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‘Are We Not Humans?’ Fury in Beirut as Massive Israeli Strike Kills 20

Before impact. Beirut’s Shayah neighborhood (Photo: Fadel Itani / UPI)

After impact. (Photo: Fadel Itani / UPI)

Chiyah neighborhood of Beirut (Photo: Fadel Itani / UPI)

A massive Israeli air strike on central Beirut has killed at least 20 people, Lebanese officials say, in the latest attack on the capital amid an escalation of Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah.

The strike happened without warning at about 04:00 (02:00 GMT) on Saturday, and was an attempt to assassinate a senior Hezbollah official, Israeli media reported. The attack was heard and felt across the city, and destroyed at least one eight-story residential building in the densely populated Basta district.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said a so-called bunker buster bomb was used, a type of weapon previously used by Israel to kill senior Hezbollah figures, including former leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Emergency workers used heavy machinery to remove the rubble and retrieve bodies.

More than 60 people had been injured and the number of victims was expected to rise as DNA tests would be carried out on body parts that had been recovered.

“It was a very horrible explosion. All the windows and glasses were over me, my wife and my children. My home now is a battlefield,” said 55-year-old Ali Nassar, who lived in a nearby building.

“Even if one person is hiding here…Should you destroy buildings where people are sleeping inside? Is it necessary to kill all the people for one person? Are we not humans? That’s what I’m asking.”

According to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan, the attack was an attempt to kill Mohammed Haydar, a top Hezbollah official. Hezbollah MP Amin Sherri said none of the group’s leaders were in the building hit, and Haydar’s fate remained unclear.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented.

Also on Saturday, the IDF carried out further air strikes on the Dahieh, the area in southern Beirut where Hezbollah is based, saying they were buildings linked to the group.

Israeli attacks have also hit the south, where an Israeli ground invasion is advancing, and the east, where air strikes in the city of Baalbek killed at least 15 people, including four children.

Lebanese officials say a ‘bunker buster’ bomb was used in the devastating strike.

In AKZ-L (Lebanon), more than 3,670 people have been killed and at least 15,400 injured since Oct 2023, with more than one million forced from their homes. With the onset of winter, more innocent and homeless Arabs will die of exposure. The IDF has killed scores of Lebanese medics while destroying the country’s medical infrastructure. PIFWC Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party have certainly incubated the next two generations of anti-Israelis and antisemites. Netanyahu can’t wait until Donald Trump becomes POTUS next year. But having a Democratic president in the White House these past four years haven’t really stalled or delayed the Likud Party’s plans to ethnically cleanse Israel of Palestinians anyway.

The imminent and unholy Repub-Likud alliance in 2025 will also bode poorly again for Iranians and chances of a lasting peace in the Middle East.

Sources:

Israel hits Lebanon with widespread bombing and shelling, killing at least 47 – UPI.com

‘Are we not humans?’: Anger in Beirut as massive Israeli strike kills 20

Israel: Fanatical Settlers Attack IDF Major-General Avi Bluth in West Bank

This past weekend, lunatic Settlers in the West Bank attacked IDF Central Command Major-General Avi Bluth, ludicrously calling him a “traitor” and “Israel hater.”

Head of IDF Central Command Major-General Avi Bluth. He escaped unharmed and must have been shocked to face an intifada from the very citizens he has sworn to protect and defend.

Since Oct 2023, Israeli security forces and fanatical Settlers have killed at least 763 Palestinians in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) to facilitate the seizure of lands and homes by religious zealots. A few of these maniacs possibly like the Settler pictured below have been sanctioned by the Biden Administration.

Palestinian Alice Kisiya (R), whose family land was taken over by armed Israeli settlers, confronts a rabid Settler in the area of al-Makhrour in the occupied West Bank, near Beit Jala, on 22 Aug 2024. (Photo: AFP / Hazem Bader)

The above pictured Israelis celebrate the death of Palestinian resistance leader Yahya Sinwar at a southern kibbutz, 17 Oct 2024. Note the elation on the faces of the celebrants as if this was V-E Day 1945. They are unaware of twice-GOP Presidential candidate NYS Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s famous words, “You can’t shoot an idea with a gun,” as if the IDF killing of one man erases Palestinian nationalism. Urbane Israelis in Ramat Aviv or Haifa wonder how much taxes these kibbutzers pay or whether they ever served in the IDF like them or MG Avi Bluth. (Photo: AP)

Above, Israeli Police officers arrest an ultra-Orthodox Jew as they block a main road during a protest against IDF conscription in Jerusalem, 19 Oct 2017. Israeli police arrested 40 people in protests by a fringe group within Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. (Photo: Ariel Schalit / AP)

Israeli border police stand guard near Orthodox Jews in the Old City’s Christian quarter, after an incident in which Haredi Orthodox Jews spat at a Christian procession carrying a cross through Jerusalem’s Old City in 2023. Israeli police arrested five suspects. (Photo: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Ultra-Orthodox Jews defied COVID regulations. Above, Israeli security forces arrest an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man as they close a synagogue in Jerusalem (Mar 2020). COVID infection rates in ultra-Orthodox communities were markedly higher than the rest of Israel. (Photo: Ahmad Gharabli / AFP / Getty Images)

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man (L) and a secular man (R) above argue during a protest against the strict religious codes favored by the ultra-Orthodox in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. (Photo: Reuters/Landov)

So, is it any wonder that an IDF Major-General may be attacked by his own people when you see the fanaticism emanating from the religious sectors of Israel? Many military veterans have favorite commanders or generals and Coriolanus is no exception. I can’t imagine being in a security detail or in the entourage of my favorite (unnamed) general under attack by maniacs. Luckily MG Avi Bluth and his staff escaped unharmed.

For years Israel has been undergoing a political civil war between secularists and fundamentalists, ultra-nationalists and peace activists, Sabras and newcomers, Ashkenazis and Sephardics, and Likudniks versus Laborites. So far, the religious right-wing and their coalition have been winning in the kaleidoscope of the Knesset, keeping Israeli Crime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in power (for now).

Besides facing an international arrest warrant for war crimes, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will be facing a criminal or Knesset inquiry into his handling of the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attack which killed more than 1,200 citizens and the capture of over 200 hostages.

Sources:

Israel: Some ultra-Orthodox Jews are ignoring the coronavirus rules | CNN

Israelis Clash Over Strict Religious Codes |

Israeli police arrest 5 Jews for allegedly spitting on Christian pilgrims amid spate of attacks – Jewish Telegraphic Agency

US issues new batch of sanctions targeting West Bank settlers amid rampant violence | The Times of Israel

Passengers Stop Man from Opening American Airlines Plane Cabin Door Mid-Flight

Passengers on American Airlines Flight 1219 stopped a Canadian man who allegedly tried to open the airplane’s cabin door mid-flight by restraining him with duct tape and flex cuffs.

The suspect reportedly told a flight attendant he needed to exit the plane and began acting erratically when he was denied.

The man tried to open an emergency door while the jetliner was airborne.

“He was sitting at the emergency exit and he cracked open the window that was protecting the handle,” reported a passenger. “He ripped down the handle where it exposed some of the emergency exit and all the wind came rushing down.”

“The guy was screaming ‘I want to get out,’” reported a witness.

The unhinged man allegedly assaulted a flight attendant, injuring her wrist and neck.

A passenger sprung into action by restraining the man and securing him with duct tape and flex cuffs provided by the crew. The suspect remained restrained on the floor for the rest of the flight.

After landing, law enforcement and FBI agents boarded the plane to detain the man for a medical evaluation. The flight attendant was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, while the suspect was taken off the plane in a wheelchair.

The FAA and FBI are working together to investigate the incident further. No charges have been filed.

“The safety and security of our customers and team members is our top priority and we thank our team members and customers for managing a difficult situation,” American Airlines said.

Luckily enough passengers had the wherewithal to overcome and restrain the unhinged man before a catastrophe occurred. Air travel remains one of the safest methods of travel, but occasional incidents like this challenge aviation security experts to come up with non-lethal solutions to neutralize unruly or dangerous passengers without harming innocent people or endangering the flight.   

Source:

Passengers Stop Man from Opening Plane Door Mid-Flight By Duct Taping His Wrists And Ankles Together: Officials | IBTimes

Man subdued on an American Airlines flight after trying to open an emergency exit | CTV News

North Korean Defector: NK Soldiers Will Desert ASAP in Ukraine

North Korean supremo Kim Jong-un meets with his loyal and adoring troops in Mar 2024 (Photo: AP)

Entire units of North Korea’s troops fighting for Vladimir Putin will desert as soon as they get to the frontline, a defector has claimed.

Hyun-Seung Lee, spent 3 1/2 years with an artillery and reconnaissance battalion in the early 2000s. His time in the army included training for six months alongside the Storm Corps. Lee says the troops in Russia will be looking to escape the battle in Ukraine “from the beginning.” 

Leaked footage shows the North Koreans (AKA “Norks”) training in Russia (Credit: Telegram)

He believes the troops are not ready for the frontline and will be used as “human shields” by Russian soldiers in “meat attacks.”

Kim Jong-un has sent his Storm Corps, the country’s equivalent of special forces, to fight for the Kremlin as his war continues to stall. The 10,000-strong force is set to be used on the battlefield in the coming days as the Russian tyrant looks to claw back Kursk. 

Questions have been raised about how well the North Korean soldiers will fight having not seen combat since the Vietnam War and with the units armed, clothed, and led by the Russians.

In one clip the Norks appear to be practicing Russian (Credit: Telegram)

Lee said the young soldiers in North Korea will have been forced to go and they won’t be that committed to the fighting. 

He said: “It will be individuals at first, but more like as time passes, I think there’ll be like a larger number of group defections, including officers.”

That’s because, Lee says, the Russians will likely treat them as “expendable” and even more poorly than their own troops. 

He said: “Russian soldiers don’t respect them as their fellow warriors and the NORKs will die without any impact.”

North Korean soldiers could be thinking twice about defecting as it could see their families thrown in prison. Pyongyang has a guilty by association policy; if the North’s soldiers are seen defecting by colleagues their families could be put in jail.

Lee said: “They would be socially not respected, there’s criticism [they would face] from the community and organizations.”

High-ranking families would likely face a more severe punishment if authorities knew their relative had fled.

But Lee, whose family fled Pyongyang in 2014, said some families might not even know their brother, son or father are in Russia fighting as North Korea keeps all troop movements secret. The troops will be watched over by a Worker’s Party political officer who will administer two hours of ideological training a day.

Inside North Inside North Korea’s ‘Elite’ Storm Corp Special Forces

The Storm Corps is made of ten units, including a sniper’s unit, a light infantry unit, and a paratroopers unit, according to Lee Hyun Seung.

Lee emphasized they are not comparable to Western special forces. He said North Korea didn’t have the equipment to continually train troops for combat as ammunition and bombs would need replacing.

Instead, they trained “for show” so they could march in parades or for propaganda videos. Lee said those soldiers are drawn from North Korea’s working class and will be ambivalent about fighting for the regime. 

The defector added: “They are just seeking food and then they’re seeking career advancement. I’m sure nowadays, these, you know, young soldiers they don’t have like a real loyalty to the regime. They just got order command from the Supreme Commander, and then they have no choice but to, you know, [go] to Russia.” 

Ukrainian military intelligence had leaked to the press that a score of North Korean soldiers had already deserted but were soon recaptured by Russian security services. Another report suggested that up to 40 NK troops had been killed in recent fighting in Kursk. Coriolanus posted that the Ukrainian military targeted a Russian command and control center and possibly wounded a North Korean general and other HVTs.  The Ukrainians will continue using their PSYOP program to induce defections and undermine the morale of the NORKs while targeting their HVTs. Kiev has less than two months to catastrophically damage the Russian and North Korean armies before Trump takes over the White House and kowtows to Vladimir Putin.

Source:

I was a North Korean soldier – Kim’s terrified troops will FLEE Putin’s army when they reach Ukraine frontline – The US Sun | The US Sun

Cluster of Ventura County, CA Farmworkers Diagnosed with Rare Leptospirosis

Ventura County lies west of Los Angeles, CA.

Ventura County public health officials said they’re investigating a rare and potentially severe disease diagnosed in several workers in county berry fields.

The illness, leptospirosis, is caused by bacteria found in contaminated water or soil. The disease can be spread by urine from animals including rodents and livestock.

In severe cases, the condition can cause kidney damage, liver failure, or meningitis and can be fatal.

Public health officials report the local cases appeared to have emerged between Sep 2024 and Nov 2024. They do not know the exact cause but said farmworkers harvesting or handling berries grown under hoops may be at higher risk of infection.

There are 18 cases, but the numbers are fluctuating. Some of the cases have been confirmed and others are presumed to be leptospirosis.

Farm worker. (Photo: VCStar)

Public health officials said leptospirosis is not considered a risk to the general public as the illness is not spread from person to person and it’s safe to eat berries.

Some patients reported severe symptoms like meningitis, an infection that can cause inflammation of membrane around the brain and spinal cord. Other cases involved mild symptoms like headache and fever.

Public health strongly advised agricultural workers and employers to take precautions to reduce the risk of leptospirosis:

  • Wear waterproof protective clothing and equipment while working outdoors including gloves, long-sleeved shirts, pants and boots or shoes.
  • Cover cuts and scratches with waterproof bandaging.
  • Wash hands, arms and exposed skin thoroughly with soap and water after working in the fields, especially before eating or drinking.
  • Employers should take measures to keep pest populations under control.

Officials inform that rodents are the most common source of the disease but livestock, dogs and cats can also be infected. People should keep pets away from ponds, lakes and other natural bodies of water and prompt veterinary care for animals that become sick.

