Serial Killer At Large in Middle East

An international arrest warrant issued by the ICC remains active for Benjamin Netanyahu. The allegations: Responsible for using starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing attacks against civilian populations; crimes against humanity including murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.

This man is dangerous. Do not approach and call INTERPOL immediately at telephone number 33 4 7244 7000 if he is seen or located.

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

Netanyahu’s Thugs Bully Greta Thunberg

After Israeli police arrested antiwar Samaritan Greta Thunberg (bottom right of photo) for trying to feed the starving people in Gaza last week, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had Greta Thunberg watch death films of the 7 Oct 2023 Palestinian raid into Israel which was conducted to capture hostages for a prisoner swap. After she politely declined and this brutal chapter was completed, Greta was deported. Then Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a surprise attack on Iran called Operation Rising Lion.

The Donald Trumpf junta was aware of the imminent attack and had ordered non-essential State Dept and DoD personnel home from several locations in the Middle East days before the attack. US negotiators were about to begin the sixth round of nuclear talks with their Iranian counterparts in Rome.  Recall that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Israel is not. Iran’s nuclear program was being monitored by the IAEA under the JCPOA agreement, until Dotard Trumpf recklessly pulled out of it during his first Reign of Terror. Note the number of Iranians previously assassinated by the Israelis and the recent victims of Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloodlust:

US and UK forces are ready to assist the belligerent Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The UK has sent Tornado fighter jets to the Middle East and the already US presence in the Middle East is on high alert.  The Iraqi government wants the remaining US military personnel out of the country because they did not like Israel using their airspace to attack Iran. Moreover, US personnel in Iraq are vulnerable to attack by pro-Iranian Shia militias who see the US as an ally of Israel, which it is thanks to AIPAC.

With nothing substantial or intelligent to convey at the G-7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada and still stinging from his humiliating birthday parade where his own wife Melania (AKA Melanoma) nodded off, President Dotard Trumpf used the Israeli war as an excuse to depart after the first day of talks on Monday. Air Force One is a ‘flying White House’ with all of the telecommunications necessary to prosecute a war so there was no technical reason for him to go. But with sharp Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum and Ukraine President Volodomir Zelensky scheduled to meet him Tuesday, Dotard Trumpf “chickened out,” living up to his new sobriquet ‘TACO Don’: Trumpf Always Chickens Out.

Ottawa allowed Trumpf to enter the country since as a convicted felon, he is prohibited by law from entry into Canada. While there, Trumpf unabashedly promoted Russian President Vladimir Putin (72), an ICC-indicted war criminal:

Netanyahu Plotted to Murder Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (C), shakes hands with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Tehran, with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R). [Handout: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader]

Murder-Death-Kill Campaign Continues in Gaza

While the G-7 leaders enjoyed fine wine, food, and Canadian hospitality in Alberta, this is happening in the Gaza Strip. The abominable cruelty and misery inflicted on these poor people by the Israelis is unimaginable. Have they no pity? (Photo: Al Jazeera)

The IDF killed at least 65 Palestinians and wounded 315 others in the Gaza Strip this past weekend.  Since October 2023, the hardworking American taxpayer has helped to kill 55,362 Palestinians, with an additional 128,741 injured or maimed. The majority of the victims are women and children. After US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) ensured US aid would flow uninterrupted to Israel by capitulating on the GOP budget, the IDF resumed ethnic cleansing on 18 March. Since then, the IDF murdered 5,071 Palestinians; 16,700 others were injured or maimed. In the West Bank, Israeli lunatics set fire to agricultural land in the town of Turmus Ayya northeast of Ramallah, destroying several olive groves.

So, while Americans and Canadians celebrated Father’s Day this past weekend, Palestinians mourned the deaths of their fathers, thanks to Western complicity. 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. In March, USSECSTATE Marco Rubio expedited $4bn of American taxpayer money to Israel.  The Democratic Party, which has become an effective platform for AIPAC, will permanently lose seven to eight million antiwar Samaritans and progressives in future national elections against the GOP just as they did in 1968 and 2024. Their consciences will be clear.

Meanwhile Benjamin Netanyahu, a serial killer in the likes of John Wayne Gacy, Jack the Ripper, Son of Sam, the Zodiac Killer, or Charles Manson, remains at large in Israel, although the indicted war criminal makes occasional appearances at his criminal corruption trial in Tel Aviv. The Israeli National Police have not arrested and turned Netanyahu over to the Hague for prosecution.

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

Sources:

https://www.state.gov/military-assistance-to-israel/

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

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/technology-science/artc-israel-ranks-10th-best-health-care-system-in-2024-review

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israels-pension-system-ranked-third-best-in-world-646239

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg7gl4zegyo

https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/19/world-court-finds-israel-responsible-apartheid

UK: Blaise Metreweli Appointed as First Woman to Lead MI6

Blaise Metreweli has spent her entire career in the intelligence community and is of Georgian ancestry. She will take over from Sir Richard Moore later this year. (Photo: UK Foreign Office / AP / BBC)

Blaise Metreweli (47) will be the first woman to lead the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). She is currently Director General “Q”, the head of the crucial technology and innovation division that keeps the identities of operatives secret. “Q” comes up with methods to counter adversaries like China that uses biometric surveillance. Metreweli joined MI6 in 1999 and worked continuously as an intelligence officer, including director-level roles at MI5, the domestic intelligence service.

Historic note: The first head of MI6 was Royal Navy Captain Mansfield Cumming. He always signed his letters “C” and the codename has stuck. Captain Cumming wrote in green ink, so to this day, the head of MI6 is the only person in Whitehall who will write in green.

As predicted, a woman will take charge of MI6 for the first time. MI6 appointed an experienced and well-regarded insider who is fairly youthful over the other two qualified female candidates. Ms. Metreweli will run rings around the rank amateurs leading the USIC: ODNI Tulsi Gabbard, D/CIA John Ratcliffe, and D/FBI Kashyap Pramod “Kash” Patel. Dotard Trumpf appointed the first female D/CIA during his first administration, Gina Haspel.

Source:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxyx04dv1wo

DNI Tulsi Gabbard Illegally Interfering in Inspector-General (IG) Offices

Senior Democratic lawmakers accused DNI Tulsi Gabbard of violating the law with personnel moves that threaten the independent oversight of the 18 intelligence agencies she oversees. In this letter, they provide new details of a standoff between Gabbard and her congressionally mandated inspector general. At stake is the fate of an office established by Congress in 2010 to provide independent oversight over what are now 18 US civilian and military intelligence agencies. Dotard Trumpf has frequently shown hostility toward inspectors general ” he fired one of Johnson’s predecessors during his first term in 2019 ” and in Jan 2025 he fired most inspectors general at federal Cabinet agencies.

Islamophobic, homophobic Tulsi Gabbard is the most underqualified person to ever lead a US intelligence organization. This shrew was chosen to lead the USIC to gut it, not empower it to protect US interests. These moves to fire the IGs protect Felon Musk and other cronies from being scrutinized of the abominable and massive larcenies they are perpetrating on the American taxpayer. Moreover, without independent IGs, there are no watchdogs keeping the Trumpf-filled USIC from abusing its tremendous powers of surveillance, wire-tapping, and data collection.

Emptyhead Tulsi Gabbard admitted use of the Signal App chat was a mistake. Then she used ArtificiaI Intelligence (AI) to de-classify the JFK assassination files, which led to the disaster of people’s personal information– specifically their social security numbers– being made public. This became a bonanza for identity thieves. At least 200 Congressional staffers personal data was exposed, as well as others.

Sources:

https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/

https://www.rawstory.com/tulsi-gabbard-ai/

Dotard Trumpf Pick to Lead FAA Lied About His Pilot License

Republic Airways President and CEO Bryan Bedford testifies in Washington, 11 Jun 2025. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)

Bryan Bedford, the nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration, for years erroneously stated in his Republic Airways bio that he is a pilot with a “commercial” rating.

Bedford’s biography at Republic Airways, the regional airline where he has been CEO since 1999, said until Thursday that he “holds commercial, multi-engine and instrument ratings.” The word “commercial” has since been removed. The FAA registry that houses data on pilot’s licenses does not list any such commercial credentials for Bedford.

Similar language asserting commercial credentials for Bedford appeared in his Republic bio since at least 2010according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

The ‘President Plane Crash’ meme has proven to be generally true, as US aviation safety has declined since Dotard Trumpf’s inauguration.

A far better choice to head the FAA would be any number of retired USAF generals, rather than a political donor who for decades has been lying about his aviation credentials.

Sources:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/04/16/has-flying-in-america-become-more-dangerous/

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/15/trumps-faa-pick-has-claimed-commercial-pilot-license-he-doesnt-have-00406090

Germany Has Evidence of Russia’s Plans to Attack NATO

Bruno Kahl, President of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), stated that Russia is preparing to test the credibility of NATO’s Article V, adding that German intelligence has concrete evidence of the Kremlin’s preparations for potential aggression against the Alliance. The BND chief emphasized that Moscow no longer believes in the reliability of NATO’s collective defence system ” particularly Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty, which guarantees a joint response in the event of an attack on a member state.

 “We are very sure, and we have intelligence evidence to back this up, that [Russia’s full-scale invasion of] Ukraine is only one step on Russia’s path towards the West.”

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has issued similar warnings in the past, repeatedly stating that Germany must be “ready for war” by the end of this decade. Ukraine’s intelligence chief publicly echoed the same analysis.

Putin and his protege at the 2018 Helsinki Summit (Photo: Chris McGrath / Getty Images)

The Trumpf junta has already signaled the US military won’t be participating in NATO drills after 2025. This year CIA abruptly withdrew the name of Ralph Goff, an experienced senior officer with impeccable anti-Russian credentials, to lead the Directorate of Operations. The EU and NATO recognize the threat from Vladimir Putin (72) and with Canada, initiated the Rearm Europe program. Meanwhile in the US, AIPAC will ensure that Israel continues receiving US military aid at the expense of Ukraine and NATO.

Sources:

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/06/11/7516583/

https://www.bnd.bund.de/EN/Home/home_node.html

Hybrid Warfare: Ukrainian Civilians Targeted in Europe

Ukrainians in Europe are being attacked by pro-Kremlin assailants. In Berlin, a 51-year-old man was attacked by two men wielding a knife after he was heard speaking Ukrainian and asked about his nationality. When he replied that he was Ukrainian, one of the assailants stabbed him in the abdomen. Last year, a 15-year-old refugee was stabbed in the German city of Dortmund and the body of a 27-year-old Ukrainian woman was found in Gochsheim. A 46-year-old woman and her six-year-old daughter were found dead in their Belgium home this month. The paterfamilias is serving in the Ukrainian Army.

These crimes against soft Ukrainian targets fall under the rubric of asymmetric or hybrid’ warfare of attacking weak links in the enemy’s armor to undermine morale and waste precious resources protecting vulnerable targets. These defenseless Ukrainian civilians didn’t stand a chance against their attackers. The NATO sabotage alert level remain HIGH because of the Kremlin’s continuous nefarious activities in Europe to weaken the coalition by exploiting weaknesses in defenses.

Sources:

https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2024/04/26/russias-hybrid-war-against-the-west/

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/06/14/7517150/

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/tragedy-in-belgium-wife-and-daughter-of-ukrainian-1749294338.html

Mexico: Drug Cartels Recruiting Former Colombian Soldiers

Colombian military veterans should not be underestimated by any organization.

Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels are recruiting former Colombian soldiers, prompting Mexican authorities to turn away Colombians trying to enter the country. Last week twelve Colombians in the western state of Michoacan were arrested in connection with a mine attack that killed eight Mexican soldiers. Close underworld ties have long existed between organized crime groups in Mexico and Colombia. For many years, Colombian drug traffickers produced cocaine and heroin and moved it themselves by boat or plane to the US. Later, as US authorities cracked down on trafficking in the Caribbean, Mexican cartels’ power grew as they moved Colombian drugs over land and via small plane to the US border and smuggled them across.

Decades of internal conflict in Colombia have produced tens of thousands of former soldiers, paramilitaries, and guerrillas with weapons training and combat experience. Many officers were trained in the US Army’s School of the Americas. Colombian military veterans have also joined Ukraine’s army for the money, adventure, and camaraderie. These veterans make for formidable adversaries for any military or law-enforcement agency to deal with.

Sidenote: Colombia is still dealing with internal strife. At least four people were killed as rebel groups detonated bombs near police stations in the city of Cali and the neighboring Cauca province. The attacks were blamed on the FARC-EMC, a group led by former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who broke away from the group after it signed a peace deal with the government in 2016.

Sources:

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexicos-security-chief-drug-cartels-recruiting-former-colombian-122709311

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jun/10/least-4-dead-wave-explosions-outside-police-stations-southwest/

NJ: Legendary Gang Member Returns to Pagans Motorcycle Club

Legendary Pagans exile Robert DeRonde (61) AKA ‘Hellboy’, once cast out by the club, had been welcomed back. Hellboy rejoins as the Pagans face threats on multiple fronts from rival outlaw motorcycle groups looking to grow in New Jersey, including the hated Hells Angels and the Warlocks.

“Hellboy is the symbol of Pagan Nation,” said Edwin Torres, a special agent with the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, referring to DeRonde by his nickname. “He was a huge part of the Pagan culture. He was the go-to guy, well-liked and respected by everyone.” DeRonde was repatched into the Pagans in late May after three years of inactivity. There’s also uncertainty within the group about what happens now that the former president, Keith “Conan” Richter, is out of prison. Richter took over the Pagans by force in 2018 and has rapidly expanded its ranks, taking the club from several hundred to more than 3,000 members by recruiting light-skinned Latino members from traditional street gangs, like the Latin Kings, though they still prohibit Black people from joining their ranks..

Robert DeRonde earned the nickname “Hellboy” because he tends to turn red when angry like the comic book superhero. DeRonde has, or at least seems to have, superhuman strength and a resistance to injury. A muscular 5-foot-11, he’s a scrappy fighter who doesn’t often lose. DeRonde was the unquestioned enforcer of the Pagans before his ouster. Pagans have attacked innocent motorists and would then intimidate them from testifying against them in court.

The term “outlaw motorcycle gang” (OMC) was coined by the journalist Hunter S. Thompson in 1966 and was subsequently adopted by federal and local law enforcement agencies in the US and elsewhere. The US FBI and Criminal Intelligence Service Canada have designated four MCs as “outlaw motorcycle gangs”: the Hells Angels, the Pagans, the Outlaws, and the Bandidos These “outlaw motorcycle gangs” operate illegal businesses like drug and weapons trafficking, extortion, or as you read here on Coriolanus, murder for hire, all under the guise of being a legitimate club. The members of these “OMCs” are dangerous mofongos and of course they should be avoided at all times and at all costs.

Source:

Link One

Ex-CIA Analyst Sentenced Three Years for Posting on Social Media Israeli Murder-Death-Kill Attack Plans Against Iran

Former CIA analyst Asif William Rahman (34) of Vienna was sentenced to 37 months in prison for unlawfully leaking classified information on social media platforms in October 2024. Rahman accessed and released Top Secret documents regarding Israel and its planned actions against Iran on social media platforms. Some of the documents referred to Israel’s nuclear capabilities, which have never been officially acknowledged. He then engaged in a deletion campaign of his work products on his Top Secret work station. Continuing through Nov 2024, Rahman repeated the process. Rahman, who worked abroad, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia and brought to the US territory of Guam to face charges. On 17 Jan 2025, Rahman pleaded guilty to two counts under the Espionage Act and has remained in custody since his arrest. The BOP has not yet released information as to which prison Asif William Rahman (USMS #46561-511) will be confined in.

