israel

Russian Soldiers Glorify Murdering Unarmed Ukrainian Prisoners

Warning: Some Followers of the Watch may find the photos and video disturbing.

The Russians were eager to have the slaughter recorded. (Credit: East2West)

Russian soldiers filmed themselves shooting dead six Ukrainian prisoners of war in cold blood, audaciously proud of committing war crimes. Kiev has launched a criminal investigation and reported the sickening killings to the UN and Red Cross, insisting Russia cannot be allowed to brazenly flout the laws of war.

The Russian soldiers filmed themselves committing the illegal massacres of unarmed Ukrainians in the occupied Donetsk region. The POWs are seen lying face down on the ground in a wooded area next to a temporary hut. The Russians shoot at a drone flying overhead so it doesn’t film the heinous crimes they are about to commit.

Two Ukrainians kneel just before they are shot in the back. (Credit: East2West)

Three of the other prisoners lay on their fronts in the dirt and watched their friends murdered. (Credit: East2West)

Another soldier is forced to his feet and made to walk away with his hands up before being sprayed with bullets. (Credit: East2West)

Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets sent his findings to the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross:

“The Russian army has never been famous for its dignified treatment of prisoners of war, and here it once again demonstrates its helplessness and criminality. The lack of responsibility has turned the crime into a systematic one. We cannot turn a blind eye to this. Ukraine needs justice and responsibility for those who commit crimes and do not adhere to any norms.”

These are not the first war crimes Russian soldiers and Wagnerites have committed against Ukrainians. The ICC indicted and issued an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, but this is symbolic. Mongolia, an ICC signatory, did not arrest Putin when he visited Ulan Bator in late 2024. Donald Trump has signaled that he will be sanctioning the ICC to pressure them to remove the indictments against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin. After any future ceasefire is reached, there will be a new level of ethnic animus between Russians and Ukrainians following all of this bloodshed thanks to PIFWC Vladimir Putin and his willing accomplices.

Sources:

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3951841-russians-likely-execute-six-other-ukrainian-pows-ombudsman.html

https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-soliders-shot-disarmed-ukrainian-pows-filmed-execution/

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401849

https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and

Israeli Cabinet Ministers Already Pushing to Continue Waging More War

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu– dubbed “Israel’s curse”– is facing pressure from within his cabinet. Hard-line coalition partners have threatened to topple the government if he does not resume Israel’s war in Gaza when a six-week ceasefire with Hamas expires. That could leave Netanyahu torn between his erstwhile allies at home and Donald Trump who says he wants to end the region’s wars. The “crime minister” is facing a nettlesome corruption trial that ensnared his wife Sara, an international arrest warrant for war crimes issued by the ICC, and a potential 9/11 Commission-style inquiry into his handling of the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attack by armed Palestinian groups. Those guerillas seized hostages in order to conduct a prisoner swap which has been taking place since the ceasefire.

Rightwing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said:

“If, God forbid, the war is not resumed, I will bring the government down.”

Mr. Smotrich, when one belligerent doesn’t have F16s, air-defense weapons, tanks, satellites, or world-class hospitals while the other side does, it’s not called war, it’s called ethnic cleansing. So the horrific Nakba wasn’t really about releasing the Israeli hostages, was it?

In addition, Bezalel Smotrich stated that Israel should occupy Gaza and “encourage” half of the Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinians to emigrate within two years. He would like the same in the West Bank.

Along that vein, the IDF has been conducting “counter terrorism operations” and Settlers are going on rampages against Palestinian homeowners and farmers in the West Bank. Israeli forces have killed 34 people, including six children so far this year. This is not new. Abuse against Palestinians in the West Bank has been going on for decades, regardless of whether there was a Democrat or Republican in the White House.

Do you wonder if this poor guy who had the temerity to throw stones at his oppressors is alive today? (Photo: 7 Oct 2015, Ramallah / AFP / ABBAS MOMANI)

So, where should these Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank go? Will they go to Jordan– which already hosts 2.2 million Palestinian refugees? Islamophobic America? And will they be compensated for their lost, destroyed, or seized homes?

White supremacist Christian Republicans certainly don’t want Muslims in the US and Trump is closing the door on non-white immigration. Would Democrats have accepted them? There are Democrats that blame the tiny 1.34% Muslim-American population for supposedly not supporting Kamala in 2024. (Even though Trump won only 21% of the Arab vote, Kamala 20%, and Stein 59%). Arab-Americans have become convenient scapegoats among some Democrats for Kamala Harris’ loss and what friends do Palestinians have in the Middle East?

Adjusting for inflation, US aid to Israel from 1951 to 2022 totaled $317.9 billion, making it the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II.

Hasn’t the hardworking American taxpayer– who doesn’t have universal healthcare like his Israeli counterpart– had enough of this fraud, waste, and abuse from his so-called ally?

Sources:

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-says-half-of-gazans-can-be-encouraged-to-leave-within-two-years/

https://www.aljazeera.com/

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-trump-ceasefire-gaza-f27c1dbbfba4bf268f5368aaceb47e29

https://www.newarab.com/analysis/how-smotrichs-west-bank-plan-actualises-second-nakba

Mexican Border States Prepare Migrant Shelters as Trump Begins Deportation Campaign

Workers begin the installation of a temporary shelter for possible deportees from the US in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday, 22 Jan 2025. (AP Photo / Christian Chavez)

Mexico raised sprawling tents on the US border Wednesday as it braced for President Donald Trump to fulfill his pledge to carry out mass deportations. In an empty lot tight against the border with El Paso, Texas, cranes lifted metal frames for tent shelters in Ciudad Juárez.

Enrique Serrano, an official in Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juárez is located, said the tents erected for Mexican deportees were just the initial phase of a potential larger operation, and something authorities would scale up if the number of migrants gathering on the border continued to mount. He suggested migrants from other countries expelled from the US would be relocated to Mexico City or southern regions of Mexico as they’ve done previously.

Nogales, Mexico — across from Nogales, Arizona — announced that it would build shelters on soccer fields and in a gymnasium. The border cities of Matamoros and Piedras Negras have launched similar efforts.

At a border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday night, one man shouted to journalists that he was being deported in a group that was arrested that morning in farm fields near Denver. Another man said he was in a group that had been brought from Oregon. Everyone carried their belongings in a small orange bag.

As previously posted here on Coriolanus, the Mexican government began a program of intercepting and resettling migrants throughout their country before they could arrive at the US border. These refugees are escaping poverty, misery, violence, and the effects of global climate change.

Newly-elected Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum, as a thoughtful, compassionate leader, was prepared for the Fuhrer and his cruelties. She had a plan ready: “México te abraza.”

President Sheinbaum’s “México te abraza,” or “Mexico embraces you” program includes welfare support for deportees, registration with the Mexican Social Security Institute, and transport so that returning migrants “can reach their places of origin.” (Photo: Moisés Pablo / Cuartoscuro)

At Trump’s inaugural convocation on 20 Jan 2025, the Episcopalian Bishop of Washington, the Right Reverend Mariann Budde, issued a scathing sermon about mercy and compassion to the oligarchal Trump Crime Family (TCF). Like hostages with no chance of escape, the TCF was forced to remain in their pews and listen to her, so they sat dumbfounded and squirmed. Look at Trump’s posture and the First Lady’s icy-cold expression. Priceless.

Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-us-trump-border-migrants-f3e5daf10f550e871bfe98b29950bc6a

https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-01-14/mexico-has-a-plan-sheinbaum-addresses-uncertainty-a-week-before-trump-returns-to-the-white-house.html

Space Chorus Detected from Unexpected Source

“Bursts of electromagnetic radiation that share similarities with birdsong have long been observed close to Earth. A detection farther out in space confirms a key part of the theory of their origin, but also poses questions.“

Chorus waves play a leading role in the formation of aurora borealis. (Photo: OWEN HUMPHERYS – PA IMAGES)

From Nature:

“In the 1960s, scientists at the Halley Research Station in Antarctica began hearing mysterious waves originating over the Earth’s equator. Their radio receivers were picking up intense bursts of electrons shaking the magnetosphere, the layer created by Earth’s magnetic field that protects life from space radiation. When these signals were converted into sound, they produced a whistling sound that could be mistaken for the chirping of birds at dawn.”

Different types of plasma waves triggered by various mechanisms, occupy different regions of space around Earth. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

“Later, it was discovered that this chorus is also heard on Saturn and Jupiter, and it was thought that it was governed by the magnetic field generated by the planets between their poles. The origin of this spatial trill is usually found close to them, in the case of Earth less than 51,000 kilometers (31,690 miles) above its surface. Now, a team has published a study in the journal Nature, the results of which suggest that it can also be located much further away, in deep space.”

“For more than 70 years, scientists have believed that chorus waves can only be generated in regions close to planets where a dipolar magnetic field is present, which has been proposed as the key factor controlling the generation and propagation of chorus waves,” explains Chengming Liu, a researcher at the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Beihang University in Beijing, China, and one of the leaders of the study. “In our paper, we present an unexpected observation of chorus waves far from Earth, where a dipolar magnetic field is absent, and reveal a fundamental mechanism for chorus wave generation, which can operate anywhere in space.”

“The discovery is of scientific interest, but also of practical interest. Chorus waves can cause radiation that is dangerous for astronauts or satellites, and knowing in detail how they are produced would allow us to predict their occurrence and apply protective measures. “Chorus waves are some of the most intense waves in space. They can accelerate electrons to ultra-high energies and therefore cause radiation that affects humans and electromagnetic devices on spacecraft,” explains Liu. “Just as we worry about rain and wind on the Earth’s surface, we should worry about weather in space,” he points out.”

These are Juno Waves recorded from the Planet Jupiter:

Sources:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-04211-6

https//www.nasa.gov

‘Dignity for All’: Idaho Bill Proposes Firing Squad as State’s Primary Execution Method

Firing squad executing a prisoner, circa 1890. (Vintage Images / Getty Images)

Eleven months after Idaho failed to execute a prisoner for the first time ever using lethal injection, Republican lawmakers have their targets set on using a firing squad as the state’s primary execution method. State Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa) introduced the bill which would make Idaho the only US state to give preference to a firing squad. Skaug sponsored a bill that became law in 2023 that added back the firing squad as a backup method of execution in the state, but only when lethal injection is not possible because of a lack of execution drugs.

Humanitarian and all-round good guy State Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa) who heinously introduced the firing squad bill. (Undated photo via the public domain).

The Idaho Department of Correction has since had more consistent access to pentobarbital, the state’s preferred chemical for lethal injections. The state prison system most recently bought a batch of the drugs in Oct 2024, court records showed. But nearly two years later — and after state prison officials failed to find a suitable vein for an IV in the body of 73-year-old death row prisoner Thomas Creech — Skaug now hopes to ensure that prisoners on Idaho’s nine-member death row are shot to death. Lethal injection would become the state’s backup method. In South Carolina any of the 30 death row inmates may request firing squad if lethal injection is unavailable.

Idaho’s death row at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution near Kuna houses male prisoners sentenced to death. Female death row inmates are housed at the Women’s Correctional Center in Pocatello. (Photo: Idaho Department of Correction)

Remarkable, the day after Bishop Mariann Budde chastises President Trump to have more compassion and show mercy, this avuncular-looking miscreant wants to enshrine capital punishment rather than ban it. This Kentucky Fried Chicken Colonel Sanders doppelganger– Bruce Skaug– is my candidate for Worst Person of the World.

What would Kentucky-bred Colonel Sanders say about his evil twin in Idaho?

Sources:

https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/northwest/idaho/article298915055.html

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/south-carolina-firing-squad

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

Spain: Increased Cases of Hepatitis A in 2024

Spain is facing a worrying situation: 894 confirmed cases of hepatitis A mark the largest increase in cases in a decade. This unexpected viral outbreak raises questions about current public health measures. The highest number of cases occurred in Andalusia, Madrid, and Catalonia.

Map courtesy of worldatlas.com.

Below are the regions with the highest number of reported cases:

  • Andalusia: 166 cases
  • Madrid: 161 cases
  • Catalonia: 114 cases
  • Balearic Islands: High infection rate
  • Basque Country and Canary Islands: Notable increase

The high rate of infection in these areas underscores the need to strengthen preventive and control measures. The hepatitis A virus is spread mainly by fecal-oral transmission, which highlights the need to maintain high standards of personal and collective hygiene.

How many times have you seen someone exit the water closet without their hands? Coriolanus witnessed this too many times. On one occasion in a large metropolitan shopping mall, your author witnessed one such miscreant walk out of the thunder closet, pull up his pants, and exit the latrine without washing his hands. Coriolanus followed the neanderthal who went behind the counter of a bagel shop to resume work! Your humble author alerted two nearby constables who merely shrugged their shoulders and replied that no crime was committed (other than potentially spreading hepatitis A or other awful diseases to the public). That baker should have been beaten in place, then court-martialed.

Source:

Spain registers a large increase in cases of hepatitis A

Wagner Group Accused of Plotting Attacks on Chevron’s African Pipelines, Cooperating with Al Qaeda

The Kremlin’s new Afrika Korps. Wagnerites have been implicated in committing war crimes in Africa.

The Wagner Group has been accused of plotting attacks against Western infrastructure in Africa, including the US oil company Chevron’s pipelines, according to the leaked correspondence of Prigozhin’s Concord Group obtained by Ukraine’s Channel 24. Another accusation is that Wagner mercenaries have allegedly cooperated with terrorists, including Al Qaeda, in Africa. The obtained emails also shed light on a scandal involving food poisoning allegedly caused by the Concord Group.

The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the information.

In March 2021, Igor Smirnov wrote an email to Prigozhin’s Concord Group, saying that retired Russian officers were expected to take part in attacks on foreign infrastructure facilities in West Africa.

Smirnov, allegedly a former Russian intelligence officer who allegedly worked for oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was attempting to frame or warn the group. He claimed that “a group of Russians is contacting many armed groups in West Africa, including Ansaru, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria.”

“In exchange for attacks on Western oil companies, jihadists are helping to arm militants in the Niger Delta under a direct agreement with the Russians,” Smirnov said. “After the first attacks on Western companies, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb will take responsibility for that.”

Apart from military activities, the correspondence covers Concord Group’s food procurement schemes. In 2019, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s team exposed Concord Group’s low-quality food deliveries to schools and kindergartens in Moscow and St. Petersburg, which resulted in the poisoning of hundreds of children.

Amid the scandal, many parents sent emails to Concord Group and demanded compensation.

In response to the accusations, in August 2019, Prigozhin accused Navalny and his associate Lyubov Sobol of orchestrating the poisoning, according to the leaked correspondence. He claimed that Navalny and Sobol “extorted 300 million rubles ($3 million) to avoid stirring up a scandal regarding the children.”

These accusations fit the modus operandi of the Kremlin and the Wagner Group. Create chaos, then arrive with a solution (Wagnerites). 127 confirmed cases of food poisoning were blamed on Yevgeny Prigozhin who had to pay compensation and poor Alexei Navalny died later in a Siberian gulag. Prigozhin himself would die in a mysterious aviation disaster after an explosive detonated while his plane was in mid-flight. This coincidence occurred after his failed coup d’etat against Vladimir Putin.

Sources:

https://kyivindependent.com/prigozhins-wagner-group-accused-of-plotting-attacks-on-chevron-cooperating-with-al-qaeda-leaked-emails-show/

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/11/01/putins-chef-ordered-to-pay-for-mass-child-poisonings-a68014

Roadrunner Brings His Rescuer Gifts Every Day

The Fourth Reich Begins in America

(Montage courtesy of James Marshall Crotty, The Huffington Post)

Donald Trump’s second presidency heralded in the new Fourth Reich with a breath-taking malicious maelstrom of white supremacist and authoritarian executive orders and directives. None of this should come as a surprise to Americans or anybody in the world, particularly the people of Germany who issued the US a warning the first time Donald Trumpf ran for President in 2016.

Americans lived through Trump’s first term holding their nostrils in horror and will do so again.

Within two hours of the Fuhrer’s inauguration on Monday, former CJCS General Mark Milley’s portrait was removed from the Pentagon.

Trump had deep resentment toward Milley, and once called him “slow moving and thinking” and a “moron.” Hours earlier, former President Joe Biden had issued a pre-emptive pardon to Milley and others against potential retaliation.

To punctuate the arrival of the Fourth Reich, at Trump’s Inaugural Ball South African-born trillionaire Elon Musk twice rendered the Nazi salute to a delighted and cheering audience.

A PhD scholar on Nazi Germany and the Third Reich commented on social media that Musk’s expert salute was perfect and unmistakable.

Here is a cheat-sheet of the Fuhrer’s agenda:

Within the first 36 hours of his coronation, the Fuhrer began terminating civil servants whom he described as members of the “Deep State” and relieved Admiral Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead the US Coast Guard.

Admiral Linda Fagan speaks at the US Coast Guard change of command ceremony at USCG Headquarters in Washington, 1 Jun 2022. (Photo: AFP)

The tempest of terror continued when Trump replaced the Ukraine team at the Pentagon and ordered a suspension of all US foreign aid (whether this includes Israel is unclear). The Fuhrer pardoned 1,500 6 January insurrectionists, including the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers (the Proud Boys have been listed as a terrorist organization by Canada). The White House took down its Spanish language version of its website. The Fuhrer also rescinded sanctions against lunatic Israeli Settlers who have been killing Palestinians and seizing their land. See later story.

With avian flu spreading throughout the world, the Fuhrer withdrew the US from the World Health Organization (WHO) and ordered all federal health agencies to stop external communications (warnings, advisories). Trumpf also fired special advisers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that were investigating nefarious Chinese cyber-hacking groups, like Salt Typhoon.  The Fuhrer will be announcing dates for the start of tariffs against China, Canada, and Mexico.

The Fuhrer also withdrew USSS protection from his former national security advisor John Bolton who has legitimately angered the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Force (IRGC). Mr. Bolton has the funds to pay for his own security detail. His reckless Islamophobia shouldn’t keep costing American taxpayers money to protect him.

