Unqualified US support for Israel has made “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” completely impossible for the Palestinian people and totally rubbishes any concept of a “two-state solution.” Hard-working Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be wasting his time and US taxpayer funds in a kabuki dance when he meets with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu this week. The indicted Israeli war criminal has effectively tarnished President Biden’s legacy who is winding down his multi-decade career in US politics.
In the past 24 hours 108 people had been killed and 40 injured in bombings across the territory, part of the IDF’s ferocious renewed assault in the Gaza Strip. “The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying. Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern strip amidst relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis,” Tor Wennesland, said the UN special coordinator for the Middle East.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza … We owe it to the families suffering in Gaza and Israel. The war must stop now,” he added.
The Likud pogrom against the Palestinians is certainly satisfying this young demonstrator’s desires. Undated photo courtesy of the Washington Post.
The daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict, according to Oxfam, an international NGO. The right-wing Likud cabal is depopulating Palestinians much more efficiently than ultra-nationalist Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” against the Ukrainians.
An image from the Political Cartoon Gallery in central London Photograph: Political Cartoon Gallery via the Guardian.
IDF bombardment this past weekend in the town of Beit Lahiya flattened several houses and an apartment block, killing members of several families. Among the dead were two parents and their four children, and a woman, her son and daughter-in-law and their four children.
The internet and phone services have been down in parts of Gaza, complicating the rescue operation.
In a post on X, Mounir al-Bursh, the director general of the health ministry, said the flood of injured people from the strikes compounded “an already catastrophic situation for the healthcare system” in northern Gaza.
Unclear during this Israeli offensive is what opportunities are given Palestinian combatants to either surrender to the IDF or turn themselves over to the Israeli police for judicial process in a court of law.
The IDF have nominally held complete control of northern Gaza since January, but launched a new assault on the area two weeks ago to prevent any resistance groups from re-constituting.
Gaza’s civil defense service said it had recovered at least 500 bodies since the operation began on 6 Oct.
Sweeping evacuation orders for the estimated 400,000 people still living in the northern third of the territory, the blockage of aid and food deliveries and the targeting of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals have led rights groups to accuse Israel of the war crime of seeking to forcibly displace the remaining population.
Israel has denied it is systematically removing Palestinians from the area.
Several struggling hospitals have been unable to evacuate patients, and two people at the Indonesia hospital in Beit Lahiya died from a lack of oxygen after electricity and fuel shortages.
Top-secret US documents that allegedly reveal details about Israel’s plans to attack Iran had been leaked and published online.
The papers supposedly date from 15 and 16 Oct, and allege that Israel has fortified underground warplane bunkers at the Hatzerim airbase, where there are signs of preparation for arming plane-launched ballistic missiles. The blood-thirsty Likud regime can’t wait to attack Iran with an American imprimatur, regardless of collateral damage or escalating the conflict.
An Israeli source told the Israeli daily Haaretz that the US had apologized to Israel for the leak and US House speaker Republican Mike Johnson said that an investigation into the incident had been launched. 100 US servicemembers deployed with the THAAD air-defense system are in harm’s way in Israel.
Israel and Hamas, however, have so far stuck to their irreconcilable demands. Internationally mediated talks aimed at a lasting truce in Gaza and the return of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Palestinian armed groups during the 7 Oct 2023 attack broke down in August. That raid to capture Israeli hostages in order to release the 7,000 Palestinians being held in IDF prisons in security detention without hearing gave the Likud regime the green light to activate Nabka 2023 to de-populate the Gaza Strip. Simultaneously, rabid Israeli settlers increased their rampages to seize Palestinian properties in the West Bank, killing over 700 Palestinians.
An American intelligence officer or servicemember opposed to Israeli’s Nakba may have leaked the files out of anger. The other possibility is he or she may be attempting to thwart the IDF plan to pummel Iran which could escalate this conflict even further out of control than it already is. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has loyally worked hard for the Biden Administration, but Netanyahu has scotched all of his good faith attempts at reaching a ceasefire and releasing the remaining 100 hostages. Meanwhile, the bodies of Palestinians keep piling up.
Sources:
“Beirut in Flames”: Israel Attacks Hezbollah-Linked Bank; Hundreds More Lebanese Made Homeless
Fire and smoke after an IDF airstrike at Dahieh in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, late 20 October 2024. More than 2,400 people have been killed and over 11,400 others have been injured in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s offensive. (Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE)
Israeli fighter jets struck dozens of targets in Beirut and other areas of southern Lebanon overnight, including branches of a bank accused of holding funds used by Hezbollah.
