Ukraine Continues to Bedevil Russia With Espionage, Audacity, Tenacity and Surprise

Described as ‘Russia’s Pearl Harbor,’ more than 100 drones were smuggled deep into Russia by Ukrainian spies and hidden in the rooftops of specially constructed wooden cabins. These roofs then opened remotely at the moment of attack, with the drones swarming out and striking more than 40 bomber jets parked at Russian airfields across the country. One of the targets, the Belaya airfield in Siberia, is 3,500 miles from Ukraine. The Russian intelligence services were completely caught off-guard.

In the span of a few hours, nearly a third of Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged with cheaply made drones sneaked into Russian territory. Operation Spiderweb involved more than 18 months of painstaking planning and great risk and was personally overseen by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

This “Pearl Harbor” for Russia was made by possible by extraordinary Ukrainian military OPSEC and their effective espionage network behind enemy lines. Also note that Ukraine was careful to avoid civilian casualties and a nuclear disaster with these strategic bombers, unlike Russian forces who have disregarded civilian lives and the safety of Chernobyl during their invasion.

The armed Palestinian groups that seized 251 Israeli hostages on 7 Oct 2023 similarly exercised great OPSEC in their extensive planning and preparation before the raid, catching everyone by surprise in Jerusalem, Tehran, Wash DC, and Moscow. Only the Egyptian mukhabarat has an inkling of something afoot in the neighboring Gaza Strip. This type of discipline from the Ukrainians and the Palestinians demonstrates an uncommon resolve to resist a powerful, brutal enemy seeking their destruction.

As you learned here on Coriolanus, the Ukrainian intelligence services are first-rate and Kiev did not disclose the operation to the US or any allies to prevent leaks. That means President Zelensky had this card to play when he met with Dotard Trumpf months ago, and when he went to Istanbul in good faith to negotiate with Vladimir Putin who skipped the peace talks anyway. The ex-KGB officer promised revenge for this humiliating and expensive defeat, which cost the Ukrainians far less than the Russians.

Ukraine’s Effective Sabotage Campaign Continues

Kerch Bridge Damaged

Ukraine detonated a massive underwater blast targeting the key road and rail bridge connecting the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula to Russia, damaging its underwater supports. Kiev’s SBU security service claimed responsibility for this embarrassing and costly blow to Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine Hacks Russian Aircraft Manufacturer Tupolev

In 1961, the Tu-95V bomber dropped the biggest nuclear weapon ever made before and since – the Tsar Bomb, or “Big Ivan.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) hacked into Russia’s strategic aircraft manufacturer Tupolev.  HUR’s cyber corps accessed over 4.4 gigabytes (GB) of internal data, including official correspondence, personnel files, home addresses, resumes, purchase records, and closed meeting minutes.

“The significance of the data obtained cannot be overestimated. There is nothing secret left in Tupolev’s activities for Ukrainian intelligence.”

The intelligence includes detailed information about engineers and staff responsible for maintaining Russia’s strategic bombers, such as the Tu-95 and Tu-160, which form a key part of Russia’s nuclear triad.

“In particular, we have obtained comprehensive information about individuals directly involved in servicing Russian strategic aviation,” the source added. “The result will obviously be noticeable both on the ground and in the sky.”

Below, Ukrainian cyber operatives replaced the Tupolev website’s homepage with the symbol of their organization, an owl clutching a Russian aircraft.

The Tupolev hack is perfectly timed with the surprise attack against Russia’s strategic bomber fleet and is a bonanza for NATO. The HUR will share this treasure trove of information with the UK, Germany, France, and Canada, leaving out the US. Recall that last year Canada donated 10,500 effective Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistols to Ukraine. Engineers and critical staff at Tupolev should be concerned about a potential 9mm lead shampoo treatment in the future.

Sabotage Against Infrastructure Continues Inside Russia

An explosion on a rail line in Russia’s Voronezh Oblast caused damage to the track and disrupted train travel along the line. No one was injured in the explosion that immediately disrupted the travel of at least 19 passenger and commercial trains. The explosions were allegedly caused by an IED.

A fire broke out at the Avtodizel motor plant in Yaroslavl (174 miles northeast of Moscow), one of Russia’s largest producers of diesel engines and a supplier to the Russian military. The blaze engulfed a 400-square-meter workshop where 12-cylinder engines are manufactured. Firefighters needed more than 90 minutes to extinguish the open flames.  

No casualties were reported and the cause of the fire has not been disclosed.

This is the second major fire at a Russian engine plant in two days. On 2 Jun, a blast and fire tore through a workshop at the Zavolzhsky Motor Plant in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

Russia May Suffer One Million Casualties in 2025

Russian conscripts line up at the local recruitment center in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on 20 Oct. 2024 (Photo: Sergey Pivovarov / Sputnik via AP)

The Russian military will likely surpass one million casualties in its war on Ukraine this summer, according to one of the world’s leading think tanks.

Approximately 250,000 of these Russian soldiers have died, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported. The idiotic use of World War One-style “human wave” attacks have taken a tremendous toll on the Russian military. Vladimir Putin and his callous disregard for human life– Russian or Ukrainian– is reponsible.

The Ukrainian military has also suffered heavy losses, with 400,000 casualties, including 60,000 to 100,000 soldiers killed, according to CSIS estimates.

Demand for Cardboard Coffins Soaring in Russia

In Russia, dying has never been more affordable—or more humiliating.

Cardboard coffins, once reserved for unclaimed bodies and stray dogs, are now flying off the shelves. According to funeral directors, up to 50% of all burials in some regions now use cardboard boxes instead of traditional wooden caskets.

“We never used to offer them unless someone specifically asked,” admitted one undertaker. “Now people come in and ask for cardboard first. It’s practical.” Another explained the coffin’s appeal bluntly: “It’s lighter. Easier to carry. Cheaper. And no one’s embarrassed anymore.”

The Russians meeting the one million-mark this summer is sooner than many calculations, including your author. Coriolanus had calculated the Israelis would kill 50,000 Palestinian in Gaza by the end of 2024, but was slightly off as the count was 45,541 as of 31 Dec 2024. Your author’s wife suggested including the 4,047 Lebanese people killed by the IDF in 2024.

45,541 Palestinians + 4,047 Lebanese = 49,588 dead Arabs.

Between Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Pol Pots of today, the pile of bodies just keep getting larger and larger. Here’s how the Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to do without coffins:

Mass grave for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

An international arrest warrant for war crimes issued by the ICC remains active for Vladimir Putin. An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of a law.

Sources:

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/surprise-drone-attack-airfields-russia-encapsulates-ukraines-wartime-122413545

https://kyivindependent.com/tag/war/

https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-battlefield-woes-ukraine

Lenta.ru

DIA Global Threat Assessment

  China is deepening selective cooperation with Russia, aiming to avoid actions that could harm its global standing.

  Russia is sourcing military aid from Iran and North Korea, including artillery, UAVs, and personnel.

  Moscow is transferring sensitive technologies (space, nuclear, missile) to bolster Tehran’s and Pyongyang’s capabilities.

  Iran and North Korea leverage these ties to mitigate sanctions and international isolation.

  Despite this, cooperation largely remains bilateral and transactional rather than a fully integrated alliance. The assessment also includes migration to the US as a threat and describes Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea as an ‘Axis of Upheaval’.

More Analyses

US Army General David Petraeus with Paula Broadwell, the authoress of his biography and downfall in an undated photo. This was a modern day Samson and Goliath melodrama. One of Coriolanus’ commanders was a friend and admirer of General Petraeus.

The 48-year-old man, who hasn’t been identified, was arrested at Stansted Airport near London on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life. No one was injured in the fires that occurred between 8 and 12 May at a house owned by Starmer, a building where he once lived, and a car that he had owned.

To no one’s surprise, three men already charged in connection with the fires seem to be connected to Ukraine or Russia: Ukrainians Petro Pochynok (34) and Roman Lavrynovych (21), and Ukrainian-born Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc (26).

Vladimir Putin’s operatives continue their sabotage campaign against EU and NATO targets. Destroying the houses and car of the UK PM is quite an audacious move and investigators will determine if such a dastardly operation was personally sanctioned by Putin.

The ‘Axis of Upheaval’

Nota Bene: Coriolanus proudly completed several successful tours at DIA. Be that as it may, the real ‘Axis of Upheaval’ blighting the world are these greedy, land-stealing ethnic cleansing oligarchs who have no regard for human life or decency.  Also note this 2025 assessment was publicly released by dishonored Congressman Ronny “Dr Feelgood” Jackson (R-TX), who falsely represented himself as a USN Rear Admiral (Ret.) after he had been demoted to Captain for various blasphemies.

