ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks at the roundtable in The Hague on 8 Oct. This is the same lawyer who prosecuted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes. (Photo: RFE/RL)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is entitled to try cases of the alleged execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs).
According to the latest data published by the Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General’s Office, investigators have so far obtained information on the execution of 93 Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian military.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine presented a report in March about the execution of at least 32 Ukrainian POWs in 12 separate cases between Dec 2023 and Feb 2024.
In Mar 2023, the ICC’s pretrial chamber issued warrants for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, charging them with the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia — a war crime under international legislation.
Meanwhile, Former US Marine Trevor Reed has been sentencedin absentia by a Russian court to 14 1/2 years in prison, on charges he joined the Ukrainian Army as a mercenary.
Trevor Reed vaulted into the news in 2020 when he was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on an assault charge he denied. (AFP File photo)
The Russian Investigative Committee said on October 9 that Reed enlisted with Ukrainian forces in May 2023 and participated in combat operations in the Donetsk region.
Reed’s participation in the war became public in Jul 2023 when he was injured by a mine explosion while fighting for Ukraine. He had been transferred to Germany for medical care.
In April 2022, Reed, who by then had served nearly three years in a Russian prison, was exchanged for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had been serving a 20-year sentence in the US for drug trafficking.
Reed’s conviction in absentia comes days after two other Americans were convicted and sentenced by Russian courts.
Stephen Hubbard (72) was sentenced by the Moscow City Court on 7 Oct to six years and 10 months in prison on charges of being a mercenary and fighting against Russia in Ukraine.
Robert Gilman (30), another former US Marine, was sentenced to seven years and one month in prison for assaulting a prison official and a state investigator.
Both cases follow a pattern of high-profile arrests and detentions of Americans in Russia, which are part of Moscow’s broader strategy to exert pressure on Washington and use these AMCITs for future prisoner swaps.
US Issues Solar Storm Watch After Large Outburst From Sun
An image released by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a solar flare, the bright flash in the center of the image, on 3 Oct Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory/NASA, via AP
Periodically, the sun spews out gigantic eruptions of particles into the solar system. Sometimes, when the solar eruptions are aimed right at Earth, the particles may create brilliant auroras in night skies in many parts of the planet. Then there are other occasions when the battering can damage satellites, mangle GPS signals and knock out power grids.
On Wednesday, a federal center issued a space weather severe storm watch after sun-watching spacecraft observed a large solar flare emanating from a sunspot in the sun’s northern hemisphere, accompanied by an explosion of particles known as a coronal mass ejection.
The charged particles from the latest event — protons, electrons and helium nuclei — are speeding at more than 2.5 million miles per hour and are expected to start slamming into the Earth’s magnetic field on Thursday morning Eastern time.
But the geomagnetic storm could last about 36 hours. If the storm reaches the severe level, the auroras in the Northern Hemisphere could stretch down into the middle of the US, potentially as far south as Alabama.
On top of the terrestrial super-storms wracking the American south, now comes an extra-terrestrial storm that may hamper the communications network during recovery operations.
Sources:
The New York Times and NASA
Israeli Forces Demolish Homes in the Occupied West Bank
Israeli forces demolished two homes under construction in a town west of Salfit, in the central occupied West Bank.
Local sources told the Wafa news agency that military bulldozers demolished the two houses in az-Zawiya, which belonged to local Palestinians.
The agency also reported Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at Palestinian civilians at the Hamra military checkpoint, in the northern Jordan Valley, while a mosque in Khirbet Tana was attacked by settlers.
Settlers entered and vandalized the mosque and smashed solar panels that generated electricity for it.
The cartoonist, Amos Biderman, explained in an interview with The Times of Israel that he meant to suggest that Mr. Netanyahu’s “arrogance” and policies on settlement construction in the West Bank had provoked “a disaster in Israel-US relations on the scale of 9/11.”
Ohio MAGA Militant Pleads Guilty to Felony Charges for Attacking US Capitol on 6 Jan
Dustin Martin (30) of Grove City, OH, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of civil disorder and a misdemeanor charge of disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds before US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan. Judge AliKhan will sentence Martin on 7 Feb 2025.
The FBI arrested Martin on 21 June 2023, in Ohio.
His accomplice, Cody Lee Tippet, was previously sentenced to 30 days in prison for his seditious role on 6 Jan 2021.
These two young men threw their lives away with these federal felony convictions over a misguided belief of white supremacy and the hateful lies of Donald J. Trump.
n the 45 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,532 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 571 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.
Ukrainian Missile Attack Kills Six North Korean Officers Near Donetsk
You wonder if any of the six North Korean officers were any of these lickspittles surrounding Kim Jong-Un. Photo: Reuters
Six North Korean military officers were among about 20 military personnel killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on Russian-occupied territory near the city of Donetsk. Three North Korean servicemen were also wounded.
The DPRK officers were reportedly visiting the front lines as part of an ‘exchange of experience’ program.
That’s some experience they received!
The attack came after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia.
Ukrainian intelligence officials said last year that North Korean military personnel, including engineers, were operating in Russian-occupied territory. Russia was planning to mobilize North Korean laborers for various construction projects in occupied Ukrainian territory.
And speaking of experience, for which battles, campaigns, or wars did these above North Korean generals earn all of these impressive-looking awards? North Korea hasn’t been at war since 1953.
America’s part-time Soldiers (Army National Guardsmen, Army and USMC Reservists) have more combat experience than these bloated uniformed popinjays.
Nota Bene: During the Vietnam War, South Korean soldiers fought Viet Cong guerrillas and the NVA; the ROK also deployed forces to Iraq in the early 2000s.
Japanese Encephalitis Cases Reported in Taiwan, Nepal
The mosquito species _Culex tritaeniorhynchus_ and other related _Culex_ species are efficient vectors of the JE virus and breed in wet areas such as rice paddies. Vector control is difficult because potential breeding sites are extensive.
In Nepal, 63 people have been infected with the mosquito-borne zoonotic viral disease since June 2024. As of 22 Sep 2024, 17 people, including children, have died from JE infections this year.
This JE outbreak has been detected in 29 Nepal districts, including those in the Kathmandu Valley, which is located at 5,000 feet, where virus-carrying mosquitoes are found.
Nepal’s health department estimates that about 12 million people, out of a total population of 31 million, are at risk of JE in 2024. Additionally, many of the one million visitors to Nepal this year may need protection from JE.
Taiwan health authorities announced the 3rd Japanese encephalitis case this year.
Health officials say the man started showing symptoms on 24 Sep 2024 and was hospitalized 1 Oct 2024.
Officials suspect a pigsty within two kms of his workplace as the origin of the mosquitos.
Authorities have taken measures to eradicate the contagious disease-carrying mosquitoes, which breed in places like rice paddies and ponds. Pigs play an essential role in the life cycle and serve as an amplifier host without suffering from the disease. They maintain prolonged high-level viremia, which allows mosquitoes to get infected easily.
The only measures to prevent JE infection are vaccination and avoidance of mosquito bites.
While there are very few local JEV cases in the US, the CDC cautions the millions of Californians who travel west to Asia and Pacific Ocean countries to protect themselves from infection.
In the US, Valneva SE’s IXIARO (JESPECT) vaccine has been approved by the US FDA and CDC for many years. This safe and effective vaccine is authorized for most children and adults traveling to Japanese encephalitis endemic areas.
As of 5 Oct 2024, IXIARO is available at travel vaccine clinics and pharmacies in the US.
Trump and Putin Have Had ‘As Many as Seven’ Private Phone Calls Since Trump Left the White House
What are these two chatterboxes always talking about? Saving the planet? (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Former President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have apparently communicated several times since Trump left office in 2021, according to Bob Woodward.
CNN obtained an advance copy of Woodward’s revealing new book War, which went behind the scenes of President Joe Biden’s administration and touched on Trump’s time in office as both navigated recent foreign conflicts with world leaders. Among the revelations was Trump’s seemingly special treatment of Putin, including during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Woodward wrote that a former Trump aide recounted being told to leave a room so Trump “could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.” Woodward adds: “According to Trump’s aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021.”
In 2020, Woodward writes, Trump had “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.”
“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin said to Trump, according to Woodward.
“I don’t care,” Trump replied. “Fine.”
“No, no,” Putin said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”
Putin understands English (and speaks German), but rarely speaks it publicly. You can hear him in the YouTube link below. Trump and Putin do not need an interpreter. The two greatest threats to American national security are Donald J. Trump and his former national security advisor, disgraced US Army Gen. Michael Flynn.
Kitten Comes Up to Man in His Front Yard, Brushing Against His Legs, Next He’s on His Shoulder, Ready to Stay
Roman and Janna had never had a cat, but a kitten inexplicably appeared in their yard, seemingly delivered by the mysterious workings of the “cat distribution system.”
Elvis the kitten. Janna at TikTok@jannaclavelli
The kitten approached Roman in his front yard, brushing against his legs. Next, he got on Roman’s shoulder and decided to stay. They named the kitten Elvis.
Janna at TikTok@jannaclavelli
With the help of the online community, Janna gave Elvis a warm bath, kitten food, and a flea comb to help clean him up. Elvis was so calm, soaking up every ounce of love and attention.
Janna at TikTok@jannaclavelli
Elvis likes to “help” when Janna does chores. Janna at TikTok@jannaclavelli
Janna at TikTok@jannaclavelli
Janna never imagined how this small, furry creature could become the missing piece she never knew she was searching for. “I had been struggling with anxiety… but since Elvis entered our lives, it has all gone away. I didn’t know I needed him till he came.”
Heavy rains from Hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage in Asheville, NC, on 28 Sep. Photo: Melissa Sue Gerrits / Getty Images
Flooding in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene has led to swarms of yellow jackets.
Heavy rain and standing water likely destroyed the insects’ nests underground and in trees.
State health officials said they have bought Benadryl and EpiPens to help people who get stung, especially those with allergies.
One million people without power in the Carolinas; over 200 killed in US by Hurricane Helene; hundreds still missing or unaccounted for.
1,000 active-duty troops ordered to assist with recovery efforts.
Flooding increased the risk of water-borne and mosquito-borne diseases dramatically.
Most people aren’t allergic to wasp or bee stings but may still develop pain, itching or swelling at the site. Benadryl, either in topical or oral form, can help reduce those symptoms. Epinephrine injections, or EpiPens, are reserved for people with severe allergic reactions — such as trouble breathing or swallowing — which can sometimes be life-threatening.
Hayes said people who are allergic to bees are usually allergic to yellow jackets, as well, though the scale of the reaction might differ.
Mexican Military Kills Six Migrants Near Guatemalan Border
Soldiers stand guard outside a hospital where injured migrants were taken after Mexican soldiers shot a group of 33 migrants in Tapachula, Mexico. 2 Oct 2024. Photo: Jose Torres/Reuters
One day after Mexico’s first female president was inaugurated, soldiers opened fire at a pickup truck carrying migrants, killing six people from Egypt, El Salvador, and Peru, in an incident that President Claudia Sheinbaum described as “regrettable.”
The tragic event occurred on Tuesday evening when soldiers spotted a vehicle carrying 33 migrants “going at high speed,” according to the Mexican Defense Ministry (AKA SEDENA). The vehicle reportedly tried to evade a military patrol in Chiapas, a Mexican state bordering Guatemala.
“Behind the pick-up truck there were two vehicles like those used by criminal groups in the region,” the ministry said, adding that two soldiers reported hearing explosions leading them to open fire.
Four of the migrants died on the scene and two more in a nearby hospital. The attack also left 12 wounded.