Followers of the Watch, Coriolanus will endeavor to keep up as best as possible while the Fuhrer implements his austerity plans to impoverish Americans, destroy affirmative action, alienate allies, threaten neighbors, deport people of color, and dismantle the US from within on behalf of the Kremlin.

Oxfam: “Takers, Not Makers: Billionaires Added Two Trillion Dollars to Their Pockets in 2024”

Oxfam informs:

“Most billionaire wealth is taken, not earned The idea that extreme wealth is a reward for
extreme talent is pervasive and strongly reinforced in our media and popular culture.
But this perception is not rooted in reality. This report makes the case that the extreme wealth of today’s billionaire class is largely unearned, where inheritance, cronyism and monopoly power generate extreme wealth. Unchecked, we are about to see the biggest transfer of the largest generational wealth in human history handed over – hardly earned, hardly taxed.”

The wealth of each of the richest ten men has grown by almost US$100 million a day in 2024 on average. Even if you saved US$1,000 daily since the first humans 315,000 years ago, you still would not have as much money as one of the richest ten billionaires. If any of the richest ten billionaires lost 99% of their wealth, they’d still be a billionaire.

Obviously this will get worse for Americans as the largest wealth-extraction scheme run by a cabal of greedy billionaire oligarchs takes over the US government and economy.

Source:

Click to access English%20-%20Davos%20Executive%20Summary%202025.pdf

Russian Drones Hunting Ukrainian Civilians in Kherson Like a “Safari”

From the Economist:

“For six months Russian drones have been attacking civilians daily, chasing cars and pedestrians through the streets of Kherson in what locals call a “safari”.

“There have been more than 1,000 drone strikes since last summer, injuring over 500 people and killing 36, according to municipal authorities. Surveillance drones patrol high up; smaller attack drones (known as FPVs, or first-person-view drones), with a flying time of 20-40 minutes, sit on rooftops to conserve battery power. The munitions dropped are often makeshift: mortar shells, grenades, canisters containing shrapnel or darts, or bottles of petrol that ignite.”

Russian First Person View (FPV) kamikaze drone with a MON-50 mine containing lethal and maiming shrapnel. (Open source photo)

“Shops, schools, clinics, private houses, delivery vans, buses, firetrucks and other first responders are routinely targeted. Several administrative officials have been wounded. In one case, says Roman Mrochko, the head of the military authority in Kherson, a minibus “was almost completely destroyed, but the driver heroically saved the injured people by driving, you could say on scrap metal, to the hospital.” In the riverside neighborhoods where the attacks are concentrated, designated “red zones” by Russians on Telegram channels, life has been throttled. There is no gas, water, electricity or municipal heat. Public transport is suspended. Ambulances wait outside the area for police in armored cars to ferry the wounded to them.”

Russian forces have been accused of committing war crimes in Kherson. Investigators uncover three victims. (Photo: Govt of Ukraine)

There is no military value in hunting and killing civilians like this for sport. This is purely sadism and terrorism. The ICC indicted and issued an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, but there is reporting that Donald Trumpf will be sanctioning the ICC to remove warrants against him and fellow PIFWC Benjamin Netanyahu. See next story.

Source:

https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/01/18/russian-pilots-appear-to-be-hunting-ukrainian-civilians

Of course. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is After Putin and Netanyahu, So Trump is Going After the ICC

The man who handed Donald Trump the White House by sabotaging the Democratic Party in 2024 in a previous meeting with the Fuhrer.

KGB veteran Vladimir Putin met with his protege in Finland, 16 Jul 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The ICC indicted and issued international arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin (17 Mar 2023) and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (21 Nov 2024) for alleged war crimes against the people of Ukraine and Gaza.

Israel National News reports:

“US President Donald Trump plans to introduce sweeping sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

“The sanctions will target both ICC personnel, including judges and prosecutors, and the institution itself. The administration intends to classify the ICC as a threat to US national interests, utilizing designation procedures akin to those employed by the State Department for global terrorist organizations. This designation will impose strict penalties on anyone associated with the court’s operations.”

“Global financial institutions will be compelled to sever ties with ICC personnel or face sanctions from the US. Similar to measures imposed on sanctioned Israeli citizens by the outgoing administration, ICC staff will be unable to carry out routine banking activities, such as accessing credit cards or conducting financial transactions. Their assets will effectively be frozen, with exceptions allowed only for basic necessities like food purchases. Additionally, all US-based assets belonging to ICC employees and the institution itself will be frozen.”

“Beyond these unilateral measures, the incoming administration aims to rally US allies to reject cooperation with ICC arrest warrants targeting Israeli officials.”

On the strength of the ICC Rome Statute, Ukraine requested that Mexico arrest Putin if he attended Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidential inauguration on 1 Oct 2024. Mexico demurred and Putin sent a deputy anyway.

If signatory countries like Poland or France seek exceptions for Netanyahu, or Mongolia and Mexico for Putin, the ICC is only good for picking low-lying fruit like warlords from the Balkans or Africa. In essence, the ICC has the same enforcement mechanisms as the Vatican.

Official ICC Portrait of Jack Smith. Many Americans pinned their hopes on his success against Donald Trump when he was Special Counsel. (Credit: Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office)

Both indictments are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Sources:

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401849

https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and

Former CIA Analyst Pleads Guilty to Leaking Israeli Attack Plans on Social Platform

Asif William Rahman was arrested in Cambodia. (Photo: Guam Department of Corrections)

Asif William Rahman (34) of Vienna, VA, pleaded guilty to retaining and transmitting Top Secret National Defense Information to people who were not entitled to receive it. This information was publicly posted on a social media platform in October 2024.

Rahman was an analyst at CIA since 2016. On 17 Oct 2024, Rahman accessed and printed two Top Secret documents containing National Defense Information regarding a US foreign ally and its planned actions against a foreign adversary. Rahman removed the documents, photographed them, and transmitted them to individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them. By 18 Oct 2024, the documents appeared publicly on multiple social media platforms, complete with the classification markings.

Beginning in the spring of 2024 and continuing through Nov 2024, Rahman repeatedly accessed and printed classified National Defense Information and transmitted to multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it.

Rahman pleaded guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense. He is scheduled to be sentenced on 15 May 2025. He faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison for both counts in the plea agreement.

Asif William Rahman was the individual who leaked IDF attack plans on social media in an effort to prevent Israel from attacking Iran last year. Rahman is reportedly a Yale University graduate. The poor guy tried to prevent Israel from plunging the world into further war and now pays the price of his espionage. The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions as Mr. Rahman has found out.

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-cia-analyst-pleads-guilty-transmitting-top-secret-national-defense-information

https://ifpnews.com/us-cia-official-document-israeli-attack-iran/

The Philippines: Clade II Mpox Virus Case Reported in Baguio City

Mpox symptoms. (Photo: AFP)

Residents of Baguio are urged to stay alert after the first case of mpox was reported in the city. The Baguio City Health Services Office confirmed that the patient is a 28-year-old male. His infection was caused by the less severe Clade II mpox virus, not the more deadly Clade I.

The patient completed isolation and was cured on 17 Jan 2025.

The Baguio City Mayor reassured the public, stating that there is no cause for panic or a lockdown. He strongly advised the public to follow health protocols, including wearing face masks, practicing physical distancing, maintaining hand and personal hygiene, and ensuring proper ventilation.

The Department of Health (DOH) noted that the mpox virus can be transmitted through “direct contact with skin or mucosal lesions” during activities such as talking, breathing, kissing, touching, hugging, sexual intercourse, or through respiratory secretions. It can also be contracted indirectly through contaminated bedding, clothing, linens, or other objects.

Symptoms of mpox include skin rash or mucosal lesions, fever, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat, muscle aches, back pain, headache, and low energy.

Authorities urged the public to observe health protocols to avoid infection, such as covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing, avoiding skin-to-skin contact, staying out of crowded areas, frequent handwashing, and maintaining good airflow. Those with symptoms are advised to seek medical consultation immediately.

The WHO informs:

In 2022–2023 a global outbreak of mpox was caused by the clade IIb strain. Mpox continues to be a threat today, and an upsurge of cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries caused by clades Ia and Ib has raised concern. There are vaccines for mpox. Vaccination should be considered along with other public health interventions.

Sources:

https://tribune.net.ph/2025/01/19/baguio-reports-first-case-of-monkeypox

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mpox

Nakba Continues in West Bank: IDF Kills Ten and Wounds 40 Palestinians in Jenin

Indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation aimed to “defeat terrorism” in Jenin. (Photo Reuters).

No sooner than the guns go silent in Gaza, the “Crime Minister” of Israel launches an “extensive and significant” operation to “defeat terrorism” in Jenin, long seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups. Ten Palestinians were killed, 40 wounded; three doctors and two nurses were among those wounded by Israeli gunfire. A medical worker told the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians:

“I was called in [on Tuesday] due to the surge of injuries, and the moment I stepped out of the car making my way to the emergency entrance a sniper shot me below the knee. Another doctor was shot in the same spot,” he added. “The Israeli army is shooting non-stop.”

In another barbaric development in the West Bank, dozens of masked Israeli extremists attacked Palestinians in two villages east of Qalqilya, Jinsafut and al-Funduq, setting fire to Palestinian homes and cars and smashing property. At least 21 Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Two Israelis were also shot, apparently when an Israeli police officer opened fire while responding to the violence.

A Palestinian shop in the village of Jinsafut was set on fire overnight, when suspected Israeli settlers went on the rampage. (Photo: AFP)

The far-right, pro-settler Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, welcomed the US removing sanctions from Settlers. In a post on X, Smotrich praised Trump’s “unwavering and uncompromising support for the state of Israel.”

According to the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, in 2024 settlers also established 59 new outposts, without authorization from the Israeli government. That was more than double the number from the previous year – which was also a record year for settlement outpost establishment.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this – as did the previous Trump administration.

There is no reporting of IDF attempts to arrest the Palestinians suspected of being terrorists nor any reports of Israeli police attempting to stop the Settlers from attacking Palestinians, their homes, cars, or businesses.

The hard-working American taxpayer dollar continues to fund ethnic cleansing in Israel, as well as their world-class universal healthcare system.

Source:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg750yzdr8o

Four Types of Tigers in One Photo

From left to right, the Golden Tiger, Snow White Tiger, Bengal Tiger and White Tiger. There are nine subspecies of tigers. How the photographer got them to pose like this is uncanny. This was originally posted on Reddit. There was no information as to which sanctuary these tigers are living in. (Photo courtesy of Nature is Amazing.)

Israel Conducted the Worst Bombardment of the 21st Century

Palestinians mourn relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in front of the morgue in Deir al Balah on 31 Oct 2024. (Photo: Fatima Shbair / AP)

In intensity and concentration of violence in the 25-mile-long Gaza Strip, the Nakba may have been the most destructive aerial and artillery bombardment of the 21st century. This takes into account the nearly three-year Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The level of physical destruction has been compared to the firebombing of Hamburg in the Second World War.

Rubble after the Allied bombing of Hamburg in July 1943.

Rubble after Israeli bombing of Gaza. (Photo: Ashraf Amra / Anadolu / Getty Images)

The Palestinian death toll, which the official Hamas-run health ministry puts at 46,600, is more than ten times its count in all previous Gaza conflicts since 2008 combined. 110,265 Palestinians have been injured. The IDF maintains 17,000 of the dead were militants. So, who were the 29,600 non-combatant casualties?

Just over half of the dead are women, children, or the elderly. Israel says the figures are suspect because of Hamas’s control of the ministry in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has not released figures for its losses.

UN experts estimate that at least 19,000 children have been orphaned in Gaza, but the true figure is probably higher. Those other wars did not involve this much bombing and this much displacement in such a small and crowded place, with a population that includes such a high proportion of children, said Jonathan Crickx, a spokesman for UNICEF.

In any war, the dead are often the lucky ones: the numbers of the maimed and crippled often dwarfs those of the dead.

According to Save the Children, on average the Israeli bombardment in Gaza maimed 15 children a day (475 per month), leaving them with lifelong disabilities.

UNICEF reports there are over 1,000 child amputees in Gaza like this girl pictured above.

Another nightmare for Muslims in the Middle East is coming…

Islamophobe Sebastian Gorka. Said his PhD adviser: ‘I would not call him an expert in terrorism.’ (Undated screengrab)

Soon the notorious virulent rightwing anti-Iranian Sebastian Gorka will be assuming a prominent national security role in the upcoming Trumpf administration. Americans will begin to hear anti-Iranian rhetoric from Fox News and other right-wing media outlets. With a Republican soon to be in the White House and a Likudnik in charge of Israel, the potential for conflict with Iran will greatly increase. Locations of American servicemembers stationed in the Middle East can be seen in the map below.

President Biden ended the “forever wars” because Americans were getting tired of this:

Remains of a fallen US Soldier coming home. (Photo: US Army)

Sources:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/worst-bombardment-21st-century-reshaped-081258905.html

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/media-centre/press-releases/explosive-weapons-left-15-children-a-day-in-gaza-with-potentiall

https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2024/04/six-months-into-the-war-on-gaza-over-10000-women-have-been-killed

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/nov/16/sebastian-gorka/fact-check-former-white-house-aide-says-iran-every/

https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/politics/gorka-credentials/index.html

https://www.unicef.org/sop/stories/facing-life-gaza-strip-new-disability

Letter from President Joe Biden to the American People

Four years ago, we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities. We were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. But we came together as Americans, and we braved through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.

Today, we have the strongest economy in the world and have created a record 16.6 million new jobs. Wages are up. Inflation continues to come down. The racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years. We’re rebuilding our entire nation—urban, suburban, rural, and Tribal communities. Manufacturing is coming back to America. We’re leading the world again in science and innovation, including the semiconductor industry. And we finally beat Big Pharma to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. More people have health insurance today in America than ever before. I signed one of the most significant laws helping millions of veterans who were exposed to toxic materials and their families, as well as the most significant climate law ever and the first major gun safety law in nearly 30 years. Today, the violent crime rate is at a 50-year low.

I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case. America is an idea stronger than any army and larger than any ocean. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world. That idea is that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We’ve never fully lived up to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.

Vice President Harris and I asked our staff to prepare a detailed summary of the progress we’ve made together throughout the last four years. Below, I’m sharing our record with you. I hope you’ll do your part to build on the progress we’ve made.

It has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years. Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States. I have given my heart and my soul to our nation. And I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people.

History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. We just have to keep the faith and remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there is simply nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.

Thank you.

Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Sources:


https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/15/the-biden-harris-administration-record/

The above link will take you to FACT SHEET: The Biden-Harris Administration Record, as well as the transcript of his televised Oval Office farewell to the American people.

The 2024 Democratic Party suffered the same stinging loss like in 1968. Antiwar Democrats opposed to supporting the brutal South Vietnamese regime and the wasteful war were shut out of the DNC convention in Chicago. Rather than vote for Republican Richard Nixon or Segregationist George Wallace, the pacifists abstained. In parallel fashion, antiwar Democrats opposed to US support of the brutal Jerusalem regime were shut out of the DNC convention in Chicago. Rather than vote for Republican Donald Trump or Green Party Jill Stein, the pacifists abstained. This accounted for the depressed turnout for Democrats in both 1968 and 2024, despite their domestic policy achievements. Both incumbent Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Joe Biden watched their VPOTUS crash and burn by not heeding to the antiwar bloc of their party, letting the Vietnam War and Gaza Nakba tarnish their images.

Why Do Ukrainians Oppose Lowering The Conscription Age?

Soldiers carry a coffin of Ukrainian soldier Andriy Kuzmenko, who was killed in the Russia-Ukraine war, during a farewell ceremony at the St. Michael’s Monastery in Kyiv on 10 Jan. (Photo: AP)

The US, Kyiv’s main military backer, has called on Ukraine to lower the conscription age from 25 to 18 as the country struggles to fend off advancing Russian forces amid a shortage of new recruits. In April, Ukraine reduced the mobilization age from 27 to 25. But in Nov 2024, the Biden administration pushed Ukraine to lower the draft age again to 18. On 12 Jan, President-elect Donald Trump’s designated national-security adviser Mike Waltz repeated the message.

That has led some Ukrainian families to send their sons overseas to avoid conscription.

Svitlana Pokalchuk has sent her two teenage sons abroad for their safety. (Photo: RFE/RL)

The Issue:

The 18-25 age group is the weakest of Ukraine’s working age demographics. A dramatic fall in the birth rate in the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, continued into the 2000s amid ongoing economic hardship.

“Our lowest birth rate in history was in 2001,” says Oleksandr Hladun, deputy director at the Ukrainian Academy of Science’s Demography Institute. “This contingent is currently the smallest. And this means that in 25-30 years even fewer children will be born.”

Economic problems and the war took another toll on the Ukrainian population as thousands emigrated. Today 25% of Ukrainian high school students wish to continue their studies abroad.

This is why Ukraine is facing manpower shortages and its people are reluctant to lower the draft age. The leadership of much larger Russia doesn’t care about how many of their young men die as you have previously read on Coriolanus.

Ukrainian police conducted hundreds of raids nationwide to shut down routes used by military-aged men to flee the country to avoid military service. (Photo: dpsu.gov.ua)

As the US Navy once used press gangs to obtain sailors, Kyiv has been employing the same tactic searching for and detaining draft evaders of military age.

ICC-indicted war criminal Vladimir Putin depicted by a street artist in Sweden.

Sources:

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-war-conscription/33275293.html

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/30122

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/45211

WHO: Suspected Outbreak of Marburg Disease Kills Eight in Tanzania

(Image: CDC)

WHO received reliable reports from in-country sources regarding suspected cases of MVD in the Kagera region of the United Republic of Tanzania. Six people were reported to have been affected, five of whom had died. The cases presented with similar symptoms of headache, high fever, back pain, diarrhoea, haematemesis (vomiting with blood), malaise (body weakness) and, at a later stage of disease, external hemorrhage (bleeding from orifices).

