Trumpf Continues Purging Pentagon of Competent Leadership to Putin’s Delight

President Donald Trumpf continued purging the Defense Department of experienced, capable leaders through his inept and alcoholic SECDEF “Whiskey Pete” Hegseth. The latest victim is a 40-year veteran of the US Navy and someone easily qualified to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Staff CJCS). Admiral Lisa Franchetti spent roughly half of her 40-year career at sea, commanding a destroyer, two carrier strike groups and the US Sixth Fleet. She was the first female officer to rise to the Navy’s top job of Chief of Naval Operations.

Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the US Chief of Naval Operations, during a media conference in Perth, Australia, in July 2024. (Photo: Richard Wainwright/EPA, via Shutterstock)

The announcement came in a statement emailed to reporters Friday night, shortly after President Trumpf said he was firing Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Whiskey Pete” Hegseth said in his statement that he would also replace Gen. James C. Slife, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, as well as the top uniformed lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. was the 21st Joints Chiefs of Staff Chairman. (Photo: United States Air Force)

Trumpf and Hegseth are firing competent commanders because they are minorities and competent and will weaken US national security. The purge of civilian and military inspectors-general, as well the military’s top lawyers, signals a dark future era of unaccountability within the DOD which already has trouble with contractor corruption, bribery, cost overruns, etc. Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors fighting discrimination will not find sympathetic voices with the Trumpf-Hegseth appointed Inspector-Generals or Judge Advocate Generals (JAGs).

‘The US Is Doing Russia’s Work’ Say Ecstatic Propagandists

Putin’s media mouthpieces are in a lather of excitement over Trumpf’s recent moves, including abandoning Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky.

Coriolanus completed several tours with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and will be perfectly blunt. “Whiskey Pete” Hegseth is an alcoholic, misogynist US Army National Guard officer who never made it past the rank of Major. He is neither competent nor experienced enough to qualify as an aide-de-camp to Admiral Franchetti or General Brown, let alone lead the world’s most powerful military. This dipsomaniac and Trumpf sycophant didn’t have the courage to fire General Brown or Admiral Franchetti in person.

A national disgrace leads the US Department of Defense.

Below are screen captures of “Whiskey Pete” Hegseth hurling an axe at a target during his Fox TV show. The axe would strike and injure a US Army NCO playing in the military band behind the barrier.

“Whiskey Pete” Hegseth was later sued over this idiotic incident.

The US proposed its own UN resolution marking the third anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine after refusing to back one drafted by Kiev and backed by Europe. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described it as “a simple, historic resolution … that we urge all member states to support in order to chart a path to peace.”

The draft US resolution does not condemn Russia as the aggressor in the conflict, nor does it make any acknowledgement of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. “This resolution is consistent with President Trumpf’s view that the UN must return to its founding purpose, as enshrined in the UN Charter, to maintain international peace and security, including through the peaceful settlement of disputes,” Rubio’s statement said.

No wonder Russian President Vladimir Putin is thrilled with his intelligence asset, America’s Godzilla, who is destroying US institutions through DOGE, appointing incompetent cabinet secretaries, while firing thousands of capable civil servants in health, aviation safety, forestry management, agricultural surveillance, environmental protection, and nuclear weapons security.

How much destruction will America’s Godzilla wreak in four years on behalf of Vladimir Putin?

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/22/politics/ukraine-war-us-proposes-un-resolution/index.html

Update: Ukraine-Russia

Front Page of the Rightwing New York Post ( 21 Feb 2025)

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he was willing to step down if it meant peace in Ukraine. His remark came days after President Trumpf questioned his legitimacy and called him a “dictator without elections,” echoing a Kremlin talking point.

“If it brings peace to Ukraine, and if you need me to step down — I am ready,” Mr. Zelensky said during a news conference on Sunday, on the eve of the third anniversary of the war. “Second, I can exchange this for NATO.”

This is a highly unlikely scenario given Trumpf’s opposition to allowing Ukraine into the military alliance. EU leaders are meeting for an extraordinary summit on 6 Mar to discuss additional support for Ukraine, European security guarantees and how to pay for European defense needs.

Cuban Mercenaries Fighting for Kremlin

(Image: RFE/RL.org)

Cuban mercenaries have been fighting for Russia, like Frank Dario Jarrosay Manfuga (36) above who joined Russia’s army in Jan 2024 and was captured in Mar 2024.

A former geography teacher he later became a professional musician to increase his income.
“I never intended to kill anyone. I never wanted to participate in a war. I have a family,” said Manfuga, who claimed he was tricked into boarding a Russia-bound plane with the promise of a job in construction. He has no desire to return to Russia or Cuba and Manfuga’s claim that he was duped could not be verified.

An estimated 5,000 Cuban soldiers are fighting for Russia,” Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat, co-founder of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, a US-based NGO advocating for democratic change in communist Cuba reported. “This network could not function without the Cuban regime’s approval.” Unlike North Koreans, Cuban fighters in Russia have left a significant social media footprint, with many openly embracing the Kremlin’s militarism and ideology.

Putin Promotes War Criminal

Unindicted war criminal Major-General Sergei Atroshchenko.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has promoted Sergei Atroshchenko, who ordered the bombing of a drama theater in Mariupol on 16 Mar 2022, to the rank of Major-General.

The AP reports as many 600 Ukrainians were killed in a deliberate strike against defenseless civilians. (Photo: CNN)

After occupying Mariupol, Russian forces began demolishing the drama theater building to destroy evidence of the war crime.

Ukrainian Security Services Prevent Assassination

The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police detained a saboteur who prepared a terrorist attack in the center of Odessa on 20 Feb.

The saboteur set up an IED near the car of the special prosecutor. Law enforcement officers pursued and detained the perpetrator, an 18-year-old resident of Odessa. He was recruited by Russian intelligence through a Telegram channel in search for “easy” money. On the instructions of the Russian special services, the saboteur personally constructed an improvised explosive device (IED) with a capacity of 300g in TNT equivalent.

To increase the lethality, the suspect stuffed the explosives with metal nuts and planted it under the military prosecutor’s car. Opposite the “target”, the attacker installed a hidden mobile phone with a remote access function for the FSB. Later, the Russian special service remotely activated the explosives, injuring a passer-by.

During exploitation of the crime scene, a mobile phone with evidence of his communication with his Russian handlers was seized from the detainee.

President Zelensky is capable, competent, and clever, a genuine national leader who cares about the future of his people. Ukrainian secret services continue to thwart Russian assassination attempts within their homeland. This suspect, like other young miscreants, prepared the IED for money, not out of love for Mother Russia or hatred of Ukraine. No doubt that Major-General Sergei Atroshchenko is on the Special Prosecutor’s list or in the cross-hairs of the Ukrainian espionage network for either justice or vengeance. Ukrainian military intelligence has previously liquidated HVT war criminals within Russia. The case of the Cuban mercenaries underscores their need for money and loyalty to Russia, as well as demonstrating that Moscow still needs manpower. Lastly, the question of American mercenaries fighting for Russia emerges as some are fugitives from US justice. How will they be treated by the US government at the end of hostilities?

Two criminals in love. Benjamin Netanyahu would complete the menage-a-trois.

Sources:

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-cuban-recruits-fighters-ukraine-mercenaries/33315782.html

https://english.nv.ua/nation/putin-promotes-atroshchenko-to-military-general-after-mariupol-theater-bombing-50492041.html

https://ssu.gov.ua/novyny/sbu-ta-natspolitsiia-po-hariachykh-slidakh-zatrymaly-ahenta-fsb-yakyi-na-zamovlennia-rf-pidirvav-avto-viiskovoho-prokurora-v-odesi


https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-leaders-meet-extraordinary-summit-ukraine-eu-defence-march-6-2025-02-23/

US Bloodbath: No End in Sight to America’s Undeclared War on Itself

General Garibaldi’s red shirts prevailed over the Army of the Two Sicilies in the Battle of Volturno (Oct 1860. (Courtesy of Peter Dennis)

In the past 48 hours several shootings terrorized and killed American citizens, including police officers, throughout different parts of the US.

Louisville, Kentucky

Police work the scene of a shooting outside a driver’s licensing office in Louisville, Kentucky, 21 Feb 2025. (Source: WHAS TV)

Three people were shot and killed in a parking lot outside a driver’s licensing office in Louisville, Kentucky. A male victim died at the scene while two female victims died at a hospital. No suspect is in custody and the shooter fled the scene. Authorities didn’t discuss any potential connection between the victims.

“There does not seem to be a public threat,” police said at a news conference, even though the murderer was on the loose.