Sheinbaum called for the incident “to be investigated and punished” and the soldiers involved in the attack were turned over to the Attorney General’s Office.
Violence has been on the rise in Chiapas as cartels fight for control of lucrative routes for smuggling migrants and drugs. The Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel have been engaged in a turf war in the area, with hundreds forced to flee their homes last January.
President Claudia Sheinbaum announces salary increases for military personnel, focusing on lower enlisted soldiers and junior officers.
These poor migrants were escaping terrible, violent conditions in search of a better life, only to be needlessly killed. There is no information indicating where the sounds of the explosions originated and if the human traffickers opened fire on the Mexican soldiers. Authorities haven’t disclosed whether the refugees or the smugglers were armed. Through no fault of her own, President Sheinbaum is off to an inauspicious start to her five-year term.Nevertheless, she is going to change politics in Mexico for a long time to come.
FBI: Seven 6 Jan 2021 Seditionists Processed: Four Arrested; Two Sentenced; One Convicted
The FBI and the Justice Department has been extremely busy over the past 24 hours dealing with 6 Jan 2021 white-supremacist insurrectionists.
First, the FBI made four arrests.
Photo: FBI
Andre Maurice Bonneau (64) of Lewiston, Maine, pictured above, was arrested for allegedly assaulting law enforcement and other charges. Bonneau allegedly disregarded police orders to “get back” and grabbed a bicycle rack in an apparent attempt to breach the police line. Bonneau struggled with officers over the bike rack as he attempted to lift and remove the barricade from the police line. In response to his actions, officers defended themselves by using their riot batons against him and deploying a chemical irritant in Bonneau’s direction. The officers successfully repelled Bonneau’s advance and he retreated.
Christopher Jordan (circled in green) lunging toward a police officer; Earl Jordan (circled in yellow) being moved by other officers.Photo: FBI
Brothers Christopher Jordan (48) of St. George, UT and Earl Jordan (50) of Dickens, IA, were arrested for allegedly assaulting law enforcement and other charges.
Earl and Christopher were seen allegedly engaging with and confronting law enforcement officers during the melee. Earl Jordan allegedly threw his elbow at a police officer, knocking him off balance. Christopher Jordan allegedly lunged toward another officer. Despite verbal commands from police to “get back,” the brothers continued their aggressive behavior. Earl Jordan was allegedly swiped at an officer’s face before grabbing the officer by the throat in another encounter. Simultaneously, Christopher Jordan engaged another police officer, pushing and attempting to wrest control of the officer’s baton.
Despite repeated efforts by the officers to break free from the crowd and establish a police line the Jordan brothers persisted, blocking law enforcement. The brothers then disappeared into the crowd, allowing the officers to regroup behind their line.
Later that day, both brothers confronted police again. Earl Jordan picked up a piece of metal fencing and hurled it as officers struggled to prevent rioters from breaching the building. The Jordan brothers remained on Capitol grounds until the evening hours of January 6th, when law enforcement successfully cleared the area.
James Roe Cleary identified himself to the FBI as being seen in images taken from the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol. (Photo: US DoJ)
James Roe Cleary (56) of Waterford, CT, was arrested for felony civil disorder, assault, and trespassing during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Cleary was involved in the most intense fighting between rioters and police in the Tunnel, the site of some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement on 6 Jan.
A complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants above are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Two miscreants below were sentenced for their participation in the 6 Jan 2021 attack on American democracy.
Michael Oliveras outside the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021. (Photo: US DoJ)
First, Michael Oliveras (51) of Lindenwold, NJ was sentenced to five years in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution by the Honorable US District Judge Beryl A. Howell.
A federal jury convicted Oliveras of three felonies in Nov 2023. Oliveras traveled to Washington, DC prepared for “war on January 6” because he wanted to stop the certification of the Presidential election. At the Capitol, he swarmed and helped attack a unit of police officers on the West front, engaged in a brawl with officers on the West Terrace, and entered the US Capitol twice—and attempted to enter a third time—during the riot, all while repeatedly calling for the execution of “traitors,” i.e., lawmakers, and encouraging rioters to drag members of Congress out “by their hair.” Oliveras documented many of his actions on videos he took himself.
Oliveras violently engaged and re-engaged with police officers during the fracas and was undeterred even after being sprayed with chemical irritant. After law-enforcement finally secured the US Capitol, Oliveras returned to NJ and posted on social media about his attack on the Capitol:
“Did we want to get our bare hands on the flesh of those who have committed treason? Yes. Would I, as one of those red-blooded Americans, if the opportunity presented itself, grasped and removed one of those traitors? Yes.”
On 8 Jan 2021, Oliveras posted again: “Patriots. Are any of you discouraged? What you saw in the Senate was precisely what we want. Insurrection acts in motion.”
The FBI arrested Oliveras on 9 Dec 2021, in NJ. After his arrest, Oliveras repeatedly joined YouTube airings and exclaimed that he was not sorry for his actions and he would “do it again.”
Jeremy Daniel Groseclose on 6 Jan 2021. (Image: FBI)
Second, Jeremy Groseclose (41) of Elliston, Virginia, was sentenced to 40 months in prison, 24 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 by the Honorable US District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.
Groseclose was found guilty on 21 Nov 2023 of felony civil disorder and felony obstruction of an official proceeding, in addition to the misdemeanor offenses following a bench trial.
Groseclose was among a mob of rioters illegally on the Capitol grounds. During his time inside the Capitol building, Groseclose wore a gas mask and interfered with US Capitol Police (USCP) officers as they attempted to prevent the mob from progressing farther into the Capitol. As USCP tried to close a security door located on the east side of the Crypt, Groseclose and others prevented the door from closing by placing chairs, trash cans, and other objects under the door. Groseclose and others also used their hands to lift the door as it was closing. Ultimately, Groseclose and the mob prevented the door from closing and moved toward the retreating USCP officers.
Security footage captured Groseclose taking pictures and recording videos of the chaos inside the Capitol building. In particular, at about 2:39 PM, Groseclose documented a physical struggle between law enforcement officers and a member of the mob. Later, Groseclose captured an image of a dark red substance – believed to be blood — on the floor of the Capitol Building just outside of the Rotunda. The images and videos that Groseclose appeared to capture were not found on his phone, and in the days following the attack, Groseclose sent messages to others discussing the deletion of evidence.
The FBI arrested Groseclose on 25 Feb 2021 in Elliston.
Lastly, one lunatic was just convicted.
Jay Matthew Kenyon (47) of Harrisonburg, VA, was found guilty of felony civil disorder and four misdemeanor offenses. The Honorable US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson will sentence him on 10 Jan 2025. After breaching the US Capitol, USCP was able to escort Kenyon from the building. But the defendant returned and resisted law-enforcement efforts to eject him. USCP then finally removed him one hour after he trespassed.
A US Capitol Police Officer identified Kenyon with brandishing a knife during the ordeal. The complaint read: “Officer _ recalled the individual swinging the knife and perceived that the individual was trying to attack officers. Officer _ disarmed the individual.”
According to online court records, Kenyon has faced additional charges for assault and battery of a family member, contempt of court and additional traffic violations dating back to 2011.
The FBI arrested Kenyon on 28 Feb 2023, in Harrisonburg, VA.
In the 44 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,504 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 560 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.
These dangerous fanatics represent America’s Fedayeen Saddam (FS), white supremacist dead-enders who are trying to cling on to the last vestiges of white privilege in the US. In addition to Fox News and social platforms that disseminate hate speech, hundreds of American AM radio stations broadcast radically right Republican talking points which these miscreants listen to and believe. According to the 2021 Congressional articles of impeachment, then-President Donald Trump incited his supporters to attack the US Capitol, made easier for him by this ugly cesspool of hate speech dominating the internet and airwaves.
Israel Continues Bombing Beirut; Biden Says Hitting Iran’s Oil Sector Under Discussion
Smoke rises following an explosion over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an air strike late on 3 Oct.(Reuters)
Multiple explosions from Israeli air strikes rocked the suburbs of Beirut late on October 3 as the United States said it is discussing strikes on Iran’s oil facilities as retaliation for Tehran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this week.
Giant balls of flames could be seen shooting into the night sky around the Lebanese capital hours after the Israeli Army had sent evacuation orders to residents in several areas of the city.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported “more than 10 consecutive strikes,” which it called “one of the strongest raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israeli war on Lebanon.”
Earlier on 3 Oct, an IDF strike on an apartment building in downtown Beirut near the Lebanese parliament killed nine people. More than 1,100 people have been killed since Israel launched its aerial bombardment on 23 Sep. About 1.2 million people have been displaced, a fifth of the population, in the biggest displacement in the country’s history. In Beirut, schools, universities, mosques, and even soccer stadiums have been converted to shelters for refugees. Even then, thousands have nowhere to go and are sleeping on beaches, in parks and squares, or in their cars.
Displaced children sleep on the sidewalk in downtown Beirut. Photo: Patrick Baz / AFP
The Lebanese military is unable to defend its sovereign airspace, territory, or population. Lebanese Hezbollah will fire rockets into northern Israel and avoid head-to-head confrontations with the modern, US-funded IDF, employing guerilla tactics in this modern-day David versus Goliath clash.
US President Joe Biden, when asked by reporters in Washington on 3 Oct whether the White House supports strikes on Iran’s oil facilities, said: “We’re discussing that. There is nothing going to happen today.” Biden also said he would not support an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran’s military has warned it would launch broader strikes if Israel responds to its 1 Oct missile counterattack on Israel.
Nothing would please Israeli Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more than US military intervention against Iran. American military casualties would be the “icing on the cake,” feeding his Islamophobic rhetoric and further cementing the ionic bonds between the US and Israeli right-wing, even though war against Iran is not in the best interest of the hard-working American taxpayer or military servicemember.
For years Israeli PM Netanyahu has been vilifying Iran and assassinating their nuclear scientists while maintaining his own atomic arsenal. Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (NPT) Treaty; Israel is not. Then-POTUS Barack Obama wasn’t so easily fooled. Illustration source: Cleveland.com
And besides immense loss of civilian life, a protracted conflict keeps Netanyahu’s bribery and corruption trial in abeyance, threatens oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, and endangers US military personnel in CENTCOM AOR. After Pres. Biden extricated the US from the “forever wars,” he is letting the US get sucked into Netanyahu’s “forever wars.” Benjamin Netanyahu is no closer to getting the remaining hostages freed and will go down in history as Israel’s worst prime minister. Moreover, he is tarnishing Joe Biden’s legacy as his presidency winds down. Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate may siphon off disenfranchised Muslim and Arab Democratic voters in Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin this November. While Dr. Stein has no chance of ever winning the White House, she could play the part of spoiler for Kamala Harris.
Pakistan is seeing an increase in the chikungunya virus as patients seek relief for bone and joint pain at physiotherapy clinics. The virus is spread by two types of mosquitos: Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, which mainly bite during the day. The virus may circulate within a number of animals, including birds and rodents. The risk of death is around 1 in 1,000. The very young, old, and those with other health problems are at risk of more severe disease.
Local hospitals, including the Police Hospital, report dozens of new cases every month, as patients seek treatment for symptoms such as muscle pain, fatigue, and inflammation.
Last month, Karachi saw a surge in chikungunya cases over the past five months, with 140 individuals confirmed to have contracted the disease from May to September.
During this period, 211 suspected cases of chikungunya was reported, with 189 individuals screened for the disease. Out of those screened, 140 tested positive.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) issued an advisory on controlling and preventing the spread of chikungunya, a disease similar to dengue fever. The Ministry of Health directed relevant authorities to take immediate measures to combat the outbreak.