International arrest warrants issued by the ICC for war crimes remain active for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. An indictment is merely an allegation. Both defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty at an international tribunal to be held at the Hague.

Sources: 

Link One

Link Two

https://www.lbc.co.uk/world-news/cia-boss-reveals-putin-invasion-russia/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62v63gl8rvo

US Again Stymies UN Security Council Efforts to Restrain the Israeli Death Forces (IDF)

UN Security Council members voting in favor of the draft resolution. (UN Photo / Eskinder Debebe)

One Pariah State Defends Another Pariah State at the UN

The US has vetoed the UN Security Council’s draft resolution calling for an “unconditional and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza. The other 14 members voted in favor of the document, which also demanded the release of all hostages and the lifting of humanitarian aid restrictions. The dishonorable US Ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, said the resolution would “undermine diplomatic efforts” to reach a ceasefire, adding that the UN has not labelled Hamas as a terrorist organization as demanded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) AKA the American Islamophobia Propaganda Action Center.

If the Jews in Auschwitz asked for a ceasefire, would the SS have granted it?

Wounded Palestinians arrive to al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, 16 Oct 2023. (Photo: Abd Khaled / AP).

Since October 2023, the IDF has killed at least 54,677 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring or maiming 125,530 others. Moreover, at least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. IDF attacks has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

UN: 50,000 Pregnant Women in Danger of Losing Their Child

So, while AIPAC and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu gloat over the US veto, 50,000 pregnant Palestinian mothers-to-be are in danger of losing their children because of malnutrition in the Gaza Strip.

“The world is watching, day after day, horrifying scenes of Palestinians being shot, wounded or killed in Gaza while simply trying to eat,” said UN relief chief Tom Fletcher.

Fadi Al-Zanat (6) is treated at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on 10 Mar. He was suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration, according to the health ministry in Gaza. (Photo: Mousa Salem / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images)

Palestinians wait to receive food at a refugee camp in Rafah on 27 Jan. (Photo: Saher Alghorra / Middle East Images / AFP / Getty Images)

Through AIPAC, both American political parties have continuously hampered UN efforts at restraining the murderous land-grabbing Israelis for decades and are complicit in this ethnic cleansing. The so-called Two-State solution palaver was just a chimera to keep inducing billions of dollars of US aid to Israel every year from hard-working American taxpayers.

Why The Democratic Party Lost 6,265,888 Voters in 2024 They Once Had in 2020:

Coriolanus estimates a six to eight million permanent loss of supporters for the Democratic Party as antiwar progressives have become sick and tired of funding the brutal ethnic cleansing of defenseless Palestinians, despite an opportunity for them to vote out Republicans in the upcoming 2026 mid-term and 2028 presidential elections. Your author supported Kamala Harris in 2024 with the hope that she would divorce herself from the Biden policy of unqualified support for Israel and of course defeat Dotard Trumpf. Recall that in Sep 2024, the late Pope Francis said that choosing between the Democrats and the Republicans was choosing for the “lesser of two evils.”

Sisters Hanan (3) and Misk (18 months) suffered severe injuries in an Israeli air strike. (Photo: BBC)

Diya al-Adini (15) was a young and enthusiastic photographer before he lost his arms in an Israeli strike. (Photo: BBC)

An international arrest warrant issued by the ICC for war crimes remain active for Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu. An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Sources:

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164056

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/259283/pope-francis-in-flight-press-conference-us-presidential-elections-harris-trump-catholic-vote

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g60p1xgdlo

https://www.unfpa.org/occupied-palestinian-territory

Murder-Death-Kill Plagues Innocent Mexicans

The late Mexican band Grupo Fugitivo.

Police in Mexico detained a suspect known as M-47 who may have ordered the mass murder of the music band Grupo Fugitivo in Tamaulipas state.

Relatives of the band members received ransom demands after the men’s disappearance, but four days later their bodies were discovered. 12 suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder. The Gulf Cartel has its stronghold in Tamaulipas state and engages in the smuggling of drugs and migrants across the US-Mexico border, as well as kidnapping for ransom. Unclear is why the members of Grupo Fugitivo were targeted.

A fire killed 12 and injured three people who were reportedly locked up inside a drug rehab center in the violence-plagued Mexican state of Guanajuato  Mexico’s privately run drug rehabilitation centers are often abusive, clandestine, unregulated, and underfunded. They have been the targets of similar attacks in the past.

Murdering harmless musicians requires a special kind of depravity. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has her hands full trying to uplift her people from poverty, dealing with a water shortage and imminent drought, defanging the drug cartels, and protecting the sovereignty of her country from the Dotard Trumpf junta.

The competent and capable President of Mexico.

Note that Mexican servicemembers died fighting alongside Americans as allies in WWII. The Aztec Eagles are the only Mexican military unit to ever deploy outside their country. ZERO Israeli soldiers fought alongside or served with the US over the past 77 years (e.g. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Grenada, Panama).

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clygr1v6z2mo

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-fire-drug-rehab-center-deaths-guanajuato/

https://www.foreignassistance.gov/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/201st_Fighter_Squadron

Michigan: Two Chinese Nationals Smuggle Pathogen into US

Yunqing Jian (Undated photo)

Yunqing Jian (33) and Zunyong Liu (34), citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the US, false statements, and visa fraud.

The FBI arrested Jian for allegedly smuggling into the US a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, a potential agroterrorism weapon. This noxious fungus causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year. Fusarium graminearum’s toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock.

Jian received Chinese government funding to research this pathogen. Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same fungus. He allegedly smuggled Fusarium graminearum into the US so that he could conduct research on it with Jian at the University of Michigan.

Note the phraseology in the AUSA press release: A complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Trial cannot be held on felony charges in a complaint. When the investigation is completed, a determination will be made whether to seek a felony indictment.

The University of Michigan issued the following statement:

3 June 2025

As one of the world’s leading public research institutions, the University of Michigan is dedicated to advancing knowledge, solving challenging problems and improving nearly every facet of the human experience. Our research enterprise across all three campuses is united in this commitment to serving the people of Michigan and the world. 

We strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the university’s critical public mission. It is important to note that the university has received no funding from the Chinese government in relation to research conducted by the accused individuals. We have and will continue to cooperate with federal law enforcement in its ongoing investigation and prosecution.

Please direct media inquiries to the FBI by emailing DE_Media@fbi.gov or calling (313) 965-5749.

A complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Trial cannot be held on felony charges in a complaint. When the investigation is completed, a determination will be made whether to seek a felony indictment.

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/chinese-nationals-charged-conspiracy-and-smuggling-dangerous-biological-pathogen-us

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article277949468.html

US: Romanian National Pleads Guilty to Epidemic of ‘Swatting’ Calls

Thomasz Szabo (26) of Romania, pleaded guilty to being the leader of a years-long conspiracy that targeted victims across the US with “swatting” and bomb threats. Szabo and his co-conspirators falsely reported ongoing violent emergencies at government buildings, houses of worship, and private residences, including the homes of senior government officials.

One of those subordinates bragged to Szabo:

“I did 25+ swattings today and created massive havoc in America; $500,000+ in taxpayers wasted in just two days.”

Szabo was extradited from Romania in November 2024. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of threats and false information regarding explosives and will be sentenced on 23 Oct 2025.

This lunatic and his gang of misfits enjoyed taking advantage of the American police state and knew full well about the waste of money this cost taxpayers. There is no reporting of any injuries or fatalities Thomasz Szabo caused, but police may have responded to one of his hoaxes which may have allowed a suspect to commit and flee a real crime. Thomasz Szabo and his followers will certainly be enjoying the company of genuine US federal law-enforcement personnel for several years.

Source:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/romanian-citizen-pleads-guilty-swatting-numerous-members-congress-churches-and-former-0

EUROPOL: 200,000 Euro Reward for Dutch Fugitive

Joseph Johannes Leudekkers (34) is brown eyed and 182cm tall.

Leijdekkers is also involved in serious cases of excessive violence, torture, and murder.

Above, convicted cocaine smuggler Jos Leijdekkers attends a church service in Tihun, Sierra Leone, 1 Jan 2025, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video.  West Africa has become a major drug transit hub, so no surprise that Jos Leijdekkers would be spotted there.