In an average year, 827 people die and 1,857 are wounded by guns in Kentucky. The Bluegrass State has the 11th-highest rate of gun violence in the US. Gun deaths and injuries cost Kentucky $9.6 billion each year, of which $183.4 million is paid by taxpayers. In Kentucky, 54.6% of adults have firearms at home. Licenses in 2021: 108,833

York, Pennsylvania

Patrolman Andrew Duarte had served with the West York Borough Police Department for over two years and previously served with the Denver Police Department for five years. This was a good-looking young man who seemed quite happy. (Photo: public domain)

Officer Andrew Duarte died while responding to a 10:43AM call about an active threat at UPMC Hospital in York, Pennsylvania.

No patients were injured during the shooting, and the five-story, 104-bed hospital has been secured, according to a statement by Pennsylvania State Police. It’s unclear if there were any other injuries.

“At this time, the shooter is deceased and there is no danger to the public. The hospital is secured,” police said.

In an average year, 1,759 people die and 4,020 are wounded by guns in Pennsylvania. The Keystone State has the 20th highest rate of gun violence in the US. Pennsylvania firearm licenses in 2021: 348,167. An estimated 40.7% of adults in Pennsylvania have guns in their homes.

Virginia Beach, Virginia

VBPO Cameron Girvin. He seemed like a happy person. No photo available of VBPO Christopher Reese.

Police Officers Christopher “Chris” Reese and Cameron Girvin were shot while conducting a traffic stop at Sylvan Court at approximately 2330 Friday evening.

“While on patrol Officer Reese and Officer Girvin observed a car with an expired plate and executed a traffic stop. During the traffic stop the officers asked the subject to exit the vehicle and the subject refused; when finally exiting the vehicle the subject “tussled” with the officers and immediately produced a pistol, shooting both Officer Reese and Officer Girvin. While the officers were incapacitated and on the ground, the subject shot each officer a second time and then fled the scene. The subject was found in a shed near the initial scene with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

First responders attempted life-saving procedures and both officers were transported to local hospitals but would succumb to their wounds.”

Nota Bene: Coriolanus does not like the use of the word “tussled” as any local or federal judge would immediately question the definition of the word and what exactly transpired between the police officers and the suspect (who was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound).

In an average year, 1,065 people die and 1,911 are wounded by guns in Virginia. Around 44.6% of adults in Virginia have guns at home. Federal firearm licenses: 423,707.

Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico

Security Forces members assigned to the 377th Security Forces Squadron responded to an incident at approximately 2AM Saturday, 22 Feb resulting in a shooting incident. One Airman received a nonfatal gunshot wound to the hand and was transported to UNM Medical Center for treatment. He has since been released with no life-threatening injuries.

The other Airman was found dead at the scene. The cause of death and the incident remains under investigation by local authorities. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations was leading the probe along with the FBI and Albuquerque PD. Authorities said there is currently no threat to the public, even though the suspect remains at large.

In an average year, 433 people die and 618 are wounded by guns in New Mexico. The “Land of Enchantment State” has the 12th-highest rate of gun violence in the US. In New Mexico, 46.2% of adults have at least one gun at home. Firearms licenses in 2021: 122,968

Indiana

Trinity Shockley (18) Credit: Morgan County Sheriff’s Office

Last week, an 18-year-old from Mooresville, Indiana, was arrested for allegedly planning a mass school shooting at Mooresville High School. The Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department received information around 7PM 11 Feb from the FBI about someone who was potentially planning a school shooting on 14 Feb 2025.

During the department’s investigation, officers identified the person of interest as Trinity Shockley, of Mooresville. Court documents say Trinity is transgender, going by the name Jamie. Someone called the FBI and reported that Trinity was planning a shooting and that she had access to an AR-15 and ordered a bulletproof vest.

This is a catastrophe averted. The student reportedly had expressed admiration for other mass shooters, including Nikolas Cruz, who murdered 17 people and wounded 17 others at Parkland High School, Florida on 14 Feb 2018.

In an average year, 1,111 people die and 1,556 are wounded by guns in Indiana. Indiana has the 30th-highest rate of gun violence in the US. Indiana firearm licenses in 2021: 157,546. In Indiana, 44.8% of adults have at least one firearm at home.

NRA-rated A+ Republican US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the 2015 CPAC convention. (Photo: Adweek)

In 2022, the CDC reported the US suffered 48,000 gun-related homicides. These are wartime casualty numbers. Every day 327 people are shot in the US. Of those, on average, 117 will die. By contrast in 2023 the entire country of Canada with approximately 41.6m people suffered 289 homicides by firearms. That averages to less than one firearm-related murder per day.

The US government may wish to consider deploying US Army medics or US Navy Corpsmen like the soldiers below throughout the country to triage and treat her daily casualties, like a warzone.

(Photo: US Army)

Unless America does something drastic and soon, her undeclared war with herself will reach 50,000 annual gun deaths possibly in 2025 or 2026. But remarkably, America’s Godzilla is doing the exact opposite. Trumpf recently signed an Executive Order reversing federal firearm regulations, making purchasing guns easier.

Sources:

https://www.whas11.com/article/news/local/indiana/18-year-old-charged-allegedly-planning-mass-shooting-mooresville-high-school-trinity-shockley/531-3ab9d4e1-1d0c-4948-a6e3-289847054be5

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/gun-ownership-rates-by-state/41/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/protecting-second-amendment-rights/


https://www.kirtland.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4074588/one-airman-dead-and-another-hospitalized-outside-kirtland-release-2/

https://www.odmp.org/

South Carolina Convict to be Killed in First Firing Squad Execution in 15 Years

Brad Sigmon. (Photo: Courtesy of Brad Sigmon legal team)

“A South Carolina man on death row has chosen to be killed by firing squad, and if his execution goes forward next month, it would be the first time in 15 years that capital punishment in the US is carried out by gunfire. Brad Sigmon (67) is scheduled to be shot to death on 7 Mar, part of a spate of rapid killings the state has pursued in the last six months as it revives executions after a 13-year pause.

South Carolina now directs those on death row to choose how they will be killed — electric chair, lethal injection or shooting. If they decline to make a selection, the state electrocutes them. Attorneys for men on South Carolina’s death row have previously objected to firing squads, raising concerns about the pain caused by shootings and arguing the method constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. But Sigmon selected a firing squad in part because of concerns about the state’s lethal injection methods, his attorneys said.”

Utah and Idaho are also considering the use of firing squads (I wrote an OP about this several weeks ago). One rifleman is anonymously given a powerful blank cartridge so he can think that he wasn’t the one who killed the prisoner. (Photo: NY Post / Shutterstock)

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/21/brad-sigmon-death-penalty-firing-squad

Australia Warns Airlines to Beware of Chinese Navy Live-Fire Exercise

Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning and auxiliary ships. (Photo: navalnews.com)

Australia warned international airlines flying between Australian airports and New Zealand to beware of Chinese warships conducting a live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea.

Regulator Airservices Australia had warned commercial pilots of a potential hazard in airspace between the countries as three Chinese warships conduct exercises off the Australian east coast.

Several international flights had diverted as a result.

“It would be normal practice where a task group is engaging in exercises for there to be advice given to vessels and aircraft in the area and Airservices Australia is doing what it should do, which is to give that advice,” Australian FM Penny Wong said.

Australia was discussing with China about the notification and transparency around its naval exercises, “particularly live-fire exercises,” Wong said.

Australian military ships and planes have been monitoring the Chinese warships for days as they pass in international waters off the Australian east coast.

The Royal Australian Navy Fleet consists of 27 commissioned ships and 11 non-commissioned ships manned by 16,000 officers and seamen; 4,600 in the reserves. The Chinese navy has 384,000 active personnel manning 788 ships and 600 aircraft.

Civil aviation has paid the price of flying near active military warzones Russia shot down a Malaysian Airlines several years ago, as well as an Azerbaijani Airways flight recently. This warning and quarantine zone is an obvious safety measure from Canberra. Conducting live fire drills in this vicinity is clearly a provocation from Beijing. Since Australia and New Zealand are allies of the US, perhaps China is testing the reaction from Trumpf.

Sources:

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/australia-warns-airlines-beware-chinese-navy-live-fire-119033470

https://www.airservicesaustralia.com/

Inside Britain’s Fascist Fight Clubs: Secret Footage Shows Far-Right Group Preparing for ‘Race War’

“A white supremacist group masquerading as a fitness club has been secretly working to build a far-right militia, holding training sessions in plain sight.

An undercover investigation by ITV News has revealed how ‘Active Club England’ is following a blueprint established by neo-Nazi networks in the US and Europe, using extreme fitness and fraternity as a front to recruit and radicalize members for a so-called “race war”.

ITV News has uncovered how a recruitment drive in the wake of the 2024 summer riots attracted dozens of new members. By capitalizing on social unrest, the group expanded to more than 100 members, with one branch drawing enough new followers to begin fortnightly training sessions at a park in Vauxhall, south London, just steps from MI6 headquarters.”