Asif William Rahman leaked this information last year in a vain attempt to prevent the war that bloodthirsty Benjamin Netanyahu started anyway on 12 Jun 2025. Nota Bene: Another young man, a DIA employee, was recently arrested for attempting to sell classified information after growing disgusted and disgruntled with the Trumpf junta.

Source:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-cia-analyst-sentenced-over-three-years-prison-unlawfully-transmitting-top-secret

White Supremacist Terrorism

Apprehended Minnesota Political Assassin Had List of 70 Victims

Vance Luther Boelter (57) is a Christian evangelical zealot.

White supremacist Christian terrorist Vance Luther Boelter was arrested after a manhunt for assassinating a US lawmaker and her husband and brutally shooting another couple. He had a list of at least 70 Democrat lawmakers and other private citizens he was planning to murder.

Here is footage of the maniac, Vance Luther Boelter, in an African church celebrating God:

Footage of the Minnesota assassin Vance Luther Boelter, a life long registered republican and "Christian" nationalist incel that hated women. He's 100% MAGA.

Anonymous (@youranoncentral.bsky.social) 2025-06-15T08:02:45.517Z

During Boelter’s bloody rampage, this Christian lunatic also shot a beloved golden retriever, a defenseless rescue dog named Chester, who was later euthanized.

 

Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted this photo below on social media after news broke that two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses were shot and killed in Minnesota.

During “No Kings Day” activities in the US, several incidents occurred against anti-Trumpf citizens and there are simply too many to detail here. One example of a “useful idiot” answering the call to harm Democrats and liberals is this white supremacist terrorist below, who allegedly drove his SUV into a crowd of defenseless people in Culpepper, Virginia. At the tender age of 21, Joseph R. Checklick Jr. recklessly threw his life away:

Joseph R. Checklick Jr. (21)

Members of the dangerous MAGA cult of Christian white supremacists are acting more brazenly and boldly against liberals, atheists, Democrats, pro-Palestinian volunteers, antiwar Samaritans, and minorities, all inspired by their spiritual leader, Dotard Trumpf.

Dotard Trumpf attending an evangelical Christian brain-washing event on 29 Oct 2018. (Photo: NY Times)

Sources:

https://www.insidenova.com/culpeper/police-man-arrested-after-driving-into-crowd-of-no-kings-protesters-in-culpeper/article_21466e1d-7284-4754-8584-5fd9cdcb7bcd.html

Accomplice Arrested in California Fertility Clinic Bombing

Daniel Jongyon Park and the Palm Springs fertility clinic in California after the kamikaze attack.

Daniel Jongyon Park (32) was arrested for providing material support to the Palm Springs fertility clinic bomber. The suicide bomber, Guy Edward Bartkus (25), was motivated by pro-mortalism, anti-natalism, and anti-pro-life ideologies, which is the belief that individuals should not be born without their consent and that non-existence is best. Park, who shares Bartkus’ psychotic views, provided him with at least 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate. Both maniacs ran experiments with chemicals and used AI to assist with their attack planning. Bartkus liquidated himself in the kamikaze attack and Park fled to Europe, but was extradited to the US from Poland. If convicted, Park would face a statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison.

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

Mental illness is increasing in the US, as is membership in dangerous online cults, like the ‘Zizians.’ Meanwhile, phantom insurance’ companies are not treating the unwell and the Trumpf junta is slashing the budgets of HHS and the CDC. Trumpf also loosened firearm regulations, so Americans should expect to see an increase in violence from lunatics like Daniel Jongyon Park, Guy Edward Bartkus, or Vance Luther Boelter, either by firearms, explosives, stabbings, or vehicle ramming.

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/washington-state-man-arrested-federal-charges-alleging-he-provided-material-support-palm

USAFacts.org 

GNET

US: Painful Invasive Species of Ants Spreading

Asian needle ant.

The invasive Asian needle ant is a stinging, carnivorous pismire that has been slowly spreading across the US. Last year at least three cases of life-threatening anaphylactic reactions were reported in Georgia, making this little (and little-known) insect a growing problem. Asian needle ants will reach their yearly peak numbers in July and August. They are small and blend in so well that stings often occur when someone, perhaps while gardening or moving wood, unknowingly disturbs them. “Imagine somebody inserting a needle directly into your flesh,” said one researcher. These ants are now widespread on the East Coast. For some, the stings can be life-threatening. For others, it’s an unusual pain that can come and go for hours. Pet owners should be vigilant about where their dogs and cats venture to

Interactive map here:

Brachyponera chinensis roughly translates as “short, wicked ant from China,” though they’re actually native to China, Japan, and the Koreas. And by some older translations it could also be “short constricted ants from China.” These ants were first discovered in 1932 in Decatur, GA, but was only recognized as a serious pest in the past two decades as it began to spread significantly throughout the southeast.

The Asian needle ant is difficult to eradicate because it doesn’t lay pheromone trails that can be disrupted or easily used to get the ants to inadvertently take poison back to their nests.

The painful Asian needle ant has been detected in Florida where President Dotard Trumpf wastes a preponderance of his time golfing, all paid for the by the hardworking American taxpayer.

Perhaps these Asian needle ants would be kind enough to oblige us one day:

Sources:

USDA Info

Ant Map

Stinging Asian needle ants spreading across US and nearing Illinois

US: Two Sadists Indicted for Torturing and Killing Monkeys

Katrina D. Favret, of TN and Robert M. Craig, of NC, conspired with previously charged defendant Ronald P. Bedra, of Etna, OH, to create and distribute so-called “animal crush videos.” The videos alleged to have been created included depictions of monkeys being sodomized with a heated screwdriver and a monkey having its genitals cut with scissors. The conspirators used encrypted chat applications to direct money to individuals in Indonesia willing to commit the requested acts of torture on camera.

A year-long BBC investigation has uncovered a sadistic global monkey torture ring stretching from Indonesia to the US. These maniacs mutilate and kill baby long-tailed macaques on film:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/Iot1dIWVS5/hunting-the-monkey-torturers

Below, Mike Macartney, a key video distributor in the US known by his screen name, “The Torture King.”  “It went from baby bottle teasing to fingers being snipped off.” No one should be surprised at the Confederate and Dotard Trumpf flags adorning his Virginia home. This lunatic is facing five years in prison and appears to be still be at large.

“Torture King” Michael Macartney – pictured at his home in Virginia – is facing up to five years in prison on animal abuse charges (Photo: Joel Gunter / BBC)

Unwell people are not getting the treatment, medications, or therapy they need to function as normal members of society. Austerity cuts to the social safety net under the Trump junta and “phantom insurance” companies that won’t pay for treatments will only exacerbate the problem of spreading mental illness in the American population.  

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

Source:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/grand-jury-indicts-two-individuals-involvement-online-groups-dedicated-monkey-torture-and

Canada: Samaritan Couple Rescue Beautiful Collie from Demise in the Nick of Time

Josee and Vic on their wedding day.

When Vic and Josee read in the news that a beautiful abandoned young collie was about to be euthanized, they immediately drove several hours south to Montreal from northern Quebec.

Arriving at the nick of time, the couple immediately rescued the poor creature whom they re-christened “Mike.” Here he is in Vic and Josee’s car for the first time.

Mike the collie on his way to his new home.

Josee, who is a naturo-therapist, herbalist, entrepreneur, and avid reader, and her husband Vic were already managing a robust menagerie of fauna and flora in their habitat. They quickly began training this highly intelligent and affectionate canine.

The two new best friends.

In his illustrious career, Vic was a fireman, English teacher, and former Cold Warrior who flew on intelligence missions against the Soviet Union during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Another avid reader, Vic also maintains his private pilot license to this day. This gentleman and scholar also sang bass-baritone with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) when it was led by Maestro Kent Nagano years ago. Incredibly, Vic was fortunate to have met and shaken hands with President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and baseball legend Jackie Robinson, and is never without an anecdote or history lesson about the US Civil Rights movement or the Cold War.

“Thanks Josee and Vic! Arf!”

Mike has now acclimated to his wonderful new forever home. Our thanks to Samaritans Vic and Josee for quick thinking, speed of plan, and opening their wallets and hearts to Mike.  

Trump Directs Pentagon and DHS to Prepare Housing for 30,000 Migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

President Donald Trumpf signed a memo Wednesday that sets in motion preparations for a facility to house thousands of migrants at the US military camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which he said was an effort to “halt the border invasion.”

Trumpf said the US has

“30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”

Trumpf previewed the directive at a signing ceremony for the Laken Riley Act, an immigration detention measure, saying he would “instruct the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay.”

No, those aren’t Russian soldiers abusing Ukrainian POWs. They’re Muslim detainees arriving at Camp X-Ray in Jan 2002. (Photo: Shane T. McCoy, US Navy)

The Guantánamo Bay announcement caught many officials at the Pentagon off-guard, according to five defense officials. One official said the Guantánamo mission will be a DHS mission. It is unclear whether the military will be involved, but the Pentagon has no orders or guidance from the White House beyond the memo.

Officials who were surprised by Trump’s announcement said they do not know how many beds for migrants are at Guantánamo or whether it would be a short- or a long-term mission. They said there are no plans to upgrade or change the military facilities there.

Camp X-Ray in Jan 2002 (Photo: Shane T. McCoy, US Navy)

Beginning in 1991, over 32,000 men, women and children fled Haiti in makeshift boats. Many were pro-democracy activists seeking refuge after a military dictatorship overthrew President Aristide. Intercepted by the US Coast Guard, they came to crowded camps surrounded by barbed wire at Guantánamo to pre-screen their asylum claims.

Somebody on Trumpf’s staff alerted him that Guantanamo Bay once held 32,000 Haitian migrants, which is where he got the number 30,000 for his directive.

There are only a handful of Muslim detainees left in Guantanamo. President Barack Obama made several efforts to close down this tropical torture chamber but was stymied by Republicans in the Congress. This inhumane ukase will be a costly one for the hardworking American taxpayer. The expense of operating a C-17 military transport aircraft is $28,500 per hour. A recent military deportation flight to Guatemala most likely cost at least $4,675 per migrant. Moreover, feeding 30,000 unfortunate souls will be expensive as well. One wonders which Trumpf crony will be awarded the lucrative contract to cater to these poor detainees. No doubt the oligarch will overcharge the US government while providing the refugees gruel.

Trumpf is a fount of human kindness like his role model. (Michelle Kondrich/The Washington Post; Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post; AP)

Sources:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-says-sign-order-housing-migrants-guantanamo-bay-rcna189884

 https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-military-deportation-flight-likely-cost-more-than-first-class-2025-01-30/

Trumpf Withdraws Security Details for Several Former VIPs

President Trumpf pulled security from John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and his assistant John Hook, despite an assassination contract put out by Iran. This is just another example of Trumpf’s vindictive nature to invite political violence against his enemies

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he is “immediately pulling” retired Gen. Mark Milley’s personal security detail and security clearance. The sycophantic secretary is also directing the new acting Inspector General to conduct a review board to determine if enough evidence exists for Gen. Milley to be stripped of a star in retirement based on his actions to “undermine the chain of command” during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The DoD will also be removing a second portrait of Gen. Milley inside the Pentagon. This one is from the Army’s Marshall Corridor on the third floor honoring his service as chief-of-staff of the Army. This means there will be no more portraits of Gen. Milley inside the Pentagon.

Background Information

The US State Department announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind a plot to assassinate former White House official John Bolton.

The US designated the entire IRGC a “foreign terrorist organization” in 2019, after previously designating its external operation wing, the Quds Force.

In Aug 2022, US officials uncovered a plot by Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to kill John Bolton, who served as national security adviser to former President Donald Trump. The reward offer came when Trumpf who was running for a new White House term, claiming there were “big threats” on his life by Iran.

Bolton, an Islamophobe, is considered a foreign policy hawk and is a fierce critic of Iran. He advocated that Trump unilaterally and recklessly withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.

President Donald Trump flanked by National Security Adviser John Bolton, right, speaks during a meeting with Senior Military Leadership in the Cabinet Room of the White House on 9 April 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Oliver Contreras /Sipa USA via AP)

Poursafi allegedly offered an unidentified person inside the US $300,000 to kill Bolton in the capital area. The plan was likely set in motion after the US killing of top IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq on 3 Jan 2020 by a drone strike outside Baghdad Int’l Airport (BIAP). But it never made headway because the ostensible assassin became an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Iranian authorities have dismissed the allegations as “fiction.”

The late General Qasem Soleimani. (Photo: Public domain)

General Qasem Soleimani was a popular figure in Iran and an effective combat leader against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. When the US invaded Afghanistan in Oct 2001 after the 11 Sep 2001 attacks, General Soleimani collaborated with the US and led the 2001 uprising in Herat against the Taliban, which included ethnic Hazaras, the Northern Alliance, and the Quds Force which liberated the city before US forces entered. Years later, the QF supported the Shia resistance against US forces in Iraq, particularly with lethal EFPs (explosively formed penetrators,

As reported previously here on Coriolanus, the IRGC-QF have contracted out assassinations to organized crime groups such as the Hell’s Angels, as well as recruited spies and saboteurs within Israel.

“Crossing Lines”

On 4 Dec 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333. Part 2.11 of E.O. 12333 reiterates a proscription on US intelligence agencies sponsoring or carrying out an assassination. It reads:

No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.

Then-President Trumpf abused the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) to get around this proscription by deploying DOD assets to murder General Soleimani.

America’s beloved “Old Blood and Guts.” (Photo: Public domain)

During a state of war, enemy generals are high value targets (HVTs). The Ukrainian secret services killed a Russian CBRN general last year. In mob parlance, Trumpf killing Qasem Soleimani “crossed a line” with the Iranians as the US was not in a Congressionally-declared war with Tehran. Imagine how upset Americans would have been in 1945 if former members of the Third Reich assassinated General George Patton after the war ended. That’s how the Iranians feel today about Soleimani’s death.

Giuseppe “Pino” Greco killed up to 300 victims on behalf of the powerful Corleonesi clan during the Sicilian Mafia war of the late 1970s.

Like Giuseppe “Pino” Greco, when you live by the sword, expect to die by the sword. Perhaps this will be a lesson to national security functionaries to be a little more circumspect before ordering the taking of another man’s life. In sharp contrast to America’s dilemma of protecting homicidal bureaucrats, former President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador dismissed his military bodyguard detail when he assumed office. During his five year term, no one from the drug cartels, ISIS, the FSB, the IRGC-QF, or even a deranged lunatic made any attempts to harm President Obrador.

President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Photo: Government of Mexico)

Mexico’s President-Elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador shakes hands with a supporter while leaving the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico 3 Jul 2018. (Photo: Reuters / Daniel Becerril)

Mexico President Obrador sat unprotected on a delayed commercial flight for three hours. He said he would be “embarrassed” to board “a luxurious plane in a country where there is so much poverty.” President Obrador intended to sell the specially made $218.7m presidential jet.

Sources:

Putting A Target On His Back – Digby’s Hullabaloo

https://www.state.gov/rewards-for-justice-reward-offer-for-information-on-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-member-shahram-poursafi/

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-offers-20m-for-details-about-iranian-allegedly-behind-plot-to-kill-official-/7800969.html

https://www.federalregister.gov/executive-order/12333

https://www.newsweek.com/mexicos-obrador-says-he-doesnt-need-bodyguards-people-will-protect-him-1007985

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45596480

Ukraine-Russia Update

Distributing military recruitment leaflets in Moscow. (Photo: Pelagia Tikhonova / Moskva News Agency)

I Russian Recruitment

The number of Russians signing contracts at Moscow recruitment centers to fight in the war against Ukraine has fallen five-fold since its peak in late summer of last year. The daily number of volunteers signing-up reached a high following Ukraine’s Kursk offensive and the introduction of a one-time payment of 1.9 million rubles ($19,200) shortly before that.