Nine suspected cases were reported including eight deaths (case fatality ratio (CFR) of 89%) across two districts – Biharamulo and Muleba– in the NW corner of Tanzania.

The regional risk is considered HIGH due to Kagera region’s strategic location as a transit hub, with significant cross-border movement of the population to Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Republic of Rwanda has confirmed more than 60 cases of Marburg virus disease primarily associated with hospitals in Kigali, including some deaths. This is the country’s first Marburg outbreak.

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated bed sheets.

The global risk is currently assessed as LOW.

The suspected culprit, the Egyptian rousette fruit bat. (Photo: Kim Taylor)

Sources:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2025-DON552

https://www.cdc.gov/marburg/situation-summary/index.html

Lunatic From India Sentenced for Attempted Attack on White House With Truck

(Photo: Rockwood School District)

Sai Varshith Kandula (20) of St. Louis, MO was sentenced in US District Court to 96 months in federal prison for an attempted attack on the White House with a rented truck on 22 May 2023 in an attack that aimed to overthrow the democratically elected government of the United States in order to replace it with a dictatorship fueled by Nazi ideology.

Kandula pleaded guilty on 13 May 2024, to a charge of willful injury or depredation of property of the US before US District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich. Kandula is an Indian national who was born in Chandanagar, India. At the time of the incident, he was a lawful permanent resident of the US with a green card. In addition to the prison term, Judge Friedrich ordered Kandula to serve three years of supervised release.

Kandula admitted to investigators that he would have arranged for the killing of the US President and others if necessary to achieve his objective. His actions were calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion. The maniac was armed with a Nazi Swastika banner and no firearm. Kandula’s idiotic attack caused $4,322 in damage to the National Park Service.

Kandula clearly needs mental hygiene assistance which hopefully the BOP can provide. After his eight-year sentence ends, he will be deported forthwith back to India.

Source:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/attempted-attack-white-house-rented-box-truck-results-8-year-sentence-missouri-man

Bootleg Alcohol in Istanbul Kills 23 People in 48 Hours

The Arnavutköy district has become one of Istanbul’s most famous nightlife locations.

Twenty-three people in Istanbul have died in 48 hours after drinking tainted alcohol.

At least 43 others were hospitalized — 32 of them in intensive care — Turkish officials said. Since the start of the new year, they said a total of 34 people have died from the effects of bootleg alcohol. Alcohol tainted with methanol is suspected to be the cause.

Methanol is a substance that’s often added to alcohol to increase its potency. It’s often used in illegally produced products instead of ethanol because it’s cheaper, according to a study which looked at illegally produced alcohol in southern Turkiye, and it can cause blindness, liver damage and death.

Turkiye suffered previous incidents of methanol poisoning. Tainted alcohol sickened 110 victims in 2024, killing 48 of them, after the government raised taxes on alcohol.

This may affect tourism to Turkiye. At its height in 2019, Turkiye attracted approximately 51 million foreign tourists which contributed towards its GDP. In 2023, tourism revenue reached $54.3 billion USD. Last year, several tourists from Australia, the UK, and the US died from methanol poisoning in Laos.

Sources:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/istanbul-tainted-alcohol-people-dead/

https://travelwiththegreens.com/what-percentage-of-turkey-s-gdp-is-contributed-by-tourism.html

Besides You, Loyal Followers of the Watch, Who Else is Skipping Donald Trump’s Coronation?

Napoleon crowns himself then Josephine while an angry pontiff watches on. Pope Francis won’t be attending the inauguration. Artist: Jacques-Louis David

The Leader of the Pack, former First Lady Michelle Obama.

House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith.

NYS Attorney General Letitia James.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.

Former Director CIA, General Michael Hayden.

The leader of the second largest economy and probably third most powerful militar in the world, Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to News18, Vice President Han Zheng or Foreign Minister Wang Yi might represent China on 20 Jan.

Mexico’s newly-elected President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Pope Francis selected ardent anti-Trump Cardinal Robert Walter McElroy (70) to be the Archbishop for the Washington DC diocese. (AP Photo 27 Aug 2022 / Andrew Medichini, File)

The “Maybes”

Matt Gaetz doppelganger Jair Bolsonaro, depending on whether the Brazilian Supreme Court releases his seized passport.

ICC-indicted war criminal Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Is there anybody on the planet that does NOT think Benjamin Netanyahu and his unrelenting US-funded Nakba didn’t cost the Democrats the White House in November 2024?

Trump churlishly demanded that US flags fly full mast for his coronation, disrespecting the late President Jimmy Carter for whom President Biden ordered a month of official mourning. But in essence, these are the flags that Trump really represents:

President Trump’s Official Portrait Resembles Georgia Arrest Mugshot

The photo on the right is Donald Trump’s mugshot, taken when he was arrested on 24 Aug 2023 in Fulton County, GA after being indicted on racketeering charges. The photo on the left is the official portrait which will hang in every federal facility in the US and abroad on 20 Jan 2025. This is simply breathtaking that this convicted felon would replicate that image.

This portrait of President-elect Trump and VP-elect JD Vance soon circulated on social media:

Coriolanus prefers this to be the official portrait of President-elect Trump, which was taken at Mar-A-Lago, Florida:

German Shepherd Meets Kitten for First Time

Who Are The Terrorists: Israelis or Palestinians?

A mourner sits near the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at al-Ahli Arab Hospital, known as the Baptist Hospital, in Gaza City on 8 Jan 2025 (Photo: Dawoud Abu Alkas / Reuters)

Since 1 Jan 2025, the IDF has killed at least 332 Palestinians in Gaza, including women and children, while continuing to impede the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave.

None of these Palestinians in the Gaza Strip voted in the US election on 5 Nov 2024.

Israeli forces have killed at least 50 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, as authorities warned that the Al Aqsa, Nasser and European hospitals in the enclave face imminent closure over dire fuel shortages.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) reiterated its call for global action, saying the continued violation of international law in the occupied Palestinian territory must not be allowed to continue for another year.

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, 8 Jan 2025 (Photo: Mohammed Salem / Reuters)

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warns that the lives of 15 newborns on incubators are at risk because of fuel shortages. None of the infants in the incubators are holding any Israeli hostages.

A Palestinian nurse attends to a newborn in an incubator at a hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, 10 Sep 2024 (Photo: Ramadan Abed / Reuters)

Mourners react as they carry the body of a Palestinian child killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, 8 Jan 2025 (Photo: Mohammed Salem / Reuters)

The West Bank is not immune to the IDF or their proxies. Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in their daily raids in the West Bank, including two boys, while Israeli settlers burned Palestinian several homes and vehicles.

The IDF have killed at least 45,936 Palestinian civilians and combatants while wounding or maiming 109,274 since 7 Oct 2023. The Israeli High Command asserts that 17,000 of the dead were militants. There are no judicial transcripts of the hearings for these accused militants. At least 1,139 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken captive on 7 Oct 2023 for a future prisoner swap.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, 11 Nov 2024. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)

Likud Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says half of Gazans can be ‘encouraged’ to leave within two years. By the Likud Party’s own admission, straight from the jackass’ mouth, we witness their strategy of Nakba 2023-2024, all paid for by the hardworking American taxpayer.

Israel will celebrate its 100th Centennial in 23 years. Does anybody on the planet think we’ll see a Two-State Solution in 2048?

Photographed below are Holocaust survivors and their descendants who in April 2024 recognized that the Nakba in Gaza was a genocide. Yet in 2025 there are people who claim that the wanton killing of Palestinians is Israel’s right to self-defense, denying IDF atrocities that are making the Gaza Strip completely inhospitable.

Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos (C) and descendants of Holocaust survivors take part in an 13 Apr 2024 London protest against the Nakba in Gaza. (Photo: @Aliwala786110/X)

The fires in southern California forced President Joe Biden to cancel his Jan 2025 trip to Rome where he was to meet the Italian Prime Minister, President, and Pope Francis, in what would have been his final official overseas trip as POTUS. President Biden’s Oct 2021 meeting with the first-ever Jesuit Pope was quite warm and they shared some laughs. Whether the Pope received Confession from Joe Biden is not known.

US President Joe Biden, left, meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, 29 Oct 2021. (Photo:  Vatican Media / AP)

But this time Pope Francis might have had an earful for President Biden about the “serious and shameful” situation in the Gaza Strip, something the US allowed to happen by contiuning to arm and assist Israel. The Pontiff recently stated “We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians. We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit.”

This sounds like Pope Francis described terrorism.

The United Nations General Assembly defines terrorism in GA Resolution 49/60:

Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.

According to the US (6 USCS § 101), the term terrorism is “any activity that–

(A) involves an act that–

(i) is dangerous to human life or potentially destructive of critical infrastructure or key resources; and

(ii) is a violation of the criminal laws of the US or of any State or other subdivision of the US; and

(B) appears to be intended–

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.”

So, who are the terrorists: Israelis or Palestinians?

Sources:

https://www.ohchr.org/en/countries/israel

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/1/9/live-israel-kills-50-people-in-gaza-recovers-body-of-captive-from-rafah

https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ramping-criticism-israel-pope-francis-calls-situation-gaza-shameful-rcna186939

Costly Russian Casualties in Ukraine Setting off Demographic Timebomb for Kremlin

December 2024 was likely the most costly month for Russia since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of neighboring Ukraine almost three years ago.

At least 48,000 troops were killed or wounded last month, the sixth straight month that Russian forces suffered an increase in monthly losses on the battlefield, British defense intelligence officials reported. Russia sustained at least 2,200 casualties on 19 Dec, the highest record of combat losses on a single day.

Russian casualties offloaded from truck or train car. (Undated photo: AP)

Moscow sustained 429,660 casualties in its war in 2024, a dramatic increase from the 252,940 battlefield losses in 2023. Since the start of the war, more than 790,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded, British officials said.

For comparison, the UK suffered 750,000 military casualties during the six years it fought the Second World War in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repotted 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers KIA and 370,000 WIA since the start of Russia’s invasion.

Crosses marked only with numbers stand on the graves of unknown pro-Russian separatists at a cemetery in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. (Photo: AFP)

Russian losses in Ukraine are helping fuel a demographic timebomb that could see the country’s population reduced by half by the end of the century.

“The impact on Russian society is devastating,” said Harley Balzer, emeritus professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University.

“From Russia’s perspective, (winning the war in Ukraine) is the smaller problem. The bigger issue is, is it going to be a viable country afterward regardless?”

“Life expectancy for young men is on par with a fourth-world country. Life expectancy at age 15 for a Russian man right before the (COVID-19) pandemic was about the same as his counterpart in Haiti.”

A large study into why Russian males had such short life expectancies published in 2014 concluded one of the main factors in early deaths was excessive alcohol consumption.
Other factors cited in a more recent investigation last year by the independent Russian media outlet Cherta, included high rates of murder, suicide, car crashes, and other fatal accidents.

The appalling number of Russian casualties was the major reason the Kremlin press-ganged ethnic minorities and recruited North Korean soldiers for human wave attacks. Vladimir Putin’s anxiety of the billion plus Chinese population on his eastern border was part of his reasoning in re-establishing an All-Slavic Union with the Kremlin at the head, a neo-USSR with the power and glory it once held. But his brutal invasion backfired and he has cost Russia (and Ukraine) generations of Slavic people never to be born.

Sources:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/8/russian-casualties-ukraine-war-reportedly-set-mont/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

https://kyivindependent.com/russian-losses-in-ukraine-fuelling-devastating-demographic-timebomb-experts-say/

Mexico’s New President Taking Charge

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum pointing at a map from 1607 showing an early portrayal of North America. (Photo: AFP)

Newly elected Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has suggested North America including the United States could be renamed “Mexican America” – a historic name used on an early map of the region in response to US President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”

“Mexican America, that sounds nice,” Sheinbaum joked, pointing at the map from 1607 showing an early portrayal of North America.

The president, who has jousted with Trump in recent weeks, used her daily press conference to give a history lesson, flanked by old maps and former culture minister Jose Alfonso Suarez del Real. In another response to the blathering President-elect, President Sheinbaum is taking pro-active steps to stem the number of migrants appearing at the US-Mexican border.

So-called migrant caravan advances to the US through Huehuetan, southern Mexico (Getty Images).

Two weeks ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Mexico continues dissolving attention-grabbing migrant caravans and dispersing migrants throughout the country to keep them far from the US border, while simultaneously limiting how many accumulate in any one place.

The policy of “dispersion and exhaustion” has become the center of the Mexican government’s immigration policy in recent years and last year succeeded in significantly reducing the number of migrants reaching the US border, said Tonatiuh Guillén, former chief of Mexico’s immigration agency.

Per CIA in 2022: Mexico’s export partners were the US at 77%, Canada 4%, China 2%, Taiwan 1%, South Korea 1%; import partners were the at US 56%, China 17%, Germany 3%, South Korea 3%, Japan 2%.

Mexico’s current administration hopes that the lower numbers will give them some defense after Trump threatened to impose tariffs over migration during his first presidency.

Acapulco would seem to be a strange destination for migrants. Once a crown jewel of Mexico’s tourism industry, the city now suffers under the thumb of organized crime and is still struggling to climb back after taking a direct hit from devastating Hurricane Otis in 2023.

Claudia Sheinbaum is Mexico’s first woman to be elected President and capable of standing up to Trump who has problems with charismatic women.

Just as Canada recently appropriated $1.3 bn in funds for their border ahead of Trumpf’s ascendancy, the new Mexican president is trying to soften any blows from the incoming administration by lowering the number of migrants at the US-Mexican border. Whether this plan works or not remains to be seen, especially if these migrants were trying to re-unite with family members already in the US. There is no information suggesting that Pres. Sheinbaum intends to visit Mar-a-Lago or Wash DC any time soon.

Sources:

https://www.trtworld.com/us-and-canada/mexican-america-mexico-rebukes-trump-suggests-renaming-north-america-18251753

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-drops-migrants-troubled-resort-disperses-us-border-117406521

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89v4w51dzyo

North Korea: Giant Tourist Beach Resort to Open June 2025

A photo of a general aerial view of the “Kalma Coast Tourism Area” in the North Korean city of Wonsan, released on 31 Dec 2024. (KCNA via AFP)

North Korea’s long-stalled Kalma beach resort will finally open in June 2025. North Korean supremo Kim Jong Un said the project is the “first big step” in advancing the country’s tourism. Media reports suggest that the tourist resort is aimed at Russian visitors.

Per CIA: population 26,298,666; GDP per capita: $1,700.

Launched in 2014, the project was scheduled to open by April 2019. However, it encountered numerous setbacks, including design modifications, material shortages caused by international sanctions, and disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (L) and his daughter Ju Ae walking on the beach during a visit to the “Kalma Coast Tourism Area” in the North Korean city of Wonsan. (Photo: KCNA via AFP)

In July 2024, South Korea’s spy agency the NIS said that Kim was preparing Ju Ae to succeed him, though the selection was not final.

This is unimaginable that a country with endemic food insecurity would conceive of opening a tourist location. Giving the Russian oligarchs a safe haven to enjoy the beaches makes sense as their summer resort areas in Crimea are in flux because of the war. Manning this resort will be a security challenge for Pyongyang as food supplies will most likely be pilfered or siphoned off by hungry workers.

The children of North Korea are starving while Kim Jong-un test-fired a hypersonic missile just as USSECSTATE Antony Blinken arrived in Seoul, South Korea.

If the North Korean supremo isn’t seen in public pointing at something, he is seen enjoying his cigarettes. But smoking is not going to kill Kim Jong-un; he may end up hanging by his ankles like Benito Mussolini one day for starving his people and sending thousands to die in Russia while he takes each of his soldier’s $2,200 monthly stipend.

Source:

North Korea says giant tourist beach resort to open in June 2025 – Radio Free Asia

Health News: Noise Pollution More Than Nuisance, But Proven Health Risk

From Harvard Medical School:

“For half a century, US agencies such as the EPA have deemed noise pollution “a growing danger to the health and welfare of the Nation’s population.” The European Environmental Agency reports that noise ranks second only to air pollution as the environmental exposure most harmful to public health.

Recently, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that people exposed to high aircraft noise levels could be at greater risk of poor heart function, increasing their risk of heart attack, stroke, and irregular heartbeat.

Residents living near noisy airports had 10% to 20% worse heart structure and function, compared to people who moved to get away from the aircraft noise.

Cardiologists reported people’s heart muscles had grown stiffer and thicker over time, making the organ less efficient at pumping blood, quadrupling a person’s risk of heart attack or stroke.

Environmental factors such as air pollution or noise have already been linked to adverse health effects such as cardiovascular diseases and general well-being.

In 2023, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) found that the risk to commit suicide increases for people exposed to high levels of transportation noise. Noise is a constant stressor affecting sleep, levels of stress hormones, changes in brain function, or a sense of loss of control.

The study found that exposure to transportation noise at home was linked to a higher risk of death by suicide. With every 10 dB increase of average road traffic noise at home, risk for suicides rises by 4%. An association with railway noise was also observed, although less pronounced.

Mental health disorders affect nearly one billion people worldwide and are a leading cause of suicide. Noise abatement programs, adding greenery to the urban sprawl, flying less noisier aircraft like the new Airbus A220, relocating away from airports, and reducing automobile traffic can lower people’s exposure to excess noise, lowering their health risks.

Sources:

https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2024.09.1217

https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/noise-and-health

https://www.swisstph.ch/en/news/news-detail/news/transportation-noise-increases-risk-for-suicides

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Nuclear Engineer, Humanitarian: President Jimmy Carter

(1 Oct 1924 – 29 Dec 2024)

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, US President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, celebrate after signing the Camp David Peace Accords in 1978. (Photo: Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

US President Jimmy Carter and Panama’s General Omar Torrijos shake hands after signing the Panama Canal Torrijos-Carter Treaties on 7 Sep 1977. 

President Jimmy Carter, in his first full day in office, fulfilled a campaign promise by granting unconditional pardons to hundreds of thousands of men who had evaded the draft during the Vietnam War by fleeing the country or by failing to register with their Selective Service boards. He also ordered a review of military desertion cases.