Last year Scotland Yard’s counter-terror chief reported a “startling” rise in the number of children in London becoming lured into terrorist activity with arrests now running at double the 20-year average.

Fight club members regularly took part in boxing training sessions in London and had to meet strict fitness standards. (Credit: ITV News)

Jay Barlow was sentenced in Sep 2024 for the possession of a knife and a racist offence against a police officer. (Credit: Metropolitan Police)

Rundo was arrested in a Romanian gym in 2023. (Credit: X/@Shtuni)

From 30 Jul to 5 Aug 2024, [a] far-right, anti-immigration protests and riots occurred in England and Northern Ireland.

There are hundreds of these right wing maniacs ready to commit violence against immigrants, people of color, Muslims, and Jews in the UK, and many have already sone so. Worse, these neo-Nazis are preparing for an ominous “race war.” One thug laments on the difficulties of obtaining firearms in the UK, unlike the ease found in other countries. Britain’s MI5 and Scotland Yard have their hands full dealing with these dangerous lunatics. The Kremlin has been linked to supporting rightwing, white supremacist groups throughout Europe and no doubt Elon Musk’s social platforms are facilitating their hate messages.

Watch the video here: https://www.itv.com/news/2025-02-11/undercover-footage-shows-far-right-group-preparing-for-race-war

Source:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/terrorism-arrests-children-london-far-right-islam-metropolitan-police-b1129874.html

Is This A Woman or a Man?

Ms. Hunter Schafer (Getty Images)

“Hunter Schafer, a transgender woman and star of hit HBO teen drama Euphoria, has said a new US passport lists her as male, despite selecting female when she filled out the paperwork. Ms. Schafer said she changed her gender markers for her driver’s license and passports when she was a teenager, but that her birth certificate was never amended. The US State Department, which issues passports, says on its website that it will “only issue passports with an M or F sex marker that match the customer’s biological sex at birth.”

America’s Godzilla reversed the US State Dept policy which previously allowed a citizen to mark “X” under gender for their passport.

Thailand has long recognized a third gender called Kathoeys or “Ladyboys.”

So are DHS airport inspectors or border patrol agents at the Ports of Entry (POE) going to conduct strip searches or genetic tests on Ms. Schafer or kathoeys from Thailand?

Whatever happened to the time-honored American tradition of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”

Source:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg4klq45ngvo

Cat in Shelter Was Sad So He Was Sent to Nursing Home

Sanctioned Russian Firms Sold $2BN Air Defense System to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia agreed to pay sanctioned Russian arms companies more than two billion euros for the Palantir air defense system, according to leaked documents. Trade data shows that some equipment was delivered in 2023, the year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Details about arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other countries are included in leaked emails and internal documents from Roselectronics, which were analyzed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).  

The Pantsir is a self-propelled air defense missile and gun system which can shoot down missiles, airplanes, helicopters, aerial bombs, and drones, like the recent Azerbaijani Airlines flight.

The documents show that Saudi Arabia ordered 39 trucks capable of shooting down aircraft, as well as ten vehicles housing “command posts” to direct the operations of combat vehicles. Also included in the purchase were hundreds of missiles, as well as additional vehicles.

A sanctioned Rostec subsidiary called United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation, was appointed to oversee the supply of the radio communications systems that were also purchased under the contract.

Efforts were made to conceal the identities of the clients.

For example, in the de-coded documents, foreign customer “012” stands for Algeria. In 2022, Russia was going to supply Algeria with its Acacia-E automatic aerospace defense system.

Foreign customer “364” of the Post-3M radio reconnaissance station in 2021 was Iran. Foreign customer “818″ of the Polyana-D4M1 command and control system is Egypt. Project 82P is Saudi Arabia.  The “82” is a part of the country code for Saudi Arabia (682), and the letter “P” refers to the product name — Pantsir.

And these Russian arms sales provide geo-political influence at the UN.

Saudi Arabia voted for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine while promising to provide Ukraine with $400 million in humanitarian aid. However, Riyadh abstained from voting on more than half of the UN resolutions regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Other countries doing arms deals with the Kremlin either voted in Russia’s favor or abstained: Algeria, Egypt, India, Uganda, Belarus, China, Uganda, Ethiopia.   

President Trump’s first phone calls included one to bully the Danish PM over selling Greenland to the US. His other call was to Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS), the notorious murderer of Saudi dissident/journalist Jamal Khashoggi and financial backer of Jared Kushner, his son-in-law. Whatever matters these two malefactors discussed, it wasn’t in the best interest of international peace, justice, or the masses.  

Sources:

Sanctioned Russian Firms Sold $2B Air Defense System to Saudi Arabia, Leaked Documents Show | OCCRP

European arms imports nearly double, US and French exports rise, and Russian exports fall sharply | SIPRI

A Peek at the Poland-Belarus Border

Per CIA, Belarus has a population of 9.5 million people and GDP per capita is $27,700. Poland, an EU and NATO member has a population of over 39 million people and GDP per capita is $44,400.

For almost four years, Poland has been on a permanent state of high alert because of Belarus, which stands accused of luring asylum seekers from far-away destitute nations and pushing them en masse towards the border with the purpose of sowing chaos and polarising Polish society. During its six-month presidency of the EU Council, Poland presented a program under the slogan “Security, Europe!” that broke down the concept of security into seven different dimensions, one of them was migration.

And thanks to Belarusian Supremo Aleksandr Lukashenko, here’s what the Polish-Belarusian border looks like:

(Copyright Euronews)

The Polish-Belarusian border is equipped with thermos-vision cameras and sensor cables. (Copyright Euronews)

This road connecting the two countries is firmly blocked. (Copyright Euronews)

Poland argues its actions, such as turning away migrants, are necessary to defend the EU’s external borders. (Copyright Euronews)

Warsaw has urged the EU to think of migration as a security issue. (Copyright Euronews)

A Polish-German border crossing.

And the man responsible for this, Aleksandr Lukashenko, is set to win a seventh term in an election the opposition calls another “farce”. Amnesty International described the Belarus elections as being held in a “climate of total fear and repression.”

Just one of the thousands of Lukashenko’s political victims:

Imprisoned Belarusian human rights activist and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski sits in a defendant’s cage during a court session in Minsk on 5 Jan 2023. (Photo: Vitaly Pivovarchyk / BelTA Pool Photo via AP)

Here is a Lukashenko protestor from 2020. (Photo: Tut.by via AP)

Recent protests against Lukashenko resulted in a brutal crackdown with more than 65,000 arrests and thousands beaten, bringing condemnation and sanctions from the West. His iron-fisted rule since 1994 — Lukashenko took office two years after the demise of the Soviet Union — earned him the nickname of “Europe’s Last Dictator,” relying on subsidies and political support from close ally Russia. The Belarussian dictator never bothered to change the name of the KGB like Russia and Ukraine did after the fall of the USSR.

(Image: Nataliia Shulga / Al Jazeera)

The 71-year-old Lukashenko, who only knows about life from the former Soviet Union, is afraid of his own people as well as losing power. And people in his proximity are afraid. A former minister said that officials sit with their heads down during meetings with him, avoiding eye contact with him out fear.

Sources:

At the Poland-Belarus border, security and migration merge into one | Euronews

Belarus strongman set to win a 7th term in an election the opposition calls a farce – ABC News

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/belarus-authorities-hold-presidential-election-in-climate-of-total-fear-and-repression/

“Jacuzzi of Death” for Sealife in Gulf of Mexico

Imagery courtesy of The Sun UK

The “Jacuzzi of Death” is filled with tragic creatures that have been killed in its toxic waters. This horrifying spot in the Gulf of Mexico is known to kill everything that goes inside it.

The dead zone is a 100-foot-wide “bottomless” pocket filled with toxic substances.

This concoction of methane, excessively salty water, and hydrogen sulphide means nearly everything that crosses its path is killed.

The murderous underwater lake sits nearly 3,000 feet below the Gulf of Mexico.

Its briny waters are so dense the death trap has been dragged to the bottom of the gulf and cannot mix with the rest of the ocean.

The “Jacuzzi of Death” is 3,000 ft below the Gulf’s surface.

A crab in the toxic zone.

Nearly all creatures that unknowingly enter the area die.

This death pool is four times saltier than the ocean waters around it, which ensures these bodies never mix.

Images reveal how these toxic waters slowly disintegrate the unfortunate crabs and fish that end up in the death zone.

This dangerous spot was found by scientists ten years ago when they realized creatures would enter never to be seen again. The death zone was dubbed a “jacuzzi” as the temperature of this pool is warmer than the waters around it. Mussels are the only living creature that can survive in these toxic waters. Colonies of bacteria have also been able to survive in this underwater spot.

The unfortunate crab being pickled.