The CDC reports that some infected people may have no symptoms. Leptospirosis sometimes occurs in two phases with initial symptoms that improve but are followed by more severe conditions like kidney/liver failure or meningitis.

An estimated one million severe cases of leptospirosis in humans occur every year, causing about 58,900 deaths. The disease is most common in tropical areas of the world but may occur anywhere. Outbreaks may arise after heavy rainfall.

Sources:

Cluster of Locally Acquired Leptospirosis Infections – Ventura County Public Health

Public health investigates cluster of leptospirosis infections

About Leptospirosis | Leptospirosis | CDC

Leptospirosis – Wikipedia

First Freight Train from China Arrives in Afghanistan as Beijing Increases Ties

A direct freight train link between Afghanistan and China was inaugurated this month. (File photo)

The first train carrying goods from China to Afghanistan arrived in Mazar-e Sharif on 23 Nov after crossing through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Kabul reported. The Taliban said 55 containers arrived in Afghanistan after a 22-day journey, marking the inauguration of the first direct train link between China and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The train is expected to take Afghan goods back to China for sale there. Since the Taliban returned to power in Aug 2021, no country, including China, has formally recognized the extremist group — which has been accused of massive rights violations — but Beijing has attempted to increase ties as part of its economic push in the region, including its Belt and Road initiative.

Central Asia Rail Routes Map courtesy of Ansher Global

China, the world’s factory, is also building a massive railway system on the Dark Continent which will connect east and west Africa, a concept the previous European colonial powers never conceived.   

China has pledged $75 billion of funding to Africa and her projects have employed tens of thousands of Ethiopians and Djiboutians.

The West is involved in devastating and costly wars while Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative is quietly and peacefully securing China’s future economic hegemony. Beijing will soon have access to critical minerals in Afghanistan needed for the telecommunications and computer manufacturing industries.  

Ukrainians are fighting for their very survival from the Kremlin onslaught while the US wastes precious economic and military resources funding Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians while the IDF devastates Lebanon with US-provided weapons.  The US already wasted billions of dollars fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan while China invested her time and resources wisely to expand her influence globally while subtly beginning her conquest of space.

Sources:

Keynote Address by Helga Zepp-LaRouche to Conference: U.S.-China Cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative and Corresponding Ideas in Chinese and Western Philosophy 4/13-4/14/2017 NYC

Freight Train Arrives In Afghanistan From China As Beijing Looks To Increase Ties

Simultaneous Comeuppance for Two Right-Wing Doppelgangers

Brazilian ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (R) and his Floridian doppelganger ex-Congressman Matt Gaetz (L)

Last week Brazil’s federal police charged former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and 36 accomplices of being part of a criminal conspiracy designed to obliterate Brazil’s democratic system through a right-wing coup d’état attempt on 8 Jan 2023. Bolsonaro had proudly described himself as the “Trump of Brazil,” had accelerated the arboricide of the earth’s lings, the Amazon Rain Forest, for the sake of making money.  

Among the accused are Bolsonaro’s former spy chief, as well as a cadre of senior defense, foreign affairs, and justice ministers. Also charged are a far-right congressman and blogger.


In a scene quite similar to the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021, Jair Bolsonaro supporters generate chaos in Brasilia, Brazil, by invading the Supreme Court, National Congress, and the Planalto Palace on Sunday, 8 Jan 2023. Mounted police and helicopters helped safeguard democracy. (Photo: Mateus Bonomi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Meanwhile to the north, Bolsonaro’s American junior doppelganger received a concomitant bit of comeuppance. Reactionary Trump acolyte Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) rashly resigned his congressional seat after President-elect Donald Trump nominated him to be his Attorney-General. His annual salary was approximately $174,000. Matt Gaetz, previously arrested on DUI charges in 2008 which his father allegedly influenced the case in his favor, was embroiled in a congressional Ethics Committee investigation and was confident his sins would remain secret from the American public. Joel Greenberg, an accomplice of Matt Gaetz, was already and convicted and sentenced to 11 years for sex trafficking of a minor and a litany of other crimes.

Official Press Release from Ethics Committee (18 June 2024):

“On April 9, 2021, the Committee announced it had initiated a review into allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct”.

For years, Republicans successfully prevented the release of the damaging investigation findings of Congressman Gaetz’s alleged peccadillos and acts of moral turpitude. When a reporter from CNN asked Gaetz about reports of a second sexual encounter with a 17-year-old girl, six minutes later Gaetz withdrew his nomination to be President-elect Donald Trump’s next attorney general.

Both right-wing disgraced doppelgangers Jair Bolsonaro and MAGA militant Matt Gaetz are considered innocent of all charges and accusations until both defendants are proven guilty in their respective courts of law.  

“The moral arc of the university is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Sources:


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/21/jair-bolsonaro-charged-coup-plot

The rise and fall of Matt Gaetz in eight wild days

Friend of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz sentenced to 11 years in prison in sex trafficking case

Cat Rescued After Five Days Stuck Up Tree

International Arrest Warrants Finally Issued for Benjamin Netanyahu

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


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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Credit: Will Stewart)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

(24 Jul 2024 Photo: NORAD)

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

(Illustration: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

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

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

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


Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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


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


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



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

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

Source:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

Wolverine Packing Co. | Your Complete Protein Solution

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Undated images: Social media)

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

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

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

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

Sources:


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

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


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

CIA

Canada Fears Trump’s Mass Deportations Will Push Migrants North

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Sources:

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

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

Mysterious Chemical By-Product in US Tap Water Finally Identified

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

Minnesota Authorities Restore EagleCam to Delight of Viewers Worldwide

Watch eagle emerge from snow-covered nest after storm.

Likud Continues Murder-Death-Kill Pogrom Against Arabs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

List of the 13 current Pariah States

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

The Striking US Parallels Between 1968 and 2024

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

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

1964

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

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

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

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

1968

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

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


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

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

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

2020

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

2024



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

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

LBJ’s Presidential Approval Ratings, 1963-1969

Biden approval polling tracker

NATO and EU Suspect Russia Sabotaged Two Baltic Undersea Cables

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

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

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

(Map courtesy: ontheworldmap.com)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

Europeans Probe Baltic Cable Damage as Suspicions Turn Toward Russia

Canada Reportedly Foiled Iranian Plot to Assassinate Former Justice Minister

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

New York City Issues First Drought Warning in Two Decades

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

Pope Francis Urges Inquiry into Gaza Genocide Allegations; Eight More Paramedics KIA in Lebanon

Lebanese girls run for cover after Israel’s attack on Ras al-Nabaa, Beirut (Photo: Adnan Abidi / Reuters)

The Israeli Death Forces (IDF) continue murdering Lebanese medical personnel, a clear and blatant violation of the Geneva Convention and Laws of War. At least 3,481 people have been killed and 14,786 wounded in IDF attacks against AKZ-L.

In addition to destroying Lebanon’s medical infrastructure, the IDF is annihilating ancient sites and ruins. 300 prominent cultural and archaeological experts petitioned UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay to listing Lebanese cultural sites under “enhanced protection“.

They urge UNESCO to protect Baalbek and other heritage sites by establishing “no-target zones” around them, deploying international observers and enforcing measures from the 1954 Hague Convention on cultural heritage in conflict.

Above, Palestinian children line up for food in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip, on 17 Oct 2024. The UN warns of an imminent famine in Gaza this winter. When civilians die of starvation, disease, or untreated wounds, this is “NHI”—No Humans Involved. (Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana / AP)

Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, tackling the issue for the first time in excerpts from an upcoming book.

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope said in excerpts published on Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), an Ashkenazi Jew, issued this statement:

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

During the five-year long Bosnian Civil War (1991-95), with small arms fire and artillery, Bosnian Serbs exterminated 38,239 Muslim civilians, including killing 8,000 Bosniaks and raping scores of women in the infamous 1995 Srebrenica Massacre.

But the Bosnian Army, which lost 30,000 soldiers in combat, was able to effectively fight back with US aid and mujahadeen volunteers, unlike the Muslims being slaughtered in the AKZ by the Israelis today. Bosnian Serbs suffered counter-atrocities committed by outraged Bosnian Muslims. See figures below for military and civilian casualties from the 1991-1995 Bosnian Civil War.  

Above, a heavily armed Bosnian Serb soldier leads his comrades through a field during a combing operation to locate and kill Muslims near Srebrenica (31 May 1993 photo: Reuters)

Above, forensic experts from the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague work on a pile of partly-decomposed bodies found in a mass grave in the village of Pilica. Does the image look familiar? (24 July 1996 photo: AFP)

The Israeli Death Forces (IDF), with precision weapons, drones, SIGINT, satellites, and jets, easily surpassed the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) war crimes achievement of killing 38,239 Sunni Muslims which took the Serbs four years. Israel has liquidated at least 43,846 Sunni Muslims and wounded 103,740 in Gaza in just over one year. This figure does not include Western journalists, international volunteers, or UN personnel.  

Coriolanus initially estimated that the IDF will have liquidated approximately 50,000 Sunni Muslims in AKZ-G by 1 Jan 2025. But at the current IDF murder-death-kill rate, the number will be closer to 45,000 deaths in Gaza as the IDF is shifting its lethality to AKZ-L, exterminating Shias, Sunnis, and Maronite Christians while destroying the Lebanese medical infrastructure.  

Bosnian Serbs, convicted for committing war crimes by the ICTY, must be scratching their heads flabbergasted, wondering why they were punished for killing Muslims wholesale but the Israeli Death Forces have carte blanche to do the same with impunity in the Middle East.

Sources:

Pope Francis urges inquiry into Gaza genocide allegations | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

Srebrenica massacre – Wikipedia

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia | United Nations<br /> International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

UNESCO petitioned to save Lebanon’s heritage sites from Israeli strikes

Bernie Sanders: No more arms sales to Netanyahu » Senator Bernie Sanders

US Reportedly Allows Ukraine to Strike Russia with Long-Range Weapons

A US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) being launched. These weapon systems have a 300 km range. (AP file photo)

President Joe Biden’s administration has lifted restrictions that have prevented Ukraine from using American-provided weapons to strike deeper inside Russian territory.

It was not immediately clear how far-reaching such permission would be. This represents a major shift in US policy amid long-standing pleas by Kiev to allow such actions.

Ukraine would likely utilize ATACMS rockets (pictured above).

The US administration has been seeking ways to shore up support for Ukraine ahead of Biden’s departure on 20 Jan 2025 when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. This sends a message to the Kremlin that the US and Kiev are no going to sit around and wait for Trump.

Ukraine’s targeting priorities will likely be in Russia’s Kursk region, using them to strike command-and-control sites, arms depots, artillery batteries, and airfields.

The latest decision by Biden is likely in response to North Korea sending thousands of troops to Russia amid reports that some have already engaged in fighting in Russia’s Kursk region.

The Kremlin has warned that the allowance by the US or other Western allies to use long-range weapons targeting Russia would be seen as a major escalation.

Since its February 2022 full-scale invasion, Russia has used its long-range weapons and warplanes to attack deep inside Ukraine, hitting civilian and infrastructure sites along with military targets.

After Russia launched one of its largest air strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure on 17 Nov, all Ukrainian regions will experience temporary restrictions on power consumption as winter sets in.

The latest Russian attacks were condemned by the EU, NATO, and other Western allies. Germany announced they were sending more air defense systems to Ukraine following the massive Russian drone attack.

North Korean soldiers conducting military training in an undisclosed location. (Photo: KCNA/Reuters)

Knocking out the North Korean cannon-fodder at cantonment areas may be an option for the UAF to de-moralize them and cause mass desertions. Ukraine has approximately two months to make battlefield gains and punish Russia before Trump takes office and kowtows to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kiev will want to negotiate from a position of strength next year. From a personal/professional perspective, CIA and DIA personnel may warn their colleagues in Ukraine’s intelligence services of which USIC personnel harbor pro-Trump/pro-Kremlin sympathies.  The HUR will deal more with their NATO partners for intelligence-sharing and operations.

Sources:

U.S. Reportedly Allows Ukraine To Strike Russia With Long-Range Weapons

Germany to deliver additional air defence supplies to Ukraine | Euronews

US Confirms First Case of Aggressive Strain of Mpox

The US is the sixth country outside of Africa to confirm a case of the strain, called clade I, since Aug 2024. A California man recently returned from a trip to eastern Africa.

Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral infection that causes painful lesions, often accompanied by flu-like symptoms. It is classified into two distinct groups: the more aggressive strain, clade I, and a somewhat milder strain, clade II.

Clade II was behind the global outbreak in 2022, which resulted in at least 32,000 infections and 58 deaths in the US.

The US has an adequate supply of the two-dose Jynneos vaccine, which is available to men who have sex with men and other high-risk groups. The Department of Health and Human Service informs that two doses of the vaccine or a previous infection should protect against severe illness from clade I.

The US administered approximately 1.2 million vaccine doses from May 2022 to Jan 2023. Health officials want to expand that coverage, since just 23% of the population at significant risk has been fully vaccinated.

Mpox typically starts with a rash that progresses to small bumps on the skin, followed by fluid-filled blisters that eventually scab over. People may also experience a fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy or swollen lymph nodes.

Some people infected by clade II in the US have described the lesions as exceedingly painful. They have historically appeared on the face, chest, palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, but during the 2022 outbreak, people developed lesions around the genital and anal region or inside the mouth and throat.