The military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee, had earlier in the night issued several evacuation orders for buildings throughout southern Lebanon he said were in the vicinity of facilities belonging to the US-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association Bank.
“Get away from it immediately,” he said in a video statement.
Jeanine Hennis, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, said that after the IDF issued its evacuations, said there was “widespread panic” in Beirut.
Israel FM Israel Katz said 15 buildings in Beirut were struck as the IDF carried out a wide-scale attack targeting Hezbollah’s financial infrastructure.
“Beirut in flames,” Israeli FM Katz proudly released in a statement.
The IDF attacked not only Beirut, but throughout southern Lebanon and deeper into the country. The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported that an IDF bulldozer had deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence at its position in Marwahin in southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s army, which has remained on the sidelines during the Israel’s campaign, said three of its soldiers were killed by an IDF strike while travelling in an army vehicle in the south of the country.
As previously posted, the IDF does not care about collateral casualties nor does it want any witnesses to its actions, hence the three Lebanese Army soldiers were killed and the UNIFIL post bulldozed. The Likud government wants to make southern Lebanon inhospitable and kill as many Shia combatants as possible. Lebanon, already fractured by its multiple religions and a dilapidated economy, is powerless to protect its citizens, much less house the thousands of displaced people Israel is creating. With winter approaching, the government of Beirut will face much more challenges.
Source:
‘Beirut in flames’ as Israel attacks Hezbollah-linked bank – UPI.com
https://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?id=299259
Whooping Cough at Decade-High Level in US
This 2016 illustration based on electron microscope imagery depicts bordetella pertussis bacteria, which causes whooping cough (Image: CDC).
Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, according to the CDC. 18,506 cases of whooping cough have been reported so far. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.
The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.
Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.
Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin received the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.
Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. Treated with antibiotics, whooping cough used to be common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations (along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines). The combo shot is recommended for adults every ten years.
“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That’s why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.
But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens.
It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, KY. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.
“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”
Source:
Whooping cough is at a decade-high level in US (voanews.com)
About Whooping Cough Outbreaks | Whooping Cough | CDC
NGO: French Water Supply Contaminated with Untested Toxic Chemicals
The byproducts of pesticides can seep into soil, surface water and groundwater before making their way into drinking water supplies. (Photo: © AFP – MIGUEL MEDINA)
The NGO Générations Futures found that 56 pesticide byproducts known as metabolites – substances formed when chemicals break down – are not being monitored in groundwater or drinking water, despite likely exceeding legal safety limits.
Their analysis, based on research from French health and safety agency, found these metabolites probably contaminate groundwater above the legal limit of 0.1 micrograms per liter.
The substances can seep into soil, surface water and groundwater before making their way into drinking water supplies.
Twelve of the unmonitored metabolites pose particular risks – including trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which was found at alarming levels in Paris.
“With our colleagues from the Pesticides Action Network Europe, we have taken samples of river water and tap water, and analysed for TFA … and we found it in many places, in very large quantities,” said François Veillerette, of Générations Futures.
“We found TFA at over two micrograms per liter [in the Seine] … and in tap water, about the same quantity. So, two micrograms per liter is 20 times the [legal limit of] 0.1 micrograms per liter,” he said.
The findings raise questions about whether some French regions face higher contamination risks than others.
The threat spans nationwide – water quality in at least one third of France is at risk from TFA contamination alone.
TFA comes from the breakdown of “forever chemicals” called PFAS, found in pesticides, non-stick coatings, and cosmetics.
The NGO warned French authorities cannot ignore TFA’s dangers, noting that German health officials suggest classifying it as toxic for reproduction. More worrying still is the uncertainty around long-term exposure to these substances in drinking water.
“What is really astonishing is that it is an ‘unknown’ … nobody knows [the potential effects] because there are no requisite studies on metabolites,” said Veillerette, warning that if research comes too late and “they’re everywhere, then there’s nothing we can do”.
While data on safe levels remains insufficient, the group cautions these chemicals accumulate over time and could create a dangerous “cocktail effect“.
With France’s water safety at stake, experts are warning this invisible but growing crisis demands urgent attention.
Pesticides have already despoiled French Martinique. This case is the result of competing interests in France: Farmers versus Environmentalists. The agrarian sector relies on pesticides to protect their harvests (e.g. grains, grapes, etc), ignoring the long-term impact of these chemicals in the water supply and the potential health hazards they may cause in the future.