The “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico has been growing for decades. Pollution, sewage treatment plants, fertilizer chemicals from farm land, beef production, oil toxins, and other sources along the Mississippi River wash into the Gulf of Mexico, causing algae blooms that deplete oxygen from the water, endangering marine life.

Analysis and imagery: NOAA

Oil Toxins Pervasive in Gulf of Mexico

Some analysts assess that we are the last generation to enjoy genuine, safe ocean seafood. Unless marine pollution is stopped, the analysts are correct. President Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America, but the AP style guide continues referring to it by its original name, as will Coriolanus.  

Sources:

Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

https://www.usf.edu/marine-science/news/2020/oil-toxins-pervasive-in-gulf-of-mexico.aspx

Inside the ‘Jacuzzi of Death’ where anything that DARES enter will be killed & left to disintegrate in toxic waters | The US Sun

Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ larger than average, scientists find | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Thieves Use Explosives to Steal Gold Artifacts from Dutch Museum

The Helmet of Cotofenesti, pictured in the Romanian Museum of Antiquities, is strikingly decorated with mythological beasts and a pair of eyes. (Getty Images).

Four ancient gold artifacts were stolen from a Dutch museum in an overnight raid in the early hours of Saturday morning. Thieves used explosives to blast their way into the Drents Museum in Assen, which was hosting an exhibition of priceless Romanian jewellery made from gold and silver. They stole three Dacian spiral bracelets and the exhibit’s central piece – the strikingly decorated Helmet of Cotofenesti, which was crafted almost 2,500 years ago.

All four stolen items are of huge cultural significance to Romania, with the Helmet of Cotofenesti considered a national treasure.

Romania’s ministry of culture has promised to take all possible steps to recover the stolen items, which had been loaned to the Dutch museum from Bucharest.

Police are also investigating a burning vehicle which was found on a nearby road, which they suspect may be linked to the burglary.

No arrests have been made, but authorities suspect multiple individuals were involved. Police have called global policing agency INTERPOL to help with the investigation. Please see next story.

This was a professional operation. These artifacts are valueless to the thieves, so they are either working for an unscrupulous oligarch or they intend to sell them back to Bucharest for millions of dollars. The stolen items could have easily been taken out of the country by boat or ship.   

Source:

Thieves use explosives to steal gold ‘masterpieces’ from Dutch museum

INTERPOL Publishes First Ever Silver Notice Targeting Criminal Assets

Not all Notices are available to the general public, like war criminal Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Red Notices issued on behalf of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague.

From INTERPOL:

“INTERPOL has published its first-ever Silver Notice to help trace and recover criminal assets, combat transnational organized crime and enhance international police cooperation.

The Notice, requested by Italy, seeks information on the assets belonging to a senior member of the mafia.

The Silver Notice is the newest addition to the Organization’s suite of color-coded Notices and Diffusions, which enable countries to share alerts and requests for information worldwide. It is being launched as part of a pilot phase involving 52 countries and territories, which will run at least until November 2025.

Through Silver Notices and Diffusions, member countries can request information on assets linked to a person’s criminal activities such as fraud, corruption, drug trafficking, environmental crime, and other serious offenses. It will facilitate locating, identifying, and obtaining information about laundered assets including properties, vehicles, financial accounts and businesses. Countries may subsequently use such information as a basis for bilateral engagement, including bilateral requests for seizure, confiscation or recovery of assets, subject to national laws.

Countries and territories participating in the pilot phase:

Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, China, Colombia, Congo, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Gabon, Georgia, Gibraltar (UK), Guinea, Hungary, India, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea (Rep. of), Kuwait, Latvia, Malawi, Malta, Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad & Tobago, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe.”

Source:

INTERPOL publishes first Silver Notice targeting criminal assets

Vietnam: 30 Children Poisoned with Pink Colored Rodenticide

Several students of Phu Lam Primary School in northern Vietnam picked up some bottles of pink water solution in a ball bag next to the school gate, then shared and drank it together, poisoning themselves.  

The patients were hospitalized, suffering with symptoms of fatigue, nausea, vomiting yellow fluid, dull abdominal pain around the navel, and some seizures. Doctors determined that the children were poisoned with fluoroacetate rodenticide, based on the results of toxicity tests and clinical diagnosis. The children are being closely monitored and treated while police in Tuyen Quang province investigate the case

Images provided by the family. Photo: BVCC

Last year, twenty Lai Chau children were hospitalized on suspicion of accidentally ingesting rat poison like the one pictured below.

A nefarious actor deliberately left that ball bag with the pink juice near the school. As previously posted on Coriolanus, there is a pattern of food poisoning incidents in Vietnam.

Sources:

Nearly 30 students were poisoned with rodenticides – VnExpress Health Newspaper

20 Lai Chau children hospitalized on suspicion of eating the wrong rat poison – VnExpress Health Newspaper

US/Canada Auto Recall: 80,000 Kia Vehicles for Improper Air Bag Deployment, Improper Wiring

2024 Kia Sorento

Automaker Kia America is recalling more than 80,000 vehicles due to floor wiring beneath the front passenger seat that can become damaged and prevent airbags and seat belts from deploying properly.

Damaged wiring can also cause an unintended side curtain air bag deployment, according to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall covers 80,255 2023-2025 Niro EV, Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV), and Hybrid vehicles.

To remedy the situation, dealers will inspect, replace and reroute the floor wiring assembly, as necessary, for free. In addition, dealers will install wiring covers. Owners will be notified by letters mailed in Mar 2025.

The recall follows one in November, when Hyundai and Kia recalled over 208,000 electric vehicles to fix a transistor in a charging control unit that could be damaged and stop charging the 12-volt battery. That in turn could cause loss of drive power, increasing the risk of a crash.

Sources:

Kia recalls more than 80,000 U.S. autos due to improper air bag deployment and improper wiring | AP News

RCLRPT-25V024-8197.PDF

Hyundai, Kia recall EVs to fix problem that can cause power loss | AP News

Transport Canada Recall – 2025011 – KIA – Canada.ca

Maine Coon Cat Becomes Accidental Frequent Flyer After Being Left on Plane by Mistake

Margo Neas holds her cat Mittens at her home in Melbourne, Australia, 22 Jan 2025. (Photo: Rod McGuirk / AP)

A Maine coon cat named Mittens became an accidental jetsetter this month when her cage was overlooked in a plane cargo hold and she made three trips in 24 hours between New Zealand and Australia.

Mittens (8) was booked for one-way travel with her family from Christchurch, New Zealand to their new home in Melbourne, Australia on 13 Jan. But owner Margo Neas said Wednesday that as she waited for Mittens to be unloaded from the plane’s freight area, three hours passed with no sign of the cat.

It was then that ground staff told Neas the plane had returned to New Zealand — with Mittens still on board. The return trip involves about 7.5 hours in the air.

Mittens, not usually an affectionate pet, is “the cuddliest she’s ever been,” said Neas.

Source:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/22/travel/mittens-cat-australia-new-zealand-intl-hnk/index.html

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The late Rachel Corrie (Undated photo: Wikipedia)

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

(Map: worldatlas.com)

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

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

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

Sources:

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

Sabra and Shatila massacre – Wikipedia

Finnish Prosecutor Charges Russian Ultranationalist Leader with War Crimes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Russia denies seeking to disrupt GPS signals of commercial aircraft.

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

Sources:

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

France: Former Intelligence Chief Faces Trial for Attempted Extortion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Multimillionaire Alain Duménil (undated photo)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

Italy: Botulism Sickens Eight; Kills One

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

(Photo: FBI)

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the nearly four years since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,532 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

Unheard Frédéric Chopin Work Discovered

Frédéric Chopin (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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

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

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

You may listen to it here.

Sources:

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

A Post-Halloween Emeth

Lebanon: Free-Fire Zone for Right-Wing Likud Party and IDF; 13 Killed, 57 Wounded in Latest Attack

At least 13 people were killed and 57 wounded in an IDF strike near Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, just as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv for the 11th time to uselessly meet with indicted war criminal Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. The death toll could be higher.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruling Likud party have turned Lebanon into a free-fire zone in their attempts at liquidating members of Lebanese Hezbollah. This blood-thirsty cabal has no regard for collateral damage whatsoever. The latest strike hit the Al Janah district of the capital where the main government-run Rafik Hariri University Hospital is located, Lebanon‘s Ministry of Public Health said in an update on X citing its Public Health Emergency Operations Center.

At least 13 people were killed and 57 wounded in this IDF strike near Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut. (Photo: Wael Hamzeh EPA/EFE)

Rescue teams were continuing to comb through the rubble Tuesday morning in the hope of finding survivors from at least three destroyed medium-rise buildings as well as other buildings badly damaged in the strike in the neighborhood, one of Bierut’s poorest.