Sources:

California Reports First Known U.S. Case of Emerging Mpox Strain

Clade I Mpox Outbreak Originating in Central Africa | Mpox | CDC


https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/us-first-mpox-case-aggressive-strain-rcna167403

China: Student Kills Eight, Wounds 17 in Mass Stabbing After Failing Exams

The Wuxi stabbing incident comes days after a car drove into a group of people outside a sports centre in China’s southern city of Zhuhai, killing 35 people. (Photo: Ng Han Guan / AP)

Eight people were killed and 17 others injured when a 21-year-old former student went on a stabbing spree at a vocational college in China’s eastern city of Wuxi on Saturday evening.

The knife attack took place at the Wuxi Vocational College of Arts and Technology, in eastern Jiangsu province. The 21-year-old suspect, surnamed Xu, was apprehended at the scene and confessed to the attack.

Local police said Xu had failed his examinations and could not graduate, and that he was dissatisfied with his pay at an internship. According to preliminary investigations, he decided to vent his frustrations by attacking others.

Videos circulating on western social media platforms including X showed injured people lying on the street after the attack while others rushed to help. A keyword search on Chinese social media platform Weibo turned up no related videos or images of the attack.

The incident comes days after a driver rammed his car into groups of people outside a sports center in the southern city of Zhuhai, killing 35 people and injuring 43 others.

Two years ago, a 48-year-old man who unleashed a knife attack on a kindergarten. Three people were killed and six injured in the stabbing incident in China’s Jiangxi province.

The “world’s factory” is a pressure cooker. Psychological and mental health conditions are having an ever-growing impact on the Chinese society. Substantial changes to the country’s social fabric in the past decades, economic pressure, and inequality all increased the burdens on people’s mental well-being. Estimates show that the number of patients suffering from mental disorders in China surpassed 160 million in 2019, ranking the country as one of the most affected by mental health-related diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s strict containment measures and their subsequent impacts on daily lives further escalated the risk of mental health problems among its citizens.  

Had this lunatic an assault weapon like in the US, there would have been much more deaths and injuries. Knives are the choice of weapon for lone actor maniacs in China because of the inaccessibility of firearms.  

Family members, co-workers, relatives or classmates may be reluctant to inform authorities of someone they suspect may become unhinged or they may not recognize the symptoms. China can expect more such horrific incidents as the number of mentally ill people rise and the government unable identify and treat all of the patients, even with their penetrating and enormous surveillance system. China has 1,418,100,510 people and 2,098 psychiatric hospitals to treat them.

Sources:

Student kills eight in mass stabbing in China after failing exams | China | The Guardian

China: 3 killed,6 hurt in kindergarten knife attack in Jiangxi; Suspect at large | Hindustan Times

Mental health in China – statistics & facts | Statista

American Warzone: Two KIA, Ten WIA in Shootings Near New Orleans Parade

Two people were killed and ten others were wounded in a pair of shootings on Sunday linked to a New Orleans second line parade, prompting police to shut down the event.

The shootings occurred within about a 45-minute span Sunday afternoon along the route of the second line parade organized by the Nine Times Social Aid & Pleasure Club.

The first shooting was reported at 3:38 PM and wounded nine people. The second occurred 45 minutes later, killing two people and wounding one.

No weapons from either shooting have been recovered, and it was unknown if the incidents were connected.

America is a warzone like pictured above and Louisiana leads the nation with gun violence with the third-highest rate in the US. In an average year, 1,153 people die and 3,345 are wounded by firearms. Louisiana has the 6th-highest societal cost of gun violence in the US at $3,085 per resident each year. Gun deaths and injuries cost Louisiana $14.3 billion each year, of which $457.6 million is paid by taxpayers.

Sources:

NOPD Investigating Homicide, Shooting Incidents in Fifth District – NOPD News

Pair of shootings near New Orleans parade leaves 2 dead, 10 wounded – UPI.com

Gun-Violence-in-Louisiana-2024-05.pdf

Shin Bet Allegedly Warned Benjamin Netanyahu of 10/7 Attack Hours Before It Began

Indicted war criminals Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (C) at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv receiving security assessment on 8 Oct 2023. (GPO)

At 2:58 AM on 7 Oct 2023, the Shin Bet allegedly forwarded a warning about unusual Hamas cellular phone activity, interpreted as preparations for a potential attack.  The information was passed to the national security council, which reports to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Instead of arousing an alert and defensive measures, the warning was ignored. Egyptian intelligence (EGIS) had previously warned Israel about an imminent “terrible operation,” but had no granularity to provide specific details.

Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar, 6 Nov 2022. (Photo: Moshe Shai / Flash90)

Shin Bet agency chief Ronen Bar arrived at the Tel Aviv HQ early the morning of 7 Oct 2023, received updated information about a suspicious occurrence in the Gaza Strip area, and held security consultations. A dedicated team dubbed “Tequila” was then deployed to the Gaza area as an advance force to investigate the unusual information. Armed Palestinian groups soon began their offensive to seize Israeli hostages in order to trade them for Palestinians being held without trial or hearing in indefinite security detention. Amnesty International estimates that up to 2,000 Palestinians, like the young man below, were being held prisoner and being tortured or abused prior to 7 Oct 2023 with no hope of release.

IDF soldiers abusing Palestinian man in Hebron, the West Bank, who allegedly resisted arrest for the simple crime of being Palestinian. (Photo: 22 Sep 2016, Reuters)

Days after 7 Oct 2023, the Prime Minister’s Office stressed that PM Benjamin Netanyahu had not received an early warning regarding the surprise attack and only at 6:29 AM with the outbreak of fighting did he receive an initial update on the situation.

Palestinians ride on an IDF vehicle taken from an IDF base overrun by muqawama fighters near the Gaza Strip border, 7 Oct 2023. (Photo: Abed Abu Reash / AP)

The Shin Bet and IDF chiefs each publicly took responsibility for their failures after the surprise attack that killed approximately 1,200 Israelis and 250 hostages seized. But Netanyahu, as is characteristic of him, did everything he could to avoid responsibility. He used the 7 Oct attack to implement his plans to de-populate the Gaza Strip and destroy southern Lebanon and its medical infrastructure to make the area absolutely inhospitable to Lebanese Shias. While the world watched the horrors of the Gaza Nakba, Israeli settlers continued their pogrom against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Though it’s possible the warning was transmitted to a senior PMO official, rather than directly to Netanyahu, given the seriousness of the matter it seems inconceivable the PM wouldn’t have been immediately informed.

Netanyahu, already embroiled in a bribery and corruption case, has also been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague for war crimes (along with ex-DM Yoav Galland). He desperately does not want a commission of inquiry into the events of 7 Oct 2023, similar to the US 9/11 Commission Report. Netanyahu (and Russian President Vladimir Putin) are also licking their lips at the prospect of a right-wing Trump presidency only months away.

Sources:

Shin Bet Warned Netanyahu of 10/7 Attack Hours Before It Began – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم

Egypt intelligence official says Israel ignored repeated warnings of ‘something big’ | The Times of Israel

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

‘This is Life or Death’: Former HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius Says Trump’s RFK Jr. Nomination May ‘End Up Killing People’

Make America Healthy Again: Pictured above are the Judas Goats ready to lead their fellow Americans to the Promised Land of an abattoir. Notorious anti-vaccination proponent RFK Jr (R) is enjoying McDonald’s with America’s new rulers. Photo: Social media.

Republican, evangelical, and conservative opinion makers encouraged scoffing at COVID prevention measures. Some of those fanatics themselves perished of COVID, like Meat Loaf front-man and Trump acolyte Michael Lee Aday (pictured below).

The Republican Party seems to somehow benefit from useless American deaths from either non-vaxxing, business de-regulation, lack of medical insurance, military misadventures, or insane gun laws. An average 42,000 people die every year from gun violence. During the 2024 campaign, the Trump/Vance response to US school shootings was “get over it” or “it’s a fact of life.”

A significant number of preventable COVID deaths occurred under President Trump’s first administration because people refused to wear masks, get vaccinated, or avoid large crowds. People were identified as COVID “super-spreaders,” including then-President Trump who was called out as “America’s Dracula” on national TV.   

Are the majority of lawyers who handle the estates of deceased people in probate court Republicans? Are the majority of funeral parlor owners in the US Republicans? Are the majority of health insurance company CEOs Republicans? Are the majority of firearms company CEOs Republicans?

A select sector of the US economy simply benefits from useless American deaths which will continue unabated and no doubt increase under the Trump regime.

Moreover, an MIT study informed that a large portion of America’s older population has very little savings in bank accounts, stocks and bonds, and dies “with virtually no financial assets” to their names. Approximately 46% of senior citizens have less than $10,000 in financial assets when they die. Most of these people rely almost totally on Social Security payments as their only formal means of support.

Source:

2012-08-americans-die-virtually-financial-assets (1).pdf

Husband Really Didn’t Want His Wife to Get a Cat

Tulsi Gabbard’s Nomination as ODNI National Security Risk

(Photo: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

Tom Nichols at The Atlantic writes that Tulsi Gabbard is stunningly unqualified for almost any Cabinet post, especially for ODNI. She has no qualifications as an intelligence professional—literally none. (She is a reserve lieutenant colonel who previously served in the Hawaii Army National Guard, with assignments in medical, police, and civil-affairs-support positions. She has won some local elections and also represented Hawaii in Congress.) Gabbard has no significant experience directing or managing much of anything.

To make Tulsi Gabbard the DNI, however, is not merely handing a bouquet to a political gadfly. Her appointment would be a grave threat to US national security.

Gabbard ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, attempting to position herself as something like a peace candidate. But she’s no peacemaker: She’s been an apologist for both the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

In 2017 Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu lawmaker in the US Congress, said she was unsure whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was a war criminal.

In early 2017, while still a member of Congress, Gabbard met with Assad, saying that peace in Syria was only possible if the international community would have a conversation with him. “Let the Syrian people themselves determine their future, not the United States, not some foreign country,” Gabbard said, after chatting with a man who had stopped the Syrian people from determining their own future by reportedly using chemical weapons on them. Two years later, she added that Assad was “not the enemy of the US, because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the US,” and that her critics were merely “warmongers.”

Gabbard’s shilling for Assad is a mystery, but she’s even more dedicated to carrying Putin’s water. Tom Rogan, a conservative writer and hardly a liberal handwringer, summed up her record succinctly in the Washington Examiner:

Gabbard has blamed NATO and the US for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has repeated Russian propaganda claims that the US has set up secret bioweapons labs in that country, and has argued that the US not Russia is wholly responsible for Putin’s nuclear brinkmanship.

When she appeared on Sean Hannity’s show in 2022, even Hannity blanched at Gabbard floating off in a haze of Kremlin talking points and cheerleading for Russia.

A person with Gabbard’s views should not be allowed anywhere near the crown jewels of American intelligence. Gabbard hasn’t been central to Trump’s campaign and he owes her very little. For someone as grubbily transactional as Trump, it’s not an appointment that makes much sense. Perhaps Trump just likes the way she handles herself on television.

But Trump could also be engaging in a ploy to bring in someone else. He may suspect that Gabbard is unconfirmable by the US Senate. Once she’s turfed, he could then slide in an even more appalling nominee and claim that he has no choice but to use a recess appointment as a backstop. (Hard to imagine who might be worse as DNI than Gabbard, but remember that Trump has promised at various times to bring retired General Mike Flynn back into government. Flynn is a decorated veteran who was fired from Trump’s White House in a scandal about lying to the FBI; he is now a conspiracist who is fully on board with Trump’s desire for revenge on his enemies.

US-government employees with clearances are trained every year to spot “insider threats,” people who might for various reasons compromise classified information. Trump’s open and continuing affection for Putin and other dictators would be a matter of concern for any security organization. Gabbard’s behavior and her admiration for dictators are no less causes for worry—especially because she would be at the apex of the entire USIC.

This nomination should be one of the handful of Trump appointments where soon-to-be Majority Leader John Thune and his Republican colleagues draw a hard line and say no—at least if they still care at all about exercising the Senate’s constitutional duty of advice and consent.

Tulsi Gabbard (L), Cult leader Chris Butler (R)

Tulsi Gabbard’s erratic views may be the result of her membership in the Hawaii-based Science of Identity Foundation, founded by Chris Butler in the 1970s. Followers must practice vegetarianism and are not allowed to gamble, engage in any sexual contact outside marriage, or consume caffeine or intoxicants. Butler’s teachings included condemnation of homosexuality, hostility towards Islam, and skepticism of science. Both Tulsi Gabbard’s parents were associated with the Science of Identity Foundation which has been described as a “secretive Hindu cult.” Placing a cult member and Putin apologist to the acme of the USIC is tantamount to self-inflicted national sabotage of epic proportion.

Our gratitude to Tom Nichols at The Atlantic.

Sources:

Tulsi Gabbard’s Nomination Is a National-Security Risk – The Atlantic

Cult Education Institute :: Group Information Archives

Science of Identity Foundation – Wikipedia

Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to secretive cult may explain her perplexing political journey | The Independent

The FBI Needs Our Help Investigating Child Sex Exploitation Case

The FBI is searching for a white male known only as John Doe 49 for “critical information” in a child sexual exploitation investigation. The individual is described as 45 and 65 years old, bald, with a dark goatee.

John Doe 49 has at least at least five visual tattoos: the word “Dabby” on the right side of his chest, the numeral “197” followed by possible additional unknown text on his left bicep, and additional tattoos on his left and right forearms and right bicep.

Somebody, somewhere CONUS (or OCONUS) has seen John Doe 49 or his tattoos at work, in a supermarket, poolside, tattoo parlor, medical office, saloon, restaurant, park, train/subway, at the beach, massage parlor, or shopping mall.

Anyone with information about the man is urged to call the FBI’s toll-free tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or to contact a Crimes Against Children Investigator at their local FBI office, or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.

Members of the public can also submit anonymous tips about John Doe 49 online here.