Since then, daily applicants number around 40, a fivefold decrease, citing a source in the Moscow mayor’s office. The composition of applicants has changed, and half of those signing up currently are foreigners of African, Asian, or Chinese origin looking to make extra money, or Russians under investigation in criminal cases.


Russia is currently suffering around 1500-1750 casualties daily on the battlefield, including dead, wounded, and captured, as it continues to make grinding advances in eastern Ukraine in “meat attacks.”

Soviet Army human wave attack in WWII.

II Ukrainian Strategic Drone Offensive

Ukrainian drones continue destroying strategic targets inside Russia, including an oil refinery, pumping station, and a missile arsenal. Four drones struck the Lukoil oil depot in the city of Kstovo, causing “significant damage.”


All of these targets are hundreds of miles inside Russia, conducted by Ukrainian Special Operations or intelligence personnel (HUR). The Russians were forced to shut down the main pipeline that supplies oil to the Ust-Luga terminal in Leningrad Oblast.

Click here for video:

https://t.me/war_monitor/24687

https://x.com/i/status/1884475734309155281

III Australian POW Alive

Australian volunteer Oscar Jenkins. Credit: HANDOUT/’SLADKOV+’ TELEGRAM ACCOUNT/AAP

Oscar Jenkins is serving in the 402nd Separate Rifle Battalion, which is part of Ukraine’s 66th Separate Mechanized Brigade. He went missing on 16 Dec 2024 while on a combat mission near the village of Mykolaivka in Luhansk Oblast. Thought to be executed by the Russians, Australian FM Penny Wong received confirmation from the Kremlin that Jenkins is alive and in custody.

IV NATO Support for Ukraine

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: “Ukraine deserves NATO membership.” (Photo: Tolga Bozoglu EPA / Shutterstock)

NATO is on course to fulfill its promise to send approximately $41.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska said on 29 Jan. Member nations pledged to provide the funding to Ukraine during the NATO summit in Washington, DC in July 2024. The future of US military aid remains uncertain under President Donald Trump who has urged Europe to shoulder more of the financial burden.

Ukraine continues striking strategic targets inside Russia to damage its economy and undermine enemy morale. The word is out on the Russian street about the appalling number of deaths on the Ukrainian front, lowering the number of native Russians seeking military contracts. NATO and the EU are stepping up to fill the void of assistance caused by Vladimir Putin protégé Donald Trump and are executing their contingency plan across the financial, intelligence, and defense spectrum. For example, the US ceded Poland’s air defense command to NATO last year. The Russians would not execute a foreigner like Oscar Jenkins because he has value for any potential prisoner swaps. If a Russian spy is detained in Australia, Moscow and Canberra would conduct a trade.

“Uncle Vanya Wants You!”

Uh-huh.

A Russian Defender of the Fatherland Day poster, celebrated on 23 Feb.

Sources:

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-war-latest-ukrainian-drones-hit-lukoil-oil-refinery-missile-arsenal-in-russia-sources-claim/

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2025-01-13/nato-air-defense-poland-patriots-16467545.html

Ebola Outbreak Strikes Uganda’s Capital

(Photo: CNN)

Uganda confirms an Ebola virus outbreak in its capital, Kampala, with the first patient, a nurse, succumbing to the disease. This highly infectious virus spreads through bodily fluids and has claimed 55 lives during a previous outbreak. The health ministry is handling the emerging situation cautiously.

Per CIA, Uganda has nearly 50m people; real GDP per capita is $2,800.

The highly contagious viral infection, which transmits through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissues, causes symptoms such as headaches, muscle pain, and bleeding. Uganda last battled an Ebola outbreak in late 2022, which officially ended on 11 Jan 2023, after claiming 55 lives, including six health workers.

The average Ebola case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25–90% in past outbreaks, depending on circumstances and the response.

Sources:

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/health/3245580-ebola-outbreak-strikes-ugandas-capital

https://www.who.int/health-topics/ebola/#tab=tab_1

Trumpf 6 Jan Pardons Backfire

Violent Lunatic Pardoned by Trumpf Sought on Charges of Child Sex Solicitation

Andrew Taake holding a metal whip during a confrontation at the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021 (via FBI court filing).

Andrew Taake (36) from Houston, TX was released from prison after being pardoned by Donad Trumpf is now wanted on separate charges of child sex solicitation. He had pleaded guilty in 2023 to beating officers with a metal whip and dousing them with bear spray while storming the Capitol grounds on 6 Jan 2021.

After being turned in by a woman he chatted with on the dating app Bumble, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison plus three years of post-released supervision. But now that he’s free again, Texas prosecutors are seeking him for trial on charges related to text messages he allegedly sent an undercover cop pretending to be a 15-year-old girl back in 2016.

This maniac was already awaiting trial for those messages when he journeyed to the Capitol “ready for violence” in January 2021. Nevertheless, Takke was freed from federal prison despite a formal request from Texas authorities to keep him in custody so that he could be tried for the 2016 charge.

Pardoned 6 Jan Offender Kills Mother of Two While DUI

Another one of Trumpf’s pardons backfired. Emily Hernandez was sentenced to ten years in prison for a deadly drunk driving crash days after being pardoned for her role in the 6 Jan Capitol attack.

Emily Hernandez holding a stolen, broken nameplate belonging to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Hernandez pleaded guilty for her involvement and served 30 days in federal prison. Look how happy she looks.

On 5 Jan 2022, Hernandez drove on I-44 in Missouri for several miles going the wrong way, with a blood and alcohol concentration of .125, before crashing into another car belonging to a Franklin County couple, Victoria and Ryan Wilson. The couple just left dinner celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. Victoria (32) died and Ryan faced serious injuries. The couple has two children, now ages 18 and 13.

Credit: Family of Victoria Wilson

Emily Hernandez destroyed this once happy family in Missouri and a sexual predator is now on the loose in Texas. Expect more mayhem from the approximately 1,500 pardoned maniacs. When people contend that Donald Trumpf is trying to destroy the US from within, do not disbelieve them.

UK Shadow First Secretary of State Emily Thornberry in 2017: Trumpf Is a “dangerous asteroid of awfulness that has fallen on this world” and a “racist.” (Photo: Getty Images)

Sources:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/january-6-trump-pardons-andrew-taake-b2687340.html

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/emily-hernandez-sentenced-deadly-dui-crash/63-0d47bef0-2d31-4eb7-9aec-9a8e77a68b3c

UK: Alleged Russian Spy Believed She Was Working for Interpol

Court artist sketch of Vanya Gaberova, who said she never doubted the identity of the man who allegedly told her he was part of Interpol. (Photo: Elizabeth Cook / PA)

A woman accused of spying for Moscow told the Old Bailey she believed she was working for Interpol after a man showed her a fake ID and told her he could enrol her at “police school in Wembley.”

On her first day of giving evidence, London-based beautician Vanya Gaberova (30) said she did not question Bizer Dzhambazov (43) who also told her that untrained people such as her were better at surveillance because they did not stand out in a crowd.

Gaberova said she and Dzhambazov became close in Aug 2021 and gradually started a relationship as he began to give her surveillance tasks around Europe, which prosecutors say were for the benefit of Russia.

Dzhambazov, a medical courier, told her he was part of an Interpol economic crime unit and showed her credentials, which she did not question, and added that he could help her get a job in the police, which she said was an aspiration of hers.

Dzhambazov has already pleaded guilty to spying for Russia, carrying out surveillance tasks as part of a spy ring run by his friend Orlin Roussev, based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Roussev, who has also admitted guilt, was accused of working for Jan Marsalek, an Austrian fugitive and Russian agent based in Moscow.

The NATO Counterintelligence/Operational Security (CI/OPSEC) posture remains high because of the threat of Russian sabotage and espionage. The war in Ukraine has forced the Kremlin to recruit amateurs and non-professional assets without diplomatic immunity such as Vanya Gaberova. Nevertheless, they pose a threat to Western interests. These Russian spies will no doubt be traded in a future prisoner swap.

Russian spy Maria Butina who infiltrated the GOP and the NRA.

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/30/alleged-russian-spy-says-believed-working-interpol

Trumpf Golf Tracker

(Credit: PA:Press Association)

President Trumpf visited a Trump Organization property on 428 of the 1,461 days (30%) of his first presidential term and is estimated to have played 261 rounds of golf, one every 5.6 days.

One of Trumpf’s campaign pledges was to immediately lower the prices of eggs and gasoline for American consumers. Since being in office, both prices have increased while the Commander-in-Chief golfed. The ingenious Trumpf Golf Tracker is monitoring the time the President of the United States is on the links while “Rome burns down.”

https://trumpgolftrack.com/

Border Collie Has Perfect Pitch

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

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://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. 

FBI Arrests Key Member of International Child Sexploitation and Mutilation Cult in Arizona

Warning: Some readers will find the text on the screen immediately below graphic and disturbing. This is one of the most heinous stories Coriolanus has ever come across.

This is an example of what these sadists request from underaged victims. Basically “kids are targeting kids” in the most despicable and nefarious manner. (Photo provided)

The FBI arrested Baron Martin (20) of Tucson, AZ for producing child sexual abuse material and cyberstalking offenses carried out as part of his participation in online violent terror networks known as “764” and “CVLT”. The 20-year-old defendant described himself as the “king of extortion” and claimed to be the “catalyst for thousands of extortions.”

Members of “764” systematically target underage females, groom them, extort them, and force them to mutilate themselves or others and either film or photograph such activity, at times while streaming it online for other members of the network.

Cult members find child victims on platforms such as Roblox. (Photo: Getty Images)

Previously captured and sentenced miscreants of this horrific international child sexploitation and mutilation cult include:

Baby-faced Bradley Cadenhead was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to nine counts of possessing and promoting child pornography. One video retrieved from Cadenhead’s computer showed one of his followers killing a victim’s hamster. (Supplied image)

In 2022, deranged-looking Kaleb Merritt (23) was sentenced to 350 years after he drove 20 hours to kidnap and rape a 12-year-old girl he had been abusing online. (Supplied image)

If convicted, Baron Martin faces 30 years in prison and up to ten additional years for cyberstalking. This deviant-sadist will be 60 years old when he is released from the tender mercies of Uncle Sam. Baron Martin will not have contributed one thin dime towards FICA and his Social Security retirement during his long federal incarceration.

Anyone with information regarding child sexual exploitation please call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit https://tips.fbi.gov/home.

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

This is one of the most horrendous criminal enterprises Coriolanus has ever come across. These are deranged youngsters predating upon vulnerable youngsters. You wonder what the mothers of these deviant torturers are thinking. Nefarious entities like 764 and CVLT make your humble author wish that he could unretire.

After conviction, throw away the key and weld the prison cell door shut forthwith.

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/arizona-man-associated-online-terror-network-arrested-production-child-sex-abuse-material

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/764

Archived link:

https://archive.is/PBslJ#selection-977.170-977.264

Israeli and Jordanian Intelligence Chiefs Coordinate on Syria

Major General Ahmad Husni, Director of the Jordanian General Intelligence Director (GID)

The director of the Israeli Shin Bet security agency and senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers recently met with the director of the Jordanian general intelligence service, Ahmad Husni, and senior Jordanian military commanders.

On their agenda: A chemical weapons stockpile in Syria, the numerous different armed rebel groups, some of them once affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and the Golan Heights.

While the conference was going on, the IDF struck military sites across Syria and seized an area in the Golan Heights on the Syrian side of the border between the two countries. The Syrian mission to the UN says Israel’s capture of the territory is a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.

Jordanian intelligence (the GID) is one of the most important and professional intelligence agencies in the Middle East. GID has been instrumental in foiling several terrorist attacks both in Jordan and around the world.

Jerusalem is wise to heed any advice from the King of Jordan.

King Abdullah II of Jordan is a UK Sandhurst Military Academy graduate, pilot, and former Special Forces officer.

In 1997, so incensed was King Abdullah’s father, the late King Hussein, by a brazen Mossad poisoning assassination attempt on Palestinian resistance leader Khaled Mashaal in Amman, he called Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately demand the antidote. Hussein threatened that if Mashaal died, so would the identified Mossad agents who fled to the Israeli Embassy in Amman. After the admonishment, Netanyahu called a subordinate and uttered two words: “Do it.”

Israeli officials quickly provided the Jordanians with an antidote and medical advice as doctors in Amman fought to save Mashaal’s life.

Khaled Mashaal in Gaza City, 9 Dec 2012. He recovered from the amateurish fentanyl poisoning attack thanks to King Hussein. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

The smartest thing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has done in decades was to consult with the Hashemite Kingdom over the future of Syria. Jordan is a key mediator between Israel and the Syrian rebel groups, including the Sunni Islamist opposition group Hayʼat Tahrir ash-Sham (HTS) that led the revolution that toppled the Assad regime. Moreover, the GID has a history of penetrating Sunni jihadist groups like the HTS.

Nota Bene: Jordan’s military (100,000 active-duty personnel) is considered to be among the most professional in the region, and is seen as particularly well-trained, organized, and equipped. According to the Global Firepower Index (GFI), Jordan is ranked 80 in military firepower out of 145 countries.

At least 3,000 US troops operate in Jordan, which has a defense agreement with Washington that allows them “unimpeded access” to many Jordanian military facilities.

Sources:

Israel and Jordan held secret talks on Syria

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

https://gid.gov.jo/

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-troop-numbers-jordan-surge-record-high-amid-gaza-war

https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=jordan

Begging royal mercy: How Israel recovered from the botched Mashaal hit, 25 years ago | The Times of Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Intelligence_Department

Question: What Newspapers or Journals Do American CEOs and Oligarchs Read?

Answer: Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Inc Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Platinum Business, Bloomberg Business Week, ad nauseum. Clever CEOs will read the Economist* and charge it to their company.

Do these above purveyors of news discuss human interest stories involving struggle, rent costs, suffering, illness, civil rights, health insurance costs, homelessness, or social justice?

For the most part, no.

The carefree 0.01% at the top of the American pyramid is divorced from the struggling 99.9% at the bottom of the pyramid. Oligarchs are coldly indifferent to the plight of the masses because they: a) have an innate sense of entitlement; b) are safely cocooned from the travails of the masses simply by what they read for news.

Then the insouciant and aloof elitists (top level) and their media proxies (second level) are shocked and outraged about the killing of one of their own and will deploy an army of centurions (third level) to find the perpetrator (bottom level) of such a dastardly deed. We are of course discussing the late CEO of United HealthCare Brian Thompson whose health insurance business policies callously placed profits over people. The mantra of “Deny, Defend, Depose” were allegedly found on the bullets that killed this 50-year old oligarch.

Such elitists live in palatial estates in Greenwich, CT, drive Lexus luxury cars, travel First Class to destinations like St. Tropez, and ensure their offspring receive the best private education possible, including legacy admissions to Yale or Harvard Universities.

Said a writer about American healthcare CEOs: “They Eat Off Your Family Member’s Grave.” Below CCTV captures such an image of a ghoul at a cemetery desecrating a grave.

(Undated screen capture: Fox 8 Cleveland)

Bon appetite, healthcare industry CEOs!