After retiring, President Carter established the Carter Center for Peace and volunteered to build homes with Habitats for Humanity.

Jimmy Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, and his mother, Lillian, pin ensign bars on his epaulets after his graduation from the US Naval Academy in 1946. He would learn to fly sea-planes and nuclear engineering for submarines. (Photo US Navy)

The US Navy’s work in developing the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, meant that Admiral Hyman Rickover and Lieutenant James Carter had access to the latest and greatest in top-secret nuclear energy technology. So when Canada’s Chalk River nuclear research facility experienced a power surge that damaged its reactor, the US sent Carter and his team. He was one of a few people in the world who could do it and he averted a nuclear disaster.

The Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, Canada, were opened in 1944. In Sep 1945, the facility put the first nuclear reactor outside of the US into operation.

President Jimmy Carter who brought peace to Israel and Egypt, returned the Panama Canal to its rightful owners, and gave amnesty to Vietnam War draft evaders, was most proud of the fact that not one bullet was fired under his administration. No other American President can say that.

At President Carter’s funeral, former President George W. Bush walked past a sitting Donald Trump who did not stand to greet him. Obama stood up and was greeted with a friendly poke in the stomach by “W.” Seeing that he might be miffed, the ever diplomatic Obama chatted a witticism to Trump that only a lip-reader would understand. With Donald Trump being sentenced the next day in New York for 34 felony counts of business fraud, someone did figure out what Obama joked about with Trump:

The Carter Center released this photograph of the funeral:

Notably absent from the photo because of the camera angle, are Russian President Vladimir Putin’s protege, Donald Trump and his tackily dressed wife Melania. They will all be re-uniting in ten days for Trump’s inauguration, keeping the USSS super busy.

Most Online Pharmacies Illegally Operated and Possibly Selling Dangerous or Ineffective Drugs

Most of the 35,000 online pharmacies around the world are operating illegally and could be selling dangerous or ineffective drugs, according to the US Trade Representative’s annual “notorious markets” report.

Ninety-six percent of online pharmacies were found to be in violation of the law, meaning they were operating without a license and selling medications without prescriptions. An estimated 20 new illegal pharmacy websites are created every day around the world.

“The health and safety concerns posed by counterfeit medicines are particularly troubling,” Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement.

Over 30 online retailers were identified in the report identified as engaged in selling counterfeit products. The websites often mimic legitimate e-commerce platforms, with false claims that they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The report compiled also singled out 19 countries over concerns about counterfeit or pirated products.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 1 in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified. Countries spend an estimated $30.5 billion per year on substandard and falsified medical products. You can find the suspected counterfeit drugs in the links below.

Sources:

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/substandard-and-falsified-medical-products

https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/anumed-international-llc-674310-08202024

https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2025/january/ustr-releases-2024-review-notorious-markets-counterfeiting-and-piracy

Dog With A Broken Jaw Found In The Road Finds Happiness

Donald Trump Resurrecting Another 19th-Century America White Supremacist Ideology

Flag of the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC)

The 19th-century nativist “Know Nothing Party” members were rabid anti-Catholic Protestant whites and would greet each other touching their eye, nose, and then making a zero with their fingers (“Eye Nose Nothing”).

Convicted scapegrace Republican George Santos and US Senator Marco Rubio doppelganger secretly rendering the “I Know Nothing” shibboleth during his short, foul tenure in the revered chambers of the US Congress. (Photo: Public domain).

For a decade, Donald Trumpf has been subtly (and brazenly) flashing these ancient shibboleths for a decade, letting his white supremacist followers know that he is “one of them.” This coded greeting evolved to three fingers representing “W” for white and the thumb and index finger making a “P” for power. Rightwing white Catholics were no longer excluded from the club.

Trumpf’s calls for invading Panama and Greenland is a resurrection of another 19th-century white supremacist ideology that incubated with the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC). This occult movement of Southerners (Northerners were called “Copperheads” during the Civil War) wanted to expand American hegemony and slavery into Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America.

The Knights of the Golden Circle was reportedly organized in Lexington, KY, on 4 Jul 1854, by Virginia-born Gen. George W. L. Bickley (1819–1867).

Sketch of a Knights of a Golden Circle meeting. One KGC leader claimed they had 65,000 oath-bound members.

In “The Idea of a Southern Nation” (1979), historian John McCardell called the Knights of the Golden Circle “that most bizarre offshoot of Southern expansionism.“

With Cuba and Mexico now off limits, vulnerable Panama because of its economic and national security relevancy is now an expansionist target, as well as mineral-rich Greenland. Global warming is making Greenland’s under-tundra resources more accessible, something that Tesla, Apple, and other hi-tech companies would like easy, inexpensive access to. Knowingly or unknowingly, Trumpf is tapping into a 19th-century expansionist cult whose ideas somehow still resonates with some white Republicans.

Had the Confederacy won the American Civil War. (Map courtesy of imaginarymaps.com)

In response to Trumpf’s idiotic blathering, the King of Denmark, Head-of-State of a loyal NATO ally and important intelligence partner, changed the 500-year-old royal Court of Arms to prominently include Greenland and the Faroe Islands:

Whether this helps the situation for Greenland and Denmark remains to be seen. Donald Trumpf Jr. just visited Greenland on Tuesday in what he called a “personal day trip.” He then posted a photo with a group of locals in a bar wearing pro-Trump caps, delivering them a message on behalf of the paterfamilias: ‘We’re going to treat you well.’

(Photo: Reuters)

Nota Bene: Danes are the only other people in the world that celebrates America’s Independence Day:

Rebild National Park Society is the first Danish-American friendship association and has existed for more than 100 years. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is savoring every second of this.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Know-Nothing-party

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

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/06/danish-king-changes-coat-of-arms-in-apparent-rebuke-to-donald-trump

Ukraine: Two Russian High Value Targets (HVTs) Eliminated in Storm Shadow Missile Attack

The moment two Russian HVTs joined the Choir Invisible from their command post in Lgov, Kursk (Credit: East2West)

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is reaching its third terrible year, the Ukrainian military is stubbornly and successfully fighting off Vladimir Putin’s hegemonic designs on its Slavic neighbor. Kiev recently unleashed a (UK-manufactured) Storm Shadow missile attack targeting Russian HVTs hiding in a bunker in Kursk on 30 Dec 2024. At least 30 Russians were WIA.

Among those rendered ineffective were Russian Lieutenant Colonel Valery Tereshchenko, chief of communications of the 76th Pskov Airborne Division, and Colonel Pavel Maletsky, commander of 656th separate engineer-sapper battalion.

The late Russian Colonel Pavel Maletsky. (Credit: East2West)

The late Lt-Col Valery Tereshchenko. (Credit: East2West)

The UK, like the US, has done yeoman’s work helping the Ukrainians against Russia. But only the UK and NATO will continue assisting Kiev after the Trumpf/Putin/Musk cabal assumes power in two weeks. Expect the Ukrainian military to exert maximum force against the Russian invaders until the last possible minute. Because of the quickly compressing timetable, the Ukrainian sabotage network inside Russia may accelerate plans to assassinate HVTs before any ceasefire. Last year, the Ukrainian GUR may have done the US a tremendous service by neutralizing Lt-General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s CBRN defense unit who was also under investigation for alleged war crimes by the Kiev government.

Sources:

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/two-high-ranking-russian-officials-killed-in-missile-attack-as-ukraine-fires-at/

https://www.thesun.co.uk

https://apnews.com/article/russia-explosion-head-of-nuclear-defense-forces-killed-9656bce946a9f552454df9debe5fbd18

IDF Soldier Flees Brazil Amid Gaza War Crimes Investigation

An Israeli soldier accused of committing war crimes in Gaza has fled Brazil where he was vacationing when the case was brought against him in the South American country.

The unidentified soldier is accused of participating in the mass demolition of civilian homes in Gaza amid Israel’s war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave.

An Israeli border police officer stands guard as municipality workers demolish a Palestinian house. (Image by Sebastian Scheiner / AP Photo.)

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid lambasted the need for a soldier to flee a country where they were vacationing in the dark of night to evade investigation as “a huge political failure.”

“How did we get to the point where the Palestinians are better than the Israeli government in the international arena?” Yair Lapid asked on X.

Palestinians mourning over the body of a relative killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza, 6 Jan 2025. (Photo: Dawoud Abu Alkas / Reuters)

Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that a total of 45,854 combatants and civilians have been killed and 109,139 wounded, injured, or maimed in Israel’s Nakba against the Palestinians following the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attack which resulted in 1,269 Israelis deaths and 250 captives taken for a prisoner swap.

On 21 Nov 2024, the ICC at the Hague issued an international arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes. Similarly, on 17 Mar 2023 the ICC had issued a warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

These indictments are merely allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Sources:

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/01/06/soldier-flees-Brazil/8791736147621/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/1/6/live-israel-pounds-gaza-as-ceasefire-talks-with-hamas-gains-momentum?update=3425712

https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and

US Sanctions Alleged War Criminals in Sudan

The US Treasury Dept sanctioned the leader of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Gen. Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousafor for committing genocide in the Northeast African nation’s nearly two-year-old civil war.

USSECSTATE Antony Blinken announced the largely symbolic genocide determination. The US has repeatedly declared that war crimes have been committed by both warring parties in Sudan’s civil war, but Blinken alleged that the RSF’s systematic murder and sexual violence targeting individuals based on their ethnicity now meets the high threshold of genocide.

US Treasury sanction targets include the paramilitary weapons supplier Abu Dharr Abdul Nabi Habiballa Ahmmed and seven related companies.

Alleged war criminal RSF commander Gen. Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa.

This is an ethnic civil war between “riverine Arabs” from the former ruling class in Khartoum and “Darfur Arabs.” These “Darfur Arabs” were considered backwards and “Africanized” by the former rulers. But “Darfur Arabs” comprise the RSF base and in turn dislike the former Khartoum ruling class. An estimated 61,000-150,000 have been killed, creating 2,170,592 refugees, while internally displacing 7,720,119 people. Russia is duplicitously supplying both sides of the conflict.

Rapid Support Forces (RSF)

Sources:

https://www.state.gov/genocide-determination-in-sudan-and-imposing-accountability-measures/

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2772

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/russia-sudan-war-saf-rsf-hedges-bets-both-sides-support

Filipino Fishermen Capture Suspected Chinese Underwater Spy Drone

Soldiers gather around the Chinese-made submersible drone recovered near San Pascual, Masbate on 30 Dec 2024. (Photo: PNP-Bicol)

Local fishermen hauled in a six-foot-long yellow underwater drone off the coast in the Philippines that police believe may have come from a Chinese submarine.

Three fishermen found the bright yellow drone about six miles off the coast of San Pascual in Masbate province, police said in a release posted on Facebook.

The sea drone carried the markings – “HY-119” – referring to “underwater navigation and communication system,” police said.

According to manufacturer sources, the Sea Wing can carry Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) sensors, as well as turbulence meter, Turbidimeter, chlorophyll sensor, dissolved oxygen sensor, nitrate and other biochemical sensors. It can also carry Acoustic sensors such as ADCP (acoustic Doppler current profile), underwater acoustic communication and hydrophones, as well as naval and military relevance.

USIC and naval personnel will have an opportunity to exploit this drone. Besides the Defense Attache office in Manila, US experts are in nearby Japan and South Korea.

Sources:

https://www.ibtimes.com/china-spy-drone-captured-phillippines-3757793

http://www.hisutton.com/Chinese-Sea-Wing-Submarine-Drone.html

Canada: The CBSA Announces First-Ever Canadian Land Pre-Clearance Operation in US

From the Government of Canada:

“The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced its intention to launch its first preclearance operation in 2025. Preclearance supports the national security and economic prosperity of both Canada and the US by facilitating the secure and efficient movement of people and goods across the border.

The initiative will have Canadian border services officers working at a shared facility at the Cannon Corners port of entry in New York (adjacent to the Covey Hill, QC port of entry). For the two-year duration of the operation, travelers entering Canada will go through Cannon Corners instead of the Covey Hill port of entry, which will be closed to travelers during that time.”

(Map: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/)

“At the preclearance site, Canadian officers will examine travelers and goods to decide whether they are admissible into Canada, as they currently do at ports of entry in Canada. This includes screening for dangerous goods, such as firearms and drugs, before they leave the US. While officers will be able to conduct most types of immigration processing at this site, claims for refugee protection cannot be processed at preclearance. Travelers seeking refugee protection in Canada will need to use a Canadian port of entry.”

Cannon Corners, NY is west of the major Champlain POE (US I-87/ Canada I-15).

“Updates on the initiative and launch date will be shared on the CBSA’s website and social media platforms.

Quote from The Honorable David J. McGuinty, Minister of Public Safety:

“Today’s announcement demonstrates our shared commitment with the United States to bolster border security and streamline the flow of legitimate trade and travel between our two countries. Preclearance is yet another example of how Canada and the United States work together every day to intercept security threats early, while delivering large-scale economic benefits for Canadians and Americans.”

Quick facts:

The Preclearance in the US Regulations provide CBSA officers with the necessary authorities to carry out immigration services at preclearance sites in the US.

The US currently has preclearance operations at eight Canadian airports.

Canada is investing $1.3 billion to bolster security at the border and strengthen the immigration system, all while keeping Canadians safe.

Remarkable that the Canadian government is spending so many resources to placate the childish and boorish Donald Trumpf. Creating discord within NATO allies and Western countries is exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin wants and Trumpf is following his instructions perfectly. The present discourse in some American circles that somehow Trumpf is responsible for PM Justin Trudeau’s resignation as head of the Liberal Party are inaccurate. The PM was dealing with domestic issues such as housing, immigration, and strengthening Canada’s national healthcare system long before Trumpf’s horrific electoral win this past Nov 2024.

Sources:

https://www.canada.ca/en/border-services-agency/news/2025/01/the-cbsa-announces-first-canadian-land-preclearance-operation-in-the-us.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4306292/The-border-town-immigrants-creeping-Canada.html

China: HMPV Virus Outbreak

Masked people walk through a station in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: 3 February 3, 2020, with an image of a virus inset by LewisTse Pui Lung / Rost-9D/iStock / Getty Images Plus / Canva)

News reports and social media posts are warning of a new outbreak of a little-known virus called human metapneumovirus (HMPV) in China, but officials are yet to confirm this.

Instead, official reports from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that rates of multiple flu-like illnesses are on the rise in China.

Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a virus that can cause flu-like illness in people of all ages, although some people are more at risk, including young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems.

The virus was only discovered as recently as 2001, but it is in the same family as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV): another flu-like virus.

https://twitter.com/COVID19_disease/status/1874481684122607783

There is not enough information from reliable sources on the extent and severity of a possible HMPV outbreak in China to accurately predict the risk of a pandemic.

However, this is a virus that already circulates among populations in China, the US and elsewhere, so there is more herd immunity against it than there would be against a novel virus, such as COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic.

(Photo: Getty Images)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly called on Beijing to share more information on the 2019 COVID outbreak which they have yet to do. Worldwide, there have been 777,074,803 confirmed cases of the disease, which is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and more than seven million deaths. Information sharing and cooperation will save lives for any epidemic, but Beijing is not known for its transparency so rumors will continue to circulate that SARS-CoV-2 was a leaked Chinese biological weapon.

Sources:

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/12/1158676

https://www.newsweek.com/human-metapneumovirus-hmpv-china-outbreak-explainer-2009126

Cat Jumps in Every Shower Her Mom Takes Shower

Lunatic Attacks Crowd in New Orleans, Killing 16, Injuring 35 in “Name of ISIS”

Shamsud-Din Jabbar (42) from Texas, drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. After hitting the crowd, Jabbar exited the vehicle and fired upon local law enforcement. Police officers returned fire, and the subject was pronounced deceased at the scene. Two law enforcement officers were injured and transported to a local hospital. 

At least 16 people, including the suspect, were killed according to the New Orleans coroner. At least 35 others were injured, some critically.

An ISIS flag was located in the rented Ford pickup truck, as well as weapons and a potential IED. Other potential IEDs were also located and rendered inert in the French Quarter. A fire broke out the same day of the attack at an Airbnb in the St. Roch neighborhood, which investigators believe the suspect rented. A man from Jabbar’s house in North Houston surrendered after law enforcement entered.

The FBI reported that Jabbar was born and raised in Texas and served in the US Army for ten years. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and was honorably discharged at the rank of Staff Sergeant.

Suspect Had Troubled Background: Perfect for Recruitment

Jabbar’s past criminal history included a 2002 arrest for misdemeanor theft and a 2005 arrest for driving with an invalid license. Jabbar was twice divorced, resulting in financial problems.

A Texas judge issued a temporary restraining order against Jabbar in 2020 after his second wife asked for one during their divorce case. The order mandated that Jabbar refrain from threats, physical harm or other stipulated behavior against his ex-wife and either of their children, and required her to avoid the same activity. In a court filing, Jabbar’s ex-wife stated the marriage had become “insupportable because of discord or a conflict of personalities.”

Like the similar Christmas attack in Magdeburg Germany in Dec 2024, the suspects were mentally defective with suicidal ideations. This made them perfect for ISIS recruitment online. The attackers are convinced that the West is at fault for their unhappy and miserable lives, so if they’re going to kill themselves, take as many infidels as possible and be rewarded with a first-class ticket to Paradise. Lenin called them “useful idiots.” There will be more copycat attacks in the future using this successful tactic by disgruntled miscreants who are cynically radicalized and recruited online by ISIS. Compare the eyes of the perpetrators in the above and below photos.

 The ‘unstable’ 50-year-old Saudi doctor, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, calmly ate shrimp and drank beer before he allegedly rammed his SUV into a crowded market in the city of Magdeburg that killed five and injured scores of revelers.

The FBI has set up a digital tip line asking the public with information or video of the incident to submit them to www.fbi.gov/bourbonstreetattack or call 1-800-CALL-FBI. 

