after his daughter’s drawing was reported to authorities.

Her drawing, made in April 2022, depicted a Ukrainian woman shielding a child from Russian missiles, with inscriptions such as “Glory to Ukraine!” and “No to war!”

The artwork prompted school authorities to file a police report, leading to the investigation of Moskalyov’s social media activity.

Initially fined 32,000 rubles ($335) under an administrative charge of “discrediting” the Russian Army, Moskalyov later faced criminal charges for additional posts on social media.

He was convicted in Mar 2023 and sentenced to two years in prison, though his term was eventually reduced to one year and ten months. During his trial, Moskalyov fled house arrest but was later apprehended in Belarus and returned to Russia.

Moskalyov said he had been placed in punitive solitary confinement several times for what his lawyers described as minor “violations” such as “failure to get up quickly” or “not having his hands behind his back.”

He described the punitive cell as a “torture chamber” and said the 2-meter by 1-meter cell was rat-infested and so cold “it was impossible to sit on a metal bench inside.”

Sources:

Russia Releases Man Jailed After His Daughter Drew Anti-War Picture (rferl.org)

Mysterious Gooey Blobs Washed Up on Canada Beaches Baffle Experts

Hundreds of mysterious white blobs have been washing up on beaches across Newfoundland for over a month, sparking an investigation by Canadian authorities. (Photograph: Facebook/Philip Grace)

They are slimy on the outside, firm and spongy on the inside and surprisingly combustible. And in recent months, they have been washing up on the shores of Newfoundland.

A man named Philip Grace uploaded an image of a pale, gooey mass, which he compared to the dough used to make toutons, a Newfoundland fried delicacy.

Grace’s post about the blobs, which he said ranged in size from “dinner plate right down to a toonie [the Canadian two-dollar coin]”, prompted a frenzy of possible explanations – paraffin wax, sea sponges, mold, and ambergris – none of which withstood closer scrutiny.

Map: Brittanica.com

“They looked just like a pancake before you flip it over, when it has those dimpled little bubbles. I poked a couple with a stick and they were spongy and firm inside,” a beachcomber said. “I’ve lived here for 67 years and I’ve never seen anything like this, never.”

“They sent the Coast Guard over and I asked them how bad it was. They told me they had 46km [28 miles] of coastline littered with this stuff and had no idea what it was. Is it toxic? It is safe for people to touch?” asked the beachcomber. The gooey shapes aren’t the first blobs to excite locals.

In 2001, residents discovered the Fortune Bay “Blobster” sea monster that had washed ashore – a ragged and oozing white mass. Months later, however, researchers at Memorial University of Newfoundland concluded it was part of a decomposing sperm whale corpse (see below).

Source: Fortune Bay Sea Monster (mun.ca)

These new blobs don’t appear to be linked to whales, despite commenters in the Beachcombers group suggesting they could be “whale boogers”, “whale sperm” or “whale vomit” – all of which have been ruled out.

Someone speculated that the substance could be discharge from ships travelling to and from the Come By Chance refinery, 80km north of Patrick’s Cove.

Federal scientists have also been on the case but have produced few leads. They ruled out a petroleum hydrocarbon, a petroleum lubricant, or a biofuel, and a full battery of tests could take months.

Source:

Mysterious gooey blobs washed up on Canada beaches baffle experts | Environment | The Guardian

Evanston Chicago YWCA Closes After Legionnaires’ Disease Detected in Water System

(Map: federalcos.com)

Doors to the YWCA, 1215 Church Ave., were locked Friday afternoon and a sign informed people that all aquatics programming was canceled. An employee confirmed the building was closed to the public but didn’t give more details.

“HHS has been working with the Illinois Department of Public Health and the YWCA administrators regarding this matter by providing education, protocols, and measures to rectify this situation,” the Evanston Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

Legionnaire’s disease isn’t contagious from person to person and can be treated with antibiotics.

Legionnaire’s disease is a serious type of pneumonia. Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of Legionella bacteria, which causes Legionnaire’s disease, in some of the YWCA’s water systems.

Symptoms of Legionnaire’s disease include headaches, cough, fever, muscle aches, and shortness of breath, according to the CDC. The disease spreads through water systems like shower heads, sink faucets, and hot tubs.

Anyone who has been to the Evanston YWCA and suspects they were exposed should consult a physician.