As noted previously on Coriolanus, the mosquito is man’s acme predator and global climate change is helping spread them with longer summers and warmer temperatures.
Justice Department Disrupts Russian Intelligence Hacking Group
The Justice Department disrupted a hacking group tied to Russian intelligence. The group tried to break into the computer systems of former US military and intelligence staff as well as NGOs, US companies, and others.
A US court unsealed documents authorizing Microsoft and the Department of Justice to seize more than 100 website domain names associated with the hacking group, known as the Callisto Group of Star Blizzard.
The group targeted individuals with e-mails that appeared to come from a trusted source, a tactic known as spear phishing. Once links inside these e-mails were opened, the hackers would attempt to access the victims’ internal systems as a way of stealing information and disrupting their activities.
Star Blizzard’s actions were persistent and sophisticated, according to Microsoft, and the group often did detailed research on its targets before launching an attack. Star Blizzard also went after civil society groups, US companies, American military contractors, and the Department of Energy, which oversees many nuclear programs, the company said.
Authorities haven’t provided details about Star Blizzard’s effectiveness but said they expect Russia to keep deploying hacking and cyberattacks against Washington and its allies, and the US pledged to continue its vigilance.
US authorities charged two Russian men last year in connection with Star Blizzard’s past actions and remain at large.
Along with American targets, Star Blizzard went after people and groups throughout Europe and in other NATO countries, particularly supporters of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.
Tourists visit the Dorasan station in the Civilian Control area near the demilitarized zone in Paju, South Korea, on 13 Sep 2017. North Korea has been taking actions to sever connections with South Korea, including dismantling a key railway bridge along the line. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo
Recent satellite imagery revealed that North Korea has been dismantling a key railway bridge and planting landmines along the Gyeongui Line, as Pyongyang continues to sever relations with Seoul.
The images show most of the iron bridge, heading toward Panmun Station near the Kaesong Industrial Complex, has been reduced to only pillars. In February, the bridge appeared in satellite imagery fully intact. Moreover, landmines have been buried along Gyeongui Line.
Once considered a symbol of inter-Korea cooperation, the Kaesong Industrial Complex has been shuttered since 2016 as relations between Seoul and Pyongyang frayed.
Relations between the two countries have only worsened since the 2019 Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then US President Donald Trump failed to produce tangible outcomes.
Early this year, Kim announced that unification was no longer a goal and that South Korea was now the “principal enemy.”
North Korean supremo Kim Jong Un said this week that cutting ties with Seoul allows North Korea to “strike and destroy the South,” threatening the use of nuclear weapons against South Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae visit the Ministry of National Defense on the occasion of the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army in Pyongyang, DPRK 9 Feb 2024, Korean Central News Agency via Reuters.
The people of South Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan are watching in horror as they see the next generation of lunatics becoming groomed to ascend the nuclear throne of the Hermit Kingdom.
Republican Yells at Native American Candidate: ‘Go Back to Where You Came From!’
Dan Foreman, a retired USAF Colonel and former police officer, has previously landed in the news for unruly behavior. In a viral video in 2017 taken from police body camera footage at the Latah County Fair, he shouted at a constituent, calling him a “son of a b—-” and telling him to “go to hell.”(image via Idaho Republican Party).
Far-right Idaho state Sen. Dan Foreman got into a heated argument with a Native American candidate during a forum this week that culminated with him shouting at her to “go back to where you came from!”
Trish Carter-Goodheart, a member of the Nez Perce tribe and candidate for House Seat A, said in a statement that the incident occurred at a “meet the candidates” gathering Tuesday in the northern Idaho town of Kendrick, where voters posed questions to Senate and House candidates in the area. The dispute began when Foreman categorically proclaimed discrimination did not exist in Idaho, reported Boise State Public Radio on Thursday.
Carter-Goodheart took issue with this, pointing out that there is an extensive and painful history of white supremacist organizations in northern Idaho. The state GOP has on multiple occasions had to fight off takeovers by those white supremacist groups.
“[J]ust because someone hasn’t personally experienced discrimination, doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Racism and discrimination are real issues here in Idaho, as anyone familiar with our state’s history knows,” she explained in a statement issued after the forum. “I highlighted our weak hate crime laws and mentioned the presence of the Aryan Nations in northern Idaho as undeniable evidence of this reality.”
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are 25 active hate, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist groups in Idaho.
In response to Carter-Goodheart’s words at the forum, Foreman “stood up and angrily interjected, using an expletive to criticize what he cast as the liberal bent of the response.”
He then told her she should “go back to where you came from,” Carter-Goodheart said, before storming away. Carter-Goodheart’s Republican candidate, incumbent Rep. Lori McCann, was among the attendees who corroborated the incident.
Trish Carter-Goodheart (above) and the Nez Pierce indigenous peoples, including Chief Joseph and his ancestors, were in North America long before the Foreman family.Maybe the Foreman family should go back to where they came from.
Dan Foreman retired from the USAF after 30 years as a Colonel. US military personnel had to salute this so-called “officer.” He then served as a police officer in the Moscow (Idaho) PD, making you wonder what kind of policeman this Republican was. Worse, this man has seven children and 20 grandchildren. What kind of values has he inculcated his family with? Oof!
Feline Hiding on the Stairs of Subway Station Turns Into Total Lap Cat Within Days
Photo: PuppyKittyNYCity
A feline found hiding on the stairs of a NYC subway station turned into a total lap cat in just a few days. Meagan, president of PuppyKittyNYCity (an animal rescue), was on her way to work when she received an urgent message about a cat found in a subway station.
The cat crouched down on the stairs, frozen in fear. Though terrified, there wasn’t a mean bone in his body, and he even allowed his finder to pet him. As soon as Meagan received the location, she sprang into action.
Her shelter was already full, but “there are some situations you can’t say no to. There is no way we could let this baby stay in the subway station all day long,” Meagan shared.
Photo: PuppyKittyNYCity
The cat had likely been abandoned as no one came to claim him. Somehow, he ended up in the subway station. Overwhelmed by the noise of the city, he pressed himself against the stairs, trying to hide.
Despite needing to report to work that morning, Meagan rerouted and headed to the scene while one of their volunteers stayed with the cat to keep him safe.
Photo: PuppyKittyNYCity
Estimated to be one year old, Subway is still a kitten at heart. As much as he loves to play, he craves human affection even more. “He’s literally perfect and so friendly. He’d be a great first cat or an amazing addition to any home.”
Subway has regained his confidence and no longer cowers. He saunters up to his people for pets and attention, his purr engine rumbling loudly.
Photo: PuppyKittyNYCity
He’s incredibly gentle and sweet with every loving stroke he receives from his people. The cherry on top is that Subway also adores the company of other cats and has a heart of gold.
The IDF said it was investigating soldiers after footage emerged that appeared to show troops throwing bodies from the roof of a building in the occupied West Bank in the aftermath of a “counter-terrorism” operation jointly conducted with the Israeli Security Agency. Photo by Alaa Badarneh/EPA-EFE.
The Israeli military launched a major investigation after a video shot in the north of the occupied West Bank appeared to show its troops tossing bodies from the roof of a building in contravention of international law.
Three Israeli troops on a rooftop are seen pushing a body over the building’s edge but the feet get caught in electrical or telephone cables leaving it hanging before one of the soldiers leans over the side and frees it, plunging the body head-first to the ground, evidenced on the graphic footage obtained by CNN.
Two soldiers lift another body by the hands and feet and swing it back and forth before launching it over the edge like luggage. A soldier then approaches a third body and kicks it off the top of the building, falling out of sight.
CNN said it was not able to confirm if the victims were still alive when they were thrown — but they do appear to be dead or unconscious.
“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values and the expectations from IDF soldiers. The incident is under review,” the military said in a statement.
Filmed by residents of Qabatya, near Jenin, and witnessed by an AP reporter, the incident occurred amid an IDF operation which killed seven people. The identities and cause of death of the rooftop victims were not yet known.
Al-Arabi correspondent Ameed Shehadeh said he saw troops first attempt to retrieve the bodies on the roof by unsuccessfully trying to demolish the building with a bulldozer before heading to the rooftop and throwing them down.
Rule 113 of the Geneva Conventions titled “Treatment of the Dead,” requires state parties to conflicts, both international and civil, to treat the remains of deceased enemy combatants with respect and that failure to do so is a war crime.
Rule 114 requires parties to the conflict to return remains upon request to the other side or to their families, if asked to do so, along with their personal effects.
The latest incident came two weeks after the IDF mounted one of the largest “anti-terror” operations in 20 years targeting Jenin and the Palestinian refugee camp there. At least 36 Palestinians were killed and several were seriously injured. Among the Palestinian dead were children and elderly people.
As reported in open press and posted here on Coriolanus, IDF soldiers were captured on video raping a Palestinian man in prison this summer. Rather than being outraged at this indefensible transgression, Likud cabinet members were outraged that an IDF soldier leaked the video. And as you read on Coriolanus, several anonymous IDF soldiers with a conscience informed the Israeli press that Palestinians were being used as “human booby-trap detectors” to enter tunnels or suspicious-looking locations in Gaza in front of nervous IDF soldiers.
These alleged incidents of brutality are the results of years of de-humanizing Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims as inferior and sinister. Right-wing nationalists in Israel and the US conflate Palestinians or Arabs with Hamas or Al-Qaida. Palestinians or Iranians are a perennial bête noire that must be destroyed.
The US required roughly 100 years, say 1790 to 1890 (the Wounded Knee Massacre) to pacify and relocate the non-white indigenous peoples of North America, euphemistically under “Manifest Destiny.” To facilitate this deplorable end, subtle and not-so-subtle messaging that “Indians” were “savages” or “heathens” was rampant in written and spoken discourse.
Part of the “white man’s burden” was saving the white woman and civilization from the darker savages, like this clean-cut cowboy saving “Penelope” from a perennial bête noire, a “redskin.” (Public domain imagery)
The same applies to Israel which was born in 1948. Since then, Palestinians have been called so many horrendous non-human slurs in Israeli discourse, Wikipedia devotes an entire page to this hideous practice (linked below). For example, 86 of 522 Israeli children’s books depicted Palestinians as “inhuman, war lovers, devious monsters, bloodthirsty dogs, preying wolves, or vipers.”
Should anybody be therefore surprised when so-called inferior beings like the Palestinians are treated so inhumanely, alive or dead?
According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, most of Gaza’s 40,000 dead are women and children.
Four Russian Soldiers Charged with Torturing and Killing Pro-Kremlin American Volunteer
US citizen Russell Bentley joined pro-Kremlin forces and was allegedly tortured and killed by Russian soldiers in April. Undated image: WIKIMEDIA / CREATIVE COMMONS (C).
Russell Bentley, a Texas man who as the “Donbas Cowboy” gained notoriety for joining Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine, was ironically tortured before being killed in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Russian authorities said.
They also said that his alleged abductors tried to cover up the death by detonating a car containing his body.
In a statement released on 20 Sep, the Investigative Committee said four members of the Russian armed forces — Vitaly Vansyatsky, Vladislav Agaltsev, Vladimir Bazhin, and Andrei Iordanov — had been charged in connection with Bentley’s death in April.
Bentley (64) was a fixture in the low-level Russian incursion in Ukraine dating back to 2014. Calling himself the “Donbas Cowboy”, Bentley became a popular figure on Russian propaganda networks for his criticism of the US government.
Bentley, whose military call sign was “Texas”, went missing in Donetsk in April.
Margarita Simonyan, Russia’s leading pro-Kremlin journalist and editor in chief of the state-controlled broadcaster RT, wrote on X at the time that Bentley died for “our people” in Donetsk.