Sources:

https://eumostwanted.eu/leijdekkers-joseph-johannes-jos

Anxiety: Elderly Americans Applying for Social Security at Record Rates

Older Americans are filing for Social Security benefits at a record rate this year, a surge that could reflect growing anxiety about the stability of the retirement system amid cutbacks under the Trumpf junta. 

The number of people claiming Social Security jumped 17% to 1.8 million this year through May compared with the same period a year ago. New filings are on track to reach four million, up 15% from the prior fiscal year. Claiming Social Security early reduces a person’s monthly benefit and can result in lower lifetime benefits for some retirees, as well as their spouses and dependent children.

Americans are becoming traumatized by the Trumpf junta, according to the American Psychological Association (APA) and hence the early applications for SSA benefits. But the oligarchy is doing just fine as they will amass more fortunes for themselves while working class and poor Americans struggle to make ends meet amid cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP to pay for the unneeded tax breaks for the fabulously wealthy oligarchs.

What the Republicans and the ruling elite are doing to poor and working class Americans is called “social murder.”

Sources:

https://www.ssa.gov/data/retirement-insurance-online-apps-2012-onward.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/pregnancyparenting/america-is-becoming-traumatized-under-trump-increasing-environmental-crises/ar-AA1xTK4l

Coriolanus is Monitoring the Felon Musk-Dotard Trumpf Feud

Two of the four worst persons in the world may be having a divorce.

Followers of the Watch, both of these peccable oligarchs can inflict enormous damage on each other, so Coriolanus will be analyzing the strategic implications of this so-called ‘feud” and how long it lasts.

Update: US Salmonella Outbreak

The Florida-originated cucumber salmonella outbreak now includes passengers on six cruise ships. Total stricken nationally: 449 in 31 states and DC. 125 have been hospitalized, but no deaths. The Trumpf junta reduced or eliminated food surveillance on cruise ships this year.

Who needs ISIS or al-Qaida when we have America’s Godzilla destroying our health, economy, and national security? And Trumpf’s his own properties have health violation issues, as you will read below.

Sources:

www.miamiherald.com

www.mcclatchydc.com

Trumpf’s New Jersey Westminster Club Cited for Numerous Health Violations

Trumpf’s opulent private golf club in Bedminster, NJ.

Dotard Trumpf’s private golf club in Bedminster, NJ was hit with a remarkable 18 health code violations, nine of them considered “critical,” according to a recent report by the Somerset County Department of Health.

Source:

Harper’s Magazine Weekly Summary

Our immense gratitude to Becky Zhang for her superb summation of events. This month Harper’s Magazine is celebrating 175 years of excellent writing.

Explosions caused two bridges bordering Ukraine in western Russia to collapse. The Israel Defense Forces fired into a crowd of Palestinians who were en route to a US- and Israeli-backed aid station in Gaza, killing at least thirty-one and injuring more than a hundred; Israeli military command announced that it had killed one of Hamas’s leaders, the brother of the former Hamas chief who architected the 7 Oct attacks; a US diplomat called Hamas’s amendments to the latest ceasefire proposal “totally unacceptable”; and at a Colorado gathering in support of Israeli hostages, an Egyptian man who had overstayed his tourist visa attacked the crowd with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, injuring eight people. Explosions caused two bridges bordering Ukraine in western Russia to collapse, Ukraine deployed large-scale drone attacks on Russian air bases, and representatives for the two countries convened in Istanbul for a second round of peace negotiations. A cholera outbreak in Sudan killed more than 170 people last week, and flooding in north-central Nigeria killed more than 150. Two were killed and hundreds arrested in French celebrations of the Paris Saint-Germain football club’s victory over Inter Milan in the Champions League final, and footage surfaced of the French First Lady shoving her husband in the face as they prepared to disembark a plane to commence a tour of southeast Asia. “We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” said the French president of the incident.

The State Department announced that it would “aggressively” terminate the visas of select Chinese students, after pausing the scheduling of further student visa appointments and threatening to revoke the capacity of Harvard University to enroll foreign students. “Humanity rises and falls as one,” said a Chinese graduate in Harvard Square as a man pinned another to the ground behind her. “This is a time where we can use a little bit more moral imagination and imagine ourselves being connected with one another.” The Supreme Court ruled to allow the Trumpf junta to expedite the deportation of 530,000 migrants hailing from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela; and ICE detained a Massachusetts high schooler on his way to volleyball practice. The US president pardoned a reality TV couple convicted of defrauding community banks of at least $30 million, and several government officials received fraudulent phone calls and text messages impersonating the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. “There’s only one Susie,” said the president. In Iowa, a Republican senator defended potential cuts to Medicaid eligibility, reasoning, “Well, we are all going to die”; and in California, Minnesota’s governor warned that the Democratic Party was becoming “roadkill.” Felon Musk criticized the US president’s tax bill in an interview with CBS; bade farewell to the White House the following day, sporting a black eye he attributed to his five-year-old son; denied a report by the New York Times alleging his bladder-destabilizing ketamine use; and vowed to do better after a third SpaceX rocket disintegrated mid-flight.

Turkiye approved a circular allowing cabin crew to fine passengers who prematurely leave their seats upon landing; and archaeologists revealed a loaf of 5,000-year-old bread that was excavated in central Turkiye. The remains of a freelance writer were found in a container in downtown Las Vegas, but the primary suspect for the murder had already died the week before in a high-speed car chase with Utah’s Highway Patrol. A tractor trailer spilled soybean powder across a New York highway in what the local police department called “the biggest protein spill bust in WSPD [West Seneca Police Department] history”; and a truck overturned near the US–Canada border, releasing 14 million honeybees. A man jumped into a pit of ancient terracotta warriors in Xi’an, China; and an ultramarathoner in Wales breastfed thrice en route to placing first in the race’s female division. Brazilian nuns beatboxed on a Catholic television program to viral fame, and a London beauty consultant specializing in Brazilian butt lifts was prohibited from performing cosmetic procedures after testimony from nearly 40 women in a civil trial for what an attorney likened to a “serious knife crime.” “He butchered me,” said one plaintiff. “There is no other word for it.”

Source:

Poor Bear Caged for Four Years Makes First Friend

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

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

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

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

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

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

Efforts were made to conceal the identities of the clients.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

A Peek at the Poland-Belarus Border

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

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

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

(Copyright Euronews)

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

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

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

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

A Polish-German border crossing.

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

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

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

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

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

(Image: Nataliia Shulga / Al Jazeera)

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

Sources:

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

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

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

“Jacuzzi of Death” for Sealife in Gulf of Mexico

Imagery courtesy of The Sun UK

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

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

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

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

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

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

A crab in the toxic zone.

Nearly all creatures that unknowingly enter the area die.

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

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

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

The unfortunate crab being pickled.

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

Analysis and imagery: NOAA

Oil Toxins Pervasive in Gulf of Mexico

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

Sources:

Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

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

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

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

Thieves Use Explosives to Steal Gold Artifacts from Dutch Museum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

INTERPOL Publishes First Ever Silver Notice Targeting Criminal Assets

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

From INTERPOL:

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

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

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

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

Countries and territories participating in the pilot phase:

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

Source:

INTERPOL publishes first Silver Notice targeting criminal assets

Vietnam: 30 Children Poisoned with Pink Colored Rodenticide

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

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

Images provided by the family. Photo: BVCC

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

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

Sources:

Nearly 30 students were poisoned with rodenticides – VnExpress Health Newspaper

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

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

2024 Kia Sorento

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

RCLRPT-25V024-8197.PDF

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

Transport Canada Recall – 2025011 – KIA – Canada.ca

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

Israel Destroys Syrian Naval Fleet

An IDF F-15 jet fighter takes off from the Negev desert (Photo: AFP)

Israel carried out attacks on Syria’s naval fleet, most likely destroying the majority of the ships.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says it has documented more than 310 strikes by the IDF since the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday. Israeli warplanes have also reportedly carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria, including on the capital, Damascus.

Destroyed Syrian ships in port. (Getty Images)

The BBC or the SOHR did not provide any Syrian military or civilian casualty numbers.

Benjamin Netanyahu finally appeared in court for the corruption trial that he has kept postponing and delaying because of his wartime duties as Prime Minister. But that did not stop him from unilaterally attacking Syrian targets or seizing the Golan Heights. Offensive operations against this new regime does not fall under Israel’s right to self-defense, even though the intentions were supposedly to destroy chemical weapons sites. The new Sunni masters of Syria are probably not pleased with this flagrant violation of their sovereignty. Abu Muhammad al-Jolani and his cadre are trying to create order and stability in the new Syria.