Said a writer pithily and accurately: “Only in America you can be driven into homelessness by someone like Brian Thompson, then legally murdered by someone like Daniel Penny (who recently strangled a man on the NYC subway), while the money that could have saved you is spent on murdering children in Gaza.”

Health Insurance CEO “Wanted” posters in NYC. Discourse and imagery like this has completely shocked these clueless and aloof elitists. (Screenshot: TikTok)

So CEOs, pray keep reading Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Inc Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Platinum Business, or Bloomberg Business Week, and never mind learning about the lower levels of the pyramid that provide you and your families luxuriant lifestyles while sending your children to Princeton, Harvard, Yale, or Brown University.

*The Economist reports non-financial news (Bagehot, Lexington) as well as occasional human-interest stories and a dedicated weekly obituary.

Source:

Further | Deny, Defend, Depose: They Eat Off Your Family Member’s Grave | Opinion

Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) Kills Afghan Minister in Kabul Suicide Blast

Khalil Haqqani, the uncle of the Taliban’s acting interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the first senior cabinet member to be killed in an explosion since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. (Photo: Social media)

Khalil Haqqani, the refugee minister in Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration, was killed recently in an explosion in the capital, Kabul.

The blast occurred inside the ministry’s compound and killed two others. Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIS-K has been active in Afghanistan and regularly targets both Taliban regime officials and civilians.

One possible reason behind the attack is the rivalry between ISIS-K and the Taliban connected to the takeover of Afghanistan. This was a substantial blow to the Taliban because Khalil Haqqani was a key figure in maintaining relationships with foreign donors and was responsible for fundraising activities on behalf of the Taliban and the HQN.

The Haqqani Network (HQN) is a formidable Pashtun network based in eastern Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan which originated during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (1978–92). The HQN participated with the Taliban in an insurgency after the US invasion of late 2001/early 2002. In 2012, the US Government designated the Haqqani Network (HQN) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The HQN and Pakistan’s ISI have a close and nebulous cooperative relationship. The US designated Khalil Haqqani as a global terrorist on 9 Feb 2011 and had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Map: CIA

Although the ISIS-K suicide bomber was killed in the martyrdom attack, HQN will extract a steep price from other members of ISIS-K after locating them. Pakistan’s ISI will no doubt assist in locating ISIS-K cells on behalf of their ally. Beijing must also be concerned about the increasing instability in Afghanistan as they have just established a railway network into the impoverished but mineral-rich country. China’s firms are investing millions of dollars in the Afghan economy as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.  

Note the tiny sliver that connects Afghanistan to China is the high altitude Wakhan Corridor. This is not where the railway connects the two countries. Years ago, there was one unimproved road connecting Afghanistan (Badakhshan Province) to China (Xinjiang Province) and this has probably not changed over the years. Below is what the border crossing looked like years ago.

Sources:

Afghan Taliban Minister Killed In Kabul Blast

CIA

China Deepens Its Engagement With Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan – The Diplomat

Influential Afghan Taliban Minister Khalil Haqqani, 2 Others Killed In ISIS-K Suicide Bombing – News18

Bashir al-Assad Exiled to Russia Against His Will

Two tyrants in happier times. (Undated photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

On his Facebook account, ousted Syrian despot Bashar Assad claimed he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack. He left Damascus on the morning of 8 Dec, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. Assad said he left Damascus in coordination with Russian allies to the naval base in Latakia where he planned to keep fighting.

Russian military vehicle in Syria. (Undated photo)

The former Syrian dictator alleged that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Kremlin decided to evacuate him to Moscow on the night of 8 Dec.

Sidenote: A Syrian friend of mine informed me that Bashir al-Assad “didn’t even tell his brother Maher and just abandoned him.”

But did Bashir al-Assad really intend to abandon his brother? Undated photo of Maher al-Assad.

Russian Ilyushin-76 military cargo plane.

“I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said. “At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge nor was such proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said in the English text of his statement. “The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”

The London-trained oculist in mufti directing his generals. (Undated photo)

Russia had a sizeable military presence in Syria and their intelligence services were aware for months that Bashir al-Assad’s hold on power was untenable. Unsurprisingly, the Kremlin evacuated the Syrian despot. Putin’s envoys immediately began negotiating with the HTS rebels about the fate of the Russian naval and air bases in Tartus and Khmeimim.

According to the Financial Times, between 2018 and 2019, Assad sent about $250 million in cash to Russia, a period that coincided with when Syria became dependent on Moscow’s military support.

Nearly two tons of banknotes in $100 and €500 bills were flown from Syria into Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to be deposited at sanctioned Russian banks.

One wonders who the target audience of Bashir al-Assad’s English language Facebook post was intended for. Would it be the Alevi minority population that he once protected in Syria but has since abandoned? Possibly. Since the internet is choc-a-bloc with videos of Assad’s now exposed torture chambers, the London-trained ophthalmologist would be incredibly tone deaf if he was writing to the Syrian people or the West. With two tons of Bashir al-Assad’s US and British cash safely in the hands of the Putin-controlled Russian banking system, the former dictator of Syria and his usefulness to Vladimir Putin has now completely ended.

Asma al-Assad, the good-looking wife of the deposed dictator in an undated photo.

Since Bashir al-Assad and his communications are under complete surveillance by the GRU, his public Facebook post may have been an indirect signal to Tehran for intervention without angering Putin.

Sources:

Middle East latest: Assad says he had no plans to leave Syria but was evacuated by Russians | AP News

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/12/16/assad-regime-airlifted-250m-from-syria-to-russia-ft-a87348

https://i.insider.com/560173489dd7cc1b008bc45b?width=889

Japan: Highest Rate of Erythema Infectiosum (“Apple Disease”) Since 1999

Tokyo’s 2024 population is now estimated at 37,115,000 inhabitants.

A significant increase in cases of “apple disease,” or erythema infectiosum, has been reported in Tokyo, marking the highest number of infections since 1999. 796 cases were reported in the week leading up to 1 Dec based on data from 264 medical facilities. This translates to an average of 3.02 cases per facility, surpassing previous records.

Photo courtesy of the CDC.

Parvovirus B19 infection is usually mild in people who are otherwise healthy. Common symptoms include “slapped cheek” rash in children and joint pains in adults. Complications can occur among people with underlying blood disorders or weakened immune system. Infection early during pregnancy can cause a slight increase in the risk of a miscarriage.

Nearby Saitama has also reported cases of “apple disease.” The recent rise in cases has prompted health officials to issue warnings, especially to expectant mothers, advising caution during this outbreak. The number of infections has exceeded warning levels for the first time since 2018, signaling a need for increased awareness and preventive measures in the community.

Sources:

Tokyo reports highest cases of erythema infectiosum, or “apple disease”, since 1999

About Parvovirus B19 | Parvovirus B19 and Fifth Disease | CDC

Canadian Parliamentarian on Donald Trump: “Idiotic” and “Juvenile”

3 Dec 2024 Truth Social post by Trump after referring to Canada as America’s 51st State.

After idiotically and needlessly threatening America’s greatest friend and neighbor, a NATO ally and NORAD partner with tariffs, President-elect Donald Trump then boorishly claimed Canada was America’s 51st State in front of PM Justin Trudeau who tactfully ignored the slight. President-elect Donald Trump then posted the above image on Truth Social. But what he imbecilically posted was the Matterhorn Mountain in the Swiss Alps. You can easily see it.

Photo of the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps courtesy of photographylife.com.

Afterwards on Parliament Hill, a Canadian lawmaker referred to Trump as “idiotic” and “juvenile.” Canada which enjoys universal health care (which has been going through some problems recently) and suffered 289 firearms-related homicides in 2023 is doing fine without the US. In 2022 Americans suffered an appalling 48,000 gun-related deaths, like a warzone without the Taliban or al-Qaida. You wonder how Vladimir Putin, who wants to sow discord between the US and NATO, as well as the EU, transmitted his instructions to his protege to offend Ottawa.

Then-President Donald Trump idiotically points at a partial solar eclipse without eye protection from the balcony of the White House in 2017. Trump intends to permanently eliminate Daylight Savings Time (DST). (Photo: Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images)

America’s soon-to-be Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief:

Sources:

‘He’s A Juvenile’: Canadian Lawmaker Slams Trump’s ‘Idiotic Behavior’ After Tariff Threats – Canada | Donald Trump News

Fast Facts: Firearm Injury and Death | Firearm Injury and Death Prevention | CDC

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510006901

Cat and Golden Retriever Insist on Sledding Together

Author’s Note: Followers of the Watch have asked that I analyze the spate of drone sightings over the US which Coriolanus will address imminently.

Donald Trump Hosted German Neo-Nazis Election Day at Mar-a-Lago

Phillipp-Anders Rau (41), an AfD candidate for the Bundestag and alleged porn star posted this photo of himself with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on 5 Nov. (Photo: parau_afd/Instagram)

Donald Trump gathered Elon Musk, his supporters, family and friends at Mar-a-Lago on US election day last month to wait for the results to trickle in. With him that day was a small group of neo-Nazi Germans.

Rightwing Beat Ulrich Zirpel posted this on social media:

“We just shouted ‘Kämpft, kämpft, kämpft’ (‘fight, fight, fight’) with president Trump at Mar-a-Lago Club right before election night!”

“Peace in Germany and Europe will be decided with the election in the USA, Rau wrote in an Instagram caption from Florida on 5 Nov. “Patriots have to work together internationally.”

Proud German rightwing Trump enthusiasts. (Photo: parau_afd/Instagram)

“In the three state elections in eastern Germany in Sep 2024, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won more votes than ever before, even though the party adopted particularly extreme positions in those states and has been classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency”.

According to the latest ARD Deutschlandtrend survey, 84% of AfD voters agree with the statement: 

 “I don’t care that the AfD has been labeled partly right-wing extremist, as long as it addresses the right issues.”

Citizens of the world and Americans must be wondering who won the US Civil War and the Second World War?

Christopher “Hammer” Pohlhaus (C) leads a rally with neo-Nazi groups Blood Tribe, and Goyim Defense League on 2 Sep 2023, in Orlando, Florida. (Photo: Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)

(6 Jan 2021 Photo/JTA-Saul Loeb-AFP via Getty Images)

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/07/far-right-activists-from-germany-spent-us-election-day-at-trumps-mar-a-lago

https://www.dw.com/en/germans-divided-over-far-right-afd-ban/a-70465031

US House Intelligence Committee Interim Report on “Havana Syndrome”

“AHI: A Real Existential Threat to the IC Workforce”

BLUF: The House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) suspects a foreign adversary is behind the Havana Syndrome. How far any executive branch investigations go under the new administration remains to be seen, but unlikely if the clues point to the Kremlin. Recently investigative journalists linked the Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI) to a Russian Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) unit numbered “29155” which CBS aired earlier this year.

Finding 1: The ICA on AHIs lacked analytic integrity and was highly
irregular, hindering the Subcommittee’s trust in the IC’s process and
conclusions.

Finding 2: The IC’s response to AHIs has likely impeded collection.

Finding 3: Congress’s oversight and investigation must continue with support
from the Trump Administration.

Opinion: Russian intelligence (GRU) covertly directed ultrasonic pulses at US personnel to harass, sicken, and degrade their capabilities. The US Embassy in Havana, had recently re-opened and these AHIs may have been launched to disrupt relations between the US and Cuba. Some CIA and FBI personnel said the Kremlin “crossed a line” by these AHIs, but the USG was unable to provide a conclusive “smoking gun.” No official reprisals were made against Russian intelligence personnel that the public is aware of.

Some US DEWs:

Link:

Previous reports:

https://www.state.gov/anomalous-health-incidents-and-the-health-incident-response-task-force/

https://theins.ru/en/politics/270425

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-year-havana-syndrome-investigation-finds-new-evidence-of-who-might-be-responsible-60-minutes/

California BOLO Alert: Dangerous Convicted Murderer on Loose

Mug shot of Cesar M. Hernandez. (Source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

Cesar M. Hernandez (34) is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs approximately 161 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair and was last seen wearing an orange top and orange pants. He was sentenced to 80 years to life.

Cesar M. Hernandez has been on the run since 10:45 on Monday morning (2 Dec) after escaping from a van that was taking him to the Kern County Courthouse. Authorities did not disclose whether Hernandez was handcuffed or manacled when he fled.

The fugitive has been described as dangerous.” Members of the public are encouraged to send in any tips they have about his whereabouts but not to approach Hernandez.

Anyone who sees Hernandez or has knowledge of his whereabouts should immediately contact law enforcement, call 9-1-1, or contact Lt. Anthony Sotello, the Incident Commander at (661) 721-6300 extension 5506 or at OPEC@cdcr.ca.gov.

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

Cesar Hernandez may have an accomplice to take off his handcuffs or manacles, as well as provide him a change of clothes.

Source:

CDCR Seeking Incarcerated Person Who Escaped During Transport to Kern County Courthouse – News Releases

Whither Syria?

 Abu Mohammed al-Golani (42) who deposed Bashar al-Assad (second from right). (Photo: circa 2016, AP)

Muhammad Al-Golani’s success on the battlefield follows years of maneuvering among extremist organizations while eliminating competitors and former allies.

Along the way he moved to distance himself from al-Qaida, polishing his image and his extremist group’s de-facto “salvation government” in an attempt to win over international governments and the country’s religious and ethnic minorities.

Rebel commander Anas Salkhadi later appeared on state TV and sought to reassure Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, saying: “Syria is for everyone, no exceptions. Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites, and all sects.”

Syrian President Bashar Assad has arrived in Moscow with his family and given asylum. Moscow had received guarantees from Syrian insurgents of the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria.

The US carried out a major round of airstrikes on Islamic State targets, warning the terror group against trying to regain strength in the country. The operation included dozens of airstrikes on over 75 targets involving ISIS operatives and camps using B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets and A-10 close-air support attack aircraft “to ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria”.  

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF to seize the buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria.

Just as the Taliban suddenly swept into power in Afghanistan, so did these Sunni insurgents. Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran were unable to help the Syrian Army. Demoralized and unmotivated, the army quickly dissolved, just like Kabul’s military causing both corrupt regimes to collapse with their leaders fleeing. Israel quickly offered the olive branch of peace by seizing strategic territory in the Golan Heights and striking suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets. The US pounded Islamic State (IS) guerillas not affiliated with the al-Golani’s bloc.

The key influencers in the new Syria will be Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, both countries that support foreign Sunni Muslim movements. Ankara also supports Arab and Turkmen proxies that target Kurdish militias in northern Syria where 900 US servicemen have been deployed to conduct anti-ISIS operations.

Jordan will have a central role with the new Syria. Amman has an excellent intelligence service and as a moderate Sunni government can act as an interlocutor between Damascus and her neighbors. But the Hashemite Kingdom is also concerned about the instability that a militant Salafist regime brings to the region. Secular Lebanon, home to several faiths, has similar concerns.

Iran and Russia are the biggest international losers with the ousting of the Assad Regime, but Moscow seems to have been able to secure its naval base in Tartus. Tehran lost an ally from the Shia Crescent. The same can be said of Lebanese Hezbollah which relied on their Shia-led neighbor for support. The other losers in this regime change may be Syria’s non-Sunni minorities which the Assad regime tolerated, such as the Christians, Yezidis, and Druze. And Bashir al-Assad was seen as the protector of the Alevi Shias in Syria who may face retribution at the hands of their new Sunni overlords.