Sources:

FBI Statement on the Attack in New Orleans — FBI

Shamsud-Din Jabbar: What we know about the New Orleans attack suspect | CNN

Montenegro: Twelve Killed in Mass Shooting, Suspect Kills Himself

Two children were among twelve people killed in a mass shooting that started at a restaurant in the small town of Cetinje in Montenegro and continued at three different locations.

Per CIA: Montenegro has a population of ~620,000 people and GDP per capita is $27,800. Montenegro became an official EU candidate in 2010 and joined NATO in 2017.

A local man is suspected of carrying out the shootings, identified by the police as Aleksandar Martinovic (45). He “killed members of his own family”, a government minister said, adding that the suspect was thought to have been drinking heavily before the rampage. The suspect died of a self-inflicted wound to the head.

Police stand at a checkpoint near where a gunman opened fire at a restaurant and killed several people in Cetinje, Montenegro, on 1 Jan 2025 (Photo: Stevo Vasiljevic / Reuters)

The mass shooting was the second gun rampage over the past three years in Cetinje, Montenegro’s historic capital. In Aug 2022 an attacker also killed ten people, including two children, before he was shot and killed by a passerby.

Montenegro is known for its gun culture and many people traditionally have weapons. The national security council will now consider “all options” in the aftermath of the attack, including a complete ban on the possession of weapons.

In any country, alcohol and easy access to firearms is a lethal combination as these poor victims discovered. The takeaway here is the Montenegrin government is considering a nationwide ban on firearms. But this is unlikely for several reasons. The history of ethnic violence in the Balkans (e.g. the Second World War, the Bosnia Civil War, and Kosovar Albanian independence) may make gunowners reluctant to surrender their weapons. Moreover, little Montenegro ranks fifth in Europe on the Global Organized Crime Index. These powerful gangs may surrender their legally registered weapons but will no doubt keep their unregistered firearms.

Sources:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/2/at-least-10-killed-in-mass-shooting-in-montenegro-suspect-kills-himself

https://ocindex.net/country/montenegro

Ukraine: Russian Helicopter Downed by Sea Drone for First Time

A Ukrainian Magura V5 drone boat armed with R-73 missiles. (Image credit: Russian Telegram channels) Inset: the Russian Mi-8 as seen by the targeting system. (Image credit: Ukrainian Military Intelligence)

Ukraine claims that for the first time one of its sea drones has downed a Russian military target in the air during a day of intense attacks by both sides as the war edges closer to its three-year anniversary.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR) claimed on 31 Dec that a Magura V5 sea drone equipped with missiles shot down an Mi-8 helicopter in a battle near Cape Tarkhankut on Crimea’s west coast.

Another Russian helicopter, the GUR said, was hit by fire but managed to return to a Russian airfield.

“GUR soldiers destroyed an air target for the first time in the world using a Magura V5 naval drone,” the intelligence agency said in the post, which had grainy video of what it said was evidence of the attack.

The video has not been independently verified.

In the video, you saw the Mi-8 release chaff to divert missiles. This downing of a helicopter by a maritime drone is another historic first in this nearly three year long war. The face of war is changing exponentially and at this conflict’s end, the Ukrainian military and intelligence services will be one of the most experienced and capable forces in the West. Indubitably, Chinese military observers are making note of these developments for any future conflict with India, Taiwan, or the US in terms of producing weapons, as well as deploying them.

The Mi-8 is the world’s most-produced helicopter, with over 17,000 units used by over 50 countries. In addition to its most common role as a transport helicopter, the Mi-8 is also used as an airborne command post, armed gunship, and reconnaissance platform. The Mi-8 is “the AK-47 of the skies.”

Sources:

Ukraine Says It Downed Russian Helicopter With Sea Drone For First Time

Mil Mi-8 – Wikipedia

Cuba: Hepatitis A Advisory for Tourists

The Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) has issued an alert for tourists who plan to visit the island due to the increase in cases of hepatitis A, a highly contagious virus that can seriously affect health.

Hepatitis A is mainly transmitted through contaminated food and water, as well as by close contact with an infected person. This viral disease affects the liver and can be especially dangerous if not treated properly. The increase in cases in Cuba is due to the consumption of raw or undercooked food and the use of non-potable water, which favors the spread of the virus.

The hepatitis A virus can remain on surfaces for several months and is not spread through casual contact, such as sneezing or coughing. However, people can become infected if they eat food handled by someone with the virus who did not wash their hands well after using the bathroom, if they ingest contaminated water or food, or if they have sexual contact with an infected person.

Symptoms usually appear within a week of infection and include unusual tiredness and weakness, nausea, abdominal pain, clay-colored stools, loss of appetite, low-grade fever, dark urine, joint pain, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes).

To prevent infection, hepatitis A vaccination, which consists of two injections separated by six months, is recommended. In addition, tourists traveling to countries with active outbreaks, such as Cuba, should follow some key precautions:

• Wash all fruits and vegetables with bottled water and peel them before eating.
• Avoid eating raw or undercooked meat and fish.
• Drink only bottled water and use it to brush your teeth.
• Do not consume drinks or ice of dubious origin.
• If bottled water is not available, boil tap water before consuming it or use it to make ice.
• Wash your hands frequently, especially after using the bathroom or before preparing food.

In the event of any symptoms of hepatitis A, travelers are urged to see a doctor as soon as possible for treatment and to avoid serious long-term complications.

Tourism in Cuba is an industry that generated over 4.7 million visitors in 2018 and is one of the main sources of revenue for the island. 1,109,339 Canadians vacationed in Cuba that year.

The hepatitis A alert may be the result of vexing potable water problems in Cuba. Water shortages are increasingly flaring tempers, including in capital Havana, as problems mount for hundreds of thousands of residents already ragged from shortfalls in food, fuel, and electricity. Upwards of 600,000 people – more than 1 in 20 on the Caribbean island of ten million citizens – are suffering from water supply issues.


Sources:

https://www.codigosanluis.com/alerta-en-cuba-por-brote-de-hepatitis-a/

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/hundreds-of-thousands-in-cuba-without-water-1.7036536

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

US Treasury Sanctions GRU-Affiliated Entity That Used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Interfere in US 2024 Election

Excerpt from the US Dept of the Treasury press release linked at bottom:

“At the direction of, and with financial support from, the GRU (Russian military intelligence), the Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE) and its personnel used generative AI tools to quickly create disinformation that would be distributed across a massive network of websites designed to imitate legitimate news outlets to create false corroboration between the stories, as well as to obfuscate their Russian origin. CGE built a server that hosts the generative AI tools and associated AI-created content, in order to avoid foreign web-hosting services that would block their activity.”

GRU insignia.

“The GRU provided CGE and a network of US-based facilitators with financial support to: build and maintain its AI-support server; maintain a network of at least 100 websites used in its disinformation operations; and contribute to the rent cost of the apartment where the server is housed. Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin played a key role in coordinating financial support from the GRU to his employees and US-based facilitators.”

The USG sanctioned Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin (undated photo from public domain)

This is indeed another “smoking gun found at the crime scene” and Russian interference was just another factor in the Democratic Party’s catastrophic loss last year.

But regardless of Russian interference, Americans have proven they can elect a person of color twice to the White House, as well as a woman. In 2016, Hilary Clinton won the popular vote over Donald Trump by 2,864,974 votes, but lost the medieval and anachronistic Electoral College vote with help from the Kremlin. Ultimately, anti-war Democrats and Independents disgusted by US support for Israel in the Gaza war simply stayed home on 5 Nov 2024, like their disgusted predecessors did in 1968 over VPOTUS Hubert Humphrey’s support for the wholly unpopular Vietnam War.

American Vietnam War protestors in 1968

American Gaza war protestors in 2024

For the sake of the Democratic Party and future elections, instead of blaming Russian interference or scapegoating the tiny Arab-American community for the 2024 catastrophe, they should re-examine their foreign policy and not ignore the tremendous anti-war segment of the American population.

VPOTUS Kamala Harris meets with indicted war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on 25 Jul 2024. This loathsome man, the :curse of Israel,” is responsible for over 45,000 deaths and 100,000 injuries in what scholars denounced as a genocide of the Palestinian people. (Photo: Nathan Howard / Reuters)

Sources:

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2766

https://tostpost.com/news-and-society/27504-valery-korovin-biography-and-photos.html

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary-clinton-officially-wins-popular-vote-29-million/story?id=44354341

UK: Woman Who Vanished 52 Years Ago In Coventry Reappears Safe And Well

(Sheila Fox, missing since 1972, in an undated photo courtesy of the West Midlands Police)

Sheila Fox, who vanished from Coventry in 1972 at just 16 years old, has been found alive after over five decades. The breakthrough came after West Midlands Police launched a fresh appeal for information, releasing a photo from around the time of her disappearance. Within hours of the appeal, the public provided valuable leads that ultimately helped officers track down Fox, who is now 68 years old and living in another part of the country.

In 1972, when Fox disappeared, authorities believed she may have been in a relationship with a man and could have left Coventry to start a new life elsewhere. Despite numerous investigations over the years, she was never found. However, with the help of a photo from the time, officers from the cold case investigation team revisited the case, determined to give her family the closure they had longed for.

Detective Sergeant Jenna Shaw praised the team’s hard work and the public’s assistance in solving the case. The investigation was complex, involving the examination of old evidence, but the breakthrough was a reminder of how new perspectives and public involvement can lead to resolutions.

While the details of Fox’s life over the past 52 years remain private, authorities are relieved to have located her and ensured she is safe and well. Her family, too, now has the long-awaited answers they needed. The case highlights the importance of not giving up on cold cases, as even the oldest investigations can sometimes have happy conclusions.

Sources:

The BBC

Newsx.com

Under the Trumpf Junta, How Soon Before America Joins the List of Pariah States?

After Trumpf’s stunning 2024 electoral win, Russian despot Vladimir Putin gleefully declared that the “New World Order” is dead. According to former National Security Advisor John Bolton, Trumpf mulls about withdrawing the US from NATO. Under Project 2025, America’s Richard III will attempt to deport massive numbers of vulnerable migrants while further eroding the country’s social safety nets and civil liberties. The maps below from worlddata.info represent current and former Pariah and Rogue states:

“Pariah states are those states that are considered outcasts because of their government. Anyone who does not abide by international rules or refuses to cooperate with the international community in wide areas must expect sanctions. Many of the former and current pariah states owe their classification to their autocratic rule, under which their own people suffer.”

“The term ‘rogue state’ goes back to the US government under George W. Bush, which used it to describe aggressive states that threaten either the USA itself or its allies. Although the term was new, the concept of the exclusion of dangerous nations was introduced in 1994. The first countries to be considered ‘Rogue States’ were North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, and Libya.”

Salon magazine wrote this heinous hobglobin that offended the people of Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Denmark, and Panama the “21st century Jefferson Davis.” (Photo illustration by Salon / Getty Images.)

Sources:

https://www.worlddata.info/pariahstates.php

https://www.econotimes.com/Putin-Declares-Death-of-New-World-Order-Backs-Trumps-Foreign-Policy-in-Stunning-Statement-1693214

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trumps-mass-deportation-plan-what-we-know-and-latest-news.html

https://www.salon.com/2020/07/04/donald-trump-is-the-21st-century-jefferson-davis-history-will-judge-him–and-us/

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/trumps-outrageous-designs-on-greenland?open=false#%C2%A7trumps-outrageous-designs-on-greenland-and-panama

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/12/politics/us-out-nato-second-trump-term-former-senior-adviser/index.html

Tiny Octopus Befriends Diver Who Visits Him Everyday

Octopi are intelligent, affectionate, and playful creatures, as you will see below.

Gaza Strip: Infernal Abattoir for Journalists, Volunteers, Palestinians

Emergency responders worked to put out the fire in a van marked “Press” and recover the bodies in Nuseirat, Gaza. (Photo: Khamis Said / Reuters)

Five journalists working for a network allegedly associated with a Palestinian militant group were killed when their vehicle was hit by an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat area of Gaza. The vehicle, bearing the word “Press” in red letters, was hit near the gates of Al Awda Hospital. The IDF claimed the journalists were a “terror cell” of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Then why didn’t the IDF arrest them to stand trial for their alleged crimes?

Because alleged membership in a terrorist organization is an automatic conviction and death sentence without a trial, hearing, or evidence. This is called Extra-Judicial Killing (XJK). Does any alleged terrorist, militant, or criminal in the Gaza Strip ever have a day in an Israeli court to answer any charges?

On 2 Jul 2023, the Times of Israel reported that over 1,100 Palestinians were held by Israel without trial or hearing, the highest figure since 2003. This is months before the 7 Oct 2023 sneak attack to seize Israeli hostages for a prisoner swap.

This gruesome attack brings the number of journalists killed in Gaza to 201 since 7 Oct 2023.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2023 and 2024, 141 journalists and media workers killed in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and Lebanon. The above cited report claims the number is 201.

Palestinian journalist Sami Shehadeh, wounded in an 12 Apr 2024 IDF strike, lies on the floor at Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. (Photo: Reuters / Doaa Rouqa)

In sharp contrast, Reporters Without Borders tallied 63 journalists who died over a 20-year period ending in 1975 while covering the Vietnam War.

In two years, with access to SIGINT, wiretaps, HUMINT sources, First Person View (FPV) reconnaissance drones, and satellite imagery like the Ofek-16 pictured below can provide, the IDF has doubled what took the Vietnam War 20 years to do.

A digital rendering of Israel’s Ofek-16 reconnaissance satellite in orbit around the Earth. (Image: Israel Defense Ministry)

Journalists aren’t the only ones being murdered in the Gaza hecatomb; so are humanitarians like these World Central Kitchen (WCK) volunteers:

World Central Kitchen (WCK) victims from top left to right: Saifeddin Issam, Ayad Abutaha, Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, Damian Soból, Bottom left to right: John Chapman, James Henderson, James Kirby. All were killed in an IDF missile strike on 1 Apr 2024. (Photo: AP)

The same can be said about the West Bank. Israeli troops and settlers have killed nearly 700 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since Oct 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, whose figures do not distinguish between militants and civilians.

On 6 Sep 2024, American-Turkish activist Aysenur Eygi (26) was shot on the head by the IDF protesting the evictions of Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank. She joined Rachel Corrie who was murdered while attempting to stop the demolition of a Palestinian house on 16 Mar 2003.

American-Turkish activist Aysenur Eygi pictures in a family photo from her graduation at the University of Washington this past spring. 
(Photo: Aysenur Eygi Family)

No one on the planet can dispute that journalists, humanitarians, or volunteers have been purposefully targeted by the Likud-led IDF in the slaughterhouse known as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The Likud Party and “Israel’s curse” has rubbished any notion of a Two-State Solution and turned Israel into a Pariah State.

Israel’s pogrom has killed at least 45,436 Palestinians and wounded 108,038 since 7 Oct 2023. Followers of the Watch should expect more atrocities from the unrestrained IDF in the future.

Sources:

https://cpj.org/2024/12/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/

https://rsf.org/en

IDF: Strike that killed World Central Kitchen workers was 'serious failure due to a mistaken identification'

https://www.timesofisrael.com/over-1100-palestinians-said-held-by-israel-without-trial-highest-figure-since-2003/

West Bank: American activist Aysenur Eygi shot dead by Israeli forces, eyewitnesses say | CNN

Azerbaijan Airlines Plane Likely Downed by Russian Anti-Aircraft Missile

A Russian military expert has said it appears that the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan was brought down by “something very similar to an anti-aircraft missile.”

Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8432 took off from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday morning bound for Grozny in Chechnya. The Embraer 190 aircraft, flight number J2-8243, carried 62 passengers and five crew members. There are 32 survivors, including two children, who have been hospitalized, with many in critical condition. Many were pulled out from the wreckage, while some, according to first responders and video footage, dragged themselves out, bloodied.

Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev announced that 38 people had been killed.

The wreckage of the Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lays on the ground near the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan. (Photo: Dec. 25, 2024 AP / The Administration of Mangystau Region.)

“The plane was damaged by something very similar to an anti-aircraft missile. And it is really very, very difficult to assume anything else without some serious evidence,” said military expert, Yan Matveyev.

“But overall, it looks like the tail section of the plane was damaged by some missile fragments, probably a Pantsir S-1 missile, or some anti-aircraft system with the same small missiles that carry a not very large warhead.”

Those comments come after Azerbaijani government sources exclusively confirmed to Euronews that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the aircraft to crash in Aktau.

According to the sources, the missile was fired at the plane during drone air activity above Grozny and the shrapnel hit the passengers and cabin crew as it exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight.

Yan Matveyev confirmed that Ukrainian drones were flying over Chechnya at the time the airliner went down and that it was possible it had been hit by Russia’s air defences.

“What was happening on the territory of Russia, on the territory of the Chechen Republic at the time when the plane was flying there, points to a possible attack by an air defence system, the Pantsir S-1 air defense system, because Ukrainian drones were flying there at that very time,” he said.

Russian Pantsir S-1 air defense system.

The damaged aircraft was not allowed to land at any Russian airports despite requests for an emergency landing from the pilots and it was ordered to fly across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan.

If the preliminary data from the probe is confirmed, this would be the second time in a decade that Russian forces have destroyed a commercial aircraft.

Malaysian Airlines flight 17 was shot down by Russian-backed forces over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people on board.

While the Azerbaijani pilots heroically did their best to save lives, Russian air traffic control (ATC) coldly ordered them not to attempt an emergency landing in their territory that may jeopardize Russian lives on the ground.

Sources:

Military expert says Azerbaijan Airlines plane likely downed by anti-aircraft missile | Euronews

Why did an Azerbaijan Airline plane crash in Kazakhstan? What we know | Aviation News | Al Jazeera

Undersea Power Cable Linking Finland and Estonia Hit By Outage

(Map: ec.europa.eu)

A power cable linking Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea suffered an outage, prompting an investigation.

Writing on X, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that power transmission through the Estlink-2 cable stopped Wednesday and that authorities were “investigating the matter.” He said the interruption would not affect electricity supplies in Finland.