The commander of the Russia-backed separatists’ Vostok Battalion, Aleksandr Khodakovsky, said on Telegram then that “those who killed Russell Bentley” will face “punishment.” But the message was removed from Telegram shortly after it was posted.
Bentley’s wife, Lyudmila, then claimed that Russian soldiers from a tank battalion abducted him.
According to the Investigative Committee, Vansyatsky, Agaltsev, and Iordanov tortured Bentley on 8 Apr and he died shortly afterward. Vansyatsky and Agaltsev are suspected of blowing up a car with Bentley’s body in it and ordering Bazhin to get rid of what was left of his remains.
The four men have been charged with abuse of power, torture that led to a death, desecration of a body, and conspiracy to hide a body.
The Investigative Committee did not specify why the four men tortured Bentley to death, but many of his friends in Donetsk have suggested that the Texan may have been mistaken for a spy.
Bentley fought for the Vostok battalion between 2014 and 2017 and obtained Russian citizenship in 2021.
Four Proud Boys Who Led Charge During 6 Jan Attack on US Capitol Sentenced
Since their founding during the 2016 presidential race, the Proud Boys have been ardent defenders of Donald J. Trump, well before the 6 Jan 2021, Capitol attack. Photo credit: Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
Four men from Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia were sentenced to various terms after they were convicted of multiple felony and misdemeanor charges related to attacking the Capitol on 6 Jan 2021. This group of violent Make America Great Again (MAGA) “Proud Boys” were the vanguard of the attack on the restricted Capitol grounds on 6 Jan 2021, injuring several USCP officers. Their attack paved the way for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol grounds.
The Honorable US District Judge Jia M. Cobb sentenced the following miscreants: Stephen Chase Randolph (34) of Harrodsburg, KY; James Tate Grant (31) of Cary, NC; Jason Benjamin Blythe (28) of Fort Worth, TX; and Paul Russell Johnson (38) of Lanexa, VA.
Stephen Chase Randolph leading the attack.Randolph received eight years in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.
James Tate Grant assaulting a police officer. He received 36 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution. Image: DOJ
Jason Benjamin Blythe received 30 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.
Paul Russell Johnson was sentenced to five years of probation, conditions of which include, intermittent confinement on the weekends for the first year, followed by two years of home confinement and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine as well as $2,000 in restitution.
A fifth defendant, Ryan Samsel (40) of Bristol, PA, will be sentenced on 4 Feb 2025.
All five white supremacists were convicted of civil disorder and some were convicted of assault with a deadly or dangerous weapon and inflicting bodily injury.
In the 44 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,504 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 560 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.
Satellite Photos Show Expansion of Suspected North Korean Uranium Enrichment Site
Satellite photos taken by Planet Labs of the Kangson complex show construction work expanding facilities on the southwestern side of the main building in Feb 2024. (Planet Labs)
A suspected North Korean uranium enrichment facility that may have been toured by leader Kim Jong Un recently has grown significantly since construction was first spotted there in Feb 2024.
The Kangson facility, just outside of the capital Pyongyang, is being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for possible production of enriched uranium, which can be used for nuclear power generation – but is also a vital ingredient for an atomic bomb.
North Korea is extremely secretive about its nuclear program, and has not allowed IAEA inspectors back into the country after expelling them in 2009. In Feb 2024, the IAEA said that construction began on a new annex along the side of the main building of the Kangson complex.
That is corroborated by a satellite photo of the complex taken in February by Planet Labs, an US-based private satellite imagery company, which shows the expansion work is visible.
North Korean state media reported on Kim’s visit to an unnamed “production base of weapons-grade nuclear materials” last week, saying that he expressed “great satisfaction” with the improved nuclear capabilities, which would help North Korea’s “revolutionary cause.”
Experts disagree which site the North Korean supremo visited. Regardless of which facility Kim toured, the photos of the visit do not reveal anything that changes North Korea’s military threat and is a reminder of just how menacing Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal is. Kim Jong-Un had stressed that ramping up production of nuclear materials was a priority, even though his people continue to suffer from food insecurity.
According to the World Food Program (WFP), 10.7 million North Koreans are undernourished and 18% of children are stunted (impaired growth and development due to chronic malnutrition). With a population of 25.9 million, that means approximately 40% are suffering from malnourishment under Kim Jong-Un’s regime.
Ukraine Offers to Help Flood-Affected European Countries
Ukraine, fighting for its survival against Russia, has offered to send its emergency service units to neighboring Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to help overcome the ongoing floods.
Several European countries are dealing with severe floods caused by the heaviest rainfall in years. The floods had claimed at least seven lives, as thousands of houses were damaged across Europe, with tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate from the disaster areas.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he was moved by Ukraine’s offer of help and Czech Republic Foreign affairs minister Jan Lipavský confirmed the offer in a statement on X (Twitter).
In the Ukrainian-controlled part of the area flooded after the dam’s destruction, emergency service rescuers and volunteers evacuated thousands of locals, even under heavy shelling from Russian forces.
Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion, Ukraine has sent its emergency service workers on a mission abroad at least once: to help Turkey after a deadly earthquake hit it on 6 Feb 2023, claiming over 50,000 lives across Turkey and Syria.
Recent Analysis of 2019 Wuhan Market Animals May Help Find COVID-19 Origin
The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market sits closed in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, 21 Jan 2020. Some scientists believe infected animals were first brought to the Wuhan market in late November 2019, which then triggered the pandemic.
Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people, an effort they hope could allow them to trace the outbreak back to its source.
Researchers analyzed genetic material gathered from the Chinese market where the first outbreak was detected and found that the most likely animals were raccoon dogs, civet cats, and bamboo rats. The scientists suspect infected animals were first brought to the Wuhan market in late November 2019, which then triggered the pandemic.
Scientists say they found which sub-populations of animals might have transmitted the coronavirus to humans. That may help researchers pinpoint where the virus commonly circulates in animals, known as its natural reservoir.
While the research bolsters the case that COVID-19 emerged from animals, it does not resolve the polarized and political debate over whether the virus instead emerged from a research lab in China.
An expert group led by the World Health Organization concluded in 2021 that the virus probably spread to humans from animals and that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later said it was premature to rule out a lab leak.
An AP investigation in April found the search for the COVID origins in China has gone dark after political infighting and missed opportunities by local and global health officials to narrow the possibilities.
Scientists say they may never know for sure where exactly the virus came from.
In the new study, published Thursday in the journal Cell, scientists from Europe, the US, and Australia analyzed data previously released by experts at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It included 800 samples of genetic material Chinese workers collected on 1 Jan 2020, from the Huanan seafood market, the day after Wuhan municipal authorities first raised the alarm about an unknown respiratory virus.
Chinese scientists published the genetic sequences they found last year, but did not identify any of the animals possibly infected with the coronavirus. In the new analysis, researchers used a technique that can identify specific organisms from any mixture of genetic material collected in the environment.
One researcher said the new study, while significant, left some critical issues unanswered.
“There is no question COVID was circulating at that market, which was full of animals. The question that still remains is how it got there in the first place.”
Israel Detects First Case of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF)
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) was discovered for the first time in Israel in grazing beef cattle in the Golan Heights, the eastern Jezreel Valley, and southern Carmel, as well as in ticks collected from the said animals. CCHF is a zoonotic disease, transmittable from animals to humans. The health ministry emphasizes that it is not possible to contract the disease by eating meat or drinking milk. Workers near grazing cattle must take extra precautions to prevent infection.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is a viral disease that affects cattle, sheep, and humans. Most of the time, the disease appears without symptoms in animals but can cause severe morbidity in humans. 30% to 40% of people diagnosed with CCHF die from the disease. The virus is transmitted through the bite of a tick that feeds on the blood of infected cattle and sheep or through contact with their body fluids. This is the first time that the virus has been diagnosed in Israel, despite the fact that the virus is prevalent in the countries of the Middle East, Africa, West Asia, and Southeast Europe.
There is no vaccine available for either people or animals. General supportive care with treatment of symptoms is the main approach to managing CCHF in people. The antiviral drug ribavirin has been used to treat CCHF infection with apparent benefit. Both oral and intravenous formulations seem to be effective.
Unknown Mozart String Trio Discovered in German Library
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 Jan 1756 – 5 Dec 1791). Mozart composed over 800 pieces and enjoyed billiards, dancing, and kept pets, including a canary, a starling, a dog, and a horse for recreational riding. Mozart had an ear for languages, as well as music. His cause of death is still not known, although records indicate he was suffering from “severe military fever.”
A previously unknown piece of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was probably in his early teens has been uncovered at a library in Germany. The piece dates to the mid- to late-1760s and consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio lasting around 12 minutes.
Born in 1756, Mozart was a child prodigy and began composing at a very early age under his father’s guidance. Researchers discovered the work at the city’s music library while compiling the latest edition of the so-called Koechel catalogue, the definitive archive of Mozart’s musical works.
The newly discovered manuscript was not penned by Mozart himself but is believed to be a copy made around 1780. The piece was performed by a string trio at the unveiling of the new Koechel catalogue in the Austrian city of Salzburg and will its German premiere at the Leipzig Opera on Saturday.
The piece is referred to as “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik” in the new Koechel catalogue, according to the Leipzig libraries. The manuscript consists of dark brown ink on medium-white handmade paper and the parts are individually bound and was probably written before Mozart’s first trip to Italy.
Earlier this year, musical scholars wrote about a previously unknown system of dynamics, or code, in Ludwig van Beethoven’s original manuscripts.
Who knows what other centuries-old manuscripts or secrets of the Masters researchers will discover hidden in libraries and archives?
A Lost Cat’s Mysterious Two-Month, 900-Mile Journey Home to California
Rayne Beau (pronounced Rainbow) in Roseville, CA in Aug 2024, before being returned to his owners. (Alexandra Betts via AP)
Benny and Susanne Anguiano and their two cats arrived at Yellowstone’s Fishing Bridge RV Park on 4 Jun for the cats’ first trip to the forest. But soon after they arrived, Rayne Beau was startled and ran into the nearby trees.
The couple looked for him for four days, even laying out his favorite treats and toys. When they finally had to drive back to Salinas, CA, on 8 Jun, Susanne Anguiano said she was crushed but never lost hope she would find him.
In Aug, the Anguianos received amazing news when a microchip company messaged them that their cat was at the SPCA in Roseville, CA, nearly 900 miles from Yellowstone. He was only about 200 miles away from his home in Salinas.
A woman who first saw Rayne Beau wandering the streets of the northern California city fed him and gave him water until she trapped him on 3 Aug and took him to the local SPCA. The next day, the Anguianos drove to Roseville and picked up their cat, who had lost six pounds.
The couple still doesn’t know how their cat got to Roseville but believes he was trying to get home. They have reached out to the media hoping to fill in the blanks.
Benny Anguiano said that besides microchipping their cats, they now have also fitted two of them with air tags and Rayne Beau with a GPS global tracker.
The cats love traveling in the camper and looking out the big windows to see deer, squirrels, and other animals. But the family is not ready to get on the road with their pets again any time soon.
This photograph provided by Susanne Anguiano shows her cats Rayne Beau and Starr Jasmyn snuggling in Salinas, CA, 10 Sep 2024. (Susanne Anguiano via AP)
Andy Steven Oliva-Lopez (27) from Oregon man pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol. He will be sentenced on 17 Jan 2025.