However, a second hospital was evacuated after the IDF alleged it housed a secret underground bunker used by Hezbollah to store cash, sparking panic that an airstrike could be imminent.

The Israeli army also hit the coastal city of Tyre with ten rounds of strikes after calling on residents of the al-Hawsh neighborhood to evacuate.

Hezbollah counter-attacked against Israeli territory firing around 80 “projectiles” across the border, causing no injuries or damage, only tripping loud air-raid sirens.

Lebanese Hezbollah confirmed that it was responsible for a failed attempt over the weekend to attack Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu‘s private residence in Caesarea with three explosive drones.

The announcement at a press briefing in Beirut came as Netanyahu sat down for talks with Blinken with Netanyahu’s office posting a photo on social media of the pair in the Israeli leader’s office in Jerusalem.

Blinken will earnestly try to kickstart negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza to release the remaining hostages and pressure Israel to improve humanitarian aid access in Gaza after threatening to halt weapons shipments over the issue.

The State Department said in a statement that during his four-day trip, which will also take in other capitals in the region, Blinken would also be discussing the need to “reach a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that fully implements UN Security Council Resolution 1701” and allowed civilians on both sides of the Blue Line to return to their homes.

“The Secretary will reaffirm the US commitment to work with partners across the region to de-escalate tensions and provide lasting stability,” the department said.

Since Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, 1.2 million people have been displaced, 2,412 people killed (including 127 children), and 11,267 people wounded. The next generation of anti-Israelis and antisemites have been well-incubated by the Likudniks.

Remarkably, Israel apologized for killing three Lebanese Army soldiers last weekend. The Lebanese Army is not a party to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The multi-faith manned Lebanese Army does not support Israel’s invasion of its country and refers to them as the “enemy.” Lebanon’s army receives US military and financial assistance (for example, in 2021 the US provided $236 million. This is a mere drop in the bucket relative to what Israel has received since 1950. See State Dept info on US aid to Lebanon below).

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, one of the most competent members of the Biden Administration and a man with a reputation for intellect and decency, must be holding his nose every time he meets with the odious Prime Minister of Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the State of Israel has been cited for war crimes at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), both august bodies located near each other at the Hague.

This man is patiently waiting for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. He is Karim Khan KC, the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague. Americans should be familiar with the ICC. Special Counsel Jack Smith completed his assignment at the ICC prosecuting war criminals before returning to the US to prosecute Donald Trump for his alleged crimes against the American people. (Photo: Office of the Prosecutor via BBC).

Sources:

At least 13 killed, 57 injured in Israeli airstrike near Beirut hospital as Blinken arrives in Israel – UPI.com

UN world court calls for prevention of genocidal acts in Gaza | UN News

Israel Apologizes After Strike Kills 3 Lebanese Soldiers – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

U.S. Security Cooperation With Lebanon – United States Department of State

Ukraine Military Intelligence: Russian Pilot Involved in Deadly Kremenchuk Strike ‘Eliminated’

The late Russian Air Force Colonel Dmitry Golenkov was an unindicted war criminal.

Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) announced on 21 Oct the “elimination” of Russian military pilot Dmitry Golenkov, a chief of staff in Russia’s 52nd heavy bomber aviation regiment who was involved in a deadly missile attack on a shopping center in Ukraine’s Kremenchuk in June 2022. The attack, carried out using Tu-22M3 bombers, resulted in 22 deaths and dozens of injuries among the nearly 1,000 civilians present at the Amstor shopping center at the time.

Rescuers working sift through rubble at the Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk after it was hit by a Russian missile strike on 27 Jun 2022. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine / AFP

HUR also linked Golenkov to the January 2023 missile attack on a residential building in the city of Dnipro, which killed 46 people, including six children. The intelligence agency reported that Golenkov’s body was found with head injuries, possibly inflicted with a hammer, emphasizing “fair retribution for every war crime.” Russia had claimed the June 2022 attack targeted military storage facilities near Kremenchuk, not the civilian center. 

Ukraine’s espionage capabilities are constantly improving. Rather than attempt an abduction and bring this killer to face justice in a war crimes trial in Kiev, Colonel Golenkov was rendered ineffective on Russian soil and his unknown assailants have disappeared.

Source:

Kyiv Says Russian Pilot Involved In Deadly Kremenchuk Strike ‘Eliminated’ (rferl.org)

Food Safety Alert: McDonald’s Quarter Pounder Hamburgers

McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers are making people sick, with most illnesses in Colorado and Nebraska. At least 49 illnesses have been reported across ten states, including one death of an older person. Ten people have been hospitalized, including a child who had hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious complication that can develop from an E. coli infection.

CDC, FDA, USDA FSIS, and public health officials in multiple states are investigating an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections. Most people in this outbreak are reporting eating the Quarter Pounder hamburger at McDonald’s before becoming sick. It is not yet known which specific food ingredient is contaminated.

McDonald’s is collaborating with investigation partners to determine what food ingredient in Quarter Pounders is making people sick. McDonald’s stopped using fresh slivered onions and quarter pound beef patties in several states while the investigation is ongoing to identify the ingredient causing illness.

McDonald’s recently opened a lawsuit against US beef suppliers for price-fixing and GOP hopeful Donald Trump completed a photo-op at a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania which was ridiculed at many levels. As a Republican strategist once said, “everything Trump touches, dies.”

Sources:

E. coli Outbreak Linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders | E. coli infection | CDC

McDonald’s sues major beef producers in US price-fixing lawsuit | Reuters

South Korea May Send Weapons to Ukraine to Counter North Korea’s Troop Deployments

South Korea is a top-ten weapons producer in the world. Pictured above is the K239 Chunmoo, a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS). (Photo: Hanwha Defense / Armaments Agency)

South Korea could send weapons to Ukraine as part of “phased measures” it vowed to take against North Korea and Russia over their deepening military cooperation, a senior presidential official said.

The comment came after South Korea’s deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo told a news conference that the South Korean government demanded that Pyongyang immediately withdraw troops it sent to Russia to help in the war with Ukraine.

“If the illegal military cooperation between North Korea and Russia continues, [we] will not stand by but respond firmly in collaboration with the international community,” Kim said, warning of “phased measures” in response to the level of their military ties.

A senior presidential official told reporters that the measures could include sending weapons for defense and attack, but the official did not elaborate. 

South Korea’s spy agency said last week that the North had decided to send about 12,000 troops to help Russia with its war in Ukraine, and had already dispatched 1,500 soldiers to Vladivostok for training.

18 of them have already deserted their posts in Russia. (Photo: ukranews.com)

North Korea has denied the report, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed speculation of North Korean troops going to Ukraine as “fake news.”

South Korea has a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries fighting wars and has maintained that stance with Ukraine, sending only humanitarian aid.

The official’s remarks came in response to the Ukrainian envoy’s comment that the North was planning to soon send “large-scale” regular troops to help Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.

Russia said it would continue to strengthen ties with North Korea, while declining to confirm South Korea’s report. The US said it could not confirm the report, while North Korea’s state-run media outlets had remained silent at time of publication.

North Korea and Russia have moved closer over the past year or more amid widespread suspicion that North Korea has supplied conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly submitted a bill to the lower house of parliament on Monday to ratify a treaty to raise its relationship with North Korea to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The change was agreed by Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on 19 Jun in Pyongyang after summit talks during the Russian president’s state visit.   

The new partnership includes a mutual defense assistance clause that would apply in the case of “aggression” against one of the signatories.

Both raging wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are escalating and Vladimir Putin miscalculated the South Korean response. His attempt at disguising the North Koreans as Siberian Buryats was seen through and the Ukrainians could benefit greatly from the effective mass casualty-causing South Korean weapons. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is paralleling the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War, with allies sending arms and personnel in a massive testing ground and battlefield meat-grinder. The North Korean “volunteers” will become cannon-fodder in “meat attacks” when they encounter tired, but combat-hardened and experienced Ukrainian soldiers like the Amazon pictured below and the dense intelligence web targeting them.

Anastasia Blyshchyk said she was initially rebuffed when she volunteered to fight. “I heard, ‘You’re a woman, you need to make babies, go home.’” Photo: Emile Ducke for The New York Times

While the Biden Administration cannot persuade Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-Un, or the Iranian leadership to de-escalate, Pres. Biden can talk to his so-called “ally” to a achieve a ceasefire in the Middle East. And like Tehran, Moscow, and Pyongyang, the Likud regime is not cooperating with him either. And hands down the US is Israel’s greatest benefactor in the world. Prolonged hostilities defer Netanyahu’s bribery and corruption trial and enfeebles the Biden Administration. Democratic Party leaders are right to suspect that Netanyahu wants to continue hostilities in the Middle East, as well as a right-wing GOP victory this November. Right-wingers like Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are birds of the same feather, like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un.