John Doe 49

Canada Leads Large NATO Exercise Near Russia’s Border as NATO Prepares for Donald J. Trump

Cpl. Guillaume Lavoie and Cpl. Matthew Bowler from Quebec in a defensive trench position. Canadian and NATO soldiers train re-taking territory from enemy forces in the Resolute Warrior military exercise near Riga, Latvia. The Canadian-led exercise involved 13 NATO countries and over 3,500 soldiers, of which 2,200 were Canadian. (Photo: Corrinne Seminoff/CBC)

At the sprawling forested Ādaži military base, north east of Riga, Latvia, Capt. Harrison Burrows is one of more than 3,000 troops who has spent the past two weeks participating in a Canadian-led NATO military exercise designed to simulate an attack on the Baltic nation coming from beyond its nearly 300 km-long border with Russia. 

This is the first exercise held in Latvia since the military forces in the country were scaled up to a multinational brigade, also led by Canada, that is made up of soldiers and equipment from more than 13 nations. 

The 5 Nov election of Donald Trump could potentially create friction in the 32 member alliance, given his past warnings that the US will leave NATO nations to their own defences if they don’t spend more on defence.

In Feb 2024 on the campaign trail Trump even said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever” it wants to allies that don’t pay up. 

While at the time the White House called those comments “appalling and unhinged,” NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte, who previously served as the prime minister of the Netherlands and frequently met with Trump during his first term as president, describes Trump as someone who tries to invigorate the debate about defence spending. 

In 2023, the US spent more than $900 billion US on defense, which accounts for more than 65 per cent of NATO’s overall military spending. 

While NATO allies are expected to spend two per cent of their gross domestic product [GDP] on defence, a quarter of members don’t, including Canada, which is expected to spend under 1.4 per cent this year. 

While Rutte says all NATO members need to spend “considerably more” than two per cent on defence, he pointed to Canada’s leadership of the multinational brigade as evidence of its commitment to supporting the security priorities of the alliance. 

Most of the Canadian soldiers deployed to Latvia are on six-month rotations, and in January, for the first time, Sweden will be sending 600 troops as part of its first deployment as a new NATO member, having joined the alliance in March 2024. 

NATO and the EU have been preparing for the possibility of a Trump presidency and this military exercise is one of the publicly seen results. The intelligence apparatus of NATO countries is also ready for the Trump presidency and will carefully screen information they provide to the USIC.

Sources:

As Canada leads a beefed-up NATO force near Russia’s border, the alliance prepares for Trump | CBC News

Analysis

NATO’s two per cent spending target — where it came from, what it means

NATO at 75: Is Canada losing its grip on the world’s greatest military alliance? | CBC News

Israel Continues Murdering Lebanese Medical Personnel (AKZ-L)

Lebanese first responder Hussein Fakih, who heads the Lebanese Civil Defense rescue team in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, is seen recovering from injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike. The IDF murdered eight members of his team in just one month. (Photo: 22 Oct 2024; CBS News/Agnes Reausays)

The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has deplored the Israeli strike on a Lebanese civil defense center where “at least 12 paramedics were killed”, saying such attacks “are becoming the new normal”. Attacking medical personnel or infrastructure is a war crime according to the Geneva Convention.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said that IDF attacks killed 59 people and wounded another 182 across the country over the previous 24-hour reporting period.

The UN reports:

At least 100,000 people have been forced to leave northern Gaza, with UN colleagues on the ground reporting worsening conditions and Israel’s continuous denial of aid delivery requests as displacement and the death toll rises there and in Lebanon amid constant airstrikes.

Al-Jazeera correspondents in the Gaza Strip (AKZ-G) provided the following update:

-Israeli forces are demolishing residential neighborhoods in southern Gaza’s Rafah city adjacent to the Philadelphi Corridor, an area bordering Egypt.

-Israeli ground forces have demolished many residential buildings in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.

-The air force has attacked a group of Palestinians in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya town, killing three civilians.

-Israeli artillery has bombed the as-Saftawi neighborhood in northern Gaza, causing significant damage to civil infrastructure.

-Many Palestinians are injured following a strike on a residential building in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighborhood.

-Naval warships have opened fire at the coast of central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.-

Displaced Palestinian children drawing artwork on their tents in Gaza. (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu)

The Immortal Bard would say to the craven PIFWC (Person Indicted for War Crimes) PM Benjamin Netanyahu, AKA the “curse of Israel”:

“Begone, thou wayward crook-pated horn-beast!”

Sources:

LIVE: WHO chief slams Israel’s killing of 12 paramedics in Lebanon strike | Israel attacks Lebanon News | Al Jazeera

Middle East crisis: Live updates for 15 November | UN News

American Warzone: Gunfire Strikes Southwest Plane on Tarmac of Dallas Airport

There were no injuries after a Southwest flight carrying passengers was struck by gunfire on the tarmac of Dallas Love Field Friday night.

Southwest Airlines Flight 2494 was preparing for departure to Indianapolis when “a bullet apparently struck the right side of the aircraft under the flight deck,” a Southwest spokesperson told CBS News in a statement.

The airline said no one was hurt. The aircraft returned to its gate after sustaining damage from a “security incident” and the passengers deplaned. The runway was also temporarily closed, but has since reopened.  

Dallas police confirmed the incident, saying that officers responded to reports of gunfire at 9:48 PM local time, arriving to find that the aircraft had been struck.  

No further details were provided on the circumstances of the incident or what was the potential source of the gunfire. It’s unclear how many people were aboard the jet at the time, or how much damage the aircraft sustained.

The Federal Aviation Administration said that the Boeing 737-800 “was reportedly struck by gunfire near the cockpit.”

Dallas police are leading the investigation. Luckily, no one was killed or wounded in this idiotic incident.

Earlier this week, gunfire amid ongoing gang violence struck three planes that were either landing or departing Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince. The shootings prompted the FAA to issue a 30-day ban on US airlines flying to Haiti. 

In 2021, Texas reported 1,006,555 firearms licenses and 45.7% of adults say they live in homes with guns.

In an average year, 4,122 people die and 7,726 are wounded by guns in Texas.

This equates to 11 people killed and 21 wounded every day in the Lone Star State.

Source:

Gunfire strikes Southwest plane on tarmac of Dallas airport, officials say – CBS News

1. Texas – Gun map: Ownership by state – statistics and rates

Gun-Violence-in-Texas-2024-05.pdf

Chemist Identifies Mystery ‘Blobs’ Washing Up in Newfoundland

The blobs were photographed on the southern shores of Newfoundland in Sept 2024 by a local resident. (Photo: David McGrath)

A chemist in Canada has identified “with a high degree of confidence” the strange blobs that started washing up on Newfoundland’s shores months ago. Globs of the white sticky substance, which have a spongy interior and range in size from a coin to a dinner plate, have been found for miles along Placentia Bay since at least September. Canada’s environmental agency began an investigation, but it has not released any conclusions.

Dr. Chris Kozak informs:

“I’m quite confident that the sample that I handled was PVA butylene rubber,” describing a mix of synthetic rubber and polyvinyl acetate, known as PVA. That polymer is the active ingredient in white glue — the kind of white glue you have at home is a very dilute, kid-friendly version of this stuff.”

A synthetic rubber and PVA mixture would in theory be safe to handle, but as plastic pollution it should be cleaned up. If the material has been tainted by a toxic pollutant like crude oil, however, it should be handled with caution.

The greater threat may be toward marine life, especially if more of the material sank to the ocean floor as they could be perceived by marine life as food, looking like squid, octopus, or jellyfish.

The origin of the substance, and how it wound up in the ocean, remains a mystery. The bay has a long history as a center for both fishing and industry, and is home to a shipyard and oil facilities. But the substance may also have crossed vast distances before washing ashore.

Oceanography, shipping and industrial data, weather events, satellite images, and research on synthetic rubber and the environment could all help determine the origin.

Source:

Chemist Identifies Mystery ‘Blobs’ Washing Up in Newfoundland – The New York Times

Pentagon Reports Over 20 Unexplained UFO Sightings in One Year

The Pentagon’s department tasked with investigating unidentified flying objects, officially referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), revealed that over 20 reported sightings in the past year remain unexplained. According to the annual report from the Defense Department’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), these incidents warrant further investigation due to their unusual characteristics. See link below for official report.

Between 1 May 2023 and 1 Jun 2023, AARO received 757 reports of UAP sightings, 485 of which were newly reported during this period, with the remainder stemming from 2021 and 2022. Most sightings occurred in the skies, although 49 were observed in space. AARO director Jon Kosloski noted that 21 cases remain unresolved and have been identified as “true anomalies,” requiring additional analysis.

The report emphasized AARO’s collaboration with the intelligence community and scientific partners to better understand and assess these cases, particularly those exhibiting anomalous behaviors or characteristics. AARO also pledged to promptly inform Congress if any evidence of advanced foreign aerospace technologies emerges.

Despite the unusual nature of some sightings, Kosloski confirmed that AARO has not uncovered any verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial life, activities, or technology. The cases reviewed so far show no signs of breakthrough aerospace technologies, and the office resolved 118 sightings, attributing them to causes such as balloons, birds, and drones.

The report also highlighted challenges that have hindered AARO’s ability to resolve more cases, citing the lack of timely and actionable sensor data as a significant constraint. To address this, the office is working with military and technical partners to improve sensor capabilities, streamline information-sharing processes, and enhance UAP reporting systems.

The governments of Russia and China are much more opaque in disclosing unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), although sightings occasionally appear on social media.

The undated photo below was taken over Buryatia, Russia.

Sources:

Massive UFO found above Buryatia, Russia, in latest sighting | Daily Star

www.dailystar.co.uk

AARO Home

Pentagon Reports Over 20 Unexplained UFO Sightings in a Year

Sweet-Toothed Bear Wanders into Tennessee Candy Store

Employees said the bear seemed to show a preference for Charleston Chews and Hershey’s Kisses.

Map courtesy of jeffbales.com

The Gatlinburg Police Department was summoned to the scene to help get the bruin out of the store.

No injuries to the poor bear or civilians were reported.

Former UK Labor Leader Jeremy Corbyn: Britain Complicit in Gaza Genocide

https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1857043436467016092

“There is a very simple reason why the UK government refuses to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza. If they did, they would be admitting their own complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time. End all arms sales to Israel, now.”

Truth be told, Coriolanus and media outlets are facing difficulties keeping up with the IDF and Likud atrocities in the Middle East.

The Israeli Death Forces (IDF) continue their horrific Nakba, amassing casualties in the three Arab Killing Zones (AKZ): Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.

A wounded Palestinian boy is brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza after an IDF attack on Thursday [Photo: Ashraf Amra / Anadolu]

In AKZ-L, five Lebanese paramedics were among six people murdered in an IDF strike on a civil defence center in the country’s southern Nabatieh area, while 12 rescue workers were reported killed in a second attack on a civil defence center near Baalbek city. At least 3,386 Lebanese people have been killed and 14,417 wounded in IDF attacks since Oct 2023.

In AKL-G, at least 24 Palestinians have been murdered and 112 maimed in the latest 24-hour reporting period. The UN reported that Israel is using starvation as a weapon again Palestinians in Gaza that is “consistent with genocide.”

Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has called on USSECSTATE Antony Blinken to resign after the US deadline for Israeli authorities to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza passed unfulfilled and without any consequences for Israel.

Since 7 Oct 2023, the IDF has killed at least 43,736 Palestinians and wounded 103,370.

Palestinian Nafin Abu Al-Jidyan informs the UN in Gaza that her son was stricken with polio. (Photo: UN News/Ziad Taleb)

In AKZ-W, the IDF stormed a family home in the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya and assaulted one of its inhabitants. During the raid, Israeli troops smashed the family’s furniture while stealing gold jewelry. In Qalqilya’s Jaidi neighborhood, Israeli forces stormed a home and arrested a young man. The charges against him, other then being Palestinian, were not disclosed.

Allowing people to die by starvation, disease, or wounds, without proactively killing them, is called “NHI” (“No Humans Involved.”) Above, emaciated prisoners stand around in a Nazi Concentration camp at Evensee Austria in the Alps (7 May 1945, AP Photo, File)

Coriolanus estimates that by year’s end, the Likud IDF Nakba will have murdered approximately 50,000 Palestinians while maiming close to 150,000. At this rate the Israeli Death Forces would have crippled the health infrastructure of Lebanon. President-Elect Donald Trump’s pick to be ambassador to Israel, evangelical Mike Huckabee, calls the occupied West Bank territory “Judea and Samaria.” Expect more Palestinian murders and expulsions and the removal of fanatical settlers from US sanctions. Only a few were placed on the list as a token gesture by the Biden Administration.  

The Arab Holocaust will continue, regardless of which presidential administration occupies the White House. The only difference is that the Democratic Party paid lip-service to the world during the incessant IDF massacres. The earnest and hard-working SECSTATE and D/CIA failed to reach a ceasefire or release any of the hostages, thanks to Likudnik war-criminal Benjamin Netanyahu who welcomes the new Trump Administration that his Nakba helped to usher in.

Sources:

LIVE: Israel kills paramedics, rescuers in Lebanon; dozens die in Gaza | Israel attacks Lebanon News | Al Jazeera

Gaza: Israeli war tactics condemned as aid still blocked from reaching north | UN News

How Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war | TV Shows | Al Jazeera

Russia-Ukraine Update

On the offensive since at least midsummer, Russian forces have been grinding down Ukrainian troops across the 1,100-km front line: in the south near Vuhledar and Pokrovsk;  in the north near Chasiv Yar and Kupyansk; and in Kursk, the Russian region where Ukraine staged a surprise invasion in August.