Jordan can serve as an interlocutor between Jerusalem and Damascus and perhaps the new Salafist regime won’t be hostile to their neighbor. Without dialogue though, covert or overt, both countries may be destined for resource and life-wasting eternal conflict.

Source:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqx808q7lrno

US Charges Two High-Ranking Syrian Officials with War Crimes

General Jamil Hassan (L), Abdul Salam Mahmoud ( R )

Former Syrian Air Force Intelligence officers Jamil Hassan (72) and Abdul Salam Mahmoud (65) were each charged in connection with a conspiracy to commit war crimes through the infliction of cruel and inhuman treatment on detainees under their control, including US citizens, in detention facilities at the Mezzeh Military Airport (Mezzeh Prison), near Damascus, Syria. Warrants for the defendants’ arrest have been issued and they remain at large.

Between January 2012 and July 2019, Hassan and Mahmoud conspired to identify, intimidate, threaten, punish, and kill people detained at Mezzeh Prison suspected of aiding or supporting opponents of the regime, such as those who protested, provided medical aid to opponents of the regime, or publicly criticized the regime. Detainees, including US citizens, were mercilessly beaten, electrocuted, and had their toenails removed. Detainees were also allegedly hung from the ceiling by their wrists and were burned with acid.

(Map courtesy of Alchetron)

Both military and political prisoners were held at Mezzeh prison. The prison was an infamous embodiment of Syrian government repression. Widespread human rights abuses and torture has been reported from the Mezzeh prison throughout its history but most notably during the rule of Hafez al-Assad (1970–2000).

Members of the public who have information about human rights violators in the US or the location of the defendants named in this indictment are urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov. Tips may be provided anonymously.

These timely indictments are more about seeking justice for American citizens tortured by these two psychopaths than an exercise of US foreign policy. An indicted war criminal is an indicted war criminal regardless of nationality, whether it is Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Russian President Vladimir Putin, or this infamous American officer below from over half a century ago.

1969 US Army CID mugshot of 1LT William Calley courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | Criminal Charges Unsealed Against Two Former High-Ranking Syrian Government Intelligence Officials for War Crimes against Americans and Other Civilians | United States Department of Justice

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Four Taiwan Soldiers Charged with Spying for China

Four Taiwanese soldiers, including three from a unit in charge of security for the president’s office, were charged with photographing and leaking confidential information to China.

China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since 1949, but Beijing insists the island is part of its territory and has vowed to seize it one day.

There has been a series of spying cases in Taiwan, as China maintains military and political pressure on Taipei to accept its claims of sovereignty.

In the latest case, the accused included three members of a military unit in charge of security for the Presidential Office.

Entrance to Presidential Palace in Taipei. (Photo: taipeitravelgeek.com)

A fourth person was a soldier in the defence ministry’s information and telecommunications command. They allegedly used their mobile phones to photograph military information, which was passed to “Chinese agents.”

The four received payments ranging from around NT$260,000 to NT$660,000 ($8,000-$20,000) “depending on the confidentiality level of the military information they provided.”

The incidents happened from 2022 to 2024.

Three of the soldiers were discharged before an investigation was launched in August this year following a tip-off to the defence ministry. The fourth was suspended in August.

All four have been detained and charged with corruption and violating national security law for “leaking and delivering confidential information or electromagnetic records for China”.

They face a maximum seven years in jail if convicted.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration campaign against us has never stopped,” the defence ministry said in a statement, describing the four accused as “treasonous and lawless.”

In Sep 2024, an ex-air force instructor was sentenced to 17 years in prison for “aiding the enemy” and delivering military secrets to China.

China’s massive intelligence apparatus poses a threat to the much smaller Taiwanese counterintelligence agencies. Beijing employs the ‘grains of sand’ principle of collection, where vast numbers of human and cyber networks vacuum up information ranging from personal data to intellectual property. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) has the time, patience, resources, and personnel to construct a mosaic from all of these thousands of particles of sand put together. Taiwanese and Western intelligence agencies do not have that luxury and must prioritize collection efforts to remain efficient with resources and personnel, a problem China doesn’t have.

Source:

Four Taiwan Soldiers Charged With Spying For China | Barron’s

Japan: 46 Students Stricken with Scombroid Fish Poisoning

Blue Marlin (Artwork: Les Hata © Secretariat of the Pacific Community)

46 children, students, and teachers who ate school lunches at three elementary and junior high schools in Hakuba Village in Nagano Prefecture, complained of symptoms such as fever and rash. The cause was later determined to be food poisoning by the growth of germs on a marlin thawing at room temperature for too long.

In order to prevent a recurrence, the prefecture suspended school lunch operations. The company says that it will review the cooking process and safety management and instruct people to thaw in the refrigerator or under running water instead of thawing at room temperature.

Scombroid poisoning, also called histamine poisoning, is a type of food intoxication caused by the consumption of scombroid and scombroid-like marine fish species that have begun to spoil with the growth of particular types of food bacteria. Fish most commonly involved are members of the Scombridae family (tuna and mackerel) and a few non-scombroid relatives (bluefish, dolphin or mahi-mahi, and amberjack).

Source:

Marlin, food poisoning thawed at room temperature for too long 46 students eat school lunch, Nagano|National news|Hokkoku Shimbun

Barbarism Continues in Haiti: Gang Slaughters 180 People, Mostly Elderly

The “Taliban Gang.” Sitting is the 20-year-old second-in-command, who swears that he does not practice kidnapping but “only” racketeering. Gang members will beg for one dollar, but wield weapons worth thousands. (Photo: © Corentin Fohlen / Divergence)

Approximately 180 people were killed recently in Haiti’s Cite Soleil area. The massacre was ordered by a gang leader who suspected his child had been made ill with witchcraft.

“A red line has been crossed,” the PM’s office said and would “mobilize all forces to track down and annihilate” those responsible, including Wharf Jeremie gang leader Monel “Mikano” Felix, whom it accused of planning the attack.

The victims were mostly elderly. The death toll could be higher and cited witnesses as saying that “mutilated bodies were burned in the streets, including several young individuals who were killed attempting to save residents.”

Felix had ordered the violence after his child became sick, and after seeking advice from a voodoo priest who accused elderly people in the area of harming the child through witchcraft.

Cite Soleil, a densely populated slum by the port of the capital Port-au-Prince, is among the poorest and most violent areas of Haiti. Tight gang control, including the restriction of mobile phone use, has limited residents’ ability to share information about the massacre.

(Map: PBS)

The government, riven with political infighting, has struggled to contain gangs’ growing power in and around the capital. The armed groups are accused of indiscriminate killings, gang rapes, ransom kidnappings, and fueling critical food shortages.

Haiti, the first “Black Republic,” both enriched her colonial masters, the French, and sent soldiers to help in the American Revolution. Now Haiti is a terrible combination of Gaza and Somalia. Not doubt that diarrheal illnesses, STDs, and TB are spreading throughout the slums.   

In Oct 2024, the Gran Grif gang took responsibility for the killing of at least 115 people in Pont-Sonde, a town in Haiti’s breadbasket Artibonite region. They said it was retaliation for residents helping a self-defense group hinder their road toll operations.

Gran Grif gang-member (Undated photo: arise.tv)

A UN-backed security mission is partially deployed and remains deeply under-resourced. Haitian leaders have called for the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission to be converted into a UN peacekeeping force to ensure it is better supplied, but the plan stalled amid opposition from China and Russia in the Security Council.

A UN spokesperson said the weekend’s death count was at least 184, including 127 elderly people. The security situation continues to deteriorate and many countries have yet to deliver on pledges of support.

Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged countries to improve efforts to stop arms trafficking to Haiti. The UN estimates the gangs’ increasingly modern arsenals are largely trafficked from the US.

“These latest killings bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people,” he said.

Last month the FAA and the UN suspended all flights to Haiti after these runamoks fired upon at least three airplanes, wounding a flight attendant. Access to large caliber weapons abandoned or stolen from the defunct Haitian Army may be in the hands of some of these brigands.