Sources:

Seoul could send weapons to Ukraine to counter North Korea’s troop deployments — Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

South Korea summons Russian envoy to urge it to stop North Korean Ukraine involvement

North Korea sending troops to aid Russia in Ukraine war: South’s spy agency

Russia forming North Korean battalion amid soldier shortage: reportOpinion | Ukrainian Women Fight for Their Own Liberation – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

American Warzone: Five Dead in Shooting at Home in Washington State; Teenager Arrested

Americans suffer wartime casualties every year because of the proliferation of firearms in the US. According to the CDC, in 2022 there were more than 48,000 firearm-related deaths in the US.

Law enforcement officials found five people killed in a shooting inside a home southeast of Seattle on Monday morning and took a teenager into custody.

Several people called 911 around 5AM to report a shooting in Fall City, WA.

(Google Maps)

Arriving deputies immediately took one teen into custody while another teenager who had been hurt was taken to a Seattle hospital. Both teens live at the house.

Deputies entering the home found the bodies of five people. Two were adults and three were described as young teenagers. No names have been released yet.

“Once bodies were discovered, clearly we understand that this is a hugely significant crime scene,” the King County Sheriff’s office said.

The shooting appears to involve members of a family, but authorities didn’t yet know how they were related. There was no ongoing threat to the community.

“I have no reason to think that there will be any additional arrests,” said the sheriff’s department.

The teen in custody was booked into King County’s juvenile detention facility and will be arraigned on Tuesday or Wednesday.

A neighbor told KING-TV that a couple and their five children lived in the home.

“I’m just in total shock, I keep bursting into tears,” Lynne Trowern, told the news outlet.

King County Councilmember Sarah Perry said the shooting involved a family of seven people.

Sheriff Patricia Cole-Tindall told KING-TV that she was “very sad, very disturbed” to learn about the shooting.

Guns are in the households of an estimated 42.1% of Washington state residents. In 2021, 165,534 firearms licenses were recorded in the state. In an average year, 887 people die and 1,245 are wounded by guns in Washington State. Gun violence costs Washington $1,559 per resident each year. Gun deaths and injuries cost Washington $11.9 billion each year, of which $171.7 million is paid by taxpayers.

Sources:

Teen in custody after 5 found dead in shooting at home in Washington state (voanews.com)

Gun-Violence-in-Washington-2024-05.pdf (everystat.org)

11. Washington – Gun map: Ownership by state – statistics and rates (cbsnews.com)

https://www.cdc.gov/firearm-violence/data-research/facts-stats/index.html

Leptospirosis Cases Rising in Philippines

Est. population 118,277,063; GDP per capita: $9,700 (2023 est.) Map and data: CIA

The Philippines continues to log more leptospirosis cases and deaths. From January to October, the Philippines Dept of Health recorded 5,835 cases, 16 per cent more than in the same period last year. Meanwhile, 509 deaths have been reported across the country.

“As we expect more rain to come, we must always be mindful of what to do especially if there is flooding. Avoid floodwaters as much as possible,” Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said. Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection commonly spread through water contaminated with animal urine.

Humans become infected through direct contact with the urine of infected animals or with a urine-contaminated environment. Cases of leptospirosis can increase after floods when people may have to wade through contaminated water.

Without treatment, leptospirosis in people can lead to kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, trouble breathing, and even death.

About one million cases in people occur around the world each year, with nearly 60,000 deaths. Leptospirosis has been reported throughout the US. Leptospirosis is treated with antibiotics, such as doxycycline or penicillin.

Residents wade across a flooded street with their belongings in Sangli in Western Maharashtra, India. They are vulnerable to a host of water-borne diseases. (Undated photo: PTI)

Leptospirosis and other water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery will continue afflicting people in flood-prone areas. The ubiquitous mosquito will also thrive in these wetlands, becoming vectors for Zika, Chikungunya, Dengue, and Malaria. Mankind needs pesticides to combat these pests, but at the same time we see that some pesticide residues can contaminate water supplies, as we have seen in Martinique and France.

Sources:

https://assamtribune.com/health-and-fitness/leptospirosis-cases-continue-to-rise-in-the-philippines-1555127?infinitescroll=1

About Leptospirosis | Leptospirosis | CDC

View from Europe: Donald Trump’s Unpredictable Actions Fuel Concern for his Mental and Cognitive Health

Copyright John Bazemore/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved.

With a few weeks to go before the presidential election, European writer Andrew Naughtie summarized concerns about Donald Trump mental and cognitive health.  

“In recent weeks, Trump has been behaving particularly oddly, rambling and slurring his words in increasingly long-winded speeches and at one point remaining on the stage after an event to spend half an hour silently dancing to a mournful playlist.

One particularly strange appearance lately saw him deliver a five-minute-plus monologue about the late golfer Arnold Palmer, in the course of which he alluded to other linksmen’s astonishment at the size of Palmer’s genitalia.”

Mr Naughtie further writes:

“Trump’s campaign has also declined to release his medical records and pulled him out of numerous public events and interviews, fueling speculation that he is “exhausted” and that they are trying to limit opportunities for him to give a particularly poor performance.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris’s campaign is leaning hard into the idea that Trump is unfit to be president not just because of his previous conduct but because he is not psychologically up to the task.”

“It is clear: Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged,” Vice-President Kamala Harris said at a recent campaign stop. “And he is seeking unchecked power.”

In the 2016 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Senator Hilary Clinton said:

“I will leave it for psychiatrists to explain [Trump’s] affection for tyrants.”

Mr Naughtie writes there was a great debate in the American psychiatric and psychological establishment over whether or not it was ethical for clinicians to diagnose Donald Trump with a personality disorder from afar without examining him in person.

He wrote that this argument dates back to the 1964 election when more than 1,000 psychiatrists told a survey that, in their professional opinion, then-Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was unfit for office. This is called a “duty to warn.”

Mr. Naughtie concludes:

“Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, frequently deride Harris as intellectually subnormal, with Trump going so far as to deride her as “crazy” and “nuts”. While this may play well with their voters, there is so far no sign of any serious discussion about the state of Harris’s mental health.

The vice president has also released her medical records, which show her to be in excellent physical health besides minor myopia and seasonal allergies — and despite all the speculation about his physical and mental exhaustion, there is so far no indication that Trump will be releasing his.”

Many Americans are dumb-founded that this election could be even this close between a convicted felon who was twice impeached as President and a former California Attorney-General, US Senator, and current VPOTUS. The only explanation is that whites, the bulk of the Republican Party, have no choice but to support Donald Trump, an avatar of white supremacy or “whiteness,” regardless of the catastrophic social and economic policies outlined in Project 2025 or his tremendous panoptic character flaws. Both Trump and Vance perpetrate lies about Haitian refugees eating pets or spread lies about Kamala Harris or Ken Walz as a distraction. Discussing the Christian Talibanization of America embodied in Project 2025 may turn off enough white female Republican voters in battleground states who have already lost reproductive rights thanks to the reactionary US Supreme Court.

Source:

Donald Trump’s unpredictable actions fuel concern for his mental and cognitive health | Euronews

Georgia Man Arrested for Assaulting Law Enforcement with Weapon and Other Charges During 6 Jan 2021 Assault on US Capitol

Cylester Maxwell at the Stop the Steal rally on 6 Jan 2021. (Photo: FBI)

Cylester Maxwell (42) of Alpharetta, GA was arrested by the FBI and charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia with felony offenses of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon and civil disorder during the 6 Jan 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

Maxwell was identified in open-source video footage on 6 Jan 2021, in Washington, DC marching with a crowd of rioters away from the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse and toward the Capitol building. By approximately 1:35 PM Maxwell made it onto restricted Capitol grounds positioned near the front of the crowd confronting a police line on the West Plaza near the Media Tower erected in front of the Inaugural Stage.

Maxwell, together with other members of the mob, shoved an eight feet tall and ten feet wide sign into the line of police like a battering ram. Several seconds later, after the sign was pushed into the officers, Maxwell let go of it and grabbed and pulled a barricade away from the police line.  

(Photo: FBI)

Maxwell pulled another bike rack barricade away from the police and successfully broke through the West Plaza police line. He then remained on or near the West Plaza for some time as rioters flooded the Capitol’s Lower and Upper West Terraces.

In the 45 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,532 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.

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

This brontosaurus heeded the call of idiotic call of Donald Trump, behaved violently at his behest, and now has thrown his life away listening to the ex-President, whose mental fitness is being questioned.

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

Sources:

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

New Zealand Airport Sets Time Limit on Goodbyes and Hugs

The cuddle cap was imposed in Sep 2024 to “keep things moving smoothly” in the redesigned passenger drop-off area outside the airport, CEO Dan De Bono told the AP. It was the airport’s way of reminding people that the zone was for “quick farewells” only. (Photo: AP)

Emotional farewells are a common sight at airports, but travelers leaving the New Zealand city of Dunedin will have to be quick. A new three-minute time limit on goodbye hugs in the airport’s drop-off area is intended to prevent lingering cuddles from causing traffic jams.