The Trump presidential win has given impetus to Kiev and Moscow to discuss peace options so both militaries are trying to make as many territorial gains as possible in order to negotiate from a position of strength. The impact of the North Korean soldiers on the battlefield is not immediately clear.  A senior official at Ukraine’s national security agency reported that North Korean forces deployed to Russia’s Kursk have not yet been involved in attempts to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the region.

In Oct, Russia was reportedly losing up to an appalling 1,500 troops a day in combat, euphemistically called “meat attacks.”

Morale and desertion problems continue to plague the Kremlin

The Kremlin recently banned all potential draftees and conscripts from leaving Russia. These young conscripts pictured above can only hope that peace takes place soon because their battlefield chances of survival are nearly zero.

In southern Siberia, more than a dozen wounded Russian contract soldiers deserted a military unit when they were ordered back to the battlefield despite their wounds. The soldiers had signed contracts to fight in Ukraine in exchange for the termination of criminal prosecution for various offenses. Police managed to detain seven of those who fled, but the rest are still on the loose.

And in Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky replaced the commander of the armed forces in yet another shake-up.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy (R), the new head of Ukraine’s armed forces conferring with Pres. Zelensky

Putin Quashes Any and All Dissent Anywhere

In London, the late Chef Alexei Zimin owned the Russian restaurant Zima and published a magazine with the same name. (Undated photo).

Russian celebrity chef and London restaurateur Aleksei Zimin (53), an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was recently found dead in Belgrade.

Aleksei Zimin had openly criticized Russia’s war in Ukraine and was in Belgrade to host an event and present his recent book, Anglomania, a personal look at the cultural history of Great Britain.


In his last Instagram post on 4 Nov, Zimin announced that he would prepare a special dinner in a club in Belgrade.

“There will be no new episodes due to the anti-war position of the host. Do I regret it? No, I regret that we ended up going to war. I don’t take part in the war, the war takes part in me,” he said on Instagram at the time.

Zimin had started several restaurants in Moscow and wrote or edited for Afisha, Komersant, and Vedomosti. He hosted a cooking show on Russian television channel NTV that was discontinued after he posted anti-war messages on social media following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022.

The cause of Alexei Zimin’s death was unknown and Belgrade authorities were conducting an autopsy and toxicology tests.

Theater director Anastasia Berezhinskaya (43) pictured above was sentenced to eight years in prison over her posts and comments on the VKontakte social network in 2022, condemning Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and making calls to “kill” and “eliminate” President Vladimir Putin.

She was found guilty of “justifying terrorism,” “distributing false information about the Russian military,” and “discrediting Russia’s armed forces.”

Berezhinskaya, who refused to testify during the trial, pleaded partially guilty.

When giving a final statement to the court, Berezhinskaya said:

“Your Honor, I do not have anything to say, anything to add. I will accept any decision of yours.”

After the judge handed down his ruling, Berezhinskaya was immediately arrested. Before and during the trial, she was under orders not to leave Moscow.

Berezhinskaya, who is the mother of children aged eight and ten years, has been diagnosed with a personality disorder, but the court ruled that she does not need hospitalization.

Alexei Zimin must have been on Putin’s “hit list” and he made it too easy for assassins to kill him in Belgrade by advertising his plans on social media. As for poor Anastasia Berezhinskaya, she stoically said little in her defense, accepting her dismal fate in a gulag.  

The war between Ukraine and Russia must inevitably end one way or another so both sides will hammer each other relentlessly until a ceasefire takes place. The future landscape may look like the DMZ between North and South Korea. Putin will continue to demand that Ukraine not join NATO or the EU, which Kiev will initially reject. But to save lives, an option for Ukraine may be to become a neutral country, like Austria (or Finland, before she recently joined NATO). Putin can not live forever and in a few years the Kremlin may be led by a less nationalistic, murderous leader.

Hardworking American taxpayers have provided Kiev with billions of dollars of military and economic aid (before and after Putin’s brutal invasion). But President-elect Donald Trump, a friend of Putin, will no doubt waste the costly resources and investment over the past several years to Ukraine’s eternal chagrin. Kiev will have to rely on other members of NATO and EU for support against Moscow in the future.  

Sources:

Wounded Russian Soldiers Flee Unit To Escape Return To Combat

Peace Talks Brewing, Russia And Ukraine Jockey For Advantage — On And Off Battlefield

News – RFE/RL

Russian Theater Director Gets 8 Years Over Anti-Putin Posts

News – RFE/RL

North Koreans in Russia in place but not in combat: Ukraine official – Radio Free Asia

French Overseas Territory Guadeloupe Declares Dengue Epidemic

The Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe has declared a dengue epidemic, with authorities noting the outbreak was being driven by a less common strain of the mosquito-borne disease.

Guadeloupe has been a French possession since 1635. The island of Saint Martin is shared with the Netherlands; its southern portion is named Sint Maarten. Approximately 450,000 inhabitants reside on the archipelago.

“Dengue fever has entered the epidemic phase” in Guadeloupe regional health authorities warned, just at the beginning of the tourist season and on the eve of the end-of-year festivities.

This strain of the dengue virus has not circulated much in the last 20 years leading to the possibility of “severe forms” with “a high number of cases to be expected if control and prevention actions are not implemented”.

The dengue 3 serotype (DENV-3) is one of four variants of the virus.

The health authorities said among 62 samples analysed between late September and mid-October, 97 percent were caused by DENV-3.

The average of 80 cases per week at this time of year has been far surpassed.

At the end of October, the agency estimated the weekly figure hit 540 – more than double the number seen in September.

Hospitals were reporting a similar spike, with around 40 emergency room visits per week for suspected dengue cases, compared with 25 in Sep 2024.

At least 22 human pathogens are associated with the tiger mosquito which flies by day and night. Mosquitos are the deadliest animal on earth today. Dragonflies are one of nature’s remedies for mosquitos. As larvae, dragonflies eat mosquito larvae; as adults, dragonflies eat adult mosquitos. (Photo: © Shutterstock _ InsectWorld)

Dengue, also known as “tropical flu”, can cause high fever, fatigue and body aches, although most people have no symptoms. Severe cases can trigger bleeding, internally or from the mouth and nose.

The virus is spread by the Aedes “tiger” mosquito that breeds in stagnant pools.

Guadeloupe authorities stressed the need “to combat mosquito vectors and breeding grounds for larvae that can develop in water reservoirs around or inside homes, which may have accumulated after recent rainfall”.

It also advised people to wear loose-fitting clothing to cover the skin, use insect repellent and mosquito netting over beds. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) said the number of reported dengue cases worldwide has approximately doubled each year since 2021, with over 12.3 million cases, including more than 7,900 deaths, reported in just the first eight months of 2024.

The WHO has linked the spike in the number of cases to global warming.

Sources:

DENGUE EPIDEMIC The mobilization of all is necessary! – Press releases and press kits – News- State services in Guadeloupe

Thailand: Ammonia Leak at Pattani Ice Plant Sickens 18

Local residents were evacuated and schools closed after an ammonia leak at an ice plant sickened 18 people in Muang district of this southern border province on Wednesday.

The leak happened at an ice-making factory in Tambon Taluboh.

Eighteen employees and rescue workers tried to contain the leak but were exposed to the gas and suffered dizziness, eye irritation, breathing difficulties, and vomiting. They were rushed to Pattani Hospital.


A firefighter sprays water near the loading dock of an ice-making factory to reduce the impact of an ammonia leak, in Muang district of Pattani on Wednesday. (Photo: Pattani Provincial PR Dept)

Local authorities then ordered more rescue workers, all fire engines and emergency vehicles in the district to the scene. Firefighters sprayed water to reduce the impact of the leak and neutralise the vapors, while others tried to reach the point where the leak originated.

Witnesses said the incident happened while employees were checking gas containers, and a metal object fell and struck and ruptured a big ammonia pipe.

Local officials asked people in the area to wear masks while they cordoned off the scene. Local schools and daycare centers were evacuated and closed as a precaution. for the safety of children.

“People within the five-km radius of the ice plant should wear layers of face masks or N95 masks,” the governor of the province advised.

There were about 20 ice plants that used ammonia in Pattani which suffered similar incidents in the past.

Also in Thailand, officials closed a school in Bangkok for 15 days after two students were diagnosed with Pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

The Ministry of Public Health is encouraging people, especially children and those in physical contact with them, to get vaccinated.

Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is an infectious bacterial disease of the respiratory tract. It spreads easily through the air between people by coughing or sneezing.

Whooping cough mostly occurs in unvaccinated children and at places such as schools and nurseries.

The disease usually begins as a common cold and develops to a more serious stage of coughing violently, vomiting and creating a “whooping” sound when breathing. The symptoms can seriously affect high-risk groups, such as infants and pregnant women.

Sources:

Bangkok Post – Ammonia leak at Pattani ice plant sickens 18

Bangkok Post – Whooping cough vaccine urged for children

Elderly Pennsylvania Maniac Sentenced for Assaulting Law Enforcement During 6 Jan 2021 Attack on US Capitol

Terry Allen holding a metal bar that he threw at a police officer during the 6 Jan 2021 Capitol attack. Allen’s attorney claims the throwing of the pole was a reflex action after being pepper sprayed. (Photo: Government documents)

Terry L. Allen (65) of Spring Mills, PA, was sentenced by the Honorable US District Judge Amit P. Mehta to 24 months in prison, 24 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution for his heinous, violent, and felonious conduct on 6 Jan 2021.

On 6 Jan 2021, Terry Allen repeatedly accosted, menaced, and assaulted police officers protecting the US Capitol. Officers sounded the alarm that a rioter was “using the flag as a spear.” This geriatric jerk was not dissuaded from violence even after USCP deployed chemical irritants at him. Allen threw his flagpole at a police officer, striking him. This court document did not specify the extent of injuries to the police officers

The FBI arrested Allen on 6 July 2023 in Pennsylvania.

A photo of Terry Allen and the reinforced gloves he wore during a trip to Washington DC on 14 Nov 2020 to join the Million MAGA March. (Photo: Government documents)

In the nearly four years since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,561 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 590 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.

65 is not a good age to get jammed up by the federal government, as this miscreant will soon find out. But the FBI is futilely “hoovering up” these racist American Fedayeen Saddam (FS) as the Trump Administration will no doubt pardon him and other MAGA cretins convicted and sentenced for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results at his behest. D/FBI Christopher Wray, (a Trump nominee) will most likely be asked to tender his resignation after Inauguration Day in 2025.

Sources:

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

North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un Pushes for Speeding Up Mass Production of Kamikaze Drones

Kim Jong-Un standing next to a North Korean Solid Fuel IRBM Drone (Undated photo: KCNA)

North Korean supremo Kim Jong-Un has called for accelerated mass production of exploding drones designed to crash into targets.

Kim said the development of the weapons in the country was going well, and stressed the need to go into “full-scale mass production” as soon as possible, according to state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The outlet paraphrased Kim, saying that the drones were easy to make at a low cost for a range of military activities, and reported that Kim had acknowledged the importance of drones in modern warfare.

The news comes as the US, South Korea and Japan recently joined together for military exercises involving advanced fighter jets and a US aircraft in nearby international waters in a show of their strength against North Korea.

Last month, North Korea accused South Korea of sending drones into its capital of Pyongyang to drop anti-Korean propaganda leaflets, threatening to respond with force if the incident happened again.

South Korea’s military has not confirmed if the allegations were true or not.

The incident is one in a series that indicates escalating tensions between the neighbours as Kim flaunts his advancing nuclear and missile program, which includes weapons able to target South Korea as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles that could potentially reach the US.

North Korea has also sent around 12,000 troops into Russia’s Kursk region, according to US, South Korean, and Ukrainian intelligence.

Their involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is nearing its third year, comes North Korea ratified a landmark defense pact with Russia on Tuesday promising to provide each other with mutual military aid and assistance if attacked.

The pact has sparked fears in Seoul about what North Korea could be getting in return for its support to Russia, such as Russian technology Kim could use to further develop its nuclear arsenal.

South Korean officials have said that North Korea will be a key topic in a summit between POTUS Joe Biden and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts set to be held this week at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Peru.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is nearly two years long which Kim Jong-Un observed through the media and his espionage network, where he noted the effectiveness of drones. The corpulent supreme leader, who has been building up strategic WMDs with the help of the Kremlin, also received first-hand accounts from his military contingent in Russia on drone warfare. Kim Jong-Un probably see another weapon system that he can produce and sell to Russia while adding to his already formidable arsenal. Meanwhile, the poor people of North Korea will continue to endure food insecurity under his selfish and maniacal rule.

North Korean supremo Kim Jong-Un enjoying a smoke and a laugh with an unidentified sycophant while his people starve. He already pocketed the $2,200 per month salary of each NK troop sent to die against Ukraine. (Undated Copyright AP Photo).

Regarding the US, the imminent APEC and G-20 Summits in South America will be POTUS Biden’s farewell tours to world leaders and allies. This past September he performed his swan song at the UNGA in NYC with the world asunder. Heaven only knows how he will re-assure his colleagues at these conferences that America can be relied upon as a trustworthy and reliable ally with white nationalist Donald Trump (and friend of Vladimir Putin) ready to take the reins in Washington.     

Sources:

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un pushes for speeding up mass production of exploding drones | Euronews

India: Delhi Air Pollution Blankets Capital in Dense Smog, Sparking Emergency Measures

Thick smog blanketed India’s capital Thursday as the annual ritual of choking on incredibly polluted winter air took hold of New Delhi yet again. Authorities ordered many students to stay home as the smog delayed more than 300 flights and prompted health warnings and a halt to all construction activity in the city.