Oliva-Lopez drove from his home in Oregon with a friend to attend the 6 Jan 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally scheduled to take place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. After attending the rally, Oliva-Lopez walked toward the Capitol and made his way to the West Plaza, which was, by that time overrun with rioters. At that location, US Capitol Police and MPD officers attempted to maintain lines of defense and were struggling to prevent rioters from advancing further to the building.
At about 2:04 PM, Oliva-Lopez, wearing a full-face respirator mask, sprayed streams of orange-colored bear spray at the faces and heads of police officers on the West Plaza. Over the course of several minutes, Oliva-Lopez did this on three distinct occasions. Police officers blinded by the bear spray testified that the intense pain levels were either eight or nine on a scale of ten.
Thanks to online sleuths, the FBI arrested Oliva-Lopez on 23 Jan 2024.
Oliva-Lopez’s plea agreement states his estimated sentencing guidelines range is 51 to 63 months in federal prison. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials will read his dossier and the pain Oliva-Lopez inflicted on the police officers defending the Capitol when he repeatedly sprayed them with bear repellant.
In the 44 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,504 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including more than 560 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam near the border, 19 Sep 2024.
Israeli forces carried out their most intense strike on southern Lebanon in nearly one year of war, increasing tensions between the two countries despite international calls for calm. IDF jets struck about 100 multiple-rocket launchers in more than 52 strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The UK called for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, and the US is “afraid and concerned about potential escalation,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that this week’s deadly explosive attacks in Lebanon on the militant group’s communications devices were a “severe blow,” while contending that Israel had crossed a “red line” in carrying out the operation that killed at least 32 people and wounded another 3,000. Unsuspecting Hezbollah operatives and civilians answered messages on their pagers and tried to carry on conversations on their walkie-talkies, only to have them explode in their hands.
Because of the lethal devastation from the attacks, Lebanon has banned passengers flying from Beirut’s international airport from carrying pagers or walkie-talkies on board their flights. The ban applies to both checked and carry-on luggage, as well as cargo.
The longer Israel remains in a state of war, the longer Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delays his bribery and corruption trial in Jerusalem, and the approximate 100 Israelis remain hostage and vulnerable. The West should expect reprisal attacks from Lebanese Hezbollah or their allies against Israeli targets overseas.
Background Information:
In 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon to neutralize PLO fighters conducting cross-border raids. After a ceasefire was brokered, UNIFIL kept the peace. With Democratic President Jimmy Carter out of the White House in 1981, Israeli war-hawks found a friend in Republican Ronald Reagan. In 1982, Israel re-attacked Lebanon to stamp out remaining PLO fighters who were observing the ceasefire. Israel used the 1982 Abu Nidal assassination attempt on the Israeli Ambassador in London as a casus belli, or pretext, for the invasion. Yasser Arafat and the PLO had disavowed Abu Nidal, who was a rival to the PLO Chairman.
During the invasion, the IDF used a Lebanese Christian militia, the Phalange, as one of their proxies, resulting in the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Hezbollah was established by Lebanese clerics primarily to fight this 1982 Israeli invasion. Lebanese Hezbollah would receive aid from their fellow Shiites in the newly formed Islamic Republic of Iran. After a 22-year military presence, the IDF would finally leave Lebanon on 24 May 2000, under UN Security Council Resolution 425.
Now decades later, the battle is joined once again.
Many of the bodies found had been severely mutilated. Young men had been castrated, some were scalped, and some had the Christian cross carved into their bodies.
US Treasury Targets Key Actors in Sanctions Evasion Scheme to Support Russia and North Korea
The US imposed sanctions on a network of five entities and Dmitry Yuryevich Nikulin for allegedly enabling payments between Russia and North Korea.
The entities and Dmitry Nikulin are based in Russia and the Georgian region of South Ossetia. They are accused of actions that “supported ongoing efforts to establish illicit payment mechanisms” between Russia and the North Korea.
Western powers have accused cash-strapped North Korea of selling ammunition to Russia in defiance of sanctions over the more than 30-month-old war in Ukraine, and North Korea has recently bolstered military ties with Russia. President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Pyongyang in June and signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” that calls for mutual assistance in the event of an attack by a third country.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who met with Putin, said the agreement opened a new era of cooperation. Kim made further pledges to deepen ties with Russia after meeting last week with visiting Russian security chief Sergei Shoigu.
The new sanctions expose how the Kremlin uses illegal financial schemes to help North Korea access the international banking system in violation of UN Security Council sanctions.
The US has previously sanctioned many of the entities and individuals providing assistance to North Korea’s ballistic missile program. International sanctions against North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear program were imposed after its first nuclear test in 2006.
Earth will have a second moon when a small asteroid begins to orbit the planet later this month, space researchers have announced.
The celestial visitor, dubbed 2024 PT5, is from the Arjuna asteroid belt, according to researchers at the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, an asteroid monitoring system in South Africa. Researchers say Earth’s gravity will pull the tiny moon toward our planet and act a lot like the regular moon, orbiting the Earth in a horseshoe shape, but for just shy of two months, from 29 Sep to 25 Nov.
Other so-called non-Earth objects have entered the planet’s orbit in the past, but typically have not completed full revolutions, meaning they do not act like a typical “moon.”
When they do enter Earth’s orbit, like 2024 PT5, they are dubbed “mini-moons.” This particular asteroid is scheduled to return in 2055. 2024 PT5 won’t be visible to the naked eye or even with a consumer-grade, backyard telescope.
2024 PT5 will reach a distance of about 2.8 million miles away from Earth and slow to a speed of about 2,200 mph, allowing it to be affected by Earth’s pull, even if only temporarily.
‘Dangerous Antisemitism’: Donald Trump Condemned for Scapegoating Jews If He Loses Election
Dr. Anthony Fauci has a moment as President Trump speaks during a COVID-19 briefing at the White House on 20 March 2020. Photo: NBC News
Social media critics roundly denounced former President Donald Trump suggestion Thursday that if he loses the 2024 election to Vice President Kamala Harris, Jewish people would have a “lot to do with” it.
Trump made the comment at a summit about combating antisemitism in the country, which was hosted by Jewish philanthropist Miriam Adelson.
“In my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” Trump said. “If I’m at 40%, think of it, that means 60% are voting for Kamala, who in particular is a bad Democrat. Democrats are bad to Israel. Very bad. They’ll never change because they have a section of their party now which has become amazingly, quickly very powerful vote-wise.”
Trump then repeated a campaign attack against Senate Majority Chuck Schumer (D-NY), calling him a “Palestinian.”
“Who would’ve thought that was going to happen? What the hell happened to him?” attacked Trump. “I saw him the other day. He was dressed in one of their robes. That’ll be next.”
“It’s only because of the Democrat hold, or curse, on you,” added Trump.
At the summit, Trump seemingly used Israel and American Jews interchangeably.
“Israel, I believe, has to defeat her,” Trump said of Harris on Thursday. “More than any people on earth, Israel has to defeat her.”
Trump’s remark earned widespread derision on social media, calling it “dangerous antisemitism” and could lead to violence against Jews. One critic called Trump’s language something that might be said before an imminent “pogrom.”
Marzieh Hamidi, an Afghan taekwondo fighter and refugee, had suffered “cyber-harassment including death, rape, and other threats via social media,” Paris prosecutors allege. A special online hate unit was investigating the case.
“I want the terrorists threatening me with death to be identified and tried in court, so that I can live freely without fear and in full safety,” Hamidi said in a statement sent to France’s AFP news agency.
The martial artist is under police protection until the perpetrators are identified and prosecuted.
Hamadi did not qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics in her under-57 kg category, but she has been in the media spotlight in France for “speaking out publicly about women’s rights and the Taliban regime.” according to the complaint she filed on 3 Sep.
The current wave of threats followed her denunciation on social media of an August Taliban law barring women’s voices from being heard in public. Hamidi reiterated her opposition to the law in a press interview and launched the social media hashtag #letusexist.
Since 1 Sep, “a vast wave of hatred smashed down on her Afghan Whatsapp phone number which was shared; she received hundreds of calls and thousands of messages in the space of just a few hours,” the prosecutor’s complaint read.
Hamidi’s complaint specifies the offences of sharing private information, malicious phone calls, death or rape threats, online harassment, and online sexual harassment. She told RFI she had been flooded with threatening messages since posting a video on social media at the end of August denouncing “gender apartheid” in her homeland.
Report: US Health System Worst Overall Compared to Other High-Income Countries
The Commonwealth Fund, a private research and advocacy foundation, analyzed different countries’ healthcare systems and ranked the US worst among ten nations surveyed.
The report compared Australia, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Australia ranked the top overall. The US was at the bottom for access to care and health outcomes.
The report was based on data that included international population and physician surveys from 2021, 2022, and 2023; plus the World Health Organization, Our World in Data, national data registries and published research.
The US came in second to last in rankings of equal care and how efficient the administrative process is.
Experts say one issue with the US health care system is the complexity of insurance. There’s a variety of insurance plans with different requirements, which impacts how providers get paid and how the patient’s bill is paid for.
“That leads to denials of service. It leads to the bargaining that goes on between doctors and hospitals and insurance companies and between patients and insurance companies. It leads to prior authorization and disapproval of ordered services,” said Dr. David Blumenthal, former Commonwealth Fund president. “The US lags both in having +20 million Americans still uninsured. 70% of the population, though a historic low, still very high by international standards. And it also lacks in terms of the ability of lower income people to get access to basic services.”
The US did rank high in some metrics, coming in second for care processes. That includes things like preventive care and patient engagement.
The term “medical bankruptcy” is not known in most of the world, except the US. Medical bills are reported to be the number-one cause of US bankruptcies. One study has claimed that 62.1% of bankruptcies were caused by medical issues. Another report suggests that over two million Americans are adversely affected by their medical expenses.
In 2011, Debt.org reported that people aged 55 and older account for 20% of total bankruptcy filings. Even with assistance from Medicare, the average 65-year-old American couple faces $275,000 in medical bills throughout retirement. Debts and unaffordable housing contribute to America’s homelessness problem.
While food packaging materials may comply with government regulations, the study shows these chemicals may not be completely safe.
One well-known and ubiquitous chemical the study detected in both food and the human body was bisphenol A (BPA), which was used in baby bottles, sippy cups and infant formula containers until parents boycotted those products more than a decade ago.
BPA has been linked to fetal abnormalities, low birth weight and brain and behavior disorders in infants and children, while it is linked to diabetes, heart disease, erectile dysfunction, cancer and a higher risk of early death in adults.
Another chemical the researchers discovered in human bodies was phthalates, which have been linked with genital malformations and undescended testes in baby boys and lower sperm counts and testosterone levels in adult males. Other studies have linked phthalates to childhood obesity, asthma, cardiovascular issues, cancer and premature death.
The US Department of Health and Human Services has more information on food safety.
L.P., a sane and sober contributor to a progressive website, related this story in the blogosphere. A persistent young feline kept coming around the back door of L.P.’s house who paid it little mind. But after repeated visits, L.P. finally relented and admitted the stubborn cat. Now named Stella, this affectionate five or six-month-old kitten soon adopted L.P.
L.P. advises that Stella will be taken to the vet for shots/fleas/worms protocols (and eventual spaying) before she eventually takes full command over L.P.’s home.
WaPO/CNN poll showed Kamala Harris winning the debate 63 percent to 37 percent among debate-watchers. Time magazine cover by Tim O’Brien.
An estimated 65 million viewers tuned in to watch the debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris, preliminary overnight television ratings revealed Wednesday. Ratings were high in battleground Pennsylvania, with the nation’s highest rating coming in Pittsburgh at 44.2. The No. 2 market was Philadelphia, where it drew a 43.4 rating. New York clocked in at a healthy 36.7, putting it at No. 7 among top markets.