Sources:
French water supply contaminated with untested toxic chemicals, NGO warns (rfi.fr)
man-spraying-herbicides – Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog
Fethullah Gulen, Rival of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Dies in Exile
The late Fethullah Gulen at his home in Saylorsburg, PA. This is the man disgraced retired US Army General Michael Flynn wanted to abduct and extradite to Turkiye. (Photo: Reuters)
US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, once an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but later accused of masterminding a failed coup attempt in 2016, has died at the age of 83 of an unspecified ailment he was being treated for. Gulen had lived in exile in the US since 1999 and was stripped of his Turkish citizenship in 2017.
The 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan and the government was a turning point in the country. Some 250 people were killed when rogue soldiers hijacked warplanes, tanks, and other heavy military equipment as they tried to push the president out of power.
That event led Ankara to declare an all-out war on Gulen’s network — known as Hizmet, which means “service” in Turkish — saying he was responsible for the coup, charges that Gulen fiercely denied.
Ankara considers Hizmet to be a terrorist organization. It is an opaque but influential group mainly involved in educational activities and promoting civil society.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in confirming Turkish intelligence reports saying Gulen had died, described Gulen as the leader of a “dark organization.”
Tens of thousands of dismissals and detentions followed the coup attempt in Turkiye, as well as increasingly tense relations between Ankara and any country where Gulen had connections — mostly through the network of his private schools.
Turkish soldiers accused of involvement in an attempted coup in 2016 arriving at court inside the Sincan Prison in Ankara in 2017. Photo: Adem Altan / AFP— Getty Images.
The campaign against Gulen spread into regional allies of Turkiye. Some Central Asian governments intensified a crackdown on institutions linked to the cleric that had started before the coup attempt.
In recent years, there have been reports of Turkish citizens accused of having links to Gulen being arrested and forcibly taken to Turkiye.
In one such incident, Turkish-Kyrgyz educator Orhan Inandi was abducted by Turkish agents in 2021 in Kyrgyzstan and brought to Turkey against his will in 2021. Inandi, who is a dual Kyrgyz-Turkish citizen, was handed 21 years in prison on a charge of “establishing of an armed terrorist group.”
Critics of Erdogan contend that he used the coup aftermath as an excuse to purge the government of thousands of secular Turks, Kurds, AK Party opposition members, and others unaffiliated with the coup or the Gulenists, sweeping them up as so-called “Enemies of the State.”
Opposition politicians Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksekdağ had been arrested on terrorism charges. These two certainly look like members of Al-Qaida or ISIS. (Undated photo courtesy of Wikimedia.org)
Sources:
Fethullah Gulen, Rival Of Turkey’s Erdogan, Dies In Exile (rferl.org)
Purges in Turkey following the 2016 Turkish coup attempt – Wikipedia
Mike Flynn and the Insane Alleged Plot to Kidnap a Turkish Cleric (vice.com)
18 North Korean Soldiers in Russia Reportedly Deserted
North Korean supremo Kim Jong Un (Center-R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) walk past children attend a welcoming ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea on 19 Jun 2024. (Photo: Vladimir Smirnov / POOL / AFP)
Russia recently assembled a “special Buryat battalion” made up of North Koreans. The number of personnel in the unit is estimated at up to 3,000, and likely to be involved in combat activities around the settlements of Sudzha and Kursk. 18 of these North Korean soldiers have deserted their positions, according to Ukrainska Pravda citing sources in Ukraine’s special services. The alleged escapes took place seven km from the border with Ukraine.
The reasons for the North Koreans’ desertion were unknown. Russian forces have begun looking for them while attempting to conceal this information from the High Command.
“Life for North Korean conscripts is brutal and harsh, even without a war, and the consequences for refusing to fight would be extremely dire,” said Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder earlier this year. North Korean troops would become “cannon fodder” if they joined Russian forces on “meat assaults” reported an analyst in Ukraine.
The South Korean government summoned the Russian Ambassador and demanded the North Korean soldiers be immediately withdrawn from Russia, saying this move violated UN resolutions and posed a threat to South Korea.