Estonian network operator Elering said there was enough spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side, public broadcaster ERR said on its website.

Authorities have been on edge about undersea infrastructure in the Baltic. Two data cables, one running between Finland and Germany, the other between Lithuania and Sweden, were severed in November.

Germany’s defense minister said officials had to assume the incident was “sabotage,” but without providing evidence or saying who might have been responsible. The remark came during a speech in which he discussed hybrid warfare threats from Russia.

The Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that once brought natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022. Authorities have termed it sabotage and launched criminal probes.

Finnish authorities detained a ship linked to neighboring Russia as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables. Finnish police and border guards boarded the vessel, the Eagle S, and took over the command bridge. The Eagle S’s anchor is suspected of causing damage to the cable.

An anchor like the 36-ton Seawise Giant Anchor which is 7m long, 4.45m across, and 1.13m thick can be dragged and dropped over defenseless vulnerable undersea cables

Remarkable that Western power and communications cables seem to get damaged in winter time. You wonder if these maritime sabotage attacks against the EU and NATO will stop once the Trump-Putin-Musk cabal assumes the White House in Jan 2025?

Sources:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/dec/25/power-cable-linking-finland-estonia-hit-outage-pro/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

https://apnews.com/article/eu-finland-estonia-baltic-sea-power-cable-6741ef1ce9130602abac6214d7297717

US/Canada: Voluntary Recall of Northwest Naturals Brand Two-lb Feline Turkey Recipe Raw Frozen Pet Food Due to Avian Flu Contamination

Northwest Naturals is voluntarily recalling one batch of Northwest Naturals brand two-pound Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after it was tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus.

Consumption of raw or uncooked pet food contaminated with HPAI can cause illness in animals. To date, one case of illness in a domestic cat has been reported in connection with this issue.

The recalled product is packaged in two-pound plastic bags with “Best if used by” dates of 05/21/26 B10 and 06/23/2026 B1. The product was sold through distributors in AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, MD, MI, MN, PA, RI, WA and British Columbia in Canada.

This recall is being conducted in cooperation with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Salem, Oregon.

Consumers who have purchased the recalled product should immediately discard the product and contact the place of purchase for a full refund.

For additional information or questions, customers may contact Northwest Naturals of Portland at info@nw-naturals.net or 866-637-1872 from 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM PST, Monday through Friday.

Avian flu is spreading in the food chain, endangering not only the national economy, but our cats. This will be the first national health challenge to the incoming Trump administration who has been filling his cabinet with quacks, mountebanks, and frauds.

Source:

https://www.nw-naturals.net/12-24-24-voluntary-product-recall/

Canada: No More ‘Flagpoling’

From the Government of Canada:

Work and study permits will no longer be provided to flagpolers at a port of entry, effective 23 Dec 2024 at 11:59 pm ET.

Flagpoling occurs when foreign nationals who hold temporary resident status in Canada, leave Canada and, after a visit to the US or St. Pierre and Miquelon, re-enter to access immigration services at a port of entry.

This practice has taken up significant resources at the border, diverting Canadian and American officers away from important enforcement activities and has contributed to wait times for cross-border travelers.

Immigration services at the border are meant for individuals arriving in Canada, not for those already in Canada. Applications and renewals for work or study permits need to be submitted through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Those who attempt to flagpole for a work and study permit will be told to submit their application to IRCC unless they meet limited exemptions.

These changes benefit Canada and the US by allowing both countries to effectively manage border operations and maintain the integrity of our shared border.

“This change will enable us to further streamline activities at our ports of entry and allow Canadian and American border officers to focus on what they have been expertly trained to do – border enforcement.”

– The Honorable David J. McGuinty, Minister of Public Safety

“A strong Canada-U.S. relationship keeps people and goods moving safely while protecting both sides of the border. Flagpoling is unnecessary and diverts resources from critical enforcement activities. This change will ease border congestion, improve fairness for applicants, and enhance the efficiency and security of our borders.”

– The Honorable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Quick facts:

  • Between 1 Apr 2023 and 31 Mar 2024, the CBSA processed over 69,300 flagpolers across Canada. Most of these requests occurred in the Pacific, Southern Ontario, and Quebec regions.
  • In very limited circumstances, work and study permits may still be granted at a port of entry to individuals who otherwise meet the definition of flagpoling. The exemptions include:
  • Citizens and lawful Permanent Residents of the US;
  • Professionals and technicians under free trade agreements with the US/Mexico, Chile, Panama, Peru, Colombia and South Korea;
  • Spouses or common law partners of professionals and technicians under free trade agreements with Panama, Columbia and South Korea;
  • International truck drivers who hold a work permit, where required to depart Canada for the purpose of their employment and held maintained status as a result of applying for renewal prior to departure; and
  • Individuals who have a pre-existing appointment booked with the CBSA for permit processing.

Contacts

Media Relations
Canada Border Services Agency
media@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
1-877-761-5945

Travelers used to take advantage of CBSA facilities to facilitate their visa paperwork at secondary inspection, which was not illegal but time-consuming for border officers. These CBSA officers will now be freed up to catch the army of nefarious migrants crossing the international frontier. This is part of Canada’s “border plan” response to Donald Trump’s incoming regime. But really, which country poses a greater threat to whom?

Sources:

Ending flagpoling for work and study permits at the border – Canada.ca

Government of Canada announces its plan to strengthen border security and our immigration system – Canada.ca

Israel’s Attorney-General Requests Investigation of Sara Netanyahu on Suspicion of Disrupting Prime Minister’s Trial

Gali Baharav-Miara is Israel’s first female Attorney-General, opposes the death penalty for terrorists, and was chosen as one of the 50 most influential women in Israel by Globes Magazine in 2022 and 2023. (Undated photo).

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered the Israel Police to open an investigation into suspicions that Sara Netanyahu harassed a witness and disrupting judicial proceedings.

The wife of the Israeli PM appeared to be behind demonstrations in front of the homes of Benjamin Netanyahu prosecutor Liat Ben-Ari and central witness Hadas Klein.

Lahav 433 will probably be conducting the sensitive investigation against Sara Netanyahu.

Reminiscent of VPOTUS Richard Nixon’s infamous 23 Sep 1952 nationally-televised “Checkers speech,” “Crime Minister” Netanyahu published a four-minute video in which he condemned the investigation and the media’s treatment of his wife:

“On the premise that baseless charges against me collapse day by day in court and will collapse further later. These days, the left and the media have found a new old target, mercilessly attacking my wife Sara, the pillar of my life.”

Sara Netanyahu, the Lady MacBeth of Israel, is certainly no Michelle Obama or Dr. Jill Biden

Notably, Israeli psychologists have called on the Health Ministry to review Sara Netanyahu’s fitness to practice psychology, citing concerns over her alleged conduct amid Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing trial and previous odious behavior.

In 2016, Sara Netanyahu was found guilty of abusing her household staff. The Jerusalem labor court awarded Meni Naftali $42,000 in damages and court costs. The former chief caretaker at Netanyahu’s official residence said Sara Netanyahu had used abusive language and insulted him.

The First Lady of Israel fancies herself a big macher.

In addition to this nettlesome corruption trial and now this judicial interference case against his wife, PM Netanyahu has an international arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Moreover, he faces a potential 9/11-style commission investigation about his mishandling and cover-up of the 7 Oct 2023 attacks which led to 1,200 Israelis being killed and 250 captives taken.

The US could have sorely used a dynamic and competent Attorney-General like Gali Baharav-Miara these past four years. The world wishes her success and long life.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/israel-netanyahu-sara-wife-corruption-trial-investigation-3b99369032b6b3b873f08f70b706bedb

https://www.albawaba.com/editorchoice/occupational-hazard-sara-netanyahu-guilty-abusing-household-staff-804204

https://apnews.com/article/israel-netanyahu-corruption-trial-gaza-478c957c7749986d5b8b2d039f670d54

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-834502

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

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

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk18pdnxmmo

Cat Makes Itself At Home Atop Waiting Horse

Triquestrian, LLC is located at Rising Spirits Farm in Brooklyn, WI. 

NASA Monitoring Solar Activity With Closest Probe to Sun Ever Launched

This NASA image shows an artist’s rendering of the Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. The probe made history on Tuesday, flying closer to the sun than any other spacecraft, with its heat shield exposed to scorching temperatures topping 930 degrees Celsius (1,700 degrees Fahrenheit).. (Credit: Johns Hopkins APL / NASA)

Christmas began with a bang. At 0449 UT on 25 Dec active sunspot 3932 produced a strong M4.9-class solar flare. NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash above.

Soon after the flare, the USAF reported a Type II solar radio burst. This is a natural type of radio emission caused by shock waves inside CMEs. The drift rate of the Type II radio burst suggests that a CME will soon emerge from the blast site traveling a little faster than 1,000 km/s.”

The sun’s 11-year cycle:

During the sun’s year of highest activity in its 11-year cycle, flares and coronal emissions bombard the earth with an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP). On 1-2 Sep 1859, a massive solar flare spewed electrified gas and subatomic particles toward Earth, wreaking havoc on telegraph networks which became known as the “Carrington Event” (and the most intense solar storm in recorded history).

During this 1859 geo-magnetic solar cyclone, people reported “the sky was on fire.”

A massive EMP from the sun– another “Carrington Event”– would have catastrophic effects on the world’s satellites, communications networks, and energy grids and hence NASA’s close monitoring of our life-giving sun.

Sources:

https://spaceweather.com/

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-cycles/en/

https://www.history.com/news/a-perfect-solar-superstorm-the-1859-carrington-event

“Gaza: Life in a Death Trap” (Doctors Without Borders Report)

Palestinian children wounded in Israeli strikes attend a hospital in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on 12 Oct 2024. (Photo: Hatem Ali / AP)

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has joined Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) by publishing a 33-page report condemning the “apocalyptic” conditions in Gaza caused by the IDF (AKA the Nakba).

“Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has witnessed 14 months of repeated attacks on civilians, the dismantling of essential civilian infrastructure including healthcare facilities, and a systematic denial of humanitarian assistance, seemingly underpinning Israel’s campaign to unravel the very fabric of society in Gaza.”

Israel’s pogrom has killed at least 45,361 Palestinians and wounded 107,803 since 7 Oct 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed and 250 taken captive during the Palestinian armed group’s raid to seize hostages in order to effectuate a prisoner swap with the IDF. Thousands of Palestinians had been held in security detention without hearing or trial prior to the 7 Oct 2023 operation.

Below are locations where MSF has been trying to mitigate the effects of the Nakba on Palestinians.

Holocaust survivors and descendants of Holocaust survivors protesting against the Gaza genocide on 13 April 2024 in London. (Photo: Social media)

Full report linked here:

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/sites/default/files/documents/MSF_REPORT_Gaza%20Life%20in%20a%20death%20trap%20Report_20241229.pdf

Russia Sentences US Citizen After Closed-Door Spy Trial

Accused espionage mastermind Eugene Spector trying to make heads or tails of a document in a Russian cell. The resemblance to 007 Agent James Bond is uncanny. (Photo: AFP)

A  Russian court has sentenced US citizen Eugene Spector to 15 years in a penal colony for “espionage” amid accusations by several Western governments that Moscow is convicting foreign nationals to use as bargaining chips in prisoner swaps.

Spector was sentenced on 24 Dec by the Moscow City Court after a trial that was held behind closed doors. Little is known about the charges the former pharmaceuticals executive faced as the court claimed classified materials during the trial warranted it being closed to the public.

Moscow has also been accused of targeting US citizens by detaining them on trumped-up charges to later use as bargaining chips in talks to bring back Russians convicted of crimes in the US and other Western nations.

At least ten AMCITs remain behind bars in Russia even after a prisoner swap on 1 Aug involving 16 people that Moscow agreed to free in exchange for eight Russians convicted of crimes and serving prison terms in the US and Europe.

(Clockwise from upper left) Ksenia Karelina, Michael Leake, Gordon Black, Eugene Spector, Marc Fogel, and Robert Woodland are living under “torturous conditions” in Russian prisons.

Meanwhile, Uzbeki citizen Ahmadjon Qurbonov (29) has been charged by a Moscow court with terrorism and other offenses in the 17 Dec killing of General Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces.

Uzbekistan citizen Ahmadjon Qurbonov languishing in a Russian jail. (Photo: AFP)

Russian investigators alleged Qurbonov was recruited and trained by Ukrainian intelligence services to carry out the attack.

There has been no official claim of responsibility, but Ukraine’s security service SBU has said it was behind the killing.

Kiev had accused Kirillov of being responsible for Russia’s use of banned chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops, a claim Moscow denies. Uzbekis residing in Russia now fear a backlash after General Kirilov’s assassination. These fears are well-founded as the Russian security services have been press-ganging darker-skinned migrants and Central Asian Muslims into the Russian Army to be used as cannon fodder.

Eugene Spector and the other imprisoned AMCITs, as well as Ahmadjon Qurbonov, must endure horrific conditions until another prisoner swap with the Kremlin can be effectuated. The Ukrainian intelligence services must demonstrate loyalty to their foreign operatives like this poor Uzbeki above lest they suffer recruitment problems in the future.

Maybe one day ICC-convicted war criminals Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu will share a prison cell in the Hague.

Sources:

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-sentences-us-citizen-spector-spy-trial/33251282.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-political-prisoners-remain-swap-putin/33061252.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/uzbekistan-police-monitor-family-of-suspect-in-kirillov-assassination/33250024.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/uzbeks-moscow-ukraine-assassination-general/33245647.html

North Korean Soldiers Getting Mulched for Vladimir Putin

The face of this North Korean soldier (Nork) killed in Russia’s Kursk region was blurred. Ukrainian special forces conducted BDA and recovered his diary. (Photo: East2West)

Ukrainian special forces recovered the diary of Jeong Kyung-hong (27), a fallen North Korean soldier. His last entry was to his comrade Song Ji Myung [or Yong] and reads:

“I, having left my homeland, on unfamiliar Russian land, send birthday congratulations to my friend Song Ji-myung (Yong).

I wish you health.

December 9, 2024 – Jeong Kyung-hong.”

The diary of Jeong Kyung-hong who died for Russia was recovered, with an entry wishing his friend a happy birthday. (Photo: East2West)

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said “the number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people. Russia is simply disposing of them in assaults. Why the Koreans should fight for Putin is a question that no normal person on Earth can answer.”

POV footage showing kamikaze Ukrainian drones swooping down onto North Korean soldiers was recently released by the Ukrainian army. The Norks are seen scrambling and running for their lives as the drones methodically pick them off.

At least 77 North Koreans were killed and 40 wounded in the past three days.

In a potential sign of escalation, the Pukguksong-2 ballistic missile system may be on a weapons train sent from North Korea to Russia (Credit: NK News)

Two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, enjoying their bromance and a laugh in Pyongyang, NK this past June 2024 while their people suffer incalculable grief, misery, starvation, oppression, and death. (Photo: KCNA/Reuters)

Source:

https://www.the-sun.com/news/13155797/last-diary-entry-north-korean-soldier-russia/

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/20/europe/putin-kim-north-korea-limousine-intl/index.html

GAO: Half of US Navy’s Amphibious Ships in Dire Condition

The LHD-class amphibious assault ship USS Bataan in a dry dock slip at Norfolk, Va., during a regularly scheduled maintenance period on 18 Nov. (USN photo by Mass Communication Spec. 2nd Class Bradley Rickard.)

The readiness of the USN fleet of 32 amphibious warfare ships, which are deemed crucial in quickly projecting US power around the world, is in dire shape, according to a scathing report issued this month by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The rapid deployment force used by the USMC to quickly reach and come ashore in global hot spots is so compromised by a backlog of maintenance that fully half of its ships were in poor operating condition as of March 2024.

The GAO reported that only two of the USN’s seven LHD amphibious assault vessels were in satisfactory material condition.

US Marines of the 15th MEU “bear crawl” during a USMC Black Bet Martial Arts course aboard the USS Pearl Harbor, an LSD-class “small deck” amphibious vessel, on 25 Dec 2017. (USMC Photo: CPL F. Cordoba).

Bunks for Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children (USMC) aboard USN ships.

No doubt Beijing has already digested this GAO report and will be monitoring USN readiness of its amphibious fleet with its “thousand grains of sand” approach to intelligence collection.

Besides an outright military invasion of Taiwan, Beijing can blockade the island republic with its much larger navy, cut its underseas cables, and quarantine Taipei into submission.

Sources:

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-25-106728.pdf

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/12/23/navy-amphibious-ships-poor-condition-GAO/8871734631881/

Nigeria: Government Responds to Lassa Fever Outbreak

Nigeria has a population of 236,747,130 people; GDP per capita in 2023: $5,700. (Map: who.int; Data: CIA)

The Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to coordinate multi-sectoral response to the ongoing outbreak of Lassa fever.

Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) caused by the Lassa virus. The natural reservoir for the virus is the multimammate rat also known as the African rat, even though other rodents can also act as carriers of the virus.

Nigerian health experts conferring in Abuja. (Photo: Fred Ezeh)

Lassa fever initially presents like other common illnesses accompanied by a fever, such as malaria. Other symptoms include headache, general body weakness, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pains, chest pain, sore throat, and, in severe cases, bleeding from ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and other body openings.

The NCDC reported that Lassa fever has claimed 401 lives between 2023 and 2024 (13 Oct):

“In 2023, 28 states and 114 LGAs reported confirmed cases, with 9,155 suspected cases, 1,270 confirmed cases, and 227 deaths. As of 13 Oct 2024, 8,569 suspected cases, 1,035 confirmed cases, and 174 deaths have been reported across 28 states and 129 LGAs.

NCDC statement: “Sadly, we have continued to see a steady increase in the number of states reporting Lassa fever cases, attributing it to improved surveillance, better community awareness, environmental degradation from climate change, and other harmful human activities.”

The cute culprit: the Multimammate rat. (Credit: inaturalist.org)

The US CDC suspects that that a traveler returning from western Africa to Iowa succumbed from Lassa fever this year, but that the risk to the general American public is extremely low.