Trump began to unravel at the debate after VPOTUS Harris said to the former NBC TV star of The Apprentice: “Your rallies are boring.”
The split-screen said it all: Trump glowered and grimaced, spewing old grievances and strange new attacks while Harris smiled and appeared amused. The former President repeated a baseless Internet rumor that migrant invaders were killing and eating pet dogs and cats in Springfield, OH, and claimed that Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison.”
Vice President Kamala Harris flummoxed Trump when she responded to his accusation that she wants to confiscate firearms.
“Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away.”
Immediately following the debate, Trump stamped away without shaking hands with VPOTUS Harris. Soon after, megastar Taylor Swift announced via social platform that she was endorsing Kamala Harris. Over 330,000 young people immediately flocked to a voter registration website.
In the aftermath of Trump’s debacle, both candidates found themselves the next day at the Flight 93 memorial ceremony in Pennsylvania honoring the victims of the 9/11 attacks on America.
During this solemn ceremony, Donald Trump is caught winking at a female photographer.
IDF Kills 18 in Gaza School Sheltering Displaced Persons; Six UN Workers KIA
Palestinians search for missing people under the rubble of a destroyed UNRWA-run school, after an IDF strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. (Photo: Mohammed Saber/EPA)
An Israeli airstrike on a central Gaza school being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians has killed 18 people, six were UN officials. The attack was the highest death toll among UNRWA staff in a single incident. Two airstrikes hit the school and its surroundings.
Earlier, Israel’s military said its air force had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command-and-control centre” on the school grounds, without elaborating on the outcome or the identities of those targeted.
Approximately 5,000 displaced people were sheltering at the school when it was bombed. According to UNRWA, “this school has been hit five times since the war began. It is home to about 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children.”
At least 220 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA reported that “humanitarian staff, premises and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres: “What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable.” The UN General Assembly recently convened in NYC and the world is waiting for action.
Palestinians mourn as the civil defence teams and civilians carry out search and rescue operations from the rubble after an Israeli attack on Nuseirat Refugee Camp. (Photo: Anadolu/Getty Images)
Earlier on Wednesday, the IDF struck a home near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing 11 people, including six brothers and sisters ranging from 21 months to 21 years old, according to a European hospital which received the casualties.
The war in Gaza is now into its 11th month, with more than 41,000 Palestinians killed. The International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague indicted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes, but inexplicably his arrest warrant has yet to be issued. In contrast, the ICC both indicted AND issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes against Ukrainians on 17 Mar 2023 (St Patrick’s Day).
Canada’s Conservative Leader Plans No-Confidence Motion Against Trudeau’s Government
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau (L), Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre (C), NDP leader Jagmeet Singh (R)
Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said his party plans to put forward a no-confidence motion “at the earliest possible opportunity” in hopes of bringing down Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.
Poilievre called on New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh to support the motion and trigger an election. Singh refused to say if his party would support the Conservatives. Last week the NDP withdrew from a supply-and-confidence agreement with Trudeau’s minority Liberal government that helped keep it in power. The deal, reached in 2022, meant the NDP would support the federal government on no-confidence votes in exchange for progress on shared priorities.
The next Canadian federal election is scheduled for October 2025. The Liberals currently have 154 seats in the 338 Canadian House of Commons. The Conservates hold 119 and the NDP 24. The Bloc Québécois, a party based only in Quebec and is devoted to Quebec sovereignty, has 32 seats.
Canada’s Parliament resumes next Monday. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has said his party is willing to support the government if the Liberals agree on issues like increased support for seniors and granting Quebec more powers in immigration matters.
Most polls show the Conservatives well ahead of the Liberals with the NDP sitting third. Trudeau said his government will continue to introduce programs that help Canadians like dental care for seniors and childcare.
In June, the Liberals suffered a major upset in a byelection losing a seat in Toronto the party had held for three decades. Two more byelections will be held Monday in Montreal and Winnipeg.
Poilievre also attacked Trudeau for appointing Mark Carney, a former governor of both the Bank of England and Bank of Canada, to act as chair on a task force on economic growth. Poilievre called Carney an unelected “phantom finance minister.”
US Police Brutality:Former Michigan Police Officer Sentenced for Civil Rights Violation for Violently Assaulting Arrestee
Matthew Rodriguez (49), a former Warren, MI, police officer was sentenced in federal court to one year and one day in prison for using excessive force against an arrestee while fingerprinting and photographing him at a local detention facility.
Warning: Some readers might find the below evidence disturbing.
Note the other two police officers do not restrain Rodriguez, the attacker, but help restrain J.S., the victim. There is no information whether these two officers faced disciplinary action.
On 13 June 2023, then-officer Rodriguez was fingerprinting and photographing an arrestee, J.S., who had recently been brought to the Warren Police Department’s jail for processing. During fingerprinting, Rodriguez and J.S. got into a verbal argument and began trading insults. In retaliation for one of J.S.’ remarks, Rodriguez struck J.S. multiple times and slammed J.S.’ head against the fingerprint room floor.
In connection with his plea, Rodriguez admitted to writing a report in which he made false statements.
Former police officer Matthew Rodriguez (Image: CBS Detroit/WWMT)
New Workplace Assault Case Emerges as CIA Shields Sexual Misconduct in Ranks
CIA officer trainee Ashkan Bayatpour (seated left) in Fairfax, VA. 23 Aug 2023. The judge found Bayatpour guilty of attacking a fellow CIA trainee with a scarf in the stairwell of CIA HQ at Langley, VA. (Dana Verkouteren via AP).This previous case was one of several plaguing CIA.
At an impromptu party in the office to celebrate his 50th birthday, veteran CIA officer Donal Asquith got drunk, reached up a colleague’s skirt, and forcibly kissed her in front of stunned co-workers, prosecutors alleged in the latest case of sexual misconduct to spill from the spy agency into a public court.
A recent 648-page internal watchdog report that found systemic shortcomings in the CIA’s handling of such complaints was classified as “secret,” shielded as a potential threat to national security. … “It is inconceivable that sexual misconduct could be considered a state secret,” said Kevin Carroll, an attorney who represents several women in the agency who have made complaints. The watchdog report followed an earlier AP investigation that found at least two dozen women in the CIA came forward to authorities and Congress with accounts of sexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they described as a campaign to silence them. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSIC) released a redacted report of their testimony last April (linked below).
Many women were emboldened by a CIA officer trainee who went to the police in 2022 after the agency failed to take action against a colleague she accused of assaulting her with a scarf in a stairwell at CIA headquarters. Some of those women now say they have faced retaliation, including the victim of the stairwell attack, who was terminated less than six months after suing the agency.
CIA invests a lot of time, money, and resources investigating, vetting, recruiting, and training these elite personnel who are also polygraphed. Incidents like this are costly to the American taxpayer, CIA, as well as to national security. And remarkable that this story would emerge nationally on 9/11, one of CIA’s darkest days.
After the smoke cleared from the US presidential debate, like a baby wanting a bottle, North Korean supremo Kim Jong-Un ordered the launch of a ballistic missile toward the sea Thursday morning, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported. The launch came days after Kim Jong Un vowed to put his nuclear force fully ready for battle with its rivals. The launch took place off North Korea’s eastern coast but the ROK high command offered no details, such as how far the weapon traveled. Japan’s prime minister’s office also alerted on its X account that North Korea had launched a suspected ballistic missile, but it did not provide details.
The launch was North Korea’s first public weapons firing in more than two months. On 1 July, Pyongyang claimed to have tested a new tactical weapon capable of delivering a “super-large” 4.5 ton-class warhead.
In a speech Monday, Kim said he would redouble efforts to make his nuclear force fully ready for combat with the US and its allies. He said North Korea faced “a grave threat” because of what he called “the reckless expansion” of a US-led regional military bloc that is now developing into a nuclear-based one.
Kim has made similar vows numerous times, but his latest threat came as outside experts believe North Korea will perform a nuclear test explosion or long-range missile test-launches ahead of the US presidential election in November.
As posted on Coriolanus last week, North Korea also resumed launches of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea.
Since 2022, North Korea has significantly accelerated its weapons testing in a bid to perfect its capabilities to launch strikes on the US and South Korea. The US and South Korea have responded by expanding military drills that North Korea calls invasion rehearsals.
Last month, Kim had held off from missile tests or other provocative military demonstrations as the US and South Korea conducted large-scale summertime military exercises. North Korea issued statements berating the allies for raising tensions.
Federal Authorities Seize Over 350 Website Domains Used to Import Illegal Switches and Silencers from China
US authorities seized more than 350 websites selling gun silencers and parts from China used to covert semiautomatic pistols into fully automatic machine guns.
Law enforcement conducted undercover purchases from those websites of gun-related items. The shipments from China falsely described their contents as “necklaces” or “toys.” In fact, the packages contained machine gun conversion devices known as “switches” and silencers that are prohibited from being imported under the federal National Firearms Act (NFA).Switches are parts designed to convert semiautomatic pistols into fully automatic machineguns and silencers are devices used to suppress the sound of a firearm when discharged.
Many of the websites sold counterfeit goods and misused gun manufacturer Glock Inc’s trademark to suggest the switches were produced by the company when they were not. Glock reportedly cooperated with the investigation.
The results of this investigation have resulted in the seizure of over 700 devices which would covert a firearm into a machine gun, 87 illegal suppressors, 59 handguns, 36 long guns, as well as the seizure of 355 websites which were used to facilitate the trafficking of these items.
According to the CDC, in 2022 there were more than 48,000 firearm-related deaths in the US. That’s about 132 people dying from a firearm-related injury each day and wartime casualty rates.
A Runaway Penguin Spent Two Weeks Missing at Sea in Japan. A Typhoon May Have Saved Her.
Pen, who was born and raised in captivity, survived two weeks lost at sea in Japan during a typhoon. Photo: Gekidan Penters
A runaway penguin has been found safe in Japan nearly two weeks after she first went missing, having paddled 28 miles during a typhoon in a survival story her keeper called “miraculous.”
The six-year-old Cape penguin, who goes by the name “Pen” and was born and raised in captivity, was swimming with staff from the traveling Gekidan Penters zoo at a beach on central Japan’s Himakajima Island on 25 August when she escaped.
African penguins can swim up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) a day, but in captivity, their muscle mass decreases. Pen had never swum in the sea before visiting that beach.
A powerful typhoon called Shanshan brought torrential wind and rain to the country at the end of August, killing at least six people, displacing millions, knocking out power and disrupting air travel.
But, amid the destruction, the typhoon was a boon for little Pen. With no boats at sea, Pen avoided collisions and getting caught in fishing nets. The record rainfall provided a reliable source of hydration and cooling.
“She survived because of the typhoon,” her owner said. “It was almost miraculous timing.”
Because of the typhoon, Gekidan Penters wasn’t initially able to send out rescue boats to search for Pen, so it was even more surprising when someone spotted her swimming near a beach about eight miles away from where she first went missing.
Pen had no injuries and was in good physical shape. She also passed “substantial droppings,” which means she must’ve found something to snack on during her journey – likely fish or crab, though Pen had never eaten live fish before.
Her owner said Pen was “sleeping very comfortably next to me.”
Pen (L) stands alongside her partner, Gan. Photo: Gekidan Penters
The US government has charged a Russian-born US citizen and former adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign with working for a sanctioned Russian state television network and laundering the proceeds. Dimitri Simes (76) and his wife allegedly received over $1 million dollars and a personal car and driver in exchange for work they did for Russia’s Channel One. The state television network was sanctioned by the US in 2022 over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Simes and his wife, Anastasia (55), have a home in Virginia and are believed to be in Russia. Simes ran a think tank based in Washington that advised Trump’s campaign.