An opposition fighter steps on a broken bust of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad in Damascus, Syria, 8 Dec 2024. The family’s 50-year rule finally ended. (Photo: AP / Hussein Malla)

Israel may have gained from the fall of Assad. But the new Sunni regime in Damascus may be more sympathetic and supportive of their fellow co-religionists, the Palestinians, who undergoing a genocide at the hands of the brutal Likud regime.    

Sources:

Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of Syria’s shock insurgency? | AP News

U.S. Central Command conducts dozens of airstrikes to eliminate ISIS camps in central Syria > U.S. Central Command > Press Release View

Pet Food Safety Recall: Blue Ridge Beef Puppy Mix Due to Salmonella Contamination

Blue Ridge Beef in Statesville, NC, is voluntarily recalling 9,600 lbs. of their 2 lb Puppy Mix due to a contamination of Salmonella.

The products were distributed between 6 and 23 Aug 2024 and packaged in clear plastic and sold primarily in retail stores located in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

Salmonella can affect animals eating the products and there is risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the products or any surfaces exposed to these products.

Healthy people infected with Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. Rarely, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.

Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever, and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.

The problem was discovered when a customer’s litter of puppies became ill and reported the issue to VDACS.

Consumers who have purchased this product are urged to return to place of purchase or destroy the food in a way that children, pets, and wildlife cannot access. Do not sell or donate the recalled products. Do not feed the recalled product to pets or any other animals. Wash and sanitize pet food bowls, cups, and storage containers. Always ensure you wash and sanitize your hands after handling recalled food or any utensils that come in contact with recalled food. For more information contact blueridgebeefnc@yahoo.com or 704-873-2072

This recall is being made with the knowledge of the Food and Drug Administration.

Source:

Blue Ridge Beef Issues Voluntary Recall Blue Ridge Beef Puppy Mix Due to Salmonella Contamination | FDA

Amnesty International: Israel Committing Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza

(Photo: ©Mahmoud Issa /Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them. Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.”

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recently released similar findings, linked below.

The IDF killed at least 44,612 Palestinians and wounded 105,834 since 7 Oct 2023. On 15 Aug 2024 the IDF claimed more than 17,000 militants have been killed. Who are the remaining 27,612 deaths?

At this rate, nearly 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza will have been killed by air and drone strokes by year’s end. These figures exclude West Bank casualties.

Nearly 100,000 homes in Gaza were destroyed last year; obviously more since the dated report linked below.

The massive pager and walkie-talkie sabotage attack Israel perpetrated on Lebanon in Sep 2024 was considered an egregious violation of international war by the OHCHR. The attacks reportedly killed at least 32 people and maimed or injured 3,250, including 200 critically. Among the dead are a boy and a girl, as well as medical personnel. Around 500 people suffered severe eye injuries, including a diplomat. Others suffered grave injuries to their faces, hands, and bodies. This incident and the the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank fell outside the scope of this Amnesty International report.

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud): “We’re rolling out Nakba 2023.” (Photo: Noam Moskowitz / Knesset spokesperson)

Avi Dichter is one of heck of a nice guy, isn’t he? If Mr. Dichter has dual Israeli and US citizenship, Donald Trump might ask him to join his administration. Remarkably, there are defenders, deniers, and apologists of this abominable genocide being perpetrated on Palestinians within the Democratic Party base. You may read their weak arguments and drivel in several liberal or democratic websites. Some parsed the wording of the Amnesty report in a feeble attempt to discredit it. And then these same polemicists wonder why the Democratic Party lost the anti-war vote and the election this past November.

Sources:

Amnesty concludes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

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

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/7/live-dozens-killed-as-israel-attacks-refugee-camp-nearby-hospital

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

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


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67565872

US/Canada Product Recall: Anker Soundcore Lithium-Ion Battery Powered Bluetooth Speakers

33 incidents have been reported to the CPSC involving the lithium-ion batteries in the speakers overheating, some causing smoking and small fires, including one minor burn injury. 69,000 units were sold in the US, about 9,764 in Canada.

This recall involves the lithium-ion battery packs in Anker Soundcore Bluetooth Speakers sold exclusively on Amazon in 2023. Only lithium-ion battery packs in Anker Soundcore Bluetooth Speakers with models A3102016, A3302011 and A3302031 are included in this recall.

The recalled speakers can be identified by the unit’s “SN Code” which is visible on the underside of the Bluetooth Speakers. Consumers can type in the “SN Code” on Anker’s websites for these recalls https://us.soundcore.com/pages/a3102-recall and https://us.ankerwork.com/pages/a3302-recall to see if their product is recalled. Anker and Amazon have contacted all known purchasers. 

[b]Lithium-ion batteries can be dangerous. Watch below what happens to the poor dogs after chewing on a battery. Both dogs and a cat escaped the fire unharmed.[/b]

Source:

Anker Soundcore Lithium-Ion Battery Powered Bluetooth Speakers Recalled Due to Fire Hazard; Sold Exclusively on Amazon.com by Anker Innovations | CPSC.gov

Hawaii: Over 200 Cats Saved from Wildfire

Link: https://lanaicatsanctuary.org/

Emmanuel Macron and the Mass Murderer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

Macron’s Saudi visit targets arms deals and economic diversification

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Photos: FBI)

(Photos: FBI)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | California Man Arrested for Allegedly Exporting Shipments of Firearms, Ammunition and Other Military Items to North Korea | United States Department of Justice

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That was his last day in Gaza.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

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

United States military veteran suicide – Wikipedia

Food Recall in California: Raw Farm Milk and Cream 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pet Safety and Raw Milk Pet Food Products

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

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

Different flight paths between NYC and Paris.  

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

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

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

TSA checkpoints at JFK (Photo: TSA)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

Stowaway caught on Paris flight attempts to claim asylum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bulengo IDP Camp. (Photo: Concern Worldwide)

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

World Health Organization

CIA

Democratic Republic of the Congo | World Food Program

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

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

Why Humans are So Obsessed with Cats

Likud Continues Murder-Death-Kill Pogrom Against Arabs

Lebanese soldiers stand guard as rescuers search for survivors in the rubble at the site of an IDF attack on the al-Shiyah neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday(Photo: [Anwar Amro / AFP)

In AKZ-L, the Israeli Death Forces (IDF) killed three Lebanese soldiers in an air strike on an army base in southern Lebanon’s town of Sarafand. The latest killings bring the overall death toll in the Lebanese army to 41.

The IDF has not yet commented on its latest killing of Lebanese soldiers who have for months provided security for Lebanese civilians and engaged in search and rescue efforts amid the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.

Lebanon’s government plans to file a formal complaint with the UNSC over “repeated attacks” by Israel on its army, and accused Israeli forces of repeated violations of international law. The IDF has also been targeting Lebanese medical personnel and infrastructure.

In AKZ-G, IDF airstrikes killed 12 Palestinians and ten are missing under rubble in Jabalia. The IDF killed one and wounded several Palestinians in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City. The victims (below) were photographed at al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

A Palestinian woman mourns after an Israeli attack on the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City at al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu)

Several young children were injured in this IDF attack (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas / Anadolu)

The IDF targeted members of the Gaza Civil Defense after they responded to the initial bombing (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas / Anadolu)

In AKZ-W, the IDF conducted ethnic cleansing raids at the following locations:

  • The city of Hebron
  • The city of Halhul, north of Hebron
  • The Fawwar refugee camp, south of Hebron
  • The cities of Ramallah and el-Bireh
  • The towns of al-Mughayyir and Silwan, north of Ramallah
  • The Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah
  • The village of Osrin, south of Nablus.

The casualty list has not been tabulated at time of publication.

Coriolanus and media outlets have difficulty keeping up with Israeli atrocities. Remarkable how easily and callously IDF pilots and drone operators can launch their weapons without regard to collateral damage or nearby innocent parties.

When destroying medical personnel/infrastructure and housing, the IDF creates the “NHI” condition (“No Human Involved”). “NHI” allows wounds, disease, starvation, and exposure to freezing temperatures to attrit Arabs without killing them directly. This is why the IDF targets the medical personnel of Lebanon so they cannot treat wounded Shia Muslims resisting the Israeli offensive.   

By year’s end the IDF will probably have killed a total 50,000 Muslims in the three Arab Killing Zones (AKZ), while maiming close to 150,000. Coriolanus monitors the Murder-Death-Kill rate as best as possible from open source media. In just over one year, the IDF already surpassed 38,239, the number of Muslims liquidated by Bosnian Serb war criminals from 1992-1995. See previous post for sources.

According to worlddata.info, Israel ingloriously shares the stage with Afghanistan, Belarus, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Sudan, and Syria as a Pariah State. Congratulations to the State of Israel for the wonderful accomplishment.

With the exception of the US, which country would welcome the utterly loathsome Likudnik Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu other than the Hague for war crimes prosecution?

Source:

(1) Update LIVE: Israel shells Gaza’s Kamal Adwan, kills three soldiers in Lebanon

List of the 13 current Pariah States

Ukrainian Killing Zone (UKZ): Russia Murders 21, Wounds +100 in Odessa and Sumy with Missile Strikes

Russian missile strikes on 18 Nov left at least 21 people dead and more than 100 injured in Ukraine, as strikes targeted the cities of Odesa and Sumy.

In Odesa, a midday strike left ten people dead and 39 injured, including a child, with four in critical condition. The strike damaged residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, with the city’s center among the hardest-hit areas.

Hours earlier, a late-night missile strike devastated a residential building in Sumy, a city 40 kms from the Russian border, leaving 11 dead, including two children, and 89 wounded.

The Russian attack damaged 90 apartments, 28 cars, two educational institutions, and 13 buildings.

Rescuers evacuated over 400 residents and continue to search for survivors. The attack also left Sumy’s administrative center without power.

The late-night attack on Sumy followed what Kyiv said was a “massive” attack on Ukraine’s power grid with 120 missiles and 90 drones that killed at least seven people. Moscow routinely denies targeting civilian infrastructure. Such strikes are widely considered a war crime.

Russian strikes have hammered Ukraine’s power infrastructure since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, prompting repeated emergency power shutdowns and nationwide rolling blackouts.

The massive Russian attack also came as US President Joe Biden had reportedly authorized the use of US-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike inside Russia, after lobbying by Ukrainian officials.

The weapons are likely to be used in response to North Korea’s decision to send thousands of troops to support Russia in the Kursk region where Ukraine mounted a military incursion over the summer.

In the overnight attack on Sumy, the Ukrainian Air Force said the Russian military used two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and a Kh-59 guided missile.

The US Embassy in Kiev closed on Wednesday after receiving “specific information of a potential significant air attack,” as the Kremlin warned it would retaliate after the Biden administration reportedly permitted Ukraine to strike deeper within Russia.

Ukraine and Russia will continue pounding each other with drones and missiles over the next two months until Donald Trump assumes the Presidency. Kiev must maximize what it can during this pre-Trump period because they should expect nothing from Washington DC afterwards.  

Sources:

At Least 21 Dead in Russian Missile Strikes In Ukraine’s Odesa, Sumy

US closes Kyiv embassy after reciving information on ‘potential significant air attack’ – UPI.com

The Striking US Parallels Between 1968 and 2024

2024 Democratic Party Candidate VPOTUS Kamala Harris (L); 1968 Democratic Party Candidate VPOTUS Hubert Humphrey (R)

Many parallels exist between the 1968 and 2024 US presidential elections. In both instances, the Democrats were the incumbent party that had won the preceding election with landslide numbers. Both re-elections were theirs to lose.

1964

In the 1964 Presidential election, the Democratic Party ticket of Lyndon B. Johnson/Hubert Humphrey won 43,129,040 votes (61.1% of the popular vote) compared to the GOP ticket of Barry Goldwater/William Miller which took 27,175,754 votes (38.5% of the popular vote).

The LBJ administration would pass the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Voting Righting Act (1965), and other progressive legislation under the Great Society program to eradicate poverty and racial injustice in the US. But LBJ increased America’s involvement in Vietnam, propping up a brutal and unpopular regime in Saigon by deploying more American Soldiers to the jungles of SE Asia.

The Vietnam War would wreck LBJ’s legacy, including the Great Society program.

Anti-war protestors in 1968 (Image: thenation.com)

1968

Fierce opposition to the Vietnam War on the nation’s college campuses and within the Democratic Party led LBJ to not seek re-election in 1968. LBJ’s approval rating in April 1968 was under 40%.

At the 1968 DNC Convention in Chicago, anti-war protestors were excluded from having a voice and the “enemy” were “g—ks” and “Communist guerillas.” VPOTUS Hubert Humphrey became the POTUS candidate to carry on LBJ’s policies. Before that fateful 1968 convention, a candidate named Robert F. Kennedy ran for President but was tragically assassinated months prior. A woman’s right to an abortion was illegal, Moscow had invaded Czechoslovakia, and white supremacists strutted openly in the Deep South.


In 1968 members of the KKK, a domestic terrorist organization, proudly walked the streets in “Old Dixie”. You wonder what that little girl (C) is thinking and what has happened to her since. The two young men on the left may have served their country in Vietnam.

In the Nov 1968 election, the Humphrey/Muskie ticket won 31,271,839 votes (42.7%) to Nixon/Agnew’s 31,783,783 votes (43.4%). Segregationist George Wallace siphoned away 9,901,118 votes from both the Democrats and the GOP (13.5% of the popular vote and carrying five southern states). Richard M. Nixon narrowly won the White House.

Critically, the Humphrey/Muskie ticket received 11,857,201 less votes than from four short years ago. Millions of Democrats did not support the pro-war 1968 Humphrey/Muskie ticket or the Great Society program.

2020

In the 2020 election, the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris ticket won 81,283,501 votes (51.3% of the popular vote) compared to 74,223,975 votes (48.6%) for the GOP Donald Trump/Mike Pence ticket. This was a sizeable victory for the Democrats. The post-COVID US economy grew and consumer prices began to drop. Russia would invade Ukraine in Feb 2022 and the Biden administration immediately began sending military and financial aid to Kiev. But Palestinian frustration at being unable to release thousands of prisoners being held in security detention by the Israelis led to a surprise attack to seize hostages in Oct 2023. Backed by US military and economic support, Israel conducted massive reprisals against the Palestinians at a 20:1 scale.

2024



Nationwide campus protests in 2024 against US support for Israel during its Nakba against Gaza looked eerily similar to college protests against US involvement in Vietnam in 1968. Americans disliked the unpopular leaders and policies of both 1968 Saigon and 2024 Jerusalem.

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT):

“Continuing to provide Israel with the offensive weapons it uses on civilians is morally wrong.”

Anti-war protestors gather at Harvard University to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza at a rally in Cambridge, MA, on 14 Oct 2023. (Photo: AFP)

Pres. Joe Biden’s approval rating in June 2024 dropped to 43%. After a poor performance at one debate, Biden was persuaded to step aside for his much younger VPOTUS, Kamala Harris. The incumbent VPOTUS received 99% delegate votes at the DNC convention.

Like in 1968, in 2024 anti-war protestors were excluded from having a voice at the Chicago DNC Convention. The “enemy” in 2024 were not “g—ks” like in 1968 but “Islamic terrorists” in the Gaza Strip.  Moreover, a man named Robert F. Kennedy (Jr) ran for POTUS as an independent (yes, the son of slain Bobby Kennedy), Moscow had invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022, a woman’s right to an abortion was illegal, and white supremacists parade down Main Street, USA.  

In Nov 2024 Columbus, Ohio, neo-Nazis recently paraded down a street without fear. (Source: Social media)

In the recent 5 Nov 2024 election, Harris/Walz won 73,912,254 votes (48.3% of the popular vote) to Donald Trump/JD Vance’s 76,535,898 votes (50% of the popular vote).