The first reported case of Legionnaire’s Disease was in 1976, when 49 American Legion members at a convention became sick and 33 other persons associated with the hotel also became sick. Of these 182 cases, 29 persons died.

Sources:

Evanston YWCA closes after Legionnaires’ disease cases connected to water system – NBC Chicago

https://dph.illinois.gov/recent-news.html

THE PHILADELPHIA KILLER | TIME

Police Break Up French-Italian Wine Fraud Ring

(Getty Images – Hongjie Han)

Buyers of the ersatz wines thought they were purchasing rare bottles valued at up to 15,000 Euros each. 

The labels, which the criminals had especially printed, falsely claimed that the bottles contained fine wines from France. A French national has been charged with organized fraud and money laundering.

The suspected head of the gang, a Russian, was to be brought before a judge with a view to charging him as well.

The Russian (40) had previously been convicted on similar charges but under a different name.

He was apprehended at Milan’s Malpensa airport during a transaction involving a printer who was in charge of producing fake labels.

French prosecutors said the arrests were the result of close cooperation with Italian authorities, notably the Turin and Milan anti-counterfeit police units.

Several police raids were carried out in the regions of Turin, Milan, and Paris, and six European arrest warrants were issued. Fake merchandise with a sale value of two million euros were seized, as well as computers, bottle components, and telephones.

Source:

Police break up French-Italian wine fraud ring (rfi.fr)

Bear Visits University of Montana Campus, Follows Student

A bear wandered onto the University of Montana campus and followed a student for a short time Tuesday morning. Missoula is west of the state capital, Helena. (Photo by Pixabay.com)

Police at the University of Montana in Missoula issued an alert Tuesday morning to warn students and faculty of a bear wandering the campus.

The University of Montana Police Department’s alert, sent at 5:09 AM, revealed the bear was first spotted near a bike rack outside Craig Hall.

Police said the bear had followed a student for a short time, but did not act aggressively during the encounter.

Officers located the bear near the Elrod, Craig, Duniway Courtyard and asked all students, faculty and members of the public to steer clear of the area until the bear can be removed from campus.

Anyone who sees a bear on campus is asked to contact UMPD at (406)243-4000 or call 9-1-1.

Source:

Bear visits University of Montana campus, follows student – UPI.com

Benjamin Netanyahu Continues “Special Military Operation”: IDF Pounds Beirut and Gaza; Scores Killed, +100 Wounded

“Pure self-defense, Goliath!” Illustration: Harm Bengen 15 May 2018

At least 22 people were killed and 117 others injured in Israeli strikes on Beirut. Two residential buildings were struck, one completely collapsed.

“There should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists on 9 Oct.

The US warned Israel on 9 Oct against launching a military action in Lebanon like the one it has conducted in Gaza and the need for a diplomatic arrangement for the return of both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the border. But those words didn’t deter the IDF.

An IDF strike hit UNIFIL HQ in southern Lebanon, prompting Italy to summon the Israeli ambassador. An Israeli tank fired on an observation tower and wounded two peacekeepers. The nationality of the injured peacekeepers was not released. UNIFIL said in a statement that Israeli forces also fired on a nearby bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told a press conference that “hostile acts committed and repeated by Israeli forces against the base…could constitute war crimes.” Crosetto added that Italy has asked for an official explanation “because it was not a mistake.”

The French Foreign Ministry said that while no French solider was injured in the incident, it also demanded an explanation.

Palestinians react outside the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital after the IDF attacked a school housing displaced people in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on 10 Oct. (Photo: AFP)

An IDF strike on a school in the Gaza Strip killed at least 27 people. Israel’s bombardment of central and northern Gaza in recent days has killed dozens of people and trapped thousands in their homes. The director of the only major hospital in the northern Gaza Strip now offering specialized care for children has described a “catastrophic situation” as Israeli forces launched new ground assaults and airstrikes in the north and center of the territory.

An injured woman is carried in Jabaliya after Israel issued an evacuation order. (Photo: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images)

History is going to judge Benjamin Netanyahu as the worst Prime Minister of Israel. Called the “Crime Minister” by his critics at home, Netanyahu has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. He acts and behaves as if an international arrest warrant will never be issued for him. The ICC indicted Russian President Vladimir and an active warrant was issued for him. What is delaying the issuance of Netanyahu’s arrest warrant? And how does Netanyahu keep flouting Israel’s number one financial and military supporter, the US, as well as the UN and the international community?