A second indictment alleges that Anastasia Simes (55) received funds from sanctioned Russian oligarch Alexander Udodov. If convicted of the charges, the two face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
US Indicts Six Russian Hackers for Attacking Ukrainian and US Computer Systems
This image released by the US State Department shows Russian military officers charged for allegedly conducting cyberattacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine ahead of the Russian invasion.
A grand jury in Maryland has charged six Russians, including five who are officers in Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU), with conspiracy to hack into computer systems and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The indictment, unsealed on 5 Sep, alleges that the Russians conspired to hack into computer systems associated with the Ukrainian government in advance of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Their original targets included Ukrainian government systems and data with no military or defense-related roles and later included computer systems in countries around the world that were providing support to Ukraine, including in the US. The whereabouts of the men are unknown, and the State Department has issued a reward for information leading to their arrest.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
China’s Consul General in NY Departs After Aide Charged with Acting as Agent for Chinese Government
The State Dept reported that Huang Ping was not expelled, but had rather reached the end of a regularly scheduled rotation and departed his post at the end of August.
China’s consul general in New York departed after a former aide for New York governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo was charged with acting as an agent for the Chinese government.
“I have conveyed my desire to have the counsel general from the People’s Republic of China and the New York mission expelled, and I’ve been informed that the counsel general is no longer in the New York mission,” Hochul said during an off-topic portion of an unrelated press conference. The governor was on the phone with a high-ranking State Department official at the request of Antony Blinken. He was later identified as Kurt Campbell, the deputy secretary of State.
Hochul’s announcement comes after Linda Sun, a former deputy chief of staff to Hochul and Cuomo aide, was charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registrations Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering conspiracy.
If Huang Ping was not expelled, Beijing won’t reciprocate by expelling a US diplomat from China.
Beijing has presented the USIC and federal law-enforcement with a complex and challenging counterintelligence threat that will not go away any time soon. The USIC has also been dealing with nefarious Russian espionage and election interference attempts and the FBI must spend precious resources investigating dead-ender 6 Jan insurrectionists that were allegedly inspired by then-President Donald Trump.
German Police Kill Gunman in Shootout Near Israeli Consulate in Munich
(Image Credit: X/Hans92183466101)
German police shot dead an Austrian gunman in Munich close to the Israeli consulate. The 18-year-old man fired shots from an old carbine rifle with a bayonet in Munich’s Maxvorstadt district, near both the consulate and a Nazi history museum, before being killed in a shootout with five officers.
The incident occurred on the 52nd anniversary of the 1972 attack at the Munich Olympics in which Palestinian militants killed 11 Israeli athletes. “There may be a connection between the two,” Bavarian state Premier Markus Soeder told reporters, adding that this was being investigated.
The teenage gunman was already known to Austrian authorities for alleged membership in an extremist group.
The use of lethal force in Germany is rare. Since 1952, German law-enforcement personnel have killed a total of 529 people; between 1961 and 1989, perhaps 140 people were killed by East German security services at the infamous Berlin Wall.
German police will be unable to interrogate the corpse of this 18-year-old suspect and will have to speculate as to his motivation for the attack. As long as injustices and brutality continue against Palestinians or Arabs, Western intelligence services should expect more lone actor attacks or IS-inspired plots against soft civilian targets like the Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna or the recent stabbing spree in Solingen, Germany. That attack left three people dead and eight injured. The suspect, a young Syrian asylum seeker, was taken alive and will be thoroughly interrogated and prosecuted.
Greta Thunberg Detained by Danish Police at pro-Palestinian Demonstration: “Protests Should Be Everywhere.”
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (C) participates in a march from the University of Copenhagen to Vor Frue Square in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 4 Sep 2024. (EMIL HELMS via Getty Images)
Danish police detained activist Greta Thunberg (21) at a Copenhagen University protest against the war in Gaza and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The activist was part of a group occupying a University of Copenhagen building to call for an academic boycott of Israeli universities. Thunberg was later released from detention and the daily Ekstra Bladet showed video footage of her walking out of a police station.
Students Against the Occupation posted on Instagram that “while the situation in Palestine only gets worse, the University of Copenhagen continues cooperation with academic institutions in Israel.”
Widely known for her campaign to end man-made climate change, Swedish-born Greta Thunberg has increasingly taken up the Palestinian cause and in May said such protests “should be everywhere”.
Since last spring, pro-Palestinian protesters have set up encampments at universities around the US and Europe to demonstrate against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and the occupation of Palestinian territories. The IDF have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and injured at least 94,398 others, according to Al Jazeera’s tracker of the conflict.
A UN special rapporteur on human rights said earlier this year that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israel’s military offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide. The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes, but his arrest warrant has inexplicably not been issued yet.
Insensitive bloggers, on supposedly liberal websites in the US, have already began robotically demonizing defenseless Greta Thunberg for daring to protest Western complicity in what US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) described in April 2024 as “ethnic cleansing.”
“It is not antisemitic to oppose Israel’s US-backed massacre of over 33,000 Palestinians. I don’t think there’s any doubt that what Netanyahu is doing now, displacing 80 percent of the population in Gaza, is ethnic cleansing.”
Greta Thunberg and those Danish students agree with you, Senator.
New Hampshire Man Tests Positive for EEE and Two Other Mosquito Viruses Fighting for His Life
Joe Casey. (Family photo)
A New Hampshire man is fighting for his life because of a mosquito bite. Fifty-four-year-old Joe Casey of Kensington has tested positive for three mosquito-borne viruses, including eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), West Nile Virus, and St. Louis Encephalitis
Casey started to feel sick back in early August. He now has swelling in the brain and is barely able to communicate at Exeter Hospital.
The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said Kensington has had at least one mosquito pool test positive for EEE. The town has sent out postcards notifying residents and the threat level has been raised to high.
This is another danger that global climate change is causing. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports current and future climate will affect mosquito and parasite biology, but that “temperature is not the only driver of change.” Other environmental factors include rainfall, humidity, land use, and human population density.
To avoid mosquito bites, people must cover up their skin, use mosquito repellant, and avoid being out from dusk to dawn. Leave dragonflies and spiders alone, as they help catch virus-spreading mosquitoes.
North Korea Launches More Trash-filled Balloons Across Border
North Korea resumed launching hundreds of trash-filled balloons into the South. 20 balloons carrying paper and plastic bottles fell in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, with no hazardous substances detected. (File Photo by Yonhap)
The South Korean High Command confirmed that North Korea had launched more than 420 garbage balloons across the border with South Korea, continuing its latest nuisance campaign for the second day in a row. While Beijing launches sophisticated spy balloons against the West, Pyongyang launches petty balloons filled with garbage and manure against her southern neighbor.
This marked the first time in 25 days that North Korea has launched the balloons, ramping up the back-and-forth Cold War-style psychological warfare that has emerged along border areas in recent months. North Korea has conducted 13 rounds of launches since early June, sending thousands of balloons carrying scrap paper, shredded clothing, and manure into the South — including one that spilled trash on South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s compound.
In response, South Korea started propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts near the DMZ in mid-July, blasting K-pop songs and South Korean news and information. The broadcasts reportedly call for soldiers working in border areas to escape and include news of the defection of a North Korean diplomat from Cuba last year. South Korea’s military claims the speakers can be heard as far as 15 miles away.
A pair of North Koreans, including one soldier, defected across the inter-Korean border on two separate occasions last month, prompting speculation that the broadcasts may be having an impact. The balloon launches come as US and South Korean officials held high-level talks in Washington. The US and South Korea are also currently staging a 13-day military amphibious landing exercise and the allies concluded their annual summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield joint exercise last week.
Pyongyang frequently condemns the joint drills as preparation for an invasion and maintains that its own nuclear and weapons programs are a necessary form of deterrence.
Dangerous Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Law Enforcement During 6 Jan 2021 Capitol Attack
Joshua Lee Atwood (31) of Burgettstown, PA, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Atwood traveled from his home in Burgettstown to Washington, D.C., to attend the 6 Jan 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally on the National Mall. After the rally, Atwood made his way toward the US Capitol building and arrived at the Lower West Terrace Tunnel, the site of some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement that day. Atwood observed law enforcement officers actively attempting to prevent members of the crowd from entering the building.
Atwood climbed into the Capitol building through a broken window next to the Tunnel and entered into a Senate room near the Lower West Terrace exterior doors. Atwood exited the building and joined the mob gathered around the Tunnel entrance, which law enforcement officers were actively defending. Atwood started throwing several objects at officers in the Tunnel, including a plastic bottle and a metal pole, both of which struck police officers.
The defendant then picked up a wooden pole and used it to forcibly strike at the riot shields of officers, struck an officer’s helmet, then threw the pole at the USCP. Next, Atwood drew a canister of pepper spray and continuously sprayed the police until the canister was depleted, which he then threw at police. This maniac then hurled additional items at the police, including a baseball bat and a plastic bottle.
Atwood then used a police riot shield to strike at officers guarding the Tunnel. When striking police with the riot shield, Atwood yelled, “F— off, you guys are all pieces of s—”, and “Everyone of you should be ashamed of yourself. Everyone of you m—f—are pieces of s—. Betraying your country like this, why would you betray your country. Do you love your country, or do you want civil…communist f—.”
Shortly after, the defendant picked up a metal scaffolding pipe and threw it at police which bounced off a riot shield and struck another officer in the head and neck. Moments later, Atwood picked up a heavy black speaker and threw it toward the USCP. The FBI arrested Atwood on 17 April 2024, in Pennsylvania.
This dangerous member of America’s “Fedayeen Saddam” (FS), dead-ender white supremacists, has been in custody since his arrest and will be sentenced on 20 Dec 2024. Remarkably, this miscreant is reportedly the owner of an HVAC company and the father of two children, with a third on the way.
In the 43 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,488 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including nearly 550 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
Ukraine Names Career Diplomat Andrii Sybiha as New Foreign Minister in Government Shake-Up
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on 5 Sep 2024. Photo: Ukrainian Parliament Press Office.
Ukrainian lawmakers appointed Andrii Sybiha (49) as the country’s new foreign minister in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s reshuffling of his top advisers. He replaces Dmytro Kuleba, who had been instrumental in lobbying Ukraine’s Western allies for military assistance for Ukraine’s 30-month fight against Russia’s invasion.
Sybiha, who speaks English and Polish, has been the deputy foreign minister and had also served as ambassador to Turkey. He is considered to be closer to Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, than Kuleba, who is the most prominent departure from Zelenskyy’s list of top officials.
While Kuleba’s diplomatic skills were acknowledged, his removal was part of a bid by Zelenskyy to exert a tighter grip on foreign policy, Ukrainian sources suggested. A source in Zelenskyy’s party said the presidency had been growing frustrated with Kuleba:
“He was giving interviews, speaking beautifully, going on trips, this handkerchief in his jacket. … He was engaged in self-promotion, instead of improving the work of embassies, working systematically on countries and getting their support.”
Zelenskyy, when asked about the rationale for his government shake-up, told reporters, “We need new energy. And these steps are related to strengthening our state in various areas.”
Ukraine’s parliament also approved new nominations for several other posts, naming two new vice prime ministers and six other new ministers.
On the battle front, Ukraine’s military shot down 60 of 78 Russian drones that targeted regions across the country. In Kherson, officials reported Russian strikes that hit two medical facilities and injured two people. Russian forces struck an educational institution in Poltava, but there was no information about casualties. Russia’s defense ministry said it destroyed a rocket and two Ukrainian aerial drones over the Belgorod region, injuring one person and damaging a home. Russian air defenses also shot down three drones over the Kursk region and two drones over Bryansk.