Sources:

NCDC activates emergency operation center for Lassa fever

Lassa Fever: 1,154 confirmed cases, 190 deaths, and 9,492 suspected nationwide recorded in 2024 – NCDC  – Nairametrics

CIA

Lassa Fever – Nigeria

Lassa Fever Suspected in Death of U.S. Traveler Returning from West Africa | CDC Newsroom

Pakistani Airstrikes on Afghanistan Kill 46 People

Bombardment by Pakistani military aircraft in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province killed at least 46 people, most of whom were children and women, the Afghan Taliban said, adding it would retaliate.

Six people were also injured in the bombing at four locations in Afghanistan, deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said.

Pakistani government and military officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Afghanistan’s foreign office said it had summoned Pakistan’s head of mission in Kabul to deliver a formal protest note to Islamabad on the bombing by Pakistani military aircraft, warning the diplomat of consequences of such actions.

“Afghanistan considers this brutal act a blatant violation of all international principles and an obvious act of aggression,” Enayatullah Khowrazmi, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said in a statement. “The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered.”

A Pakistani official with knowledge of the matter said the airstrikes were against a camp of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) Islamist militant group.

TTP pledges allegiance to, and gets its name from the Afghan Taliban, but is not directly a part of the group that rules Afghanistan. Its stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, as the Taliban has done in Afghanistan.

A major TTP attack in Pakistan’s South Waziristan area, which borders the location of the alleged camp targeted in Afghanistan, killed 16 Pakistani security personnel on Saturday.

The neighbors have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several TTP attacks that have occurred in its country have been launched from Afghan soil – a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.

Their relationship was complicated in March when the Taliban accused Pakistan of carrying out two airstrikes on its territory, killing five women and children.

Pakistan said at the time it had conducted “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations” in Afghanistan but did not specify the nature of the operations.

“Pakistan has repeatedly urged the Taliban government to take action against the TTP within Afghan territory, but significant cooperation has yet to materialize over the past three years. Pakistani authorities are deeply concerned about the TTP’s operations from Afghanistan, emphasizing the threat it poses to Pakistan’s national security. Most terrorist incidents in Pakistan are attributed to the TTP.”

Recently Taliban cabinet minister Khalil Haqqani was killed in Kabul by ISIS-K. He came from the powerful Haqqani Network (HQN) which is closely linked to Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI.  

Pakistan and Afghanistan will continue undermining each other with proxy fighters and terrorists as both countries have competing interests, all in a mosaic of different ethnic groups and tribes, degrees of religious extremism, and the highly lucrative opium trade.

Sources:

Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan kill 46 people, Taliban official says | CNN

Khalil Haqqani: Taliban minister killed in bombing in Kabul

TTP And ISKP: Unraveling The Complex Web Of Militancy In South Asia – OpEd – Eurasia Review

Mother Raccoon Is Hiding Surprise in This House

Vietnam 63 Years Ago Today: First US Soldier Killed in Ground Combat

James T. “Tom” Davis was sent to the Republic of Vietnam in May 1961 with the US Army Security Agency (ASA) to pinpoint enemy radio transmitters. (Images: Davis family via Mark Raab)

In a tortured experience known as the Vietnam War which would eventually cost American families 58,220 of their brave sons and daughters, the very first US Army Soldier to die in ground combat was Specialist James T. “Tom” Davis 63 years ago today, on 22 Dec 1961.

James T. “Tom” Davis was a Tennessee native like Medal of Honor awardee Alvin Cullum York (immortalized by Gary cooper in the 1941 film Sergeant York),

James Davis enlisted in the US Army after high school, becoming a signals intercept specialist with the Army Security Agency (ASA).

The ASA was formed in 1945 to intercept and monitor enemy and friendly radio communications (AKA SIGINT). The ASA operated covertly in Vietnam as “radio research units.” Coriolanus is proud to write that one of his military instructors in university served with the ASA during the Vietnam War.

Excerpts from Mark Raab’s excellent article:

“The 3rd Radio Research Unit arrived at Tan Son Nhut on 13 May 1961 and was the first entire US Army unit to deploy to Vietnam. The men who got off the plane wore civilian clothes, a reflection of their secretive assignment. Previously, members of the military arrived as individuals and were placed in units after they were in-country. US personnel in Vietnam in May 1961 were assigned to Military Assistance Advisory Group-Vietnam, formed in November 1955. The US had approximately 3,000 military personnel in Vietnam at the time.”

“Tracking a Viet Cong radio signal west of Saigon on 22 Dec 1961, Specialist Davis and a contingent of ten South Vietnamese soldiers headed to meet the enemy. But their vehicle struck a powerful mine, killing nine ARVN soldiers. Specialist Davis pulled his surviving ARVN driver out of the disabled truck and fired upon the attacking Viet Cong guerillas with his carbine. Some 50 feet away from the vehicle, Davis was hit by enemy fire and fell.”

“The Viet Cong, no longer receiving any return fire, rushed to the wounded Davis. They shot the Soldier in the head and rifled through his pockets searching for anything valuable. The guerillas didn’t recover his watch which Davis kept in his breast pocket away from his electronic devices.” But Specialist Davis’ efforts weren’t in vain.

“Using fresh intelligence from the 3rd Radio Research Unit, US and ARVN personnel headed west to attack the Viet Cong at the Thieng Quang pineapple plantation in Operation Chopper on 24 Dec 1961, the first helicopter assault of the Vietnam War and the birth of the Air Cavalry.”

Specialist James “Tom” Davis was buried in his hometown at Livingston’s Good Hope Cemetery on 3 Jan 1962. On 10 Jan, less than three weeks after his death, the ASA officially named the 3rd Radio Research Unit’s Tan Son Nhut compound “Davis Station.”

Historical Footnotes:

Major Dale Buis (L) and Sergeant Chester Ovnand (R) courtesy of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

In 1959, the first American soldiers to die in Vietnam were Major Dale Buis and Sergeant Chester Ovnand when their compound was attacked by Viet Cong guerillas.

The first American personnel to die in Vietnam were two CIA pilots supporting the French military during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954: James McGovern and Wallace Buford.

 

(Undated photo of CIA pilot James Bernard McGovern Jr)

Endnotes:

During the Cold War, Airman John Cash was a SIGINT specialist. As a crack Morse code interceptor, he deciphered Soviet signals for USAF intelligence.

While monitoring the Soviet Morse Code chatter on 5 Mar 1953, Airman Cash became the very first American to hear of the death of the Soviet supreme leader, Joseph Stalin. The “Man in Black” then relayed the important information to his superiors, a secret Johnny Cash wouldn’t reveal for many years and the rest is history.

Sources:

https://www.historynet.com/first-us-soldier-killed-vietnam/

Johnny Cash, the Man in Black, Was a Morse code Intercept Operator during the Cold War

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alvin-Cullum-York

Kiev In Flames After Massive Russian Attack:

“A Tale of Two Cities”

Ukrainian rescuers extinguishing a fire at the site of a 20 Dec Russian missile attack in Kiev. (Photo: Roman Pilipey /AFP via Getty Images)

This undated but highly appropriate photo below was taken in the closed Russian city of Yekaterinburg:

ICC-indicted war criminal Vladimir Putin continued his Nakba against Ukrainians with a massive drone attack against Kiev as winter begins to set in. This is the man that President-elect Donald Trump admires. Casualty counts are still being tabulated.

Ukrainians take shelter in a metro station during the 20 Dec attack on Kiev.

This poor child was heard calling “Mama!” as a woman led her briskly to safety, away from the burning car behind them, following Russian air strikes on Kiev on 20 Dec.

St. Nicholas Church was among the buildings damaged in Kiev.

More than 600 residential buildings in the capital were left without heating as a result of the attacks.

A Ukrainian woman appears shocked, cradling her terrified dog, in the wake of the attack.

A Tale of Two Cities

Just as ICC indicted war criminal Russian President Vladimir Putin is cruelly immiserating the people of Ukraine this winter, so too is similarly indicted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu cruelly immiserating the people of Gaza. Ukrainian lives matter, and so do Palestinian lives.

Do either of these ten-year-old girls below look like terrorists?

The visibly emotional Nadine (10) questioned why she and the people around her were being pitilessly attacked by the IDF. (Photo: Social media)

After losing her eye in an IDF attack, Areej Asaliya (10) said “My life will never be the same again.” But what future would poor Areej have had anyway in the impoverished devastated ghetto of Gaza? (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

One of the major differences between Putin’s Nakba against the Ukrainians and Netanyahu’s pogrom against the Palestinians: Funding.

The hard-working American taxpayer is rightfully funding the defense of one people from suffering while wrongfully funding the suffering of another. Since Feb 2022, the US has allocated $113.4 billion in emergency funding to support Ukraine. Meanwhile, the US committed over $3.3 billion in foreign assistance to Israel in 2022, the most recent year for which data exists. About $8.8 million of that went toward the country’s economy, while 99.7% of the aid went to the IDF. From 1951 to 2022, US aid to Israel totaled $317.9 billion.

Sources:

https://www.rferl.org/a/air-raid-warning-attacks-kyiv-ukraine/33248178.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-strikes-kyiv-ukraine-/33246699.html

https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/gaza-israel-hamas-militant-group-10-year-old-breaks-down-viral-video-7318773/

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-money-has-the-us-given-ukraine-since-russias-invasion/

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/

https://archive.is/Vr1wz

https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/20/russia-ukraine-ballistic-missiles-drones-cyberattack-putin/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-winter-cold-power-1.6661362

Will US Make an Example of Luigi Mangione?

Luigi Mangione escorted by an army of police officers as if he was a nefarious and dangerous super combination of Hannibal Lecter and Osama Bin Laden.

After the murder of Mammonish UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson, a wealthy man who proudly put profits over people, NYPD detectives began the nationwide manhunt for his alleged killer.  After being identified by a fast-food worker in Altoona, PA, Luigi Mangione was arrested and readied for extradition to NYC where he would be prosecuted by Manhattan County District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

On 17 Dec, a Manhattan County Grand Jury indicted Luigi Mangione (full indictment linked below):

Mangione Charged with one count of Murder in the First Degree and two counts of Murder in the Second Degree

But two days later on 19 Dec, the federal government (through the SDNY AUSA) charged Luigi Mangione with a litany of charges that includes death (by lethal injection).

From the official AUSA statement:

“As alleged, Luigi Mangione traveled to New York to stalk and shoot Thompson in broad daylight in front of a Manhattan hotel, all in a grossly misguided attempt to broadcast Mangione’s views across the country.“

Why would the federal government pursue charges when a Manhattan County Grand Jury already indicted Luigi Mangione?

Luigi Mangione’s defense counsel questioned conflicting federal charges she described as “highly unusual.”

“Is there one case? Two cases? Two investigations? Is it a joint investigation?” Karen Friedman Agnifilo asked US Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker. 

“There are a lot of factors here that I think are very confusing, highly unusual,” she added.

Perhaps because the Empire State does not have capital punishment and the federal government may want to make an example of Luigi Mangione.

When you re-read the AUSA statement, the US Attorney admits the USG wants to quash the “grossly misguided” message, as well as the messenger.

Put another way, the American elites simply won’t tolerate attacks on capitalism or the murder of one of their own. Some people have to be made examples of. Uncle Sam has a history of making examples. First, in 1953 two alleged “atom spies” were executed:

In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were the only American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War, a case prosecuted by the notorious Roy Cohn.

The funeral services were held in Brooklyn on 21 Jun 1953. The Rosenbergs were buried at Wellwood Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Pinelawn, NY. The Times reported that 500 people attended and some 10,000 stood outside.

Based on subsequent Russian decryptions, Ethel Rosenberg knew about Julius’ espionage work “but that due to ill health she did not engage in the work herself” and an innocent woman was executed.  

Another example was the infamous federal execution of Timothy McVeigh on 11 Jun 2011. Instead of being imprisoned in a Supermax BOP facility for life with other convicted terrorists and murderers, American society demanded vengeance for the 168 people killed (including 19 children) and 684 injured in the 19 Apr 1995 terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, OK.

Execution chamber, USIP Terre Haute, IN.

Since 1976, sixteen people have been executed under federal jurisdiction by the US government. All were executed by lethal injection at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, IN. According to the US BOP, there are 4,982 prisoners incarcerated for Homicide, Aggravated Assault, and Kidnapping Offenses. Not all federally convicted murderers in prison are executed.

And what is this misguided message the US government wants to extinguish? The dangerous and inconvenient truth that unregulated capitalism, particularly in the health insurance industry, doesn’t work for the poor and suffering masses and that seeking private retribution for these injustices simply won’t be tolerated.

Today, the elites seem to be demanding vengeance– not justice– for killing one of their own or else the Manhattan DA would be trying this open and shut murder case. But since Mangione won’t face the death penalty in a NYS court, the US government intervened, giving itself the option of extracting its pound of flesh from Luigi Mangione. Having said that, Coriolanus strongly suspects that should Luigi Mangione be federally convicted, he will face life behind bars in a remote prison in Colorado.

But America’s wealthy elites and CEOs ought to pay attention to the suffering of the masses which will only increase under the imminent Trump-Musk-Putin regime and Project 2025. Nationwide, health industry executives and politicians have been scrambling to secure their homes with infrared robotic cameras, bulletproof glass, and secret doors to safe rooms. A robust phalanx of sinister-looking bodyguards and a medic have been observed accompanying super-oligarch Elon Musk.

A common and daily scene during the French Revolution.

Sources:

https://manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-announces-murder-indictment-of-luigi-mangione/

https://manhattanda.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mangione-Indictment-FINAL-as-filed.pdf

Luigi Mangione’s attorney takes issue with federal, state charges

https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/luigi-mangione-charged-stalking-and-murder-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-and-use

https://www.justice.gov/d9/2024-12/signed_complaint_mangione.pdf

https://manhattanda.org/

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – Wikipedia

 Terrified CEOs resort to extreme secret security tactics after Brian Thompson assassination amid copycat fears | Daily Mail Online

US: Avian Flu Advisory

California Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a State of Emergency to streamline and expedite the state’s response to Avian influenza A (H5N1), commonly known as “Bird Flu.” Tests have confirmed H5 avian flu in two cats that died after drinking recalled raw milk and LA county health authorities are investigating three other possible cases in cats that weren’t exposed to raw milk.

The virus has spread in 16 states among dairy cattle, following its first confirmed detection in Texas and Kansas in March 2024.

In Louisiana, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a non-commercial backyard flock (non-poultry) in Bossier Parish.  This is the first case of HPAI in domestic birds in Louisiana during this outbreak, which began in February 2022.

The Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has detected highly pathogenic avian influenza in an Ottawa County flock, following an investigation from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD)

According to an announcement from the department Monday, this is the first detection of the disease in a Michigan poultry flock since the state worked to manage the largest outbreak of the disease in May 2024 and the second in an Ottawa County commercial facility since the disease was first detected in the state in 2022. 

According to the CDC, the public health risk associated with these avian influenza detections in birds remains low.  As a reminder, the proper handling and cooking of all poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 ˚F is recommended as a general food safety precaution.

The avian flu will probably be the Trump administration’s first health challenge. The incoming president gained experience during the COVID pandemic and Americans will see how Trump and his cabinet handle this growing emergency which potentially threatens the economy, people, and cats.   

Sources:

USDA Confirms Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Backyard Non-Poultry Flock in Louisiana | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

CORRECT-ATTESTED.pdf

Governor Newsom takes proactive action to strengthen robust state response to Bird Flu | Governor of California

Highly pathogenic avian influenza detected in Ottawa County, MDARD warns.  • Michigan AdvanceLos Angeles County confirms avian flu in cat deaths as more cases suspected | CIDRAP

Germany: Demented Saudi Refugee Rams Car into Crowd Killing Several and Injuring Hundreds

A nine-year-old child and four adults have been killed after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.

More than 200 people were injured – at least 41 critically – in the attack on Friday evening.

A black BMW SUV ploughed 400 meters through the crowded market in an attack that lasted about three minutes. The suspect has been named in local media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had worked as a doctor.

Taleb al-Abdulmohsen (Social media)

Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said that the investigation was ongoing but suggested the background to the crime “could have been disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany”.

The suspected attacker has no known links to Islamist extremism and he appears to be a “lone actor.” His social media and posts appear to suggest he had been critical of Islam.

A source close to the Saudi government told the BBC it sent four official notifications known as “Notes Verbal” to German authorities, warning them about what they said were “the very extreme views” held by al-Abdulmohsen.

The source, who asked not to be named, said these notifications were ignored.

However, another experienced counter-terrorism expert said the Saudis may be mounting a disinformation campaign to discredit someone who tried to help young Saudi women seek asylum in Germany.

Al-Abdulmohsen is thought to have driven into the market through an entry point which was reserved for emergency vehicles.

The suspect is a psychiatrist who lived in Bernburg, around 40km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg. Originally from Saudi Arabia, al-Abdulmohsen arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee. He ran a website that aimed to help other former Muslims flee persecution in their Gulf homelands.

Friday’s incident is not the first time people at a Christmas market have been attacked in Germany.

In 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian man who failed to gain asylum in Germany and had links to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, drove a truck into crowds gathered at a church market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring 49 others.

Two years later, a gunman opened fire on a Christmas market in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, killing five and injuring another 11 people. The gunman was shot dead by police two days later.

Only last month, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser talked about the need for “greater vigilance” at the highly popular markets but said there were no “concrete” indications of danger.

She also reportedly pointed to tougher laws on weapons in public spaces following a knife attack in Solingen, west Germany, in August in which three people died.

The RW AfD will gain in the snap elections and auslanders (even innocent ones) will be deported from Germany in 2025.

Elon Musk recently tweeted:

“Only the AfD can save Germany.”