The Korean People’s Army (KPA) is the fourth largest in the world in terms of personnel, with 1,280,000 active members and 600,000 in reserve. Only China, India, and the US have bigger standing armies. North Korea spent 36.32% of its entire gross domestic product on defense in 2023. North Korean society is heavily militarized and all citizens are required to serve — reportedly 10 years for men, and eight for women. North Korea can provide two material items to the Kremlin: cannon fodder for the front and ammunition and artillery shells from a vast arsenal dating back to the 1950s.
The reported introduction of 1,500 North Korean special forces may present a separate asset to the Kremlin. But these highly-trained soldiers are also inexperienced in combat and how they perform against experienced Ukrainian defenders remains to be seen.
Kim Jong-Un has no regard for the safety or welfare of his own people and will do everything he can stay in power, including starving his own people and executing his uncle.
Jang Song-thaek escorted into court handcuffed by uniformed guards: a special military tribunal found him guilty of treason in Dec 2013 and he was executed. Jang Song-thaek was once one of the DPRK’s most powerful men and uncle of Kim Jong-Un (Photo: Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images)
Sources:
South Korea summons Russian envoy over North Korean troop deployment | South Korea | The Guardian
This is how North Korean troops could be used in Russia’s war in Ukraine (kyivindependent.com)
North Carolina Militant Sentenced for Assaulting Law Enforcement During 6 Jan Attack on US Capitol
Curtis Davis (R). Tonya Bishop (L) faces charges, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, plus charges of disorderly conduct and illegally demonstrating at the Capitol building. (Photo: FBI)
Curtis Davis (45) of Snow Hill, NC was sentenced to 24 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, the first six months of which to be served on home detention, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution by the Honorable US District Judge Amit P. Mehta for violent actions on 6 Jan 2021.
At about 3:00 PM on 6 Jan 2021, Davis entered the US Capitol building where law enforcement officers were attempting to disperse a crowd of rioters. Inside the Rotunda, while pressed against a line of police officers, Davis forcibly attacked a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer and attempted to grab hold of the officer’s baton. Davis then punched an MPD officer in the face shield and refused law enforcement orders to leave the building. A short while later, Davis punched another MPD officer in the head and forcibly pulled away a riot shield from another. Davis then used the shield to press against the backs of a line of rioters in an attempt to resist the efforts of police.
After being expelled from the Rotunda, Davis returned with other rioters and again attempted to breach police lines. This maniac punched a riot shield held by an officer three times.
Later that night, Davis filmed a group of police officers with his cell phone camera before turning it around, filming his fist, and stating, “Them knuckles right there, from one of those m—f— faces at the Capitol.”
The FBI arrested Davis on 8 Dec 2023 in Snow Hill.
In the 45 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,532 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.
This violent lunatic represents America’s Fedayeen Saddam (FS), die-hard white supremacists clinging on to the last vestiges of white privilege in the US. Heeding the idiotic call of Donald J. Trump that the minorities stole the 2020 election, Curtis Davis threw his life away with this federal conviction.
Sources:
Stray Cat Approaches Kind Stranger, Soon Filling Home with Look-alike Kittens
When a volunteer from Be Their Voice Animal Rescue (BTV) in Atlanta, Georgia, went to pick up a cat, another friendly stray came around the corner and walked right up to her.
“She could tell that the cat was pregnant and very skinny,” Aimee, COO for BTV. With no home to call her own, the volunteer scooped her up and took her for her first vet visit.
After the vet, the sweet “house panther” named Jazz inspected her new room, pausing only to rub against the furniture. Finding everything to her liking, she weaved around her foster mom’s legs and purred her thanks.
Though quite underweight, Jazz was in good spirits and grateful for her endless supply of food. She took her time to feast and regain strength, making up for those hungry and weary days on the streets.
“She ended up finally delivering sometime in the middle of the night, and unfortunately, she didn’t know what she was doing.”
Jazz had comfortable nesting boxes to choose from but decided to have her eight kittens in the litter box.
Thankfully, her foster family quickly acted, cleaning the babies one by one and making sure they were all latching.
Over the next few weeks, the kittens grew by leaps and bounds, reaching many milestones, discovering their penchant for mischief-making, and romping around with boisterous energy. Now they are ready for new forever homes.
A happy and grateful Jazz made a lot of people happy.
We can thank the good people at Be Their Voice Animal Rescue in Georgia for their kindness, this story, and the photos.
More on the family and BTV (in GA) on Instagram @_catz4life_ and @fostercatsfordays.
Source:
https://www.lovemeow.com/stray-cat-home-void-kittens-2669446352.html
This little tigress is ready for a forever home.
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Coriolanus 