Sources:

Israeli Strikes On Beirut, Gaza School Kill Dozens As Israel Steps Up Campaign Against ‘Terrorists’ (rferl.org)

UNIFIL statement (10 October) | UNIFIL (unmissions.org)

‘Catastrophic situation’ at children’s hospital as Israel renews Gaza attacks | Gaza | The Guardian

Ukrainian Journalist Viktoria Roshchyna Dies in Russian Captivity

Victoria Roshchyna, a freelance journalist who had previously worked with RFE/RL and other prominent Ukrainian media outlets, had been missing since early Aug 2023. (Undated photo: RFE/RL)

Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who had gone missing in Russian-occupied territories, has been confirmed dead while in Russian captivity, Ukrainian authorities reported .

Roshchyna, a freelance journalist who had previously worked with RFE/RL and other prominent Ukrainian media outlets, had been missing since early Aug 2023.

She had traveled from Ukraine to Poland on 27 July 2023 before heading toward the Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, according to her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn. Her last known communication was on 3 Aug 2023.

Ukrainian Military Intelligence (GUR) confirmed that Roshchyna had been slated for a prisoner exchange and are now trying to determine what transpired.

Roshchyna’s case highlights the dangers faced by journalists reporting in war zones. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), more than 100 Ukrainian and foreign journalists have been directly impacted by the Feb 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Several Ukrainian journalists remain detained or missing in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territories, with Roshchyna’s death underscoring the ongoing risks faced by members of the press in conflict zones.

Source:

Ukrainian Journalist Viktoria Roshchyna Dies In Russian Captivity (rferl.org)

Three MAGA Militants Convicted of Attacking US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021

US President Donald Trumps supporter’s gather outside the US Capitol building on 6 Jan 2021. (Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Michael St. Pierre (46) of Swansea, MA, was found guilty on 9 Oct 2024 of felony and misdemeanor offenses for his deplorable actions on 6 Jan 2021. During the attack on USCP officers, St. Pierre incited the mob through his megaphone: “Come on everybody, let’s go everybody, we got to get everybody tight. We got to get tight! Let’s go guys! We are going to storm this bitch!” 

St. Pierre (below) threw a metal flagpole top at a glass window while officers were directly behind it.

The FBI arrested this lunatic on 27 Jul 2023, in Fall River, MA.

The Honorable US District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb will sentence St. Pierre on 14 Mar 2025.

Jerry Daniel Braun (70) of South El Monte, CA pleaded guilty to six felonies for his incredibly violent conduct during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol. This elderly maniac travelled from California to Wash DC heeding then-Pres. Donald’s Trump’s words that the 2020 election was stolen. At the melee, Braun picked up an eight-foot-long wooden 2×4 beam and assaulted several victims with it, yelling:

“F— you, traitor!” and “F— traitor. Traitor!” “We pay your f— pay!”

The FBI arrested this maniac on 12 Apr 2022 in California.

The Honorable US District Judge Timothy J. Kelly will sentence Braun on 27 Jan 2025.

Lewis Wayne Snoots (59) of Louisa, VA, pictured above, pleaded guilty to a single felony offense of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers for his egregious conduct on 6 Jan 2021.

Snoots, wearing a gas mask at times, participated in some of the most violent actions on 6 Jan. He also hindered a USCP officer from defending himself, causing that officer to sustain significant injuries, including pain from repeated taser shocks, leaving him with burn marks and a loss of consciousness. Following the attack, the officer experienced ongoing physical and cognitive challenges, including neck pain, memory difficulties, and PTSD. You can see the expression on the officer’s face in the above imagery.

The FBI arrested Snoots on 5 Sep 2023. 

The Honorable US District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich will sentence this imbecile on 17 Jan 2025.

These three men threw their lives away by listening to the idiotic message of Donald J. Trump. Braun is 70 years old and in his golden years– not a good time to get jammed up by the Feds.

In the 45 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,532 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 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.

Sources:

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

District of Columbia | California Man Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Law Enforcement with a Weapon and Other Charges During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

District of Columbia | Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Law Enforcement During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

Two Dead, Dozens Sickened Following Chemical Leak at Texas Plant

The Texas city of Deer Park was under a shelter-in-place order following a chemical leak at a PEMEX plant. Image courtesy of Harris County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook

Two people are dead and more than two dozen others received medical treatment following a chemical leak at a PEMEX facility in the Houston suburb of Deer Park. Shelter-in-place orders had forced thousands to stay indoors.