The GOP won 2,311,923 more votes than in 2020. Green Party candidate Jill Stein insignificantly pickpocketed .5% of the popular vote, siphoning off nothing consequential like segregationist George Wallace in 1968.

Importantly, the Harris/Walz ticket received a whopping 7,371,247 less votes than in 2020, including Blue State strongholds. In 2024, Democrats simply stayed home (just like in 1968) or voted for Donald Trump.

Biden and LBJ, both former VPs, became one-term presidents (LBJ was a five-year POTUS because of the 1963 JFK assassination). Both passed the torch to their VPs. In 1968 and 2024 the incumbent Democratic candidates lost significant numbers of voters within a short span of four years, undoing their previous domestic achievements.

In 2024 the Biden administration through USSECSTATE Antony Blinken and D/CIA William J. Burns earnestly tried to achieve a ceasefire with the warring parties in the Middle East to release innocent Israeli and AMCIT hostages. The US ultimately failed because of Likudnik Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu who has turned Israel into a Pariah State. The USIC term for Netanyahu is PIFWC: Person Indicted For War Crimes.

Sources:

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/op-eds/bernie-sanders-no-more-arms-sales-to-netanyahu/

https://www.cnn.com/2015/01/12/opinion/zelizer-lbj-vietnam-disaster/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_National_Convention_protests

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dnc-roll-call-of-states-2024/

LBJ’s Presidential Approval Ratings, 1963-1969

Biden approval polling tracker

NATO and EU Suspect Russia Sabotaged Two Baltic Undersea Cables

European governments and the US have accused Russia of intensifying “hybrid attacks” following reports that Baltic Sea fiber-optic communications cables were damaged by suspected sabotage, although they have not yet directly tied the incident to Moscow.

Moscow has long denied it is involved in sabotaging Western infrastructure to punish European countries for their assistance to Ukraine’s defense, but suspicions grew in Western capitals on 19 Nov that damage to two key Baltic Sea cables were likely the result of deliberate actions.

Ukraine’s allies pointed to past incidents of alleged sabotage by Moscow, especially following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has hit the 1,000-day mark amid devastating losses on both sides.

(Map courtesy: ontheworldmap.com)

Regional states are investigating the cutting of a cable connecting Finland to Germany and one linking Sweden and Lithuania following similar suspicious occurrences in the sea in recent years.

Swedish prosecutors and Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation separately said national authorities had launched investigations into the cut cables.

Moscow has said such allegations are being fabricated by the West to discredit Russia.

As reported here on Coriolanus, Moscow was likely to carry out sabotage operations and has been bolstering its secretive marine (GUGI) unit that deploys ships, submarines, and drones to survey the Baltic seabed.

NATO stepped up monitoring critical infrastructure in the Baltic following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the destruction of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline seven months later.

A ship lays the now-damaged telecommunications cable off the shore of Helsinki in Oct 2015. (Photo: AFP)

The West should expect increased sabotage and espionage from the Kremlin to maximize damage to NATO and the EU until Donald Trump assumes the presidency in January 2025. And even after then as Commander-in-Chief, Trump can order the USIC and DOD to ignore Russian espionage, leaving the onus of counterintelligence in the hands of NATO and EU partners.

Source:

Europeans Probe Baltic Cable Damage as Suspicions Turn Toward Russia

Canada Reportedly Foiled Iranian Plot to Assassinate Former Justice Minister

Liberal MP Irwin Cotler speaks in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, 15 Dec 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

Canadian authorities recently foiled an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister who has been a strong critic of Tehran.

The 84-year-old was justice minister and attorney general from 2003 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2015 but has remained active with many associations that campaign for human rights around the world.

Cotler was informed on 26 Oct that he faced an imminent threat — within 48 hours — of assassination from Iranian agents.

Cotler had already been receiving police protection for more than a year after the 7 Oct 2023 attack in Israel by armed Palestinian groups seizing hostages in order to trade them for any number of the 2,000 Palestinians being held in indefinite security detention.

Cotler, who is Jewish and a strong backer of Israel, has advocated globally to have Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps listed as a terrorist entity.

His name reportedly also came up in an FBI probe of a 2022 Iranian murder-for-hire operation in New York that targeted American human-rights activist Masih Alinejad.

Ottawa, which severed diplomatic ties with Iran more than a decade ago, listed the Revolutionary Guard as a banned terrorist group in June.

It said at the time that Iranian authorities displayed a consistent “disregard for human rights both inside and outside of Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order.”

As a lawyer, Cotler also represented Iranian political prisoners and dissidents.

Cotler’s daughter pictured above, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, is an Israeli politician and diplomat who previously served as a member of Israel’s parliament. (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem / The Jerusalem Post)

As reportedly here on Coriolanus, the nexus of organized crime and the intelligence world is deeply enmeshed. The IRGC-QF most likely contracted out the killing to local criminals but were foiled by Canadian security services. Analyzing available public documents, the author is surprised that the IRGC considers Irwin Cotler an HVT (high value target) who is worth the risk and money to assassinate.

RCMP Close Protection Team in the Diamond Formation escorting Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. Note the tell-tale lapels pins on the dark-suited centurions. (Undated photo by Chris Wattie / Reuters)

Sources:

Former Canadian minister Irwin Cotler says he was target of alleged Iran-backed assassination plot – ABC News

New York City Issues First Drought Warning in Two Decades

The sky is lit red, orange and blue behind One World Trade Center and the Manhattan Skyline just before sunrise in NYC. Mayor Eric Adams elevated the city’s drought watch to a warning. (Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has issued the city’s first drought warning in 22 years, as its reservoirs continue to drop below normal amid a near-record dry spell.

The warning was issued Monday as wildfires have threatened to spark across much of the Eastern US this fall, including in NYC, where a Brush Fire Task Force was launched as 271 brush fires ignited citywide in the last two weeks — a record over a 14-day period.

The fires are being exacerbated by dry weather. October and November saw the second-longest rainless streak in 155 years.

Officials said the city’s water reservoirs were at about 60% capacity, significantly lower than the 79% for this time of year.

“Over the last 10 weeks, we have had 8.23 inches less rain than in the average year,” Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala of the Department of Environmental Protection said. “So, this drought has come on fast, it has come on furious, and that’s why the last six weeks have been the driest on record.”

The warning follows a drought watch issued earlier this month. With the upgrade to the second of three levels of water conservation, city agencies were directed to immediately implement water-saving measures.

NYS Gov. Kathy Hochul also declared a drought watch because of “a historic shortage of rainfall” for the state, while elevating 15 counties in mid-Hudson and New York City to a drought warning. The governor has also declared a statewide burn ban.

The last time NYC was under a drought warning was in 2002.

As previously reported here, environmental degradation is affecting another megalopolis. The air pollution in Delhi, India, is now at ‘extreme’ and ‘toxic’ levels.

Air quality in India’s Delhi region reached “severe plus” with pollution at 1,500 on the Air Quality Index. (Photo by Rajat Gupta/EPA-EFE)

Source:

New York City issues first drought warning in two decades – UPI.com

Missouri: 90 E. coli Cases Tied to Rockwood Summit HS Events

More than 90 cases of E. coli have been linked to Rockwood Summit High School events in St Louis County, Missouri.

The St. Louis County Health Department said 94 cases have been identified. Some of those cases have been confirmed; others show compatible symptoms and links to confirmed cases.
Health authorities said the cases are allegedly connected to Andre’s Banquet and Catering which catered some events for Rockwood Summit High School.

The St. Louis County Health Department suggests that salad is the source of illness, but a specific ingredient has not been identified.

One lawsuit has been filed against the catering company on behalf of a cheerleader at Rockwood Summit High School.

The owner of Andre’s Banquets and Catering said the lawsuit has no merit. He said vendors spot-check produce loads daily, are USDA-inspected and follow strict food safety guidelines. He also claimed that the fact that three students who aren’t Rockwood Summit High School students were infected is proof his business is not the source of the outbreak.

State and local health department workers were at the catering business to take samples of food for testing. Health department officials will also use genetic testing on stool samples to get more certainty on the outbreak.

An E. coli outbreak in 18 states that involves organic carrots is not linked to this incident.

E. coli are germs called bacteria and are found in many places, including in the environment, foods, water, and the intestines of people and animals. Most E. coli are harmless and are part of a healthy intestinal tract. E. coli helps humans digest food, produce vitamins, and protect people from harmful germs.

But some E. coli can make people sick with diarrhea, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, sepsis, and other illnesses.

Sources:

https://www.firstalert4.com/2024/11/18/more-e-coli-cases-tied-rockwood-school-events/

https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/about/index.html

TSA Intercepts Loaded Firearm from Flight Crew Member at Reagan National Airport Security Checkpoint

A member of an airline flight crew was cited by police after Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport intercepted a firearm among a flight crew member’s carry-on items at one of the checkpoints on Friday, 15 Nov. The 9mm handgun was loaded with nine bullets, including one in the chamber. See photo above.

When TSA officers intercepted the firearm, they notified the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Police who responded to the checkpoint, confiscated the gun and issued a citation to the woman. TSA also notified the airline of the serious violation.

Additionally, the woman faces a Federal civil penalty for bringing a loaded firearm to a TSA checkpoint. The Federal penalty for carrying weapons can reach a maximum of $15,000.

To transport a firearm for a flight, it must be unloaded, packed in a locked hard-sided case and declared at the airline counter so it can be placed in the belly of the aircraft with the checked baggage.

In 2024, TSA confiscated 36 firearms at Ronald Reagan Airport (DCA).

The scale of firearms ownership and custodianship in the US is simply breath-taking. As if Americans don’t have enough to worry about getting shot on the streets, now they have to worry about “flying the unfriendly skies.” Recently, an unknown assailant fired shots at an airplane at Dallas Airport; no injuries were reported and the aircraft sustained slight damage. According to CDC data, 48,830 people were killed with a firearm in the US in 2021. No doubt next year a freshman GOP lawmaker will be caught with a firearm at a TSA or US Capitol Hill security checkpoint and be outraged at the indignation.

Source:


https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2024/11/18/tsa-intercepts-firearm-flight-crew-member-reagan-national-airport

Egypt: Stray Dogs in Giza Become Tourist Draw After ‘Pyramid Puppy’ Sensation

A pack of about eight dogs has made its home among the ancient ruins of the Giza Pyramids. Look at the thick paws of this confident canine. (Photo AFP)

Beneath the blazing Egyptian sun, crowds at the Giza Pyramids gazed up at the ancient wonders, but some had their eyes peeled for a new attraction.

“There he is,” one Polish tourist told his wife as they spotted a scrappy dog perched on one of the stones.

They were talking about Apollo, a stray who became an overnight sensation last month after being filmed scaling the Great Pyramid of Khafre, one of the seven wonders of the world.

The viral footage, captured by American paragliding enthusiast Alex Lang and shared online by his friend Marshall Mosher, showed Apollo fearlessly climbing the 136-meter monument, barking at birds from the summit.

“He was acting like a king,” Lang said.

As news of Apollo’s daring climb spread worldwide, interest grew in the dogs who have long made their homes among the ancient stones.

A visitor from Argentina felt a special bond with the dogs saying it felt like connecting with the pharaohs while petting a member of Apollo’s pack.

Apollo’s newfound fame has even inspired local guides to include him and his pack in their stories for tourists.

“This is Anubis,” one tour guide told two American tourists, comparing Apollo, now known as the “pyramid puppy”, with the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, often depicted as a man with a jackal’s head.

“He and his pack are now part of our tour conversations,” said Sobhi Fakhry, another tour guide.

Businesses around the Giza plateau are also seeing a boost as tourists are eager to meet the so-called pyramid dogs.

One pyramid guard, who preferred to remain anonymous, also said that some celebrities had paid for permits to have their own dogs photographed with Apollo.

Apollo, a three-year-old Baladi dog, is part of a pack of about eight that has made their home among the ancient ruins. The dogs, a local breed, are known for their resilience, intelligence and ability to survive in Egypt’s harsh climate.

The American Cairo Animal Rescue Foundation monitors the pyramid dogs and described Apollo as the pack’s “alpha male”.

Apollo was born in a rocky crevice within the Khafre pyramid where his mother, Laika, found shelter. Sadly, some of Apollo’s siblings did not survive the site’s perilous heights. A sympathetic guard eventually relocated Laika to a safer spot where Apollo now stands out with his distinctive curled tail and confident nature.

The initial focus of Lang and Marshall was the daring canine climber, but their visit led to a deeper connection with Cairo’s stray dogs.

Intrigued by the challenges they face, Mosher decided to adopt a puppy from the pack: Anubi, who is Apollo’s daughter. Anubi will join Marshall in the US after she receives the dedicated care she needs in Egypt to grow up healthy.

At the pyramids, local animal care groups are now working with the government in order to set up food and water stations for the strays, as well as for other animals including camels and horses. A permanent veterinary center will be established at the pyramids with staff set to receive animal care training.

Source:

Stray Dogs In Giza Become Tourist Draw After ‘Pyramid Puppy’ Sensation | IBTimes

Netanyahu’s “Special Military Operation” Now Targets UN Personnel and Lebanese Ambulances; More Nations Break Off Diplomatic Ties with Israel

This young unnamed Palestinian girl was rescued from under rubble in Gaza. Image: Copyright Reuters.

Nicaragua has ended diplomatic relations with Israel, accusing the Likud government of being “fascist” and “genocidal” because of its attacks on Palestinian territory.

Nicaragua joins several countries to cut ties or take diplomatic action against Israel since it launched its war on Gaza in Oct 2023.

Bahrain – Withdrew its ambassador in November, saying the move “confirmed Bahrain’s historic position in support of the Palestinian cause”.

Belize – Cut diplomatic ties in November while reiterating its call for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.

Bolivia – Cut diplomatic ties in November, citing “crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people”.

Brazil – President Lula permanently withdrew his country’s ambassador in May after months of tensions over the war.

Chad – Announced in November it was withdrawing its charge d’affaires for “consultations”, with the decision taken in “indignation” at the conflict.

Chile – Withdrew its ambassador in November after accusing Israel of “unacceptable” human rights violations.

Colombia – President Gustavo Petro cut diplomatic ties in May, calling the Netanyahu administration “genocidal”.

Honduras – Withdrew its ambassador for “consultations” in November in light of the “serious humanitarian situation” unfolding in Gaza.

Jordan – Announced it was recalling its ambassador in November, accusing Israel of creating an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.

South Africa – Announced in November it was withdrawing three diplomats from Israel for “consultation” in response to the conflict.

Turkey – Recalled its ambassador in November “in view of the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Gaza”.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza since Oct 2023 is now 42,175; 98,336 wounded. The IDF recently attacked UN Peacekeepers (UNIFIL), wounding several soldiers and damaging their compound. The international community roundly condemned the IDF attacks. Two Lebanese Army soldiers were killed in a separate attack. At least three Canadian citizens have been killed in Lebanon since the IDF onslaught began.   

The Israeli army issued the following warning to ambulances in southern Lebanon, stressing that they were targeted under the pretext of transporting Hezbollah elements:

“We caution against the continued transport of Hezbollah elements in ambulances.”

“We call on Lebanese medical teams to avoid engaging with Hezbollah elements and not cooperating with them.”

“Every action would be taken against any Hezbollah armed vehicle.”