AfD Neo-Nazis spent Election Day at Mar a Lago. The tall man on the left is a reputed porn star. (Image: Social media)

All of this terrorism, discord, and xenophobia in the West makes Vladimir Putin’s day. Elon Musk must be ecstatic that his tweet reached an international audience before news of this callous and brutal attack at Christmas revelers in Germany reached most Americans in the US.

Sources:

German Christmas market attack: Nine-year-old among five killed

December 21, 2024 – Coverage of the Germany Christmas market attack | CNN

China: Seven Alleged Spies Arrested in Guam During US Missile Testing

Seven Chinese citizens have been arrested for allegedly attempting to illegally enter Guam, a US territory, while the military was conducting a key missile defense test.

The incident, which occurred on 10-11 Dec 2024, has raised concerns about potential espionage as four of those detained were found “in the vicinity of a military installation,” Guam’s Customs and Quarantine Agency said. The arrests came as the US Missile Defense Agency conducted an interception test involving advanced radar systems at Andersen Air Force Base on 10 Dec 2024.

“Conducting espionage against US military facilities, especially those with missile launch capabilities, could provide the PRC with potentially valuable intelligence,” US think tank Institute for the Study of War said.

The USN destroyer John Paul Jones launches an SM-6 during a live-fire test of the ship’s Aegis weapons system. The Missile Defense Agency’s first flight tests involving its defense of Guam architecture will include the Aegis series. (Photo: US Navy)

The arrested individuals reportedly arrived on the island by boat from Saipan. Guamanian authorities have launched an investigation into the incident, but there has been no immediate response from China’s foreign ministry to the arrests or the allegations.

Chinese intelligence uses the million grains of sand approach to collect information and China’s satellites and radar can efficiently gather telemetric data, so these seven alleged spies were sent to Guam to pick up any scrap of ancillary information about the missile launch, the vessel, photos of crew members, telephone numbers, or any grain of sand that will help create a mosaic of intelligence in Beijing.

Sources:

Seven Chinese nationals tried to illegally enter Guam as US tested missile, authorities say | The Independent

First flight test for Guam missile defense planned for end of 2024

Future White House Press Conferences Under Donald J. Trump

Below are the questions the White House Press Corps should be asking President Trump next year:

“Thank you, Sir, for answering my question about deportations. One follow-up, please. Does President Musk agree with you?”


“Sir! Sir!” How long did it take President Putin to select your Cabinet appointments?”


“Sir! Will President Musk be given Air Force Two?”


“Thank you, Sir! Does President Putin email or call you with his instructions?”


“Mr. President, did you run this idea past Elon Musk? And he OK-ed it?”


“Sir, how long does it President Putin to make decisions impacting US national security? And has his English improved when he gives you directions?”

Golden Retriever Gets Puppy Sibling to Grow Up With

Human Rights Watch (HRW): Israel Using Water as Weapon of War Against Palestinians in Gaza Strip

Palestinians struggling to collect drinkable water in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. (Photo: Hatem Khaled / Reuters)

Calling it an “act of genocide,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that since October 2023 Israeli authorities have deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of clean water required for survival in the Gaza Strip. Full report with graphs and photos linked at bottom.

“If we can’t find drinkable water, we drink the sea water,” a displaced Palestinian father testified to HRW. “It happened to me many times when I had to drink the sea water. You don’t understand how much we are suffering.”

Moreover, for years ecologists have accused Israel of using sewage as a weapon against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to spread disease and misery. See report linked at bottom.

A Gaza residential street is inundated by sewage. (Photo: Rosa Schiano / International Solidarity Movement)

Meanwhile, over the past 24 hours the IDF killed 32 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including children, and at least four in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians mourn over the body of loved ones killed after an IDF strike at Al-Ahli Arab hospital (AKA the Baptist Hospital) in Gaza City. (Photo: Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP)

During this 14-month pogrom, the Gaza Health Ministry reports that a minimum of 45,129 Palestinians have been killed and 107,338 wounded or maimed, including non-combatant women and children. The number of deaths is likely to be far higher as many bodies are believed to remain buried underneath the rubble across the devastated Strip. The IDF claims that 17,000 of the deceased were militants. The retribution ratio for the 7 Oct 2023 raid that killed 1,200 Israelis is 40:1. The 250 innocent Israelis were seized to conduct a prisoner swap for any number of the thousands of Palestinians being held incommunicado without trial or hearing in security detention by the IDF. See full report linked at bottom.

This week Amnesty International projected “End Gaza Genocide” on the EU HQ building in 24 languages similar to this:

In a report released earlier this month, Amnesty International concluded that Israel’s devastating war on Gaza meets the legal threshold for genocide. Apologists for the brutal Likud regime have feebly attempted to parse the language of this damning report, but as the Immortal Bard wrote: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Amnesty has called on EU leaders meeting to halt all arms transfers to Israel, ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements, and ensure justice and accountability for Israeli crimes.

(The above photo courtesy of the Washington Post was verified as genuine by snopes.com)

The avuncular-looking Avi Dichter must have heard your plea, young lady.

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud) said: “We’re rolling out Nakba 2023.” (Photo: Abir Sultan / Flash90)

The IDF certainly has, Sir.

Is Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague, Holocaust survivor Rene Lichtman, the government of Ireland, or US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) incapable of describing ethnic cleansing or genocide– or are they antisemitic for calling out the patently and blazingly obvious? Are people all over the world blind?

Fortunately, not everyone in the world is blind to suffering.

For years, the US Democratic Party position for peace in the Middle East was based on crafting a Two-State Solution. The Likud Party’s interests are antithetical to that of the US Democratic Party. Not paying attention to the American peace movement cost Kamala Harris the White House in 2024.

That any world leader takes Benjamin Netanyahu’s telephone call or wants to be photographed next to him absolutely staggers the imagination.

Sources:

https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/12/19/extermination-and-acts-genocide/israel-deliberately-depriving-palestinians-gaza

https://theecologist.org/2013/nov/02/gaza-sewage-weapon-war

https://archive.is/xnHsM

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/anatomy-of-a-genocide-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territory-occupied-since-1967-to-human-rights-council-advance-unedited-version-a-hrc-55/

https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a79363-report-special-committee-investigate-israeli-practices-affecting

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-12/ty-article/israeli-security-cabinet-member-calls-north-gaza-evacuation-nakba-2023/0000018b-c2be-dea2-a9bf-d2be7b670000

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/19/live-israel-kills-14-in-northern-gaza-as-it-continues-to-deny-un-access

https://amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/israel-opt-horrifying-cases-of-torture-and-degrading-treatment-of-palestinian-detainees-amid-spike-in-arbitrary-arrests/

https://www.snopes.com/

Ukraine/Russia Update

Janis Timma in an undated photo (Credit: Getty)

The body of Latvian basketball star Janis Timma was found after he reportedly fell from a Moscow apartment complex.

The 32-year-old, who played for teams like Zenit Saint Petersburg and Orlando Magic, was discovered in the stairway of a high-rise building on his ex-wife Anna Sedokova’s birthday.

The NBA ace had recently faced backlash when he announced his intention to play professionally in Putin’s Russia despite his brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Janis Timma told Latvian outlet LSM in Oct 2024:

 “It’s something interesting to me. I thought why not give it a try?”

Popular Ukrainian singer and actress Anna Sedokova was pictured crying after learning of her ex-husband’s completely unexpected demise in Putin’s Russia. (Credit: Instagram)

The preliminary cause of the young athlete’s death with his whole life and career ahead of him was ruled as a suicide.

Most likely thanks to the UK, Ukraine will have a new weapon to fight Russia.

A Ukrainian commander revealed the existence of the weapon, called “Tryzub,” during a defence conference on Monday.

Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, who commands Kiev’s unmanned forces, said Ukraine was only the fifth country to have an operational laser.

Ukrainian troops will use the laser to shoot drones and planes out of the sky (Photo: Reuters)

“As of now, we can use this laser to shoot down aircraft at altitudes of over two kms.”

Tryzub is the name of the golden trident on Ukraine’s coat of arms and is the symbol of the country. Ukraine developed the weapon most likely with help from the UK which designed the DragonFire DEW system.

Former UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps suggested in Apr 2024 the UK’s laser weapon DragonFire could be sent to Ukraine.

Finally and as expected, North Korean soldiers have become expendable “cannon fodder” for Vladimir Putin and the Russians are trying to cover it up.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says this blurred image from a video shows Russians burning the face of a dead North Korean soldier. (Volodymyr Zelensky’s official Telegram channel)

At least 100 North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia have been killed, with nearly 1,000 wounded in the Kursk region, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). The high casualties were attributed to the troops’ inexperience with drones and unfamiliar terrain.

A language barrier is hurting enemy efforts as well. North Korean soldiers opened fire on the vehicles of the so-called Akhmat battalion resulting in eight dead Kadyrovites (Chechens loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov). In military terms this is called “fratricide.”

North Korea has reportedly sent over 10,000 soldiers and significant artillery supplies to aid Russia’s war effort against Ukraine which neither Russia nor North Korea have officially confirmed.

Despite the reported losses, intelligence suggests North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is training additional troops for deployment. Experts say Kim is keen to acquire advanced technology from Russia and gain battle experience for his troops. Kim Jong-un will also neatly pocket the monthly $2,200 salary of each North Korean soldier sent to die for Russia.

A screenshot of an image released by the Ukrainian drone warfare unit Magyar’s Birds. The unit said it shows the bodies of North Korean soldiers killed in the Kursk region. Part of the image has been blurred by RFA. (Magyar’s Birds)

Sources:

https://www.the-sun.com/sport/13108326/basketball-star-janis-timma-dead/

https://www.the-sun.com/news/13119788/ukraine-laser-gun-drones-trident/

https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-updates-zelenskyy-wants-strong-trump-on-our-side/live-71103227

https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2024/12/16/north-korea-ukraine-russia-casulaties/

https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2024/12/17/north-korean-soldier-video-russia-12172024/

German Chancellor Scholz Loses No Confidence Vote Ahead of February Elections

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks on the day of a confidence vote called by him to pave way for snap election, at lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, 16 Dec 2024. Herr Scholz is no Frau Merkel. (Photo: © Liesa Johannssen / Reuters)

394 Bundestag deputies voted against Scholz while only 207 expressed confidence in the chancellor, with 116 abstentions.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier can now move to dissolve the legislature and formally declare the agreed 23 Feb 2025 election date.

Friedrich Merz – the top candidate of the conservative CDU-CSU opposition alliance of ex-chancellor Angela Merkel – is well ahead in opinion polls.

The political contest comes at a time when Europe’s top economy is struggling to revive its stuttering export-led industrial sector amid high energy prices and tough competition from China. Berlin also faces major geopolitical challenges as it confronts Russia over the Ukraine war and as Donald Trump’s looming return to the White House heightens uncertainty over NATO and trade ties.

Germany’s political turmoil comes as France has also been roiled by crisis and gridlock which saw President Emmanuel Macron asking centrist politician François Bayrou to try to form a new government.

German politics in the post-war era was long staid, stable and dominated by the two parties, the CDU-CSU and the SPD, with the small FDP often playing kingmaker.

The Greens emerged in the 1980s, but the political landscape has been further fragmented over the past decade by the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), a shock for a country whose dark World War II history had long made far-right parties taboo.

Formed as a Eurosceptic fringe party, the AfD grew into a major political force when it protested against Merkel’s open-door policy to migrants, and now has around 18 percent voter support.

(Map: Courtesy of BBC)

While other parties have committed to a “firewall” of non-cooperation with the AfD, some of them have borrowed from its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric. Following the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, some CDU lawmakers were quick to demand that the around one million Syrian refugees in Germany return to their home country.

The winter election is all the more heated as it comes at a time “the German model is in crisis,” said Berlin-based political scientist Claire Demesmay of Sciences Po Paris.

According to Demesmay, Germany’s prosperity “was built on cheap energy imported from Russia, on a security policy outsourced to the USA, and on exports and subcontracting to China.”

NATO members Germany, France, and Canada are experiencing political unrest and doubts for the future which is music to the Kremlin’s ears as Vladimir Putin wants to undermine America, NATO, and the EU.  In no surprising move, Elon Musk posted the following message:

“Only the AfD can save Germany.” 

 AfD Neo-Nazis Spent Election Day at Mar a Lago. The tall man on the left is a reputed porn star. (Image: Social media)

Source:

German Chancellor Scholz loses no confidence vote ahead of February elections

Twelve People Found Dead Inside Restaurant at Popular Ski Resort

Twelve people were found dead inside an Indian restaurant at a popular ski resort in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, apparently all employees.

The Mtskheta-Mtianeti Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Georgia said that the bodies were discovered in Gudauri — a popular and well-known ski resort near the Russian border located approximately 75 miles north of the country’s capital city of Tbilisi.

Gudauri ski resort in Georgia on 17 May 2019. (Photo: Reinhard Kaufhold / Picture-Alliance /DPA /AP)

“In the resting area on the second floor of the Indian restaurant located in Gudauri, the bodies of 12 people employed in the same facility were found,” Georgian officials said in a statement. “At the initial inspection, no signs of body injuries or signs of violence were detected.”

However, according to a preliminary investigation, authorities discovered that a power generator had been placed in a closed space within an indoor area of the resort near some bedrooms. An investigation under Article 116 of the Criminal Code of Georgia has been launched, suggesting that the deaths were due to negligent manslaughter.

The investigation into the deaths is ongoing. But prima facie, this mass manslaughter seems to be unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning.

Source:

12 people found dead inside restaurant at popular ski resort – ABC News

Democratic Republic of Congo: Mystery Illness Could Be Severe Malaria

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

Health officials are narrowing in on the cause of dozens of unexplained deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that a severe form of malaria is likely responsible.

The illness was considered a mystery for weeks. It has killed at least 37 people and sickened 592. Local authorities previously told Reuters that the death toll exceeded 140.

Health officials in Africa have been referring to the illness as “Disease X” while awaiting test results.

Concurrent health issues among the population, such malnutrition and known viral infections, could exacerbate the illnesses.

Millions of displaced people live in places like Bulengo IDP Camp. (Photo: Concern Worldwide)

An Anopheles stephensi mosquito feeding on a human host. (Photo: alchetron)

Mosquitos are man’s greatest acme predator. Mosquito-borne diseases kill more than one million people and infect up to 700 million each year – almost one in ten people. As the planet warms and climate change lengthens the mosquito season, the world’s deadliest creature will expand its geographical range to new regions and re-emerge in areas where mosquito numbers had subsided for decades.

Sources:

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/congo-disease-outbreak-severe-malaria-rcna183299

https://www.cdc.gov/global-health/impact/fighting-the-worlds-deadliest-animal.html

NYC Resident Pleads Guilty to Operating Secret Police Station of Chinese Government in Lower Manhattan

Chen Jinping is smiling now but five years in an FCI may slap that grin off his face. (Photo: FBI)

Chen Jinping (60) of New York, NY, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an illegal agent of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in connection with opening and operating an undeclared overseas police station, located in downtown Manhattan, for the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

Chen Jinping and co-defendant “Harry” Lu Jianwang conspired to act as illegal agents of the PRC government and also obstructed justice by destroying evidence of their communications with an MPS official. While acting under the direction and control of the MPS official, the defendants worked together to establish the first known overseas police station in the US on behalf of the Fuzhou branch of the MPS. The police station — which closed in the fall of 2022 — occupied an entire floor in an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

The clandestine police station was situated on the third floor of the Changle Association of America on East Broadway in Chinatown.

Lu and Chen helped open and operate the clandestine police station. None of the participants in the scheme informed the US government that they were helping the PRC government surreptitiously open and operate an undeclared MPS police station on US soil.

China may have more illegal police stations operating in the US. (Map courtesy of the UK Daily Mail.)

The FBI has created a website for victims to report efforts by foreign governments to stalk, intimidate, or assault people in the US. If you believe that you are or have been a victim of transnational repression, please visit:

https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/transnational-repression.

Chen faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Per Chen’s plea agreement, the government has agreed to dismiss the obstruction of justice charge against him. Lu has pleaded not guilty to both of the charges against him and is awaiting trial.

One Police Plaza and 26 Federal Plaza are sneezing distance away from this ex-Chinese spy post. This was both remarkable and brazen of China. Apparently Canada is also coming to grips with the same problem of clandestine illegal Chinese government police stations.

No doubt the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) will uncover these illegal and nefarious Chinese mouchards,

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/new-york-resident-pleads-guilty-operating-secret-police-station-chinese-government-lower

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11988889/China-six-illegal-police-stations-US.html

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca

https://www.cbc.ca/

China: Food Poisoning Afflicts 15 Tourists from Hong Kong

15 individuals from Hong Kong were affected by food poisoning after returning from a group tour in Guangdong, China. The incident has raised alarms about food safety and hygiene, prompting health officials to remind the public of the importance of maintaining personal and environmental hygiene, especially when travelling abroad.

The affected group, comprising five males and ten females aged between 57 and 94, began experiencing symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, and fever after dining at two restaurants in Zhanjiang. Fourteen of the individuals sought medical treatment either while on the Mainland or after returning to Hong Kong. Among them, one person required hospitalization but has since been discharged following treatment.

The group consumed a variety of seafood dishes, including oysters, abalone, shrimp, sea cucumber, and fish. Preliminary assessments suggest that the food poisoning may have been caused by norovirus or Vibrio parahaemolyticus, both of which are known to be associated with seafood consumption and can lead to severe gastrointestinal symptoms.

In response to the outbreak, the CHP has reached out to Mainland health authorities, sharing the details of the cases to facilitate further investigations. They are also appealing to other participants from the three-day tour organized by E King Travel (International) Limited to come forward for follow-up and medical surveillance.

Health officials are urging anyone who experiences symptoms related to foodborne illness—such as fever, gastrointestinal distress, or general malaise—to seek immediate medical attention.

Source:

Fifteen tourists affected in Hong Kong food poisoning cluster linked to Guangdong trip

Tiger Has Been Chained Up Her Whole Life

Meet Susu from Thailand:

If Susu could purr, she would. Thank you kind tiger rescue folks in SE Asia.