PEMEX, a Mexican state-owned petroleum company, said in a statement that the gas leak was reported at one of its Deer Park refinery processing units, located at 5900 Highway 225, at about 4:40 PM local time.

The City of Deer Park announced the updated death toll in a statement late Thursday, adding that 35 employees were triaged at the scene. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez had earlier said one person was dead and five were injured, including one person who was airlifted from the scene by a Life Flight helicopter.

Authorities identified the agent as hydrogen sulfide, a flammable, highly toxic gas.

Texas State Highway 225 was closed in both directions near Beltway 8 because of the emergency.

PEMEX said emergency protocols were activated following the leak and notifications were sent out to local authorities.

Source:

Two dead, dozens attended to following chemical leak at Texas plant – UPI.com

Children Joining World of Espionage and Sabotage Against Russia

Civilians, most of the time adults, have historically participated in sabotage behind enemy lines. (Image courtesy: forces.net)

The Russian Duma recently introduced new, longer prison terms of up to six years for those using the internet to lure children into “criminal and antisocial activity.”

The reason for the new legislation is the war in Ukraine, as was made clear by the head of the Duma committee on security, Vasily Piskarev: “There have been cases of children, even elementary school students, being involved in sabotage. And very often communication with the child is carried out via the internet,” he said. 

Russian children have routinely been caught attempting acts of sabotage since the all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the first nine months of this year, the Russian financial intelligence agency Rosfinmonitoring added 93 minors to the list of terrorists and extremists — an all-time record. 

One of the youngest was 14-year-old Yegor Lauskis, who was convicted to two years in a penal colony for setting fire to a rail relay box last year. The damage amounted to less than $10.  

According to the Russian investigation, the teenager, who along with his friend was recruited by the Ukrainians via Telegram, threw a bottle of inflammable liquid at the rail box, videotaped the act, and sent the video to their Ukrainian handlers.

In Sep 2023, the FSB arrested two 16-year-olds for setting fire to a helicopter at a military airbase in Omsk, Western Siberia. They admitted they had been offered $20,000 by an unknown man who contacted them on Telegram and provided instructions. Two weeks previously, two other boys, 13 and 14, set fire to another helicopter at a helipad in Siberia. The fire not only destroyed the aircraft but also seriously burned their faces and hands. They were caught and taken to hospital.

The FSB responded with more repression, treating children much as they do hardened criminals: the names of the minors were put next to real terrorists on the Rosfinmonitoring, alongside extremists accused of a mass shooting at a concert venue in Moscow in March that left 145 people dead. 

Using children in warfare is not a new phenomenon. Warlords in Africa have employed child soldiers for decades. As posted here on Coriolanus, Belarus and Russia are indoctrinating young Ukrainian orphans to become loyal Russian soldiers. Using children for sabotage or vandalism is therefore a logical, if not moral, extension, especially if those Russian youngsters are disaffected by the invasion of Ukraine and wish to act out against the Kremlin.

(Image courtesy of sutori.com.)

Source:

 Gloves Come Off as Children Join Europe’s Spy Wars – CEPA

Air France Says Jet Flew Over Iraq During Iranian Counterattack on Israel

(Image courtesy travelercar.com)

Air France is investigating how a jet on a Paris-Dubai flight went over Iraq as Iranian missiles taking part in a counterattack on Israel went through the same airspace.

Iran launched a barrage of missiles toward Israeli territory on 1 Oct in response to Israel attacking Lebanon on 27 Sep. The missiles had to cross Iraq to reach Israel.

(Image courtesy of flightsfrom.com)

Air France flight AF662 crossed Iraqi territory at the start of the counterattack, just before Air France ordered its planes to stop flying over Iraq and local authorities closed Iraqi airspace.

The pilots saw the missiles in the night sky from their cockpit and Iraqi air traffic controllers wished them “good luck.”

“On 1 Oct, information identified an upcoming ballistic missile attack on Israel by Iran. Consequently, and without waiting for instructions from the Iraqi authorities, Air France decided to suspend flights over the country’s airspace by its aircraft as of 1700 GMT,” Air France said in a statement.

Flight AF662 “was flying over the south of Iraq when the Iranian counterattack began, at around 1645 GMT. It left the country’s airspace shortly before 1700 GMT. Iraqi airspace was not officially closed by the local authorities until 1756 GMT.”