Regrettably, Haiti is a low-priority for many countries, including the US. Hundreds of Haitians have drowned attempting to flee by water and those who make it to safety are not always given asylum or refuge. The neighboring Dominican Republic sealed off their borders and began deporting undocumented Haitians. Like the Mexican drug cartels, Haitian gangs receive their illegal weapons and ammunition from traffickers in the US. Haiti, a failed nation, is a disaster at America’s doorstep and a black eye for the “Monroe Doctrine.”  

Firearms displayed at the Miami Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) on 17 Aug 2022. Increasingly sophisticated weapons are being trafficked into Haiti mainly from Florida amid worsening lawlessness in the impoverished Caribbean nation, according to a 4 March 2023 UN report. (Photo: Lynne Sladky / AP)

Sources:

Haiti gang massacres around 180 people, targeting elderly | Reuters

UN report: Modern weapons being smuggled to Haiti from US | AP News

US prohibits airlines from flying to Haiti and UN suspends flights after planes were shot by gangs | AP News

Pakistan: Military Charges Former ISI Director Over ‘Political Activities’ in Unprecedented Move

Pakistan’s former spy chief was arrested Aug 2024 in court martial proceedings (Photo: Anushree Fadnavis / Reuters)

In an unprecedented move, Pakistan’s powerful army charged the former head of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with “engaging in political activities. Lt Gen Faiz Hamid (Retd) is accused of creating agitation and unrest, leading up to multiple incidents, including but not limited to the events of 9 May 2023, aimed at fomenting instability at the behest of and in collusion with vested political interests.”

No former ISI director has ever faced a court martial in Pakistan’s history.

Days after Lt Gen Hamid’s arrest, three other retired army officers were also detained for “actions prejudicial to military discipline.” Those arrests are widely believed to have been connected to the proceedings against Hamid.

Hamid’s two-year tenure at the ISI was marked by allegations that he politically targeted Khan’s rivals, many of whom were jailed; cracked down on media, violated human rights, and suppressed protest movements across the country.

Hamid gained further international attention in August 2021 when he was photographed at a Kabul hotel shortly after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.

Gen. Hamid rushed to Kabul to broker a deal between Mullah Baradar and the Haqqani Network (HQN) when the Taliban seized control of the government. The ISI and the powerful HQN have a strong covert working relationship.

Pakistani PM Imran Khan was arrested for alleged corruption on 9 May 2023 which led to massive demonstrations targeting state buildings and military installations. Thousands of people were arrested, of whom about 100 faced military trials. Khan is also facing several cases related to 9 May.

Black smoke billows from a building in Peshawar set ablaze by supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan flowing his arrest. (Photo: AFP)

(Map: worldatlas.com / Data: CIA)

Pakistan has a population of 252,363,571 people comprised ethnically: Punjabi 44.7%, Pashtun (Pathan) 15.4%, Sindhi 14.1%, Saraiki 8.4%, Muhajirs 7.6%, Baloch 3.6%, other 6.3%. Muslim (official) 96.5% (Sunni 85-90%, Shia 10-15%). Real GDP per capita is $5,600 (2023 est.).

While most countries have armies, Pakistan is an “army with a country” with approximately 630,000 active-duty personnel (550,000 Army; 30,000 Navy; 50,000 Air Force); approximately 150,000 Frontier Corps and Pakistan Rangers. Islamabad has a growing nuclear arsenal of 170 nuclear warheads.

Terrorist groups operating in Pakistan: Haqqani Network (HQN); Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami; Harakat ul-Mujahidin; Hizbul Mujahideen; Indian Mujahedeen; Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham-Khorasan (ISIS-K); Islamic State of ash-Sham – India; Islamic State of ash-Sham – Pakistan; Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; Jaish-e-Mohammed; Jaysh al Adl (Jundallah); Lashkar i Jhangvi; Lashkar-e Tayyiba; Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP); al-Qa’ida; al-Qa’ida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS)

The Pakistani military is the only homogenizing force in this cauldron of ethnic groups, languages, political parties, social movements, competing interests, drug trafficking/use, and extremist groups.

The popular former international cricket champion and imprisoned ex-PM Imran Khan with his loyal ex-ISI chief dared to defy the all-powerful Pakistani army now face “justice.”

“Every time our party announces a protest, I am charged with more fake cases while inside prison.

I have been informed that many of our people are still missing, and we have serious concerns about their lives and wellbeing. We demand that the government immediately publish data of arrested citizens and those brought to hospitals and morgues after being injured or martyred. Additionally, CCTV footage from the hospital and Safe City cameras must be preserved, so that the truth can be revealed to the nation.”

We have two demands:

1. A commission should be formed under the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court to independently investigate the events of 9 May 2023 and 26 Nov 2024.

2. Unjustly imprisoned political detainees should be released.

Sources:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/10/pakistans-military-charges-former-spy-chief-over-political-activities

https://insaf.pk/news/former-prime-minister-imran-khans-message-december-6-2024

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/who-is-isi-chief-faiz-hameed-whose-visit-to-kabul-has-sparked-controversy-101630843177941.html

https://www.dawn.com/news/1752254

CIA

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2493059/the-mosaic-of-drug-trafficking-and-its-consequences

https://thebulletin.org/premium/2023-09/pakistan-nuclear-weapons-2023/

Donald Trump is Human Wrecking Ball

President-elect Donald Trump has picked the worst picks humanly possible to sit on his future cabinet. Their policies will weaken, sicken, pauperize, and demoralize Americans with destructive health, economic, de-regulatory strategies. A Russian TV host gleefully claimed that “Trump’s Cabinet picks will dismantle America.”

US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, 5 Dec 2017. (Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images)

But not only is Trump going to sabotage the US domestically on behalf of the Kremlin, he is going to demoralize US diplomats and damage our foreign policy.  

Career diplomats at the US State Department work earnestly and diligently for decades to one day reach the pinnacle of being named Ambassador. President-elect Trump chose his daughter’s utterly sleazy, contemptible, convicted father-in-law to be the US Ambassador to France.

The former AUSA for New Jersey said of Charles Kushner: “This was one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted…and I was the US Attorney in New Jersey.”

This oligarchal miscreant previously served two years in prison before being released after pleading guilty in 2004 to charges of tax evasion, lying to the Federal Election Commission and retaliating against a federal witness. Trump pardoned Kushner during the last month of his presidency. If confirmed by the US Senate, Charles Kushner will be walking in the shoes of Benjamin Franklin, America’s first Ambassador to Paris.

Now the President-elect is nominating his son’s ex-fiancee Kim Guilfoyle to be US Ambassador to Greece, the world’s first democracy. This move is widely seen as an attempt to ensure Kim Guilfoyle (55) doesn’t spill the beans about the Trump Crime Family (TCF) after Donald Trump Jr. (46) dumped her for a younger woman, Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson (37).  

To her credit, Kim Guilfoyle is an attorney and former prosecutor.

Below is what Kim Guilfoyle must have looked like when she learned that Don Trump Jr threw her overboard for a younger woman. She waited a long time to tie the knot with Don Jr. At least the TCF bought her silence with a well-paying, prestigious sinecure in Athens (for now).

America and the world can’t wait long enough until 21 Jan 2029, if we all survive this human wrecking ball and Putin’s plans for America.

Sources:

SEX GAL NOW HELPING FEDS – HOOKER TURNS ON KUSHNER

Resistance HQ Bulletin 23, 12/10/24 – by Ron Filipkowski

Russian TV host gleefully claims Trump’s Cabinet will ‘dismantle’ America, report says

Man Fleeing Ukraine War with Kitten Found Alive in Frigid Romania Mountains: “Peach Kept My Heart Warm”

Salvamont Maramures, a Romanian mountain rescue service, saved the two. Peach the cat peers from the jacket of its owner, Vladislav Duda (28). They were rescued from a deep mountain ravine in a state of severe hypothermia. (Photo: AP)

When the rescue team located and found the Ukrainian, they unzipped his jacket and discovered Peach snuggled up inside. Duda said: “I’m happy because my cat is alive. I got a chance from God for a new life. The happiest moment is because the cat is here with me.”

The auburn-colored kitten, a tomcat named “Peach” in Ukrainian, was experiencing the effects of malnutrition after they ran out of food four days earlier and melted snow helped to keep him alive.

“Peach kept my heart warm and he kept my faith alive,” the Ukrainian said.

“Peach” also means stove or oven.

During the complex ascent out of the ravine which took more than five hours, the Ukrainian would not let go of his kitten. He kept Peach clutched to his chest from the bottom to the top until he was put in the ambulance.