The air quality rating in the densely packed city of roughly 33 million people first spiked on Wednesday to the highest “severe” category, under the WHO’s Air Quality Index ratings. With an AQI reading Thursday afternoon above 450, Delhi was contending with the worst air pollution in any city in the world.

Any reading over 150 on the AQI index — which measures the levels of five key pollutants harmful to human health in the air at any given time — is considered unhealthy. When the AQI rises to 301 or above, it’s considered an emergency, and harmful to all people.

Higher AQI levels pose serious health risks, particularly for children, the elderly and those with respiratory issues, who can all be affected at even lower levels.

A man feeds seagulls on the Yamuna River, engulfed in smog amid severe air pollution in New Delhi, India, 14 Nov 2024. Photo: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty

Indian authorities have advised Delhi residents to limit their outdoor activities and, Thursday night, the Delhi government announced enhanced anti-pollution measures, banning all non-essential construction and demolition work, restricting the entry of buses and trucks to the city, and banning the use of diesel generators. Elementary school students were told to switch to remote learning for Friday.

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport issued an advisory to air travelers Thursday, saying “low visibility procedures” had been enacted at the busy airport. Earlier, the IndiGo airline asked passengers to keep tabs on their flight status and leave for the airport early due to the low visibility on roads around the airport.

In addition to the hundreds of flights delayed Wednesday, at least ten flights were diverted from Delhi altogether.

Delhi’s air quality started worsening at the beginning of November, when fireworks lit up the skies for the Diwali Hindu religious festival. 

Source:

Delhi air pollution blankets India’s capital in dense smog, sparking emergency measures – CBS News

Diaper-Wearing Baby Kangaroo Captured in Florida

A four-month-old kangaroo wearing a diaper was captured after a brief time on the loose in Hernando County, FL. Photo courtesy of the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook

A diaper-wearing kangaroo escaped near a Florida elementary school, sparking a search before being apprehended by sheriff’s deputies.

The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office issued an alert on social media Wednesday telling local residents that a baby kangaroo wearing a diaper and a blue harness was on the loose near J.D. Floyd Elementary School. The joey was located and captured in Plantation Estates.

Hernando County, Florida.

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

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

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

What happened to the Democratic Party turnout?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s next for America and the World?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

Home | FEC

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

us-national-security-leak_redacted.pdf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

Canada: First Avian Flu Case in British Columbia

Map courtesy of Worldatlas.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

Public Health Canada informs:

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

Iran: 70 Students Stricken with Food Poisoning

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

Confluence of Major Events in Early November

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

World Holds Breath as America Votes

Vice-President Kamala Harris has a ONE PERCENT (1%) edge in the popular vote and a 226 to 219 electoral college vote (ECV) lead over Donald Trump entering the final weekend before the US election. 270 ECVs are needed to win. But why is this race between a successful VPOTUS, former California State Attorney-General, and US Senator against a failed business and family man even this close?

Nothing, except Donald Trump is white.

So, why is this race so close?

White supremacist racist bigots, ignorance, and religious intolerance, fueled by right-wing hate radio and Fox News, supported and funded by oligarchs such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Otherwise, a criminally-convicted wastrel who was sued for sexual assault and twice impeached as POTUS should be watching the election from home with less than 10% support of the American people. Trump has no logical economic policy for the hard-working American taxpayer other then touting the need for tariffs and being proud of avoiding paying income taxes (as well as military service), calling those Americans who do pay taxes and die for the US “suckers.”  

Donald Trump, a deeply dysfunctional man with catastrophic character flaws, is an avatar for white people who believe in the innate superiority of their race. This makes him a perfect reflection of his supporters (AKA MAGAts) who believe America is being usurped by minorities, Latinos, Chinese, Muslims, etc etc. White Americans are becoming a minority in the US and MAGA is code for Make America White Again.

Family members, like Mary Trump (L), a psychologist and niece to Donald Trump, know how nefarious he is and have been warning the American public about his deviancy, as well as his mental and cognitive decline.

MAGAts defile the US Capitol Rotunda on 6 Jan 2021 in Washington, DC. On 1 Nov, two lunatics were found guilty and one sentenced for their idiotic participation. In the nearly four years since then, more than 1,532 MAGAts have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 racists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing. Special Counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting this case against Donald Trump. (Photo: NBC News)

Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Republican Dan Coats suspects that Russian President Vladimir Putin is blackmailing Donald Trump.

The Kremlin is desperate for Trump to win in order to withdraw lifesaving US military and economic support for Ukraine. In the same vein, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is eager for a Trump victory which will allow the Likud Party to continue its policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians without interference from Washington. America’s immediate neighbors do not want to see a Trump win. Canada and Mexico have elected progressive leaders to run their countries.

House Majority Leader famously rebuked then-POTUS Trump: “With you, Mr. President, all roads lead to Putin!”

Inexplicably, Donald Trump took hundreds of thousands of classified documents from the White House and stored them at his Mar-A-Lago Florida estate. Special Counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting this case as well.

Donald Trump makes no attempt whatsoever to hide his disdain for people of color. Years ago in NYC, the Trump Organization refused to lease apartments to people of color.

Military veterans, once stalwart supporters of the GOP, have begun to turn away from the Donald Trump/JD Vance ticket, and with good reason.

But some influential Republicans continue to support Trump, as well as hillbilly JD Vance.

For example, disgraced and convicted GOP ex-Congressman George Santos (L) supports VPOTUS candidate JD Vance (R). Like Trump, JD Vance is a reflection of his supporters.

The Republican Party, the NRA, and ALEC have turned America into one vast warzone. According to the CDC, in 2022, there were more than 48,000 firearm-related deaths in the US. These are wartime casualties without having to invade another country. By contrast, Canada (with a population of approximately 40 million people), recorded 297 victims of firearms-related homicides in 2021.

The Republican Party answer to this national crisis?

GOP VPOTUS JD Vance candidate offered his policy prescription for the plague of firearms violence victimizing innocent people by blithely dismissing school shootings in the US as “a fact of life.” Donald Trump nonchalantly said after a school shooting in Iowa: “We have to get over it.”

US Army medics treating a casualty. Democrats want universal health coverage for all Americans; Republicans want gun rights enshrined for white people. (Photo: defense.gov)

This ersatz AI-generated image above of wishful thinking circled the globe many times over. Trump wants to be POTUS again to avoid the litany of criminal and civil charges against him.

And no matter what happens on this fateful Tuesday or what chicanery Republican operatives try at the election polls and tabulating centers, Donald J. Trump has an appointment with the Honorable Judge Juan Mercan on 26 Nov to answer for his 34 NYS felony convictions for falsifying business records. Merchan is the first judge in history to preside over the criminal indictment and conviction of a US President, and the first judge to hold a President in criminal contempt of court. This is a handsome man and sharp jurist.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, who successfully prosecuted war criminals at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague, is not going away any time soon. This is a capable, uncompromising professional.

Americans and the world have suffered enough Trump-fatigue this past decade. Remarkably, the world’s oldest man to seek the Presidency, suffering from steep mental and cognitive decline, as well as what appears to be morbid obesity, said he would run again in 2028. Oof!

Sources:

Trump’s Intelligence Chief Suspects Putin Blackmailing Trump | Crooks and Liars

Read the newly released evidence in the Jan. 6 case against Trump | PBS News

Judge questioned how Trump didn’t notice classified docs in bedroom (nbcnews.com)

Canada: RCMP Dismantle ‘Largest, Most Sophisticated’ Drug Mega-Lab

Aerial view of the drug “mega-lab.” (Photo: RCMP)

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) seized 1,100 pounds of illegal narcotics, including the deadly opiate fentanyl, during a raid at a major drug megalab in British Columbia.

(Map: researchgate.net)

The raid took place in a rural area of southeastern British Columbia at what police referred to as “the largest and most sophisticated fentanyl and methamphetamine drug superlab in Canada.”

RCMP officers seized 119 pounds of fentanyl, 860 pounds of methamphetamine, 77 pounds of cocaine and 33 pounds of MDMA during the raid, much of it destined for international export. (Photo: RCMP)

“The combined fentanyl and precursors seized at this facility could have amounted to over 95,500,000 potentially lethal doses of fentanyl, which have been prevented from entering our communities, or exported abroad,” police said.

Authorities also recovered almost 90 firearms, “massive amounts” of drug precursor chemicals, ammunition, firearm silencers, high-capacity magazines, body armor, and $500,000 in cash during the operation, which was assisted by members of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). (Photo: RCMP)

Prior to the late-October raid, officials also seized an additional 683 pounds of methamphetamine associated with the super lab and destined for export.

This raid denied this transnational organized crime group an estimated $485 million dollars in profits.

Police arrested Gaganpreet Randhawa who faces six charges related to firearms and possession of a controlled substance.

Sources:

BC RCMP – Federal Investigators take down the largest, most sophisticated drug superlab in Canada (rcmp-grc.gc.ca)

Police dismantle ‘largest and most sophisticated’ drug superlab in Canada – UPI.com

Israel ‘Emptying Gaza Completely’

A year of war in Gaza has undermined international law and threatens to make the strip uninhabitable, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese. She is making the case at the UN that Israel’s Nakba offensive be classified a genocide.

Palestinians gather at the site of IDF strikes on houses and residential buildings in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip on 20 Oct 2024. (Photo: Reuters / Abdul Karim Farid)

More than 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing extremely critical levels of hunger, according to the UN. Seventy percent of crop fields and livelihoods have been destroyed during the Israeli military offensive, AKA Nakba 2024.

The war, which has claimed 42,000 lives in Gaza and left hundreds of thousands wounded, has also spread to the West Bank and Lebanon. Civilians as well as UN peacekeepers have been targeted by the IDF. At this rate of carnage, approximately 50,000 Palestinians will have been killed by year’s end.

“I used the word ‘catastrophe’ for the first time back in Oct 2023,” Francesca Albanese said, “when Israel had killed 8,000, 6,000 people in the first weeks of the conflict and destroyed entire neighborhoods, bakeries, churches, and targeted UN buildings and universities. This is not the way wars are conducted.”

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, says a regional ceasefire is urgent. (Photo: AP / Salvatore Di Nolfi)

The Special Rapporteur argues that Israel’s military actions form part of a systematic attempt to displace Palestinians that goes back decades – and which she calls a genocide.

“Israel occupies that land, according to the International Court of Justice, unlawfully,” Albanese said. 

Click to access n2427968.pdf

“So, Israel unlawfully occupies a territory, oppressing its people, who of course retaliate. Then they wage a war against them. It doesn’t work that way.”

Ms. Albanese warns that the trauma of 7 Oct 2023 has deepened Israeli animosity towards Palestinians and spurred calls for vengeance, providing the government with an opportunity to escalate its actions in the occupied territories with the goal of making them unhospitable.

“As we speak, Israel is running extermination raids neighborhood per neighborhood in the areas that were already forcibly evacuated, ethnically cleansed of nearly one million people in northern Gaza.”

“Only 400,000 people remained, who have been starved, abused and bombed. What the people in Gaza have gone through is really unspeakable, and now it is emptying the land completely.”

UN leaders have called for a ceasefire and denounced starvation, mass displacements, atrocities, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The IDF recently demolished an UNRWA office in Gaza and the Israeli Knesset approved a controversial bill to ban them from operating on Israeli territory. Albanese called for the UN to consider suspending Israel as a member state over Nakba 2024.

Meanwhile, anti-Likud protestors demonstrated in Tel Aviv at the Israeli Defense Ministry. Many criticized PM Benjamin Netanyahu, a man indicted by the ICC for war crimes.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv call for the release of hostages held captive since 7 Oct 2023. (Photo: 2 Nov 2024 / AFP)

Flag-waving demonstrators in the country’s commercial hub held placards with slogans including “Deal now,” “Stop the war” and “We won’t abandon them,” and beat drums and chanted “Why are they still in Gaza?”

“There have been countless opportunities to end this crisis, and each one was torpedoed by the government,” said demonstrator Zahiro Shahar Mor (52), a bank employee from Tel Aviv.

Critics have questioned why a truce has still not materialized now that Israel has achieved many of its war aims, including last month’s killing of Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar, who was supposedly an obstacle to reaching a truce. Yahya Sinwar was not afforded a day in an Israeli court to answer for his alleged crimes against the Israeli people and was killed extra-judicially (XJK) by the IDF.

Ifat Kalderon, a prominent antigovernment protester afraid for her cousin still held in Gaza, blamed Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.

“Each hostage deal they start to talk about, Netanyahu sabotages. He always blamed Sinwar, but now there is no Sinwar. But every time he finds another reason,” the 50-year-old stylist said.

“It’s a bloody war, we need to stop it. Enough. So many soldiers are dying. And ordinary citizens,” she said, referring to civilians from both sides of the conflict paying with their lives.

The IDF held thousands of Palestinian detainees in security detention without hearing or trial prior to the 7 Oct 2023 attack to seize Israeli bargaining chips. The Mossad chief immediately advised Israeli PM Netanyahu to affect an immediate prisoner swap and one trade was concluded in Nov 2023. Afterwards, the Likud regime used the 7 Oct 2023 raid as a casus belli to de-populate the Gaza Strip. The odious son-in-law of ex-president Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, already slipped that the Gaza Strip has prime beachfront property for luxury resorts (as you read previously here on Coriolanus).    

Some at the rally — organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group — brought up the plight of Israel’s soldiers, who are exhausted more than a year into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Others hoped for international intervention, including from the US, which holds a presidential election Tuesday. The sane people of Israel must vote out the Likud Party. (Photo: AFP)

Sources:

UN rapporteur says Israel’s war in Gaza is ’emptying the land completely’ – International report (rfi.fr)

https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1l/k1lr8ngem8

Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territory ‘unlawful’: UN world court | UN News

Protesters demonstrate in Tel Aviv to demand end of war, return of hostages (voanews.com)

Bangladesh: Four Dengue Patients Die; 1,154 Hospitalized in Last 24 Hrs

Tiger mosquitoes spread diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus which, until recently, were typically only present in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

Four dengue patients died and 1,154 patients were admitted to different hospitals during the last 24 hours.