In a provocative move to escalate tensions and incite fury within the Shia Crescent, Israel’s Channel 14 broadcast an incendiary piece insinuating that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani from Iraq was on an Israeli assassination hit list. Channel 14 had shown al-Sistani’s picture with red crosshairs over his head this alongside photos of Israel’s top adversaries, including Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Al-Sistani, a 94-year-old Iranian-born Iraqi scholar, is considered one of the highest spiritual authorities by Shia Muslims. Washington expressed solidarity with al-Sistani amid growing outrage in the Middle East over the Israeli broadcast.

The US Ambassador to Iraq posted this on social media:

“Grand Ayatollah Sistani is a renowned and respected religious leader in the international community. He is a critical and influential voice in promoting a more peaceful region.”

Pope Francis (R) meets with Iraq’s Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in Najaf, Iraq, on 6 Mar 2021.  In 2014, he issued a religious decree, urging Iraqis to mobilize and defend their country from ISIL (ISIS). [Vatican Media via AP]

Attacking medical personnel or ambulances is a war crime and crime against humanity under the Geneva Conventions. The IDF has already struck several hospitals in Lebanon. Channel 14’s deliberate broadcast was meant to incite Iranian and Shiite fury against Israel, much like Fox News did in the US to build anger at the Islamic world in order to gather public consensus for invading Afghanistan and Iraq. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, already indicted for war crimes by the ICC, is doing everything he can to stall his own nettlesome bribery and corruption trial proceedings in Jerusalem by widening this Middle Eastern war. Democratic circles suspect that Netanyahu favors Donald Trump as President, so all of these moves are deliberately done to damage the Biden Administration and thereby harm Kamala Harris’ chances at the polls this November. And negotiations to release the 100 or so remaining Israeli and American hostages were swept under the carpet by the loathsome Likud regime.  

From the Jerusalem Post: “What does a guy have to do to get arrested around here?”

Sources:

US slams ‘suggestion of targeting’ Muslim scholar al-Sistani by Israeli TV | Religion News | Al Jazeera

UNIFIL statement (11 October 2024) | UNIFIL (unmissions.org)

Protection of medical personnel in armed conflicts—case study: Afghanistan – PMC (nih.gov)

Trial of Benjamin Netanyahu – Wikipedia

Another Canadian reportedly dead in Lebanon amid escalating Israel-Hezbollah conflict | National News | thecanadianpressnews.ca

US Army PFC Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Attempting to Assist ISIS to Conduct Deadly Ambush on US Soldiers

Cole Bridges (AKA Cole Gonzales, 22) of Stow, OH was sentenced to 168 months in prison followed by ten years of supervised release for attempting to provide material support to help the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) to attack and kill US soldiers in the Middle East.

Bridges, a cavalry scout in the Third Infantry Division based in Fort Stewart, GA, began researching and consuming online propaganda promoting jihadists and their violent ideology. Bridges also expressed his support for ISIS and jihad on social media. In or about October 2020, Bridges began communicating with an FBI online covert employee (the OCE), who was posing as an ISIS supporter in contact with ISIS fighters in the Middle East. During these communications, Bridges expressed his frustration with the US military and his desire to aid ISIS. Bridges then provided training and guidance to purported ISIS fighters who were planning attacks, including advice about potential targets in NYC. Bridges also provided the OCE with portions of a US Army training manual and guidance about military combat tactics, for use by ISIS.

Bridges supplied the OCE with instructions for the purported ISIS fighters on how to attack US forces in the Middle East, like diagramming specific military maneuvers intended to help ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of attacks on US troops. Bridges further provided advice about the best way to fortify an ISIS encampment to repel an attack by US Army Special Forces, including by wiring certain buildings with explosives to kill the US soldiers. Bridges provided the OCE with a video of himself in his US Army body armor standing in front of a flag often used by ISIS fighters and making a gesture symbolic of support for ISIS. Bridges sent another video narrating a propaganda speech in support of the anticipated ambush by ISIS on US soldiers.

Bridges used a voice manipulator for this video. Image: US Army Counterintelligence Command.

This dangerous young ex-soldier seems to have an identity crisis and now he has thrown his life away.  If the BOP has the resources, Bridges AKA Gonzales AKA whatever Arabic nom de guerre he chose, will probably require psychological counseling. Unclear is whether Bridge’s chain-of-command was aware of his mental instability and radicalization.

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | U.S. Army Soldier Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison For Attempting to Assist ISIS to Conduct Deadly Ambush on U.S. Troops | United States Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs | U.S. Army Soldier Pleads Guilty to Terrorism Charges for Attempting to Help ISIS Conduct Deadly Ambush on U.S. Troops | United States Department of Justice

Vietnam: Five Students Hospitalized with Suspected Food Poisoning in Ho Chi Minh City

Five high school students in Ho Chi Minh City receive medical care for suspected food poisoning following their lunch on October 10, 2024. Photo: Supplied

A suspected food poisoning incident at a Ho Chi Minh City high school led to the hospitalization of five students who suffered abdominal pain and vomited following their lunch.

An emergency team took these five students, including one 11th grader and four 12th graders, to the hospital where they received fluids and pain-relief medicines.

Their condition eventually stabilized and their vomiting and abdominal pain dissipated.

The hospital conducted tests as directed by the city’s Center for Disease Control and continued to closely monitor the five students, all of whom were diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis.

They were discharged from the hospital to continue recovery at home.

A rash of food poisoning incidents should have law-enforcement and health authorities in Vietnam concerned. As previously posted here on Coriolanus, this is probably the fourth reported such incident in the past few months where students have been sickened with food poisoning.  

Source:

5 students hospitalized with suspected food poisoning in Ho Chi Minh City | Tuoi Tre News

Hundreds Stranded After Angry Protesters Force Martinique Airport Closure

Protesters set fire to a road sign outside the Fort-de-France airport on Martinique, 11 Oct 2024 Screenshot from AP video 4525195

Hundreds of passengers have been stranded in the French Caribbean island of Martinique after its airport was briefly forced to close because protesters overran the tarmac and tried to break in.

Martinique has a land area of 436 sq mi and a population of nearly 350,000. Map: Brittanica.com

The overnight shutdown delayed flights and officials at the airport urged stranded passengers to contact their airlines for information after the facility resumed operations by mid-morning.

French authorities had regained control of the airport, which demonstrators targeted in the latest protest against the rising cost of living. Reinforcements were being sent to the island.

Martinique has been gripped by bouts of protests over the high cost of living that have turned violent, with at least one person killed as demonstrators set fire to a police station, cars and road barricades and clashed with police officers.

On Thursday night, protesters overran the tarmac on the airport in the island’s capital, Fort-de-France, and tried to force their way into the main entrance, where hundreds of passengers had taken shelter.

Police securing the entrance were seen fending off assaults from the demonstrators and firing what appears to be tear gas in their direction. The airport later said on Facebook that flights had been suspended.

Three planes carrying some 1,000 passengers had to be diverted to the nearby island of Guadeloupe on Thursday. Another 500 passengers who were supposed to board those flights were stuck at the Fort-de-France airport.

The latest round of protests prompted the government to announce another curfew as it stressed that demonstrations on public roads were prohibited. This is the latest in a string of demonstrations that began in early September, prompting France to send special anti-riot police to the island.

French riot police apprehend a protester in Paris, France, 23 Mar 2023. The Republican Security Corps (CRS) have a terrible reputation for brutality and were once banned from Martinique. (Reuters Photo)

Martinique is a victim of European colonialism. The island suffers from high unemployment, rising costs of imported food, and an ecological disaster. Five decades of pesticide use to protect the vital banana crop have sickened people and ruined the soil. Chlordecone is a carcinogenic pesticide and used on Martinique until 2003. Until all the soil is decontaminated, residents were warned to refrain from eating self-produced fruits or vegetables. The last thing the people of Martinique need are bone-breaking riot police from their colonial masters.

Sources:

Hundreds stranded after anti-inequality protesters force Martinique airport closure | Euronews

Intractable Social-Economic Problems of Martinique (openedition.org)

20 Pakistani Coal Miners Shot Dead in Attack

Map: Wikimedia.org

Twenty coal miners were shot dead in an overnight attack on their lodgings by a group of heavily armed men in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.

No group has claimed the attack, but separatist militants in Balochistan regularly target natural resource extraction projects dotted across the mineral-rich province, which is the poorest in Pakistan.

Up to 40 attackers fired at miners for half an hour starting around 12:30 AM with rocket launchers and hand grenades. A senior government official in the district confirmed the death toll and said seven more people had been wounded and machinery had been burned.

Laborers gather to protest against the killings of coal miners in an overnight attack in Duki district of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province (Photo: AFP)

On Friday, the workers’ coffins were laid out in a public square where hundreds of protesting union and labor group members demanded better protection amid a rise in violence.

There were conflicting reports about where the victims hailed from.

Militants have in the past targeted energy projects in Balochistan with foreign financing — most notably from China — accusing outsiders of exploiting the resource-rich region.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed a Sunday night bombing on a vehicle convoy in southern Karachi that killed two Chinese coal plant workers.

Beijing is a crucial ally for cash-strapped Pakistan but Chinese-funded infrastructure projects have sparked resentment and its nationals are routinely targeted by militant groups. Ethnic Baloch militants also regularly target migrant labourers from elsewhere in Pakistan, particularly Punjabis hailing from the east. Punjabis are Pakistan’s largest ethnic group and dominate the nation’s military forces, which have been battling the insurgency in Balochistan for decades.

In August, the BLA carried out coordinated attacks across Balochistan that killed dozens of mostly Punjabis. Friday’s attack comes just days before Pakistan is due to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit — a regional bloc established by China and Russia.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has an anti-Punjabi and anti-China agenda and is reported to be covertly supported by India and Afghanistan. Jundallah is a Baloch Salafi Sunni group operating in the Balochistan portion of Iran, regarded as the most underdeveloped, desolate, and poorest region of the country. Jundallah has an anti-Shia agenda which has conducted high-profile attacks in Iran.

Balochi men attired in traditional dresses perform during a ceremony organised to mark the Baloch Culture Day at the University of Balochistan (Photo: PPI)

Sources:

20 Pakistan Coal Miners Shot Dead In Attack | IBTimes

2 Chinese workers killed in blast near Pakistan’s Karachi airport, several injured | Pakistan News – The Indian Express

Baloch people in Iran – Wikipedia

Report: Iran Has Hit List of Former Trump Aides; US Scrambling to Protect Them

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at the UN in 2022 holding up a photo of General Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a Trump-ordered assassination. This reckless killing crossed a line with Tehran and in mafia terms, created a personal vendetta. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

US officials are coming to a troubling realization about Iran’s repeated threats to kill Donald Trump and some of his former top generals and national security strategists: Tehran isn’t bluffing — and it isn’t giving up anytime soon.

Iran has been openly threatening Trump and those who oversaw his national security strategy since Jan 2020, when Trump ordered a drone strike killing Qassem Soleimani, then Iran’s most powerful military general. A senior analyst described the strike as an exceptional breach of sovereignty in the eyes of Iran.

Tehran has put out videos depicting the future deaths of Trump and others who helped orchestrate the Soleimani attack, pushed for their arrest and extradition and issued menacing statements promising revenge.

USIC officials briefed the Trump campaign last month about assassination threats against the former president, with the Trump campaign saying they were warned the threat has “heightened in the past few months.” The briefing followed a pair of assassination efforts on Trump this summer. No evidence has been presented to link those to Tehran.

And, while the government has gone to unprecedented lengths to protect many of these officials, some who experience similar threats receive no government protection. After firing anti-Iran polemicist John Bolton, President Donald Trump quickly removed his USSS detail.

The assassination of a low-profile official could thrust the two nations into a crisis. Some US officials are now spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on security for themselves and their families. As previously posted here on Coriolanus, elements in Iran have sought contracts with transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) like the Hells Angels or drug-cartels to eliminate enemies of the state.

General Qasem Soleimani was a popular figure in Iran and an effective combat leader against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. When the US invaded Afghanistan in Oct 2001 after the 11 Sep 2001 attacks, General Soleimani’s Quds Force collaborated with the US and led the 2001 uprising in Herat against the Taliban. His coalition included ethnic Hazaras, the Northern Alliance, and Quds Force that liberated the city before US forces arrived. During the wasteful US occupation of Iraq, the IRGC-QF-armed Shia militias caused large amounts of US military casualties. General Soleimani was assassinated on 3 Jan 2020 by a drone strike outside Baghdad Int’l Airport (BIAP). John Bolton and other homicidal Republican war-hawks may have a “fatwa for life” issued against them.

Government leaders and advisors act with impunity in making life-taking decisions knowing they will receive USSS, FSB, RCMP, Shin Bet, MSS, Scotland Yard etc etc protection. But imagine how much more circumspect these leaders and advisors would be when deciding to kill a so-called “enemy of the state” if they weren’t afforded taxpayer-funded bodyguards, like John Bolton discovered? Perhaps they will be less inclined to take someone’s life.

Contrast US leaders and their self-created dilemma today with the former President of Mexico pictured below.  Andrés Manuel López Obrador dismissed his security detail, drawn from the Mexican Army, as soon as he became president. For five years no one tried to assassinate him– including the drug cartels, ISIS, a lone actor, the FSB, disgruntled military officers, or even a lunatic.

Meanwhile, the US Congress is allocating close to $150 million per year of taxpayer funds to protect these individuals from Iranian reprisals, a burden the Mexican taxpayer doesn’t have to shoulder.

Mexico’s then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador meeting constituents on 13 Apr 2023.

Sources:

https://www.newsweek.com/mexicos-obrador-says-he-doesnt-need-bodyguards-people-will-protect-him-1007985

Iran has a hit list of former Trump aides. The U.S. is scrambling to protect them. – POLITICO

:https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-cancelled-john-bolton-security-iran-election-2024-1967277

Witnesses Can “Bear-ly” Believe the Surprise Visitor at Connecticut Governor’s Estate

This 5 Oct 2024 photo shows a black bear climbing the gate of the Governor’s Residence, in Hartford, CT. (Courtesy of Joanna Kornafel via AP)

Witnesses could “bear-ly” believe the surprise visitor that appeared at the Connecticut governor’s estate.

A black bear scaled the fence Saturday as human passers-by did a double-take.

“It was definitely like: ‘Is this real?’” Joanna M. Kornafel recalled Friday.

She and her family were traveling in their car near the governor’s residence in Hartford when traffic slowed, and the reason soon became clear: The bear was crossing the street.

Then, as Kornafel’s husband drove and she grabbed her phone to take photos, the animal strode up the driveway to the 19th-century estate and scrambled up the tall metal gate. She photographed the bear standing on its hind legs on the gate, with its front paws on an adjacent pillar and its snout nosing about a globe-shaped light.

The family was struck by how quickly and nimbly the bear climbed up.

“We were all in awe of the bear. And excited,” said Kornafel, explaining that her 4-year-old son had been talking about it all week.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D) office said no one was home at the time, and the bear evidently just wandered off.

Bears have been spotted throughout Connecticut in recent years. Nearly all of the state’s 169 cities and towns reported sightings last year.

Source:

Witnesses can bear-ly believe the surprise visitor at Connecticut governor’s estate | AP News

Israel’s Devastating War in Gaza in Numbers

Displaced Palestinian child sitting in a tent at a camp in the city of Rafah, Gaza, Mar 2023. The NYT reported the IDF onslaught created 19,000 orphans. (Photo: AFP)

One year ago, Israel launched one of the deadliest and most destructive bombing campaigns in modern history in the Gaza Strip.