“Max hug time three minutes,” warn signs outside the terminal, adding that those seeking “fonder farewells” should head to the airport’s parking lot instead.

(Map: ontheworldmap.com)

The signs had polarized social media users, De Bono said.

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports on a ‘hug cap’ imposed at a New Zealand airport.

“We were accused of breaching basic human rights and how dare we limit how long someone can have a hug for,” he said, adding that others had welcomed the change.

The signs were meant as an alternative to those at other airports warning of wheel clamping or fines for drivers parked in drop-off areas. Some in Britain have imposed fees for all drop-offs — however brief.

Dunedin’s airport — a modest terminal serving a city of 135,000 people on New Zealand’s South Island — preferred a “quirky” approach, De Bono said.

Three minutes was “plenty of time to pull up, say farewell to your loved ones and move on,” he said. “The time limit is really a nicer way of saying, you know, get on with it.”

A 20-second hug is long enough to release the wellbeing-boosting hormones oxytocin and serotonin, De Bono said. Anything longer was “really awkward.”

But passengers need not worry unduly about enforcement. “We do not have hug police,” De Bono said.

Visitors might, however, be asked to move their lingering embraces to the parking lot, where they can cuddle free of charge for up to 15 minutes.

At age 57, Lynda Perry has become the oldest ‘new’ constable in the history of the Royal New Zealand Police College. Luckily, she won’t be enforcing any hug violations at the airport.

Source:

New Zealand airport wants you to hug goodbye faster | AP News

US Researchers Locate Probable Launch Site of Russia’s New Nuclear-Powered Missile

A satellite image shows what is believed to be a deployment site for a Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile, including 5 nuclear warhead storage bunkers (right) and bermed launch positions (lower left), in Vologda, Russia, in this handout image obtained by Reuters on 27 Aug 2024. Planet Labs PBC/Handout via REUTERS.

Two US researchers say they have identified the probable deployment site in Russia of a new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile touted by President Vladimir Putin as “invincible.” Using commercial satellite imagery, the analysts identified a construction project abutting a nuclear warhead storage facility known by two names – Vologda-20 and Chebsara – as the new missile’s potential deployment site. The facility is 295 miles (475 km) north of Moscow.

Dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin brags the 9M370 Burevestnik has an almost unlimited range and can evade US missile defenses. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik’s strategic value, saying it will not add capabilities that Moscow does not already have and risks a radiation-spewing mishap.

Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom said five staff members died during the testing of a rocket on 8 Aug. Putin presented their widows with top state awards, saying the weapon they were developing was without equal in the world, without naming the Burevestnik.

The nuclear-powered engine threatens to disgorge radiation along its flight path and its deployment risks an accident that could contaminate the surrounding region, a former US nuclear weapons scientist reported.

“The Skyfall is a uniquely stupid weapon system, a flying Chernobyl that poses more threat to Russia than it does to other countries,” reported Thomas Countryman, a former top State Department official with the Arms Control Association, referring to the 1986 nuclear plant disaster.

Burevestnik being launched (undated image).

Meanwhile, Kiev fended off a massive Russian drone attack while President Putin made an official visit to Mongolia without being detained for his ICC arrest warrant.

Source:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-researchers-find-probable-launch-site-russias-new-nuclear-powered-missile-2024-09-02/


Spy’s Confession Sheds Light on Russian Espionage in Georgia

Vsevolod Osipov (recent image)

Last month, Vsevolod Osipov was unmasked as an informant for Russia’s security services. He had been sent to Tbilisi to monitor the many Russian dissidents who have flooded the Georgian capital recently. But, he says his new notoriety hasn’t much affected his life here, and done little to scare away patrons – primarily Russians themselves – at the busy wine bar in central Tbilisi where he works as a sommelier.

“An occasional customer who recognizes me from the news stories may come up and ask questions, but beyond that I don’t get much attention,” Osipov reflected.

The young spy’s confession, which was then re-reported in several other media, would seem to be big news in Georgia, where concern about the large influx of Russians is keen. But it’s barely made a ripple.

“I thought that the Georgian police would show up to question me, but nobody seemed to care, except maybe an occasional reporter,” Osipov said with a smile and a faint note of disappointment.

Osipov said he knows at least two more individuals who came clean via social media about traveling to Georgia to spy, and thinks he has spotted a few others. “You are not given identities of other agents, but if you look close enough you can guess who they are.”

“Before coming here in October, I had a pre-departure briefing in Moscow, where they told me to go cafés and restaurants in Tbilisi frequented by the Russians,” Osipov recalled. “I wasn’t supposed to ask any questions or go out of my way to meet people, just observe and keep my thoughts to myself. Then, once a week, I was supposed to report to my coordinator what the general scene was like and if I had picked up on anything important.”

Being a bit of an amateur himself – he was only recruited last year – Osipov was also identifiable to a keen eye. Well before he went public, one heavily inebriated young Russian came up to him in a bar and said in a drunken slur that he knows who he really is.   

Osipov was a law student and an activist with the small Libertarian Party of Russia (LPR) when he got arrested last year for participating in a demonstration in Moscow in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Threatened with imprisonment, he was intimidated into serving as a mole in the LPR and another opposition group, adding that that is how many young people get caught in the FSB net.

After Osipov performed his first, trial assignment to his handlers’ satisfaction, he was awarded with a bigger assignment: go to Georgia. “They gave me 214,000 rubles [about $3,550] to spend for a month and a half. I was supposed to go back to Moscow in December as, I guess, they were still testing me.”

Osipov was tasked with spying on two people in particular: self-exiled chairman of the LPR, Yaroslav Konvey, and Anton Mikhalchuk, a manager with the opposition group Free Russia Foundation. Upon his arrival, Osipov says he went directly to the two and told them outright that he was recruited by the FSB. He says he was trying to warn the LPR leadership all along, but failed to arrange a tête-à-tête with them until he arrived in Georgia. 

Osipov offered to send false info back to his superiors to throw the FSB off the track, but the two exiles appeared to be mistrustful and spread the word among their colleagues about an informant in their midst. Word soon reached Osipov’s girlfriend, who runs a tiny bar in Tbilisi. She asked Vsevolod directly if he was working for the FSB. “I said yes, as I realized that she must’ve heard about it from the people I trusted,” he admitted.         

Osipov continued reporting back to Moscow and convinced his handlers to extend his stay in Georgia. “I loved the city and had a good life here, so I did my best to stay as long as I could and have the FSB pay for it.” Even his handlers appeared curious about vacation options in Georgia: on top of his main job, the intelligence officers asked him to collect information on nice bars and landmarks worth checking out.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the handlers did not need much convincing to extend Osipov’s stay further.

“With so many people coming, they needed more eyes on the ground,” Osipov said. 

Infuriated by the war, Vsevolod stopped responding to his handlers in March. In June, he spoke to media outlet Meduza, which fact-checked his claims, found his handlers and published their identities, and also spoke to the activists that Osipov was supposed to follow. Meduza also published screenshots of Osipov’s chats with his FSB bosses. 

The story raised questions among some Russians in Georgia. Some were surprised by Osipov’s choice to try to pull one over on Russia’s formidable security service, though others put it down to his young age. Osipov admitted that he is indeed worried about the potential of FSB revenge, especially given that his mother remains back in Moscow; but he’s not so concerned about himself.

“I don’t think I’m that important for them to come chasing me here,” he said. “And I can always move to the next place.”

Source:

Spy’s Confession Sheds Light on Russian Espionage in Georgia – The Moscow Times

Britain Suspends Some Arms Exports to Israel

Palestinians look at an unexploded Israeli shell that landed on the main road outside the town of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Photo credit: Reuters.

Britain announced it was suspending the export of some military equipment to Israel as London increases its public criticism of an ally and its methods of war that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Israel’s behavior has attracted increasing criticism, including from allies, such as the US, as the death toll has continuously climbed and much of Gaza has been razed.

Britain announced it was suspending, with immediate effect, some 30 of roughly 350 licenses for the export of military goods to Israel following an assessment the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer showed that there is “clear risk” that Israel could use them in violation of international law. Items affected include military aircraft, helicopter and drone components, as well as items for ground targeting. Trainer aircraft and naval equipment remain permissible for export.

A British policy paper noted that Israel has not fulfilled its duty as the occupying force of Gaza to ensure the enclave’s some two million people receive essential humanitarian supplies. The study indicates that while Israel does not accept it is the occupying power, it does accept the obligation to allow free passage of humanitarian relief by third parties, including the UN. Amnesty International — which is among critics who accuse Israel of potentially committing genocide in Gaza — turned its criticism towards Britain for not going further with its sanctions.