The statement said Air France flights “already avoided Israeli, Lebanese, and Iranian airspace” due to the international tensions and that “overflight of Iraqi airspace was limited to a specific corridor used by all airlines”.

A company spokesperson said that “an internal investigation has been opened into this incident.”

The airline did not comment on whether the pilots had seen the missiles. Ballistic missiles fly at an altitude generally higher to that of commercial airliners.

This was a potential catastrophe that luckily didn’t occur. Several years ago, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over the Ukrainian-Russian warzone on 17 July 2014. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.

Graphic courtesy of the UK Daily Mail. A Dutch court found three men guilty of shooting down MH17; two Russians and one Ukrainian.

Sources:

Air France Says Jet Flew Over Iraq During Iran Attack On Israel | IBTimes

MH17: Three guilty as court finds Russia-controlled group downed airliner (bbc.com)

Leishmaniasis Cases Growing in Mexico (Sand Flies)

Sand flies carry the protozoan parasites that spread leishmaniasis. It was thought to be a disease of tropical climates, but leishmaniasis-causing parasites have now been found living and circulating in the US. Photo: Science Photo Library via Science Source

According to local media, most of the affected people were mainly workers and engineers who worked on the construction of the Mayan Train in Quintana Roo State, Mexico.

Cancun and Cozumel are in northern Quintana Roo State. Map courtesy: Britannica.com



According to the federal health ministry in 2023, 1136 cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis were registered, double the number five years ago of 592.

Jungle deforestation, tourist activities, and population movement, is exposing more humans to the fly. Official epidemiology data reveal that throughout 2023 in Quintana Roo, there were 799 cases of leishmaniasis, in 2022 500, and in 2021 there were only 15.

Leishmaniasis is a disease that the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies within the group of “neglected tropical diseases,” that is, those abandoned by the health agenda and generally unfunded for research. The origins of “gum disease” date back to pre-Hispanic times and it is not exclusive to humans, since it also occurs in dogs, cats, armadillos, or rodents.

The fly that transmits leishmaniasis does not sting, unlike the mosquito, but rather bites, and when it does, it deposits the parasites, which are called leishmania, on the skin.

Health authorities have urged the population that carries out activities in jungle areas to apply insect repellent at least every two hours, protect themselves with clothing that covers extremities and the head, as well as to be aware of the signs of an insect bite.

Sources:

Leishmaniasis, la enfermedad que se fortaleció con el Tren Maya – Corriente Alterna (unam.mx)

About Leishmaniasis | Leishmaniasis | CDC

Washington State Woman Calls 911 After Being Hounded by Up to 100 Raccoons

Sheriff’s deputies in Washington’s Kitsap County frequently get calls about animals — loose livestock, problem dogs. But the 911 call they received recently from a woman being hounded by dozens of raccoons swarming her home near Poulsbo stood out.

The woman reported having had to flee her property after 50 to 100 raccoons descended upon it and were acting aggressively. She told deputies she started feeding a family of raccoons decades ago and it was fine until about six weeks earlier, when the number showing up went from a handful to around 100.

“She said those raccoons were becoming increasingly more aggressive, demanding food, that they would hound her day and night — scratching at the outside of her home, at the door. If she pulled up her car, they would surround the car, scratch at the car, surround her if she went from her front door to her car or went outside at all,” a deputy said. “They saw this as a food source now, so they kept coming back to it and they kept expecting food.”

It was not clear what caused their numbers to balloon suddenly. Both the sheriff’s office and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife determined no laws were broken.

“This is a nuisance problem kind of her own making that she has to deal with,” authorities said. Video from the sheriff’s office shows raccoons milling around trees, and deputies who responded to the call observed 50 to 100 of them.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said under state law it is illegal to feed large carnivores, such as bears or cougars. While municipalities or counties may have local statutes forbidding the feeding of other wildlife, it is currently not against state law to do so.

Regardless, the agency discourages people from feeding wildlife. Raccoons, for example, can carry diseases, and food can also attract predators such as coyotes and bears.

An agency wildlife conflict specialist has met with the woman, who has stopped feeding the critters.

“The raccoons appear to have started dispersing now that they are no longer being fed, and we are glad for a positive outcome to this case,” said a county official.

Poulsbo is about a 90-minute car and ferry ride northwest of Seattle.

Source:

Washington state woman calls 911 after being hounded by up to 100 raccoons | AP News