The reprisals came just hours after armed Palestinian groups carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel. The multipronged attack on Israel from Gaza killed 1,139 people, including 685 Israeli civilians and 71 foreigners. At the time of this surprise attack, the Israeli government was holding 7,000 Palestinian Gazans in “administrative detention” without trial or hearing. As a bargaining chip to free some of the detainees, Palestinian guerillas took 251 Israelis hostages with them. In Nov 2023, the first prisoner exchange took place.


Since then, 117 Israelis have been released, rescued, or freed. 101 hostages are still believed to be in Gaza and 35 are believed to be dead. Some were inadvertently killed in Israeli strikes.

Israel’s goal of destroying resistance in Gaza has taken a huge toll on civilians and infrastructure in the Palestinian enclave, one of most densely populated areas in the world. 24,955 Palestinian adults and 16,500 children were killed; 95,878 wounded, and 10,000 people are missing, presumably still buried under the rubble of residential buildings in Gaza. At least one-quarter of those wounded face life-changing injuries, with many requiring amputations and major rehabilitation, said WHO.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said in April that “every 10 minutes, a child is killed or wounded” in Gaza. Children, he said, are “disproportionately paying the ultimate price in this war.”


Israel reports 648 IDF and police personnel were killed and 1,902 injured in the offensive.
 
Israeli Likud Cabinet Minister Avi Dichter had called for “Nakba 2023” against the Palestinians and the IDF has certainly delivered. And to the east, over 700 Palestinians, including 150 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank; 5,700 have been injured.  


Israeli forces have been accused of unlawfully using lethal force against Palestinians, including deliberately executing Palestinians who posed no apparent security threat. Foreign aid workers, UN employees, journalists, and international volunteers have also been killed. According to the UN, more than 250 aid workers lost their lives.

At least 116 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). At least five reporters were directly targeted by Israeli forces in what the NY-based media watchdog classified as “murders”.


Human Rights Watch reported in Dec 2023, Israel has used the starvation of Palestinian civilians as a weapon of warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime. The UN estimates over 85% of Gazans (+1.9 million people), were internally displaced in the enclave by the end of 2023.


Amnesty International has documented cases of IDF soldiers torturing Palestinian detainees, including “severe beatings” and “humiliation.” The human rights group said that such torture had been occurring “for decades” before the surprise attack on 7 Oct 2023.


The UN reports that Israel has destroyed over half of all the structures in Gaza Strip, another 360,000 residential units have been damaged. Satellite imagery shows that at least 53 schools have been destroyed since Oct 2023, the world body said.

Protesters march towards Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Jerusalem to mark one year since the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attack by Palestinian armed groups to seize captives for a prisoner swap. (Photo: 7 Oct 2024/ Reuters).

The International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague indicted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes, but the international arrest warrant has inexplicably not yet been issued.  You may read the specific charges at the link below. Now the IDF is conducting a “limited ground offensive” into Lebanon. Russian President Vladimir Putin, similarly indicted for war crimes by the ICC, described the invasion of Ukraine as a “special military operation.” Putin’s international arrest warrant has been issued and it is incumbent for any signatory to the ICC treaty to arrest him. Mongolia already ignored their obligation when Putin came and left for a state visit last month.  

Sources:

Israel’s Devastating War In Gaza In Numbers (rferl.org)

Palestinian prisoners face rape, death in Israeli prisons, commission alleges – UPI.com

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

‘We’re Rolling Out Nakba 2023,’ Israeli Minister Says on Northern Gaza Strip Evacuation – Israel News – Haaretz.com

The War in Gaza Is Making Thousands of Orphans – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

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

Chinese Hackers Breached US Court Wiretap Systems

Chinese hackers accessed the networks of US broadband providers and obtained information from systems the federal government uses for court-authorized wiretapping.

Verizon Communications, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies are among the telecoms companies whose networks were breached by the recently discovered intrusion.

The hackers might have held access for months to network infrastructure used by the companies to cooperate with court-authorized US requests for communications data. The hackers had also accessed other tranches of internet traffic.

China’s foreign ministry responded that it was not aware of the attack but said the US had “concocted a false narrative” to “frame” China in the past.

Beijing has previously denied claims by the US government and others that it has used hackers to break into foreign computer systems. The attack was carried out by a Chinese hacking group with the aim of collecting intelligence. US investigators have dubbed it “Salt Typhoon.”

Earlier this year, US law enforcement disrupted a major Chinese hacking group nicknamed “Flax Typhoon,” months after confronting Beijing about sweeping cyber espionage under a campaign named “Volt Typhoon.”

China’s foreign ministry that Beijing’s cybersecurity agencies had found and published evidence to show Volt Typhoon was staged by “an international ransomware organization.”

Beijing and its internal proxies will continue their relentless campaign of cyber-espionage, hacking, and intelligence collection against Western targets. China has the budget, resources, will, and manpower for this mission as they wish to replace the US as the number one military and economic superpower in the world. Stealing technology is cheaper than years of research and development (R&D) is one method of catching up with the US and Europe. The “thousand grains of sand” approach allows Beijing’s analysts to construct an intelligence mosaic of the enemy. This particular breach may harm US counterintelligence efforts against China’s spies since Beijing will see who the USG is investigating through the names and telephone numbers associated with the FISA warrants (AKA “wiretaps”).

Source:

Chinese hackers breached US court wiretap systems, WSJ reports  (voanews.com)

Canadian World War II Pistols Slated for Destruction Will Be Donated to Ukraine

The Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol has a 13-round magazine capacity and is one of the most widely used military pistols in history. The Hi-Power has armed the militaries or security services of over 50 countries.

Second World War-era handguns that had been earmarked for destruction by the Canadian Armed Forces will instead be sent to Ukraine starting in December. The original plan was to destroy 11,000 of the Browning Hi-Power pistols. But now 10,500 of the 9-mm pistols will be shipped to Ukraine.

Delivery of the handguns is expected to start in December.

The Canadian Forces pulled the Browning Hi-Powers from service after receiving new modern handguns. It was having trouble keeping the Second World War pistols in service because of a lack of parts and concerns they were no longer functioning properly.

Since Feb 2022, Canada has committed more than $19.5 billion in total assistance to Ukraine, including $4.5 billion in military equipment. This includes Leopard II main battle tanks, armored combat support vehicles, anti-tank weapons, small arms, M777 howitzers, and associated ammunition as well as high-resolution drones.

In response to a specific request from Ukraine, Canada was donating decommissioned chassis from 29 M113s and 64 Coyote light armored vehicles. These surplus vehicles will be repurposed or used for spare parts by Ukraine.

Ottawa will also donate and transport 80,840 additional CRV-7 rocket motors and 1,300 warheads to Ukraine. This follows Canada’s initial delivery of 2,160 CRV-7 rocket motors.

Canada donated an unspecified number of Teledyne SkyRanger drones to Ukraine. Canadian military personnel are not involved in that training which is being conducted by Teledyne employees.

The SkyRanger is a next-generation, small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS)

The Browning Hi-Power pistol is a capable weapon that the Ukrainian security services will put to excellent use. The SkyRanger is reported to be a multi-functional, durable drone that Kiev will be able to employ for a myriad of missions from civil defense to sophisticated stealthy offensive operations. The Ukrainian government is no doubt grateful for all of these donations.

 
Source:
Military pistols slated for destruction will go to Ukraine | Ottawa Citizen

Two Indiana Men Plead Guilty to Assaulting Law Enforcement During 6 Jan Attack on Capitol

Donald Lee Moss (62) of Elizabethtown, IN and James Link Behymer (61) of Hope, IN, each pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol.


During the “Stop the Steal” rally on 6 Jan 2021 outside the US Capitol, a group of Metropolitan Police (MPD) officers in riot gear became surrounded by angry and violent rioters who began shouting obscenities and curses at them. Behymer and Moss ignored commands to step back. Shouting “USA! USA! USA!”, “This is our f— house!”, the two defendants assaulted the police officers. When a rioter shouted: “Y’all surrounded,” Behymer grabbed an officer’s baton while the officer attempted to keep Behymer away. Behymer re-engaged with another officer, attempting to steal his baton.


After the assault, Behymer and Moss entered the US Capitol building and encouraged other members of the mob to enter. He is seen leading rioters in the top photo. The FBI arrested the two miscreants on 6 Mar 2024.

The Honorable Judge Tanya S. Chutkan will sentence these two morons on 13 Feb 2025.  Of the approximately 30 defendants who have come before her, she has sentenced every one of them to at least some prison time. Judge Chutkan is overseeing Donald Trump’s election conspiracy trial.

No doubt the Honorable Judge Chutkan will recommend FCI Terre Haute, IN for their incarceration.

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

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

This is a fine time for two men in their early sixties to get “jammed up” by Federal agents for believing Donald Trump’s idiotic lies about a stolen election. Their white supremacist attitudes have undone them. At least they will most likely be incarcerated close to their families in Indiana.    

Sources:


District of Columbia | Indiana Men Plead Guilty to Assaulting Law Enforcement During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

FDA Recalls Eggs That ‘Will Cause Serious Adverse Health Consequences or Death’

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled eggs that it said “will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.” These products, sold in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, have been linked to a salmonella outbreak.  


The FDA told people not to eat, sell or serve recalled chicken eggs from Milo’s Poultry Farms and Tony’s Fresh Market.

The FDA issued the first recall on 6 Sep but has upgraded the recall to Class I, a product that “will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.”


The recall covers all expiration dates for the following eggs:

All carton sizes and all egg types labeled with “Milo’s Poultry Farms” and all carton sizes of “Tony’s Fresh Market” branded eggs.


Across nine states, 65 people were sickened from the same strain of Salmonella, 24 people were hospitalized and no deaths have been reported.


“This outbreak may be difficult to treat with some commonly recommended antibiotics and may require a different antibiotic choice for people who need them,” said the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).


FDA said symptoms could occur 12 to 72 hours after eating food that is contaminated with Salmonella, and the symptoms usually last four to seven days. Symptoms could include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps.


Sources:


Outbreak Investigation of Salmonella: Eggs (Sept 2024) | FDA
CDC warns of recalled eggs sold in Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, linked to Salmonella outbreak | CDC Newsroom
 
 
 

Over 180 People on Royal Caribbean Cruise Sick After Salmonella Outbreak

The Radiance of the Seas is manned by 894 crewmembers.

Over 180 passengers aboard a Royal Caribbean Cruise got sick after a salmonella outbreak. The cruise ship was traveling from Vancouver to Alaska between 20 Sep and 27 Sep.
 
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 180 of the 2,172 passengers and three of the 894 crew members on the cruise ship, Radiance of the Seas, were affected by the illness.


Passengers and crew members symptoms included diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache, and muscle aches.
 
CDC reported the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship took these actions:


Made announcements to notify onboard passengers and crew of the outbreak, encouraged case reporting, and encouraged good hand hygiene.

Collected stool specimens from gastrointestinal illness cases for testing.

Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures according to their outbreak prevention and response plan.
 
Sources:


Over 180 people on a Royal Caribbean Cruise are sick after salmonella outbreak (local12.com)

Radiance of the Seas September 2024 | Vessel Sanitation Program | CDC

New Zealand Navy Ship Manawanui Sinks Off Coast of Samoa

HMNZS Manawanui, which sunk after becoming grounded on a reef in Samoa (Photo Christopher Weissenborn / AP)

A Royal New Zealand Navy vessel has run aground and sunk off Samoa – the first time the navy has lost a ship since the second world war.


Manawanui, the navy’s specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, ran aground near the southern coast of Upolu as it was conducting a reef survey last Saturday. All 75 crew and passengers were safe.


An oil spill was “highly probable” as a result of the sinking. Several vessels responded and assisted in rescuing the crew and passengers who had left the ship in lifeboats. The cause of the grounding was unknown and under investigation. 

Video and photos published on local media showed the Manawanui, which cost the New Zealand government NZ$103m in 2018, listing heavily and with plumes of thick grey smoke rising after it ran aground. The vessel later capsized and was below the surface by 9am local time.

The Manawanui was used to conduct a range of specialist diving, salvage, and survey tasks around New Zealand and across the south-west Pacific.New Zealand’s navy is already working at reduced capacity with three of its nine ships idle due to personnel shortages.

This is a quadruple blow as cases like this are career-ending in most naval services. This incident also caused an oil spill, further threatening the coral reefs the ship was sent to survey. Besides costing the New Zealand taxpayer $NZ103 million dollars, this accident also further reduces their naval readiness.

Source:

New Zealand navy ship Manawanui sinks off Samoa | New Zealand | The Guardian

North Korean Defector Crashes Stolen Bus in Failed Bid to Return Home

Military sentry posts of North Korea, rear, and South Korea, front, are seen in Paju, near the border with North Korea. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

A North Korean defector living in South Korea has been detained after ramming a stolen bus into a barricade on a bridge near the heavily militarized border, in a failed attempt to return to his isolated homeland.


The man – who fled to the South in 2011 – ignored warnings from soldiers to stop while attempting on Tuesday to drive through the Tongil Bridge in Paju, just south of the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ).


“He lives under difficult economic conditions as a construction worker and misses his family still in the North,” an investigator told Agence France-Presse, explaining the man’s reasons for the attempted crossing. The police are considering charging the suspect, who is in his 30s, with theft and violating national security laws.


Crossings from the South to the North are rare, with defectors typically heading in the opposite direction, though many struggle to adapt to life in their democratic, capitalist neighbor.


More than 34,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the 1950-53 Korean war, mostly after arduous, sometimes life-threatening journeys, usually via China, to escape poverty and oppression at home. But this defector didn’t realize that he would have been severely punished by the Kim Jong-Un regime for defecting in the first place. He would have made a public apology and announcement about how terrible life is in South Korea before being whisked away by security personnel.
 

Source:
North Korean defector crashes stolen bus in failed bid to return home | North Korea | The Guardian

Tiny Kitten Seen on the Road Begging to Be Rescued Ends Up Having All Her Wishes Come True

A few months ago, a Good Samaritan spotted a tiny kitten crawling on the side of the road and stopped. The kitten cried out and inched towards the person. “She was lucky someone saw her and jumped to save her,” said Ellen Carozza LVT, VTS (CP-Feline). “Right from the beginning, she was the sweetest kitten who wanted to be rescued.”


A local animal rescue, To The ResQ, took her in and gave her immediate medical care but realized the kitten would need additional help. They contacted Ellen, whose Chris Griffey Memorial Feline Foundation (CGMFF) is dedicated to saving the most critical kittens.

Poppy was found on the side of the road emaciated, covered in ticks, and suffering with broken legs. Photo: Ellen Carozza

Poppy was given a thorough bath and fresh splints for her front legs. Photo: Ellen Carozza

Healing well, Poppy (R) enjoyed playtime with another kitten. Photo: Ellen Carozza

Fast forward to today. Poppy was adopted by a loving family and has a new home: A dream come true.

Photo: Ellen Carozza

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

Mexico Factsheet – The World Factbook (cia.gov)

Russian Forces Execute 16 Ukrainian POWs Near Pokrovsk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

Iran Counterattacks Israel on Behalf of Lebanese Hezbollah with Ballistic Missiles

Photo: AP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

US Targets Israeli-Occupied West Bank Settler Violence with Sanctions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

Sanctions List Search (treas.gov)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

Germany Arrests Chinese Woman Accused of Spying

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

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

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

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

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

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

Her Leipzig home and workplace were also searched.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

California Wildfires One Million Hectares This Year

Map: FIRMS US / NASA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

NASA | LANCE | FIRMS US/Canada

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

Pediatric patient treated at the hospital. Photo: BVCC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

Story: Andy Corbley; Photo: Mandy Watson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

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