Duda requested the rescuers to ‘Please take care of the cat.'”

Peach at the Animal Med vet clinic after being rescued along with its owner after three days in a deep mountain ravine in Baia Mare, Romania. (Photo: 9 Dec 2024, AP)

Peach received veterinary treatment in Baia Mare and is expected to fully recover.

Source:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-kitten-fleeing-ukraine-war-found-alive-romania-mountains/

Ukraine Withdraws from Vuhledar as Russia Attacks Strategic Grain-Exporting Port on Danube River

The Ukrainian military has confirmed that it is pulling out of the strategic city of Vuhledar as Moscow continues its grinding offensive. Vuhledar, a deserted former mining town with a prewar population of some 14,000, has been at the center of ferocious battles since the start of Russia’s unprovoked invasion in Feb 2022. Russian Telegram channels posted videos of troops waving the Russian flag over shattered buildings.

Russian forces used repeated attacks on the flanks of Vuhledar to exhaust the Ukrainian defenses, threatening to surround the hilltop city. Although razed, this location is strategically important for Russia to protect its supply routes. Vuhledar could also act as a springboard toward Pokrovsk, a communications hub some 80 km to the north that Moscow has been eying for months.

Moscow’s troops, overwhelmingly superior in numbers and equipment, have been slowly advancing in eastern Ukraine despite huge losses, as Ukraine has been desperately appealing to its Western allies to provide it with more advanced weapons and give it permission to strike military objectives deeper inside Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s critically important Danube port of Izmayil was again targeted by waves of Russian drone strikes that raised the alarm in neighboring NATO member Romania. Izmayil, on the border with Romania, is Kiev’s only gateway to exporting its grain and other produce.  Two people, including a Turkish citizen, were wounded in the attack.

Vladimir Putin is waging war against grain and global food security to disrupt the Western and Ukrainian economies. As previously reported on Coriolanus, the Kremlin recently ordered jets to attack a cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea to Egypt.

Sources:

Ukraine Withdraws From Vuhledar As Russia Resumes Strikes On Danube Port (rferl.org)

Azerbaijani Opposition Figure Brutally Murdered in France

Vidadi Isgandarli (undated web screenshot).

Vidadi Isgandarli, an Azerbaijani opposition figure in exile well-known for his fierce criticism of the government, has died in France after being brutally beaten and stabbed in an attack at his apartment that his family says was politically motivated.

The deadly attack on Isgandarli follows a similar pattern of violence against Azerbaijani opposition figures in exile; in 2021, another politician in exile, Mohammad Mirzali, survived being stabbed.

“My brother had no idea who the attackers were or what motivated the assault…. They did not speak, and they wore masks, making it impossible to identify them,” said Oktay Isgandarl.

“I have no doubt this is a politically motivated assassination. My brother survived a previous attack by approximately 15 assailants in 2022 here in France.”

Oktay Isgandarli said he received a desperate video call from his brother early on 29 Sep as he clutched a pillow to his abdomen to try and staunch the bleeding after being attacked by three masked men who had broken into his apartment in Mulhouse in eastern France.

Vidadi Isgandarli was stabbed at least 21 times in the abdomen as well as blows to the body and head.

Medics managed to resuscitate him, but he never regained consciousness and succumbed to his injuries on 1 Oct.

Vidadi Isgandarli was known as a vocal critic of the Azerbaijani government and President Ilham Aliyev, who has maintained a tight grip on power since 2003. Azerbaijani Supremo Ilham Aliyev gestures as he addresses the nation in Baku, Azerbaijan, 20 Oct 2020. Israel supplied Azerbaijan with nearly 70% of its arsenal between 2016 and 2020 — giving Azerbaijan an edge against Armenia and boosting Israel’s large defense industry. Aliev has also been deepening ties with Vladimir Putin. (AP Photo)

In 2010, Vidadi Isgandarli participated in parliamentary elections, which he denounced as fraudulent after opposition candidates failed to get elected. He then helped organize protests against the official election results.

Arrested in 2011 and charged with various offenses, including assault and interference with election officials, Vidadi denied the allegations, claiming they were politically motivated.

He was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison but was released early in Dec 2012 in a presidential amnesty. Fearing further persecution, Vidadi, his brother, and their families emigrated to France in 2015.

With Azerbaijan set to host the climate conference COP29 in November, right groups have said it is imperative that the event is used also to shine a spotlight on the country and the deteriorating human rights situation there.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups had documented the “widespread abuse” by the Azerbaijani authorities of the criminal justice system to crack down on human rights including the right to freedom of expression, often “detaining and falsely charging their critics with economic crimes.”

Editorial cartoon on the 2015 Baku European Games from Meydan TV (Image: Meydan TV)

These cowardly murderers took advantage of world attention being focused on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and Russia’s campaign against Ukraine to eliminate this political opponent of the Aliev regime which has been in power for 21 years. The Amnesty International report contains several instances of political opponents being bullied or imprisoned on fabricated charges. The Aliev regime has the wealth and security apparatus, the DTX, to maintain power and target opponents at home and abroad. The petroleum industry in Azerbaijan produces about 873,260 barrels (138,837 m3) of oil per day and 29 billion cubic meters of gas per year as of 2013.[1] Azerbaijan is one of the birthplaces of the oil industry. This attack is reminiscent of the brutal 2018 murder and butchery of political dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, which was directly linked to Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.

Sources:

Azerbaijani Opposition Figure Dies After Brutal Attack In France (rferl.org)

Human rights in Azerbaijan Amnesty International

Israeli weapons quietly helped Azerbaijan retake Nagorno-Karabakh — sources, data | The Times of Israel

CIA Makes It Easier for Potential Informants to Share Tips

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) wants to make it easier — and safer — for people in Iran, China, and North Korea to share information with America’s premier spy agency.

CIA posted online instructions in Korean, Mandarin, and Farsi detailing steps that potential informants can take to contact US intelligence officials without putting themselves in danger.

The instructions include ways to reach the CIA on its public website or on the darknet, a part of the internet that can only be accessed using special tools designed to hide the user’s identity. The CIA posted similar instructions in Russian two years ago following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“People are trying to reach out to us from around the world and we are offering them instructions for how to do that safely,” the agency said in a statement. “Our efforts on this front have been successful in Russia, and we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we’re open for business.”

The tips, presented in text-only videos and infographics, include using a virtual private network, or VPN, to circumvent internet restrictions and surveillance, and the use of a device that can’t easily be traced back to the user. The CIA also urged any potential informants to use private web browsers and to delete their internet history to cover their tracks.

The messages in the three languages were posted on Telegram, YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Several of those platforms are blocked in China, Iran, and Russia but can still be accessed using a VPN.

Authoritarian leaders around the world have used the internet as a tool of mass surveillance and as a way to deliver propaganda and disinformation while blocking sites and views deemed unfavorable to the government.

China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran all block access to American platforms like Facebook, for example, and use web access to control which sources of information users can access.

VPNs and other tools offer ways around this censorship and surveillance, but that ability has made them a target. In its instructions to potential sources, the CIA warned its audience to be selective, as their well-being could depend on choosing the right program.

“Use a VPN provider not headquartered in Russia, Iran, or China, or any other country that is considered unfriendly to the US,” CIA wrote in its instructions for Mandarin users.

This system apparently worked with informants operating in Russia. For the technologically savvy who are confident of remaining undetected, this method may provide the USIC with useful information from Iran, China, and North Korea. Of course, the information would be evaluated for quality and access. For years Wikileaks has used a system to allow people to anonymously download information without detection.   

Sources:

CIA

CIA makes it easier for potential informants to share tips (voanews.com)

Denmark: Three Arrested Following Explosions Near Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen

Security personnel inspect the site of two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Wednesday. Police are conducting initial investigations at the scene of two blasts for a possible connection to the Israeli embassy located in the area, Copenhagen police said on social media platform. No injuries were reported in the incident, the police added. Photo by Emil Helms/EPA-EFE.

Police in Denmark arrested three people Wednesday following a pair of explosions overnight near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen, probably two hand grenades. There were no injuries or damage to the Israeli facility.

The first suspect was arrested within the Danish capital before two others were taken into police custody on a train at Copenhagen Central Station. The three suspects are Swedish males between the ages of 15 and 20 years old. The pair of explosions occurred at around 3:20 AM at the intersection of Strandagervej and Lundevangsvej near the Israeli embassy in Hellerup, north of Copenhagen. Police said they had launched an investigation to see if the explosions were in relation to the Israeli embassy.