The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance announced the birth of a baby Sumatran tiger cub at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
The alliance said first-time mother Jillian gave birth to a cub 23 Aug in the park’s Tull Family Tiger Trail habitat. Care specialists said Jillian quickly bonded with the newborn and has been displaying the expected maternal behaviors.
“We are thrilled at the birth of this very special tiger cub at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park,” said Lisa Peterson, senior vice president and executive director of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. “This birth adds Jillian’s incredibly important genes into the pool of the population, furthering the genetic diversity and health of the Sumatran tiger species.”
Sumatran tigers are considered critically endangered, with only 400-600 of the big cats believed to live in the wild. Officials said the mother and cub will remain in their den for the next few weeks while specialists continue to monitor the duo and their milestones.
Animal lovers can “adopt” a tiger at the International Tiger Project, linked below.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (L), Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre (C), and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh (R) (Undated photos: The Hill Times / Andrew Meade)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suffered an unexpected blow when the small party helping keep his minority Liberal government in power withdrew its automatic support, forcing him to attempt new alliances to govern. New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh said he was “ripping up” a deal struck between the two men in 2022.
The move leaves Trudeau reliant on support from other opposition lawmakers to survive confidence votes in the lower chamber of parliament at a time when polls show he will lose badly if an election were held now. An election must be held by the end of October 2025 under Canadian law.
Under the 2022 deal, the NDP agreed to keep Trudeau in power until mid-2025 in return for more social spending. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre reiterated his call for an early election to break up what he called a Liberal-NDP coalition driving up prices for Canadians.
The House of Commons resumes work on 16 Sep, after which the Conservatives will have the ability to propose a vote of confidence. Trudeau’s Liberals could still survive if the NDP abstained on such a vote. The NDP stated they would decide on an issue-by-issue basis whether to support the Liberals on confidence votes, suggesting it may continue to prop up Trudeau if his fate hung in the balance.
A key moment for Trudeau’s government will be its budget update later this year, which, if voted down by legislators would trigger a new election. Trudeau (52) first took office in November 2015 but has over the last two years struggled to fend off attacks from the opposition center-right Conservatives, who blame him for high inflation and a housing crisis.
With the NDP’s support, his government has pushed through social programs designed to address the cost of living. But the NDP’s Singh had expressed growing frustration with Trudeau in recent months, especially over what he said was the Liberals’ failure to deal with high prices at grocery stores.
Nota Bene: Germany, another NATO country, will also hold federal elections in October 2025.
US Accuses Russia of Attempting to Influence 2024 Election Through Kremlin-Backed News Outlets
The Kremlin has been using media outlets and online platforms designed to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda. RT, formerly Russia Today, is seen as a key part of the Kremlin’s propaganda efforts.
Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov (31) also known as Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva (27) also known as Lena, were indicted with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The two employees of RT were charged in a $10 million scheme “to create and distribute content to US audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.”
The Justice Department announced seized 32 Internet domains. The tactics include using RT to advance anti-US messages and content and promote networks of fake websites and social media accounts that amplify the claims. Typically, these networks seize on polarizing political topics such as immigration and crime. Americans who view the content may have no idea that it either originated or was amplified by the Kremlin.
In conjunction with the domain seizures, the US Treasury Department announced the designation of ten individuals and two entities for sanctions, including Margarita Simonyan and Elizaveta Brodskaia from RT.
The State Department announced steps to impose visa restrictions on people who act on behalf of Kremlin-supported media organizations, use those organizations as cover for covert activities, and are complicit in engaging in covert influence. They are also offering a reward of up to $10 million relating to an organization known as RaHDit (Russian Angry Hackers Did It). The group engaged in election influence in other countries and is a threat to the 2024 US election, particularly through cyber-enabled influence operations.
If convicted, Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva face up to 25 years in prison. Both remain at large.
As noted in a previous Coriolanus post, FBI agents recently searched the Virginia home of Russian-American political commentator Dmitri Simes. His name was mentioned more than 100 times in a 2019 investigation by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller entitled Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election.
According to NBC News, GOP VPOTUS candidate JD Vance’s campaign talking points about Russia and Ukraine mirror those of RT, as seen in the indictment linked below.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
North Korea Orders All Students Abroad to Return Home for Ideological Education
North Korean Supremo Kim Jong Un (C) meets with Korean students during a visit to Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Primorsky region, Russia on 17 Sep 2023.
Pyongyang has ordered all its students abroad to return home for ideological training – to reverse the outside influence the students have been exposed to while overseas, according to a North Korean escapee.
The number of North Korean students studying in China and Russia are probably several hundred, according to South Korean media outlet KBS. Many were there since before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
Apparently,officials in Pyongyang are concerned that because the students have been out of the country for so long, they may have been influenced by the outside world and now accustomed to living in situations where their government is not in complete control of their lives.
It had been common practice for students to be ordered to periodically return in small numbers for loyalty classes, but these did not occur during the pandemic, so Pyongyang now wants to send them all for intensive ideological inspections en masse, according to South Korean media.
An analyst predicted that the student recall order could lead to more escape attempts. Recently, China arrested 15 North Koreans (13 women and two children) at the Laotian border after they trekked 1,500 miles to a river crossing, just minutes within freedom. Those unfortunate refugees will likely be repatriated – a fate that awaits nearly all North Korean escapees in Chinese police custody – and will likely be severely punished for fleeing.
Inexplicably, Kim Jong-Un’s official biography does not reflect his date and place of birth nor his elite private education in Switzerland.
Undated photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taken when he was a child. (Yonhap News).
American Warzone: Four Killed, Nine Wounded in Georgia School Shooting; 14-Year-Old Student Arrested
Parents arrive to pick up their children after the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, GA. (Christian Monterrosa/AFP via Getty Images)
Two teachers and two students were killed in a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, GA, on Wednesday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Another nine victims were taken to hospitals with wounds. The 14-year-old suspect, a student at Apalachee High School, was captured alive.
In an average year in Georgia, 1,927 people die and 5,029 are wounded by firearms. The Peachtree State has the 8th-highest rate of gun violence in the US. Gun deaths and injuries cost Georgia $23.9 billion each year, of which $597.8 million is paid by taxpayers.
Americans can thank the Republican Party, the NRA, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for this never-ending carnage that inflicts wartime-level casualties on its own people, including innocent defenseless children.
Taiwan Cracks Down on Chinese Corporate Espionage: 135 Investigators Raid 30 Locations
In a decisive move to protect its high-tech industry, Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has initiated a comprehensive investigation into alleged corporate espionage by mainland Chinese companies. Over 135 investigators conducted searches at 30 locations across Taiwan between 19 and 30 Aug, targeting eight Chinese companies suspected of corporate espionage and other illegal activities.
The companies include iCommsemi (Shenzhen), Shanghai New Vision Microelectronics Co., Ltd., Nanjing Aviacomm Semiconductor Co., Ltd., Emotibot (Shanghai), Tongfang Co., Ltd., Chengdu Analog Circuit Technology Inc. (Actt), NAURA Technology Group Co., Ltd., and Hestia Power (Shanghai). These firms, many of which receive state funding from China, are involved in key sectors such as microelectronics, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence — areas where Taiwan holds a competitive edge.
As Taiwan continues to navigate its complex relationship with Beijing, protecting its high-tech industry from corporate espionage will remain a critical priority, shaping the future of cross-strait relations and the global technology landscape.
US Army Officer Dies in Poland; Cause Under Investigation
A change of command ceremony at Camp Kosciuszko in Poznan, Poland, 28 June 2024. (Devin Klecan / US Army)
A US Army officer died in Poland, the Defense Department announced Wednesday. LTC Joshua Camara (45) was stationed at Camp Kosciuszko in Poznan and assigned to the V Corps forward headquarters when he died on 3 Sep. The cause of death is still under investigation.
Local officials have ruled out murder and are investigating an “unintentional manslaughter,” adding that the results of an autopsy are expected early next week.
Polish news network TVP reported that the body of an American officer had been found inside an apartment in Poznan, not far from where the V Corps is based.
Camara, a public affairs officer, served in V Corps since June 2024 and was awarded the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal and Meritorious Service Medal among other awards.
West of Warsaw, Camp Kosciuszko is the first permanent US military base in Poland, which also hosts US Army Garrison Poland in Poznan.
Russia: Two Alleged Pro-Ukraine Mercenaries Detained In Venezuela
Colombian veteran serving in Ukrainian military. (Undated image courtesy of the Yeshiva World).
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that authorities in Venezuela had arrested two Colombian citizens believed to have served as mercenaries with the Ukrainian armed forces. The two men were reportedly heading back to Colombia with a stopover in Caracas. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has actively sought to detain foreign mercenaries around the world. Alleged mercenaries have been detained in Cuba, India, Syria, and other countries.
Colombia’s military has been fighting drug-trafficking cartels and rebel groups for decades, making its soldiers some of the world’s most experienced. These military veterans, in need of money, adventure, camaraderie, or a combination of all three, have been serving in Ukraine as well-paid mercenaries.
Corporals in the Colombian military receive a basic salary of approximately $400 a month, while experienced drill sergeants can earn up to $900. Colombia’s monthly minimum wage is currently $330.
In Ukraine any member of the armed forces, regardless of citizenship, is entitled to a monthly salary of up to $3,300, depending on their rank and type of service. They are also entitled to up to $28,660 if they are injured, depending on the severity of the wounds. If they are killed in action, their families are due $400,000 compensation.
In early 2022, Kiev reported that 20,000 people from 52 countries were in Ukraine, but won’t disclose military strength numbers or dispositions.
Colombian veterans in the Ukrainian armed forces pose near their Humvee on the front line near Lyman, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, 29 Jan 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
The mistake these two unfortunate Colombians made was flying home through Venezuela as Caracas is a staunch ally of the Kremlin.
British Cat Steals Neighbors’ Clothes for Her Owner
Taboo the cat (L) and a selection of her stolen goods (R).Photos: Sandra Danskin
Taboo’s pet parent, Sandra Danskin, said that the 12-year-old cat regularly nicks the laundry and gardening gear left out by the nearby residents of Otley in West Yorkshire, England.
Danskin has to post Taboo’s hauls on social media to reunite the numerous items the pet steals each week with their rightful owners. The feline has a fondness for nabbing gloves, shoes, and socks, specifically, but is open to pinching a variety of items.
“This morning, I had four pairs of socks and a pair of underpants. She loves bringing back items of clothing like that, but also, we’ve had mop heads and kitchen rolls,” Danskin said, adding that she usually finds the stolen goods on the driveway or inside the house by the cat flap when she returns home from her night shifts at work.
Taboo rarely gets caught, including by Danskin. The pet parent says she is unsure where Taboo gets all her steals from but suspects the cat grabs the items off laundry lines. She also knows the feline sneaks into houses when doors are left open because the one person who caught Taboo stealing found the cat taking a shirt from the clothing dryer in their kitchen. Another odd aspect of Taboo’s kleptomania includes the cat’s commitment to sets. Danskin said if Taboo finds a matching pair of socks, she will always bring both items home, carrying one sock at a time.
Taboo also likes to snag pieces of wet cardboard and once even brought back a carton of eggs, though all of the eggs broke by the time Taboo dragged the prize home. Danksin added that she always knows when Taboo brings a stolen gift home for her because the feline lets out a “high-pitched whining noise” whenever she has a stolen item to present.
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