“During the period, 397 dengue patients were hospitalized in Dhaka city while 757 patients were admitted to different hospitals outside the capital,” reported the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

This year, the total number of cases rose to 60,574 and 290 deaths from dengue disease.

Last year, Bangladesh suffered 1,705 dengue-related deaths and a total of 321,179 dengue cases.

Mankind’s acme predator, the mosquito, continues to spread illness and death in SW Asia. The tiger mosquito (an invasive species) has also set up home in 13 countries in the EU, including France, Spain, and Greece, with experts linking their presence to a rise in dengue fever in Europe.

Climate change is creating favorable conditions for the tiger mosquito to spread, said the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The recent catastrophic flooding in Spain may provide more breeding grounds for the tiger mosquito and other predators.

Sources:

Four dengue patients die, 1,154 hospitalized in last 24 hrs | News (bssnews.net)

Spread of tiger mosquito behind rise of dengue fever in Europe (bbc.com)

Ukraine Eager to Pre-Emptively Strike North Koreans in Russia; China Unhappy, but Silent

North Korean supremo Kim Jong-Un keeps the $2,000 monthly salary of each soldier and receives uranium and technology for his nuclear program from Russia. President Putin gets cannon fodder for “meat attacks” against Ukrainian defenders. How easily these two maniacs throw people’s lives away like trash. (Rebel Pepper / RFA)

The recent North Korean record-long ICBM test suggests Russia is aiding Pyongyang’s missile program. (Photo: Lee Jin-man / AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spent months urging Western suppliers to allow Kiev to use their advanced weaponry to strike deeper inside Russia. This week he accused them of inaction in response to the 8,000 North Korean soldiers which the Kremlin “fully intends” to deploy in combat against Ukrainian troops. The Biden Administration, which announced a $425 million package of fresh security assistance to Ukraine under the presidential “drawdown authority,” its 69th tranche of defense equipment since late 2021, is concerned about escalation with Russia. The USSECDEF argued that deep strikes against Russia wouldn’t tip the balance of the war towards Kiev. So, the powerful HIMARS system can only be used defensively on Ukrainian territory.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces could benefit greatly by using Western-provided long-range mass casualty weapons to strike the North Korean troops “the firstest with the mostest.”  Such devastating attacks would both attrit and demoralize the unseasoned North Koreans before they even get a chance to see combat. The Ukrainian PSYOP program has been instructing North Korean soldiers how to safely surrender.  South Korean intelligence is reportedly assisting Kiev and Seoul may provide them mass-casualties in response.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, 10 Jan 2019. Neither supremo looks happy and this is before Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. (Photo: KCNA / via Reuters)

“Beijing is clearly uncomfortable with the news that North Korean soldiers have been deployed to Russia to assist Moscow’s war in Ukraine for a number of reasons,” said Patricia Kim, a fellow at the Brookings Institute in Washington.

Beijing sees a tightening Russia-North Korea alignment as reducing its own influence with those states, and worries that any military assistance Pyongyang gets from Moscow in return for deploying troops might make it more aggressive in Northeast Asia.

“China has no interest in the rise of a militarily strengthened and emboldened North Korea that might take greater risks and bring chaos to the region.”

A bolder Pyongyang would add to the troubles stoked by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, which has been a main source of regional tension for decades. Pyongyang recently refused Beijing’s assistance after massive floods wreaked the northern portion of the Hermit Kingdom. Kim Jong-Un is reportedly unhappy with China’s crackdown on revenue-supplying North Koreans in China. North Korean escapees have re-iterated a common refrain in North Korea: “Japan is our enemy of 100 years, China is our enemy of 1,000 years.”

Sources:

Is China peeved – or pleased – by North Korean troops in Ukraine? – Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

White House Says New Ukraine Aid On The Way, As Kyiv Braces For Fresh Attack (rferl.org)

Iceland: Preschool E. coli Outbreak Traced to Mixed Ground Beef

(Photo: Art Bicnick)

An E. coli outbreak at Mánagarður preschool in Reykjavík has been traced to mixed beef and lamb ground meat, which was insufficiently cooked. Eleven children were being monitored at Hringurinn children’s hospital.

According to a statement released on the website of the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST), the E. coli infection originated from mixed beef and lamb ground meat provided by Kjarnafæði, one of the largest food processing companies in Iceland.

The preparation of the meat during cooking was insufficient. This is the conclusion reached by an investigation conducted by Matís – a government-owned independent research company – and MAST. RÚV reported yesterday that the head cook of Mánagarður had tendered their resignation.

The MAST statement notes that the meat was not sold to the general public but was exclusively supplied to large kitchens, such as those in restaurants, cafeterias, and preschools. When suspicions regarding the meat were raised, MAST contacted Kjarnafæði, which promptly notified all clients who received meat from the same batch used at Mánagarður.

“The recall revealed that the buyers had already used it in their operations, though no reports of infection or illness have been noted among other consumers,” the statement reads.

Eleven children were being monitored at Hringurinn Children’s Hospital with four of them in serious condition in the ICU. One child recovered and was discharged.

The Reykjavík Health Inspectorate visited Mánagarður, taking numerous samples of foods used in meal preparation that day, including meat and vegetables. All food samples tested negative for E. coli, except for the ground meat.

Some children who typically do not eat meat also fell ill, though the transmission method remains unconfirmed in these cases. These children may have contracted the infection from other students who attended the preschool after becoming ill but before the facility was closed.

E. coli bacteria are part of the natural gut flora of humans and animals and can be introduced into water, meat, vegetables and other foods during their production. Different types of E. coli exist. Most types of E. coli are harmless, but Shigatoxin-producing E. coli (STEC) carry genes that register for toxins that can cause illness (virulence genes). However, their strains can be pathogenic. Hygiene and proper handling of meat and adequate cooking by users/consumers is therefore key to prevent infection with E. coli, including STEC from meat.

Sources:

Preschool E. coli Outbreak Traced to Mixed Ground Beef (icelandreview.com)

E. coli O145 confirmed in children and mixed minced meat | Food and Veterinary Authority (mast.is)

Four Raccoons Escape from Zoo in England

A zoo in England is asking members of the public to be on the lookout for four female raccoons that escaped from the facility Friday morning.

The Amazon World Zoo Park, near Sandown on the Isle of Wight, said the raccoons managed to escape their enclosure late Thursday night or Friday morning.

Referred to as the “Island” by residents, the Isle of Wight is the largest and second-most populous island in England and a designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. In 1970, Jimi Hendrix performed one of his last public concerts on the Isle of Wight, enjoyed by 600,000 to 700,000 spectators.

“If you have a sighting please do not approach them, they are not normally aggressive but will be scared,” the zoo advised on social media.

Officials asked nearly residents to check sheds and bonfire pits, as the animals “sleep during the day and become active at dusk.”

Rowena Welsh, a supervisor at the zoo, said a search has been launched for the masked fugitives.

“They are new here. Everyone is out searching and we have tracker dogs and drones looking for them,” she said.

Source:

Four raccoons escape from zoo in England – UPI.com

Coriolanus shall return to the stage in a few weeks after the election. In the meantime: “Good night, and good luck.”

The late, great CBS war correspondent Edward R. Murrow (25 Apr 1908 – 27 Apr 1965). Those of you unfamiliar with his life and career should read his biography or enjoy the 2005 movie “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

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

Canada: Indian Home Minister Amit Shah Behind Anti-Sikh Campaign

(Undated photo of Amit Shah: PTI)

Canadian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told Parliament that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered a campaign of violence, intimidation and intelligence-gathering targeting Sikh separatists inside Canada. Morrison did not elaborate on how Canada knew of Shah’s alleged involvement.

PM Justin Trudeau said a year ago that Canada had credible evidence agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June 2023. Canadian authorities have repeatedly said they have shared evidence of that with Indian authorities.

Indian government officials have repeatedly denied Canada has provided evidence and have called the allegations absurd. India’s embassy in Ottawa didn’t immediately respond to messages for a request for comment on the allegation against Shah.

On 14 Oct, Canada expelled the Indian high commissioner and five other diplomats, alleging they were persons of interest in multiple cases of coercion, intimidation and violence aimed at quieting a campaign for an independent Sikh state known as Khalistan.

Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil. The FBI announced criminal charges in mid-October against an Indian government employee in connection with an alleged foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in NYC.

Vikash Yadav, who authorities say directed the NYC plot from India, faces murder-for-hire charges in a planned killing that prosecutors have previously said was meant to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the US and Canada.

Nathalie Drouin, Trudeau’s national security adviser, said Canada has evidence the Indian government first gathered information on Indian nationals and Canadian citizens in Canada through diplomatic channels and proxies.

She said the information was then passed to the government in New Delhi, which allegedly works with a criminal network affiliated with Lawrence Bishnoi.

Bishnoi is currently in prison in India, but Drouin said his vast criminal network has been linked to homicides, assassination plots, coercion and other violent crimes in Canada.

Before the RCMP went public with allegations that Indian diplomats were persons of interest in criminal investigations, Drouin said there was an effort to work with the Indian government to ensure accountability, but it became evident the Indian government would not cooperate with Canada

The RCMP took the extraordinary step of talking publicly about ongoing investigations because of threats to public safety. The Indian government denies the allegations and has expelled six Canadian diplomats in return.

Hardeep Nijjar Singh (45) was fatally shot in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, BC. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland. Four Indian nationals living in Canada were charged with Niijar’s murder and are awaiting trial.

Where Khalistan would be were it a country. Approximately 21,000,000 Sikhs live in India, the majority in Punjab State (16,000,000); 16,000 Sikhs reside in Pakistan; nearly 772,000 Sikhs call Canada their home.

There are probably less than 100 Sikhs remaining in Afghanistan. (Photo: Andrew Scheer)

The idea of creating an independent Sikh homeland (Khalistan) has existed for decades. When India became independent, Hindus had a homeland (India) and Muslims carved out a homeland (West and East Pakistan), but Sikhs were left out.  The chances of achieving an independent Sikh state are as remote as an independent Kurdistan emerging in the Middle East. But brutal Indian repression of Sikhs will fill the ranks of their many pro-secession organizations.

India Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1983.

At the height of Sikh extremism in the 1980s, on 31 Oct 1984 (today), Indira Gandhi was assassinated in New Delhi by her two personal security guards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, both Sikhs, in retaliation for Operation Blue Star. And in June 1985, Canada suffered its worst terrorist incident when Sikh terrorists bombed Air India Flight 182 killing 268 Canadians, 27 Brits, and 22 Indians.

As previously posted here on Coriolanus, we see the murderous regime of Indian PM Nahendra Modi at work. He is following the playbook of any rightwing despot, like Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, North Korean supremo Kim Jong-Un, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping: eliminate enemies of the state. But as GOP Presidential candidate NYS Governor Thomas E. Dewey said in 1948: “You can’t shoot an idea with a gun.”

Baltej Singh Dhillon made history as the first turbaned Sikh officer in the RCMP. (Undated photo).

Sources:

Canada alleges Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered campaign targeting Sikh separatists – ABC News (go.com)

Statement by the Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs on the RCMP’s findings regarding criminal activity in Canada with connections to agents of the Government of India – Canada.ca

China Declares Success: Youngest Astronauts Reach Space

Taikonauts (L-R) Wang Haoze, Song Lingdong and Cai Xuzhe before the launch (Photo: EFE)

A Chinese spacecraft with a three-person crew, including the country’s first female space engineer, has docked after a journey of more than six hours.

The crew will use the homegrown space station as a base for six months to conduct experiments and carry out spacewalks as Beijing gathers experience and intelligence for its eventual mission to put someone on the Moon by 2030.

Beijing declared the launch of Shenzhou-19 a “complete success” – it is one of 100 launches China has planned in a record year of space exploration as it tries to outdo its rival, the US.

The BBC was given rare access to the Jiuquan Satellite launch center in Gansu and we were just over a kilometer away when the spacecraft blasted off.

Flames shot out of the rocket launcher as it took to the skies, lighting up the Gobi Desert with a deafening roar.

Hundreds of people lined the streets, waving and cheering the names of the taikonauts, China’s word for astronauts, as they were sent off.

At the Tiangong space station, the Shenzhou-19 crew met with three other astronauts who are manning the Shenzhou-18 and will return to Earth on 4 Nov.

Just two years ago, President Xi Jinping declared that “to explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is our eternal dream.”

But some in Washington see the country’s ambition and fast-paced progress as a real threat.

Earlier this year, NASA chief Bill Nelson said the US and China were “in effect, in a race” to return to the Moon, where he fears Beijing wants to stake territorial claims.

D/NASA told Congress that he believed Beijing’s civilian space program is camouflaging a military program.

This Chinese space plane can reportedly travel at hypersonic speed.

While the US wasted trillions of dollars and American military lives in the beginning of the 21st century waging two wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, China quietly and steadily used their immense resources wisely to begin their conquest of space. Meanwhile, NASA has contracted out a large portion of its space program to zillionarie megalomaniac Elon Musk, a man in secret contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. To read more of this South African’s nefarious activities, please see previous posts from Coriolanus.

Source:

China declares success as its youngest astronauts reach space (bbc.com)

Over Hatred, Three Youngsters Flush Their Lives Away; Two in US, One in UK

As China is sending their youth into the cosmos, the US and UK sent three youngsters into the dumpster.