Israel’s offensive against the Palestinians and Lebanon with the increasing death toll has resulted in growing criticism and anger directed toward the Middle Eastern country. Last month, German police shot and killed an armed man near Munich’s Israeli embassy after he opened fire on security forces. In June, a man with a crossbow attacked police outside the Israeli embassy in Belgrade, Serbia.

Meanwhile, Israel continues pounding Lebanon. At least six people have been killed and eight wounded in Israeli air strikes targeting central Beirut overnight. A further 46 people were killed and 85 injured in IDF attacks across Lebanon in the previous 24 hours. More than 1,900 people have been killed and about 9,000 wounded in Lebanon in almost a year of cross-border fighting, with most of the deaths occurring in the past two weeks.

Destruction at the site of an overnight Israeli air raid on the Bir el-Abed neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on 1 Oct 2024 [Anwar Amro/AFP]

As written here on Coriolanus, Israel and the West will be dealing with asymmetric reprisals, ranging from rank amateurish like this hand grenade episode to highly professional attacks, because of the Likud government’s brutal campaign against the Palestinians and its offensive against Lebanon. Innocent Jews and Israelis, who may be Labor Party members or peace activists like the young woman on the left seated next to Greta Thunberg below, are vulnerable worldwide thanks to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. The right-wing in Israel and the West will denounce attacks like this hand grenade folly with the standard lines that it’s “antisemitism,” when it’s really an anti-Likud gesture and an expression of anger and frustration that people of a darker color and a different religion should be killed so easily in the name of “self-defense.”  

Sources:

3 arrested following explosions near Israel’s embassy in Copenhagen – UPI.com

At least 8 killed, 9 wounded in Tel Aviv mass shooting at rail station – UPI.com

Live: Israel hits Beirut, killing 6, Hezbollah fights Israeli army in south | Israel attacks Lebanon News | Al Jazeera

Israel Bars UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from Country

Israel Wednesday banned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country because in Israel’s opinion he was not sufficiently unequivocal about condemning Iran’s missile attack on Israel. After Iran’s attack Tuesday Guterres condemned the escalation of violence in the Middle East and called for it to stop. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Israel Wednesday banned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country, citing his comments immediately following Iran’s attack on Tel Aviv..

“I decided today to declare UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres an undesirable personality in Israel and to ban his entry into Israel,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X. “Anyone who is unable to unequivocally condemn Iran’s criminal attack on Israel, as almost all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israel’s soil.”

Tuesday Guterres said in a statement after Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel, “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a cease-fire.”

Guterres added, “An all-out war must be avoided in Lebanon at all costs, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon must be respected.”

Katz alleged that Guterres “has not yet denounced the massacre and sexual crimes committed by the murderers of Hamas on 7 Oct, and has not led to decisions to declare them a terrorist organization.”

In Oct 2023 in remarks at the UN Security Council, Guterres said, “I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 Oct acts of terror by Hamas in Israel.”

“Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets,” he said at the time.

In his Oct 2023 remarks, Guterres cited Israeli occupation in the West Bank:

“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” he said. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

In remarks before the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Guterres said the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop.”

“The events of the past week, the past month and indeed nearly the past year make it clear: It is high time for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, with the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, the effective delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and irreversible progress to a two-state solution,” Guterres said. “It is high time for a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, real action towards full implementation of Security Council resolutions 1559 and 1701, paving the way for diplomatic efforts for sustainable peace.”

“It is high time to stop the sickening cycle of escalation after escalation that is leading the people of the Middle East straight over the cliff. Each escalation has served as a pretext for the next.”

Guterres told Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati that the entire UN system in Lebanon is mobilized to assist all those in need in the country as Israel continued it military attacks on Hezbollah.

As it attacked Hezbollah, Israel has also killed civilians with its attacks and has forced dislocation of civilian residents in the country. Guterres said the UN will continue efforts to de-escalate the situation.

Katz said in his statement Wednesday that the global terrorism of Iran will be remembered as a “forever blot in the history of the UN.”

Guterres maintains that the UN must demand that all parties uphold and respect obligations under international law, including how warfare and occupation are conducted.

Katz’ X statement Wednesday said, “Israel will continue to protect its citizens and maintain its position and national honor with or without Antonio Guterres.”

Israel and the UN have clashed over the role of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian humanitarian relief. Israel accused several of the agency’s staff of being involved in the 7 Oct 2023 attack on Israel.

That surprise attack killed hundreds of Israelis, including civilians as well as military personnel, when armed Palestinians gunmen crossed into Israel from Gaza. These gunmen kidnapped hostages in order to conduct a prisoner swap with Israel as over 7,000 Palestinians have been held in military detention without trial or hearing. Israel massively attacked Gaza in response to the 7 Oct attacks.

Guterres has not yet publicly responded to being banned from Israel nor should he dignify this childish edict.

The Israeli government has a long, rich tradition of ignoring UNSC Resolutions. Former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon is depicted above bullying UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. This cartoonist caricaturized Ariel Sharon as a pig with hooves and a tail. Note the bottom of Ariel Sharon’s hoof is (regrettably) an American flag. Since 2023, over 300 aid workers have been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

This diplomatic blunder by Israel should not surprise anyone. Bullies and authoritarian regimes exercise censorship tactics to prevent a counter-narrative inimical to their position. Mr. Guterres will probably not personally respond to this idiotic measure taken by the Israeli Foreign Minister. A member of the Likud Cabinet had previously called for another “nakba” against the Palestinians and another lunatic minister advocated the use of a nuclear device against the Gazans. The Likud government was more upset of a leaked video showing IDF soldiers gang-raping a Palestinian man, not at the unforgivable crime of rape perpetrated by those Israeli miscreants. That grim episode was posted here on Coriolanus. Both the Israeli Prime and Defense Ministers have been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague for war crimes.

Sources:

Israel bars U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from country over response to Iran attack – UPI.com

Aid Worker Security Database | Aid Worker Security Database

68 Dangerous California White Supremacists from “SFV Peckerwoods” Gang Indicted

The letters SFV for the Peckerwoods gang signify “San Fernando Valley” and the acronym of “Searching for Victims.” 

A massive law enforcement sweep targeting the SFV Peckerwoods, what federal prosecutors call a San Fernando Valley based white supremacist street gang has led to the arrests of 42 members of the racist criminal organization. 

A total of 68 alleged members of the SFV Peckerwoods were named in a 76-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday that details a litany of crimes related to what prosecutors call a “years-long pattern of racketeering activity that included trafficking of drugs — including fentanyl — illegal firearms possession, and COVID-19 benefits and loan fraud.” 

A massive cache of guns and drugs was seized by the Joint Terrorist Task Force in sweeps targeting the SFV Peckerwoods, a violent white supremacist street gang. Photo: Department of Justice

Of those caught up in a series of federal and local law enforcement sweeps, twelve alleged Peckerwood members were hit with federal racketeering charges, while another 56 defendants were charged with conspiring to distribute drugs. Another 13 defendants were already behind bars. 

The Peckerwoods use Nazi tattoos, graffiti, and iconography to indicate their violent white supremacy extremist ideology. Among the monikers its members use include nicknames like “Bezerker,” “Rascal,” “Monster,” and “Meat,” while inked with “tattoos and iconography” that “include swastikas, the symbol “88”, used by violent white supremacy extremists as code for “Heil Hitler”, and images of Nazi aircraft.”

The gang has a large number of females, who call themselves “Featherwoods,” including “SFV Mama,” whose real name is Claire Patricia Haviland, who was among those arrested Wednesday. 

During the investigation, law enforcement seized large quantities of illegal firearms, and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin, according to the indictment. The AUSA aid “the Peckerwoods’ violent white-supremacist ideology and wide-ranging criminal activity pose a grave menace to our community. By allegedly engaging in everything from drug-trafficking to firearms offenses to identity theft to COVID fraud, and through their alliance with a neo-Nazi prison gang, the Peckerwoods are a destructive force. In prosecuting the members of the Peckerwoods criminal organization, our office is carrying out its mission to protect the public from the most dangerous threats.”

When these dangerous maniacs are convicted, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) will no doubt incarcerate them at separate maximum security facilities throughout the US to prevent them from re-organizing behind prison walls. But these miscreants will join the Aryan Brotherhood, Proud Boys, or other neo-Nazi white supremacist gangs in federal prison.