British government statistics show its military exports to Israel have been declining. London had some $55 million worth of licensed arms deals with Israel in 2022, compared to 23.8 million last year.

The US has also withheld some shipments of bombs to Israel, but still allows most of them to be exported.

The International Court of Justice has ordered the Middle Eastern country to take immediate steps to end atrocities in Gaza and the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes. Inexplicably, an arrest warrant has yet to be issued for him, unlike Russian President Vladimir Putin who can be arrested by any country that is a signatory to the ICC.

More than 40,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been killed during the war, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and Lancet.

Source:

Britain suspends some arms exports to Israel – UPI.com

American Warzone: Five People Shot at New York’s West Indian American Day Parade

Police move revelers from the street after a shooting on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, during the West Indian Day Parade, 2 Sep 2024.

Five people were shot Monday at New York City’s West Indian American Day Parade. This was the latest incident of violence to mar one of the world’s largest annual celebrations of Caribbean culture.

A gunman targeting a specific group of people opened fire along the parade route in Brooklyn around 2:35PM. The parade had kicked off hours earlier, with thousands of revelers dancing and marching down Eastern Parkway, a main Brooklyn thoroughfare. The parade was expected to continue into the night.

Two people were critically wounded and three were expected to survive their wounds. The gunman fled. US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was marching in the parade at the time and completed the route. Police cordoned off an area adjacent to the parade route, where they placed crime scene markers. The parade continued flowing past as officers were seen bagging items.

In 2016, two people were killed and several others were wounded near the parade route. The year before, Carey Gabay, an aide to then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, was shot in the head during pre-parade festivities. He died nine days later.

In an average year, 44,341 people die and 96,935 are wounded by guns in the US, costing the country $557.2 billion each year.

Sources:

5 people shot at New York’s West Indian American Day Parade (voanews.com)

Gun-Violence-in-the-United-States-2024-05.pdf (everystat.org)

Nationalist Mob Chanting ‘Yankee Go Home’ Assaults Two US Marines in Izmir, Turkiye

Two off-duty US Marines are safe after they were assaulted in Turkiye on Monday. @genclikbirligi via X

Two US Marines were assaulted by a group of young nationalists in Turkiye with one attacker placing a bag over the head of one servicemember.

The dramatic incident in the western port city of Izmir was captured on video, showing the moment two Marines were surrounded by a group of 15 people in a commercial area who were chanting “Yankee go home.” The gang then restrained one Marine before one of them places a bag over his head. Moments later, another man can be seen charging the group. None of the service members are in uniform.

Other Marines intervened and no one was reported injured. The service members later returned to their ship, the USS Wasp. Local authorities later identified the group as members of the Turkish Youth Union, or TGB, which is affiliated with the Patriotic Party — a small, nationalist political party without parliament seats. 15 alleged attackers were detained by local security forces.

An account on X purporting to represent the TGB said on Monday: “WE PUT SACKS ON THE US SOLDIERS SERVING ON THE LARGEST ATTACK SHIP OF THE USA, USS WASP! US soldiers, who carry the blood of our soldiers and thousands of Palestinians on their hands, cannot dirty our country. Every time you step into these lands, we will welcome you as you deserve!”

The reason why these Turkish nationalists placed a sack over one of the Marines stems from the 2003 “hood event.” On 4 July 2003, a detachment of Turkish soldiers operating in Iraqi Kurdistan were captured by US forces, hooded, then led away for interrogation. Afterwards, US forces raided a Turkish Special Forces safehouse in Sulaymaniyah and seized 15 kgs (33 lb) of explosives in addition to sniper rifles, grenades, and maps of Kirkuk with circles drawn around positions near the local governor’s building. Ankara lodged a diplomatic protest with Washington and the Turkish soldiers were eventually released after spending 60 hours in US custody.

The sight of seeing Turkish military personnel arrested, humiliated, and hooded by their American ally infuriated the Turkish public and wounded their national pride. The Turkish people have never forgotten that insult from 21 years ago.

Sources:

Two U.S. Marines assaulted by nationalist mob in Turkey (nbcnews.com)

Hood event – Wikipedia

US detains Turkish troops in Iraq | News | Al Jazeera

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3067319.stm

Donald Trump’s Cognitive Decline Becoming More Apparent

Ex-President Donald J. Trump delivers a speech during the “Make America Great Again” rally held at the Mohegan Sun Arena. (Brandon Stivers / Shutterstock.com)

Political analysts and mental health experts are becoming more and more alarmed by the 45th President’s latest bizarre and incoherent speeches.

Written verbatim below is what Donald Trump said at a rally in Potterville, MI. This is painful to read and must have been torturous to hear:

“She destroyed the city of San Francisco, it’s — and I own a big building there — it’s no — I shouldn’t talk about this but that’s OK I don’t give a damn because this is what I’m doing. I should say it’s the finest city in the world — sell and get the hell out of there, right? But I can’t do that. I don’t care, you know? I lost billions of dollars, billions of dollars. You know, somebody said, ‘What do you think you lost?’ I said, ‘Probably two, three billion. That’s OK, I don’t care.’ They say, ‘You think you’d do it again?’ And that’s the least of it. Nobody. They always say, I don’t know if you know. Lincoln was horribly treated. Uh, Jefferson was pretty horribly. Andrew Jackson they say was the worst of all, that he was treated worse than any other president. I said, ‘Do that study again, because I think there’s nobody close to Trump.’ I even got shot! And who the hell knows where that came from, right?”

As Donald Trump’s mental faculties continue to decline, so are GOP campaign coffers. Republicans are “starting to panic” because of a large fundraising gap they see emerging with their Democratic rivals and time is running short to close any distance with the election a little more than two months away.

Adding to Donald Trump’s miseries, a former advisor recently issued a humiliating message on ‘X’:

“Former Trump staffer and friend Anthony Scaramucci says Melania “hates” Trump and wants Kamala Harris to win.”

https://twitter.com/MikeSington/status/1830209424566395336/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1830209424566395336%7Ctwgr%5Ee50bd64db012f21b0a16035e4fc38c70b5f06f89%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2F100219408110

Moreover, an “October Surprise” awaits the the oldest candidate to ever run for the White House. An unflattering film about a young Donald Trump called ‘The Apprentice’ opens on 11 Oct in US and Canadian theaters (one month before the election). “The Apprentice” chronicles Trump’s rise to power in NY real estate under the tutelage of notorious defense attorney Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong). Late in the movie, Trump is depicted raping his wife, Ivana Trump (played by Maria Bakalova ). In Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce deposition, she stated that Trump raped her. Trump denied the allegation and Ivana Trump later said she didn’t mean it literally, but rather that she had felt violated.

Sources:

GOP ‘starting to panic’ as Democrats build massive fundraising lead: report – Raw Story

‘Genuinely chilling’: Analyst sounds alarm over Trump’s latest bizarre speeches – Raw Story

Trump film ‘The Apprentice’ finds distributor and will open before the election | AP News

New Zealand Spy Report Calls Out China for Interference

New Zealand’s spy service branded China a “complex intelligence concern,” warning the Pacific nation was vulnerable to foreign interference. In an annual threat report, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) reported that several countries were undertaking “malicious activity” on its shores, but called out China’s attempts as “complex and deceptive.”

In particular, Beijing was accused of using front organizations to connect with local groups to replace authentic and diverse community views with those approved by the ruling party. In one example, a Chinese-language community news outlet parroted Beijing’s talking points.

In March, Wellington publicly said a Chinese state-sponsored group was behind a 2021 malicious cyber attack that infiltrated sensitive government computer systems. China dismissed allegations of hacking and accused New Zealand critics of being puppets of Washington.

Sources:

New-Zealands-Security-Threat-Environment-2024.pdf (nzsis.govt.nz)

New Zealand Spy Report Calls Out China For Interference | IBTimes

True Story of Penguin’s Annual Return to See Man Who Saved it From Oil Spill

Years ago, João Pereira de Souza discovered a Megallanic penguin covered in oil from a recent spill on Proveta Beach in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil.

Taking the penguin home, João found the bird exhausted and depleted after swimming through the oil spill. He nursed the penguin back to health, with plenty of soapy scrubbing and fish treats, naming it ‘Dindim’ after the toddler-speak of his son trying to say the Portuguese word for penguin (pinguim).

After Dindim recovered, João released him on an island near Proveta Beach and went home. But Dindim had followed him back and remained on his lawn waiting to be let inside. Dindim finally left of his own accord in Feb 2012. But for eight consecutive years, the penguin would leave every February and faithfully return to João Pereira de Souza in June.

My Penguin Friend recounts this story and premiered this month to mostly positive reviews, including an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Source:

The Good News Network