First, the UK.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana (18) and his three child victims.

A teenager accused of killing three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class for young children in the United Kingdom has been charged with possessing an al Qaeda training manual and ricin poison.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana (18) already faces three murder charges, ten counts of attempted murder and one count of knife possession. The new charges were filed under the UK’s Terrorism Act.

The poison and PDF study, “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The al Qaeda Training Manual,” were found during a search of Rudakubana’s home. 

Tests later confirmed the substance found was ricin. The risk of exposure to the public was low said the UK Health Security Agency and there was no evidence that any victims, first responders, or members of the public were exposed to ricin.

Rudakubana allegedly committed the 29 July stabbing spree that killed three girls — Alice Dasilva Aguiar (9), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7), and Bebe King (6) – and injured several others, in Southport, a town north of Liverpool. Merseyside Police did not declare the events a terror incident because no motive has been determined, authorities said during a news conference in Liverpool. 

(Map: Courtesy of getthedata.com)

His victims: (L-R) Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar were killed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance event. The teen suspect faces numerous charges related to the slaying.  (Photos: Merseyside Police)

Rudakubana‘s attacks sparked widespread protests and riots across the country amid inaccurate reports the suspect was an asylum seeker. A police van burns as an unruly crowd clashed with police 30 Jul 2024, in Southport, northwest England, near where three girls were stabbed to death in a dance class. (Richard McCarthy/PA via AP)

Rudakubana was born in England to Rwandan parents. Despite being a minor at the time of the stabbings, a judge lifted restrictions that prevented the reporting of his name. 

Rudakubana, obviously in need of intensive psychiatric care, killed three innocent children who had just barely begun their lives. Too bad UK authorities weren’t able to intervene before his stabbing spree and indoctrination into al-Qaida. Now he has caused irreparable harm to three families forced to bury their daughters. His actions also led to riots, arson, and looting against innocent immigrants in the UK.    

Now, the US.

Neptune Beach Florida Police arrested braces-wearing Caleb James Williams (18) who was wielding a machete with an 18-inch blade outside a polling station in Florida as part of a mob of teenagers accused of intimidating Democratic supporters. The US election is mere days away.

Williams was arrested on charges of aggravated assault for allegedly brandishing his weapon at two unidentified women, ages 71 and 54, and improper exhibition of a weapon.

We cannot see acme-prone 18-year-old Caleb James Williams braces as he is not smiling in his mugshot. (Neptune Beach Florida Police Dept)

While his high school classmates are enjoying Florida State University, Caleb will be enjoying Florida State Penitentiary in a few months.

In NYC, a 23-year-old woman was indicted on hate crime and assault charges for pepper spraying a 45-year-old Uber driver in an anti-Muslim attack in NYC. As the Uber driver approached a red light, he began praying in Arabic. Jennifer Guilbeault lunged forward toward the driver’s seat, holding a can of pepper spray. The idiot sprayed Shohel Mahmoud in the face, causing burning, redness and pain.

Jennifer Guilbeault pepper spraying Shohel Mahmoud (Image: Social media)

Thousands of young people drown every year trying get to the US, Australia, Canada, or the EU for a chance at a better life; some just want to live one more day. Those young migrants would have loved to have just one-tenth of the breaks privileged Caleb and Jennifer had growing up in the US.

In 2023, at least 8,565 people died on migration routes worldwide according to the IOM. Undated photo of unfortunate refugees courtesy of the Vatican News Service.

The charges against Caleb James Williams and Jennifer Guilbeault are merely allegations and both defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

All three of these youngsters (between 18 and 23) have flushed away their lives over hatred, stupidity, and/or mental illness. Muganwa Rudakubana will most likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. But Caleb James Williams and Jennifer Guilbeault will one day be released from prison, assuming the two will be convicted and imprisoned for their felonies. But police records, like the internet, are forever, GOP VPOTUS candidate JD Vance is finding out now. Who would ever hire, date, matriculate into higher education, or marry Jennifer and Caleb?  

Sources:

UK teen charged in stabbing found with al Qaeda material, poison, police say | Fox News

Teen Accused in U.K. Taylor Swift Dance Class Stabbing Charged With Terror Offenses – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Florida Teen Wielded Machete Outside Polling Station (politicalwire.com)

https://manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-announces-hate-crimes-indictment-of-woman-for-pepper-spraying-uber-driver-on-the-upper-east-side/

America’s Defense Contractors Failing Basic Cybersecurity Which China is Exploiting

A new report from Merrill Research states that only four percent of defense contractors are fully prepared to meet the DoD minimum cybersecurity requirements known as the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). These requirements represent basic cyber hygiene, not cutting-edge tools — yet the vast majority of contractors fail to meet even these minimum standards.

The US faces an unprecedented and persistent cyber threat, particularly from China. Recently, hackers linked to Beijing breached several US internet service providers in an attack dubbed Salt Typhoon. This latest intrusion is part of a broader wave of sophisticated cyber campaigns orchestrated by China, including Volt Typhoon and Flax Typhoon, which have penetrated critical sectors ranging from energy to telecommunications.

D/FBI Christopher Wray bluntly stated, “China’s hacking program is larger than that of every other major nation, combined.”

The gap between what Americans believe about the security of our defense contractors and the grim reality exposed by the Merrill report should alarm everyone.

The CMMC is the digital equivalent of locking your doors at night. Multi-factor authentication and patch management are fundamental requirements, yet the Merrill report shows that only 21% of defense contractors use multi-factor authentication, which most civilians need to log into their social media accounts, and a dismal 15% have implemented patch management, which ensures that software vulnerabilities are regularly updated.

The disconnect between belief and reality is stark. While 75% of contractors believe they are compliant, their reported cybersecurity readiness tells a different story. The average Supplier Performance Risk System score across surveyed contractors is a staggering -12, far below the required 110 to meet CMMC standards. This isn’t just a compliance failure; it’s a national security crisis.

If these contractors — many of them responsible for safeguarding classified data and developing our military’s most advanced technology — are this unprepared, what does that say about the rest of the US critical infrastructure? 

The defense industrial base is one of 16 critical infrastructure sectors in the US, alongside other essential industries like energy, healthcare, and financial services. These sectors are integral to the functioning of our nation.

The Salt Typhoon, Volt Typhoon, and Flax Typhoon attacks highlight just how deeply Chinese cyber operatives are infiltrating that critical infrastructure. According to the USIC, China’s ultimate goal is to disrupt America’s ability to respond to military crises, particularly in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. Chinese hackers could paralyze our power grids, disrupt water systems, or compromise defense communications.

Contractors that remain non-compliant could be shut out from future DoD contracts and subject to False Claims Act penalties if they had previously attested to being compliant. Now that the DOD has aligned contractor profit incentives with national security interests, there may be fewer breaches like Salt Typhoon. 

The Chinese government has demonstrated its intent and capability to exploit any weaknesses in America’s critical infrastructure and contractors must recognize that cybersecurity is more than just a regulatory box to check.

As we read above, China is making tremendous strides into space thanks to Research and Development (R & D), but also thanks to espionage, hacking, and intellectual property theft.

Sources:

info.cybersheath.com/eBook-Third-Annual-Merrill-Research-Report-op-ed?utm_source=media_outlet_NextGov_FCW&utm_medium=article_op-ed&utm_campaign=merrill_research_report

America’s defense contractors are failing basic cybersecurity and China is exploiting it – Nextgov/FCW

Spain Battles Deadliest Flooding Disaster in Decades as Death Toll Rises

Spain deployed more than 1,000 troops to help with rescue efforts but many crews remain cut-off from towns by flooded roads and downed communication and power lines.

Spain is enduring its worst flooding disaster in decades with at least 95 people dead and dozens more missing after huge rains swept the eastern province of Valenica and beyond.

Torrential rain triggered flash floods which swept away bridges and buildings and forced people to climb onto roofs or cling to trees to survive.

President Pedro Sánchez has declared three days of national mourning as the wild conditions continue, restricting some rescue efforts.

The death toll is feared to climb as “many people are still missing.”

The churning floodwaters swept away hundreds of cars in Valencia. Guillermo Serrano Pérez (21) said the water had rushed down a highway “like a tsunami” forcing him and his parents to abandon their car and climb onto a bridge to survive. (Photo: AP)

In his national address, President Sanchez urged citizens to remain vigilant and pledged a full recovery, telling victims: “The whole of Spain weeps with you… we won’t abandon you”.

His government is yet to make an explicit link between the “unprecedented” extreme weather and climate change but scientists tell the BBC it is clear that global temperature rise made the downpours worse.

One of the first-hit towns near Valencia, Chiva, reported one year’s worth of rainfall in just a period of eight hours according to national weather agency Aemet.

As Spanish army and emergency crews rushed to carry out rescues on Wednesday morning- including winching people to safety from balconies and car rooftops- survivors in Valencia recounted the horror of the floods on Tuesday night.

Sudden surges turned streets and roads into rivers- catching many motorists unaware.

Source:

Scores dead after torrential rain in Spain’s Valencia region (bbc.com)

Oregon: First Case of Avian Flu Found in Pig

A severe form of bird flu has been detected for the first time in a pig on a small unidentified farm in Crook County in central Oregon.

The same strain – highly pathogenic avian influenza – has turned up in backyard and commercial flocks across the US. Hundreds of cows have also been infected, along with some people who worked around the infected animals.

Two of the latest cases of human infection were announced last week in Washington state. The CDC confirmed that two people working in a commercial egg farm in Franklin County in south-central Washington were infected.

But this is the first time the virus has crossed over to pigs. The National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed the presence of the strain in one of five pigs on the farm. Results on the other four pigs are pending. The testing can take a little while because the CDC analyzes the DNA of the virus.

The farm also has backyard birds that became infected. State and national officials humanely euthanized all 70 of the birds and the five pigs to prevent further spread of the disease. None of the meat entered the food supply chain – it is not a commercial farm – and it was not intended for retail.

The discovery of the virus in pigs potentially could be a concern in Iowa, the top pork-producing state in the country. But Chris Rademache, a clinical professor in the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine, was not worried by the Oregon case.

“This is a very unique case,” Rademache said.

Rademache said the situation in Oregon involved a backyard pig, not intended for consumption, which was in close contact with poultry and domestic waterfowl, which is “a very different situation” than a hog farming operation.

He said pork producers are aware of the need to separate poultry and hogs, and they “do a good job” of that. Additionally, Rademache said the state has a “robust” monitoring and testing program to catch any sort of outbreak.

“Pork continues to be safe to eat,” Rademache said.

Oregonians raise about 3,000 pigs every year and at least one just became infected with bird flu. (Photo courtesy of Oregon Department of Agriculture)

The property was quarantined and state officials are conducting surveillance at the site. The agriculture department also has provided the owners with protective gear to avoid further infection, and officials are educating and monitoring the exposed individuals.

State officials didn’t say how many people might have been exposed. Many people develop mild respiratory symptoms, including a runny nose, sore throat and cough. People can also get conjunctivitis – or “pink eye.” Some people who’ve been infected have become severely ill and have required hospitalization.

The current strain of the virus that’s circulating in the US and worldwide is endemic in wild birds, causing outbreaks in poultry, wild mammals, including seals and sea lions, along with domestic animals and dairy cows. Avian flu has been confirmed in dairy cattle in 14 states, including California and Idaho. Oregon has not had any cases in dairy cattle. The number of cases of human infections is relatively low.

Food safety officials recommend properly cooking meat and eggs to kill the virus along with other harmful bugs like E. coli, which can be deadly. The CDC also recommends pasteurizing milk and dairy products to kill pathogens. Check the USDA website for food safety tips.

State officials expect the measures taken at the farm will end the outbreak, but they advised others to take precautions to prevent their animals from becoming infected.

Source:

First case of bird flu in pig discovered on small Oregon farm (yahoo.com)

Kazakh Experts Sound Alarm Over Mysterious Mass Deaths of Caspian Seals

The Caspian Sea, bordered by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan, is rich in oil and gas reserves.

The unexplained deaths of scores of Caspian seals in Kazakhstan’s Manghystau region is raising alarm bells among local authorities and scientists.

As of 29 Oct 289 seal carcasses had been found along the coastline over the previous five days, prompting urgent monitoring efforts by the Interregional Fishery Inspection of the Ural-Caspian Basin and experts from the Institute of Hydrobiology and Ecology.

Seal researcher Asel Baimuqanova said some of the dead seals showed signs of trauma. Although the exact cause of death remains unclear, Baimuqanova noted that several seals were pregnant, adding urgency to the investigation.

(Undated photo: RFE/RL)

Caspian seals are the only marine mammals in the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest inland body of water. Once numbering over a million in the early 20th century, their population has now dwindled to an estimated 70,000 due to overhunting and pollution.

Since late September, dedicated scientific teams have conducted daily inspections along the Tupqaraghan Peninsula’s western coast to investigate the unexplained surge in mortality rates.

The discovery of the dead seals follows a similar event in April, when 27 seal carcasses were found in the area, which was attributed to storm-related beaching. Authorities suspect those seals may have died at sea before washing ashore.

Pollution from hydrocarbon extraction and declining water levels have been threatening both local species and the sea’s ecological future, according to experts.

Animal die-offs sometimes remain a mystery to researchers, whether it’s a flock of birds found dead or whales beaching themselves. Pesticides and poisons have been attributed to some bird die-offs and sonar interference may contribute to whale beachings. Necropsies will reveal whether poisons, pollution, or pathogens killed these poor creatures.

Source:

Kazakh Experts Sound Alarm Over Mysterious Mass Deaths Of Caspian Seals (rferl.org)

Beautiful Black Halloween Cat Has Most Unique Orange Eyes