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

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | Sixty-Eight Defendants Charged in Indictment of Dozens of Members and Associates of California White Supremacist Gang | United States Department of Justice

Dozens of Suspected White Supremacists Based in L.A. Busted in Federal Racketeering Case – LAmag

Canada: Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Geckos Kills One, Infects 25

Orange phase crested gecko (Public domain imagery).

salmonella outbreak linked to reptiles has left one person dead and three others hospitalized in Canada. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said at least 25 people have been infected across seven provinces in this outbreak, which is the second one linked to geckos in 2024.

Cases have been reported in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Many of the individuals who became sick reported having direct or indirect contact with geckos, or the environments where these pets are kept, before their illnesses occurred,” the PHAC announced.

“Some people who became sick did not touch or handle the geckos themselves, but lived in the same house where they were kept.”

The illnesses occurred between Aug 2020 and Sep 2024. Most of the people infected were females (64 per cent) and in the age range 1 to 103.An investigation into the outbreak is ongoing and PHAC said that the number of cases is likely higher than what has been reported so far.

Salmonella is a bacterial infection commonly transmitted through contaminated food and water and it poses a significant health threat, especially to children and older adults, as it can lead to severe gastrointestinal symptoms, dehydration, and, in extreme cases, death.

People can also get sick with salmonella infection by directly touching reptiles or their environments, as well as through indirect contact by touching contaminated surfaces where these animals are kept.

To prevent infection, the agency has the following advice among other recommendations in its public health notice:

  • always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after touching a reptile or rodent, and anything they eat, or after being in the area where they live, play or touch
  • if visiting an exhibit or event with reptiles, wash your hands when you leave animal areas, even if you do not touch the animals directly
  • clean any surfaces or objects your reptile or rodent touches with soapy water followed by a household sanitizer
  • never kiss a pet reptile
  • always supervise children when they touch or play with reptiles
  • keep reptiles and rodents and all their food, containers, enclosures, and any objects that have been in their enclosures, such as plants or enrichment items, away from the kitchen and other places where food is made or eaten
  • clean or bathe reptiles in a dedicated plastic bin, not in the kitchen or bathroom sink

Symptoms of salmonella infection typically start between six and 72 hours after exposure and can last anywhere from four to seven days. They may include fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, or abdominal cramps.

If you suspect you have salmonella, PHAC recommends seeing a health-care provider. Most people recover on their own after a few days without any medical treatment.

At least 36 people got sick with salmonella infection between March 2020 and March 2024 in a separate outbreak linked to geckos. The salmonella strain of that outbreak was traced back to a gecko habitat at a home of a person who was infected.

Sources:

Public Health Notice: Outbreak of Salmonella Muenchen infections linked to geckos – Canada.ca

Salmonella outbreak linked to geckos kills 1, infects 25 in Canada – National | Globalnews.ca

‘Make Them Riot’: Politico Pulls Six Key Details from Jack Smith’s Massive Trump Filing

“We will never concede,” President Trump told his supporters at a rally in front of the White House. Credit: Pete Marovich for The New York Times

Special counsel Jack Smith’s massive new filing with new evidence against former President Donald Trump contains at least six telling revelations.

Politico legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney shared his immediate takeaways on the 165-page document Smith filed in a Washington DC federal court.

In the filing, Smith asserts his case against the former president within the context of the Supreme Court ruling that Trump enjoyed partial presidential immunity in the lead-up to the US Capitol riots on 6 Jan 2021.

Smith argues Trump can still be tried on election interference charges as he acted as a private citizen seeking personal gain and not a US official seeking to protect the integrity of national elections.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to those charges and contended Wednesday, as he has in the past, that Smith is mounting a political witch hunt.

1) A Trump campaign employee sought to foment chaos at the TCF Center in Detroit where ballots were being processed.

“When a colleague at the TFC Center told [redacted] ‘We think [a batch of votes heavily in Biden’s favor is right, [redacted] responded, “find a reason it isn’t,” “give me options to file litigation,” and “even if itbis [sic],” the filing reads.

“When the colleague suggested that there was about to be unrest reminiscent of the Brooks Brothers Riot, a violent effort to stop the vote count in Florida after the 2000 presidential election, [redacted] responded, ‘Make them riot’ and ‘Do it!!!'”

2) Trump sidelined his campaign legal team on 13 Nov and put Rudy Giuliani in charge because he was willing to lie about the election results.

“As the defendant placed alternating phone calls to [redacted] and [redacted] throughout 13 Nov [redacted] informed [redacted] , another private Campaign advisor, of the change,” the filing states, “writing, “Close hold don’t tell anyone Trump just fired [redacted] and put [redacted] in charge.”

3) Vice President Mike Pence told Trump he saw no evidence of fraud over the course of many conversations detailed in his book and cited by prosecutors.

“In the post-election time period, Pence, the defendant’s own running mate, who he had directed to assess fraud allegations told the defendant that he had seen no evidence of outcome-determinative fraud in the election.”

“The defendant disregarded [redacted] and Pence in the same way that he disregarded dozens of court decisions that unanimously rejected his and his allies’ legal claims, and that he disregarded officials in the targeted states including those in his own party–who stated publicly that he had lost and that his specific fraud allegations were false.”

4) Trump repeatedly promised to provide election fraud evidence to Govs. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) and Brian Kemp (R-GA) but never did.

“The defendant was on notice that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud in Arizona within a week of the election.”

“The defendant also raised claims of election fraud, and [redacted] asked the defendant to send him supporting evidence. Although the defendant said he would, stating ‘we’re packaging it up,’ he never did.”

5) Mark Meadows and a White House attorney exchanged messages on 3 Dec 2020 confirming that dead voters statistics were false.

“During the hearing, Chief of Staff [redacted] and [redacted] exchanged text messages on their personal phones confirming that a Campaign attorney, [redacted] had verified that [redacted] claim of more than 10,000 dead voters was false and that the actual number was around 12 and could not be outcome-determinative.”

6) A US senator helped facilitate a 8 Dec call between Trump and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.

“US Senator [redacted] told [redacted] that the defendant had heard that [redacted] was ‘whipping,’ or lobbying, other state attorneys general against filing amicus briefs in support of Texas.”

“[Redacted] asked [redacted] if he would speak with the defendant about it, and [redacted] agreed.”

Trump supporters heeded his call and stormed the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021. Many of them have now been convicted and incarcerated. VPOTUS Mike Pence did not abandon his duty as Trump wanted; instead, he stayed to certify the election. Photo: Roberto Schmidt AFP via Getty Images

Special Counsel Jack Smith is competent and experienced, having convicted war criminals at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague. Nevertheless, the American electorate should not rely on Mr. Smith, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, NYSAG Letitia James, or any part of the US legal system to stop Donald Trump and Project 2025. The Democratic strategy should be to register voters as many voters as possible and overwhelm Republican ballots so that even GOP voter suppression tactics will be ineffective.

Sources:

‘Make them riot’: Politico pulls 6 key details from Jack Smith’s massive Trump filing – Raw Story

United States v Donald J. Trump Superseding Indictment (justice.gov)

India’s Rhino Stronghold Sees 86% Drop in Poaching and Five-Fold Increase in Population

Greater one-horned rhino – CC 4.0. Nejib Ahmed

Since 2016, poaching of one-horned rhinoceroses in India’s Assam state has fallen 86% after the government took decisive steps to protect them

By expanding protected areas and bolstering ranger patrols, 3,000 rhinos grace the Assam savannah.

“Rhinos are synonymous with the identity of Assam. They are our pride and the crown jewel of our biodiversity. Ever since we assumed office, we have taken various initiatives to protect the prized species, expand its habitat and ensure its safety,” Assam state’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma wrote on X.

In India, the Chief Minister, often abbreviated CM, is the equivalent on an American governor, and the state of Assam which Sarma governs is India’s rhino stronghold, with 88% of all the rhinos in the country located in Kaziranga, Manas, and Orang national parks, and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.

The remaining 12% is spread widely across the country. CM Sarma’s tenure which began in 2021 oversaw the addition of nearly 50,000 acres of habitat in Orang National Park, and another 50,000 to two other protected areas.

Last year, GNN reported that for the first time since 1977, zero rhinos were poached in India.

Sarma ordered the rhinos to be treated like “presidents”, with sophisticated police commando teams patrolling the parks with night vision equipment and drones during moonlit nights.

Since then, the population of Assam’s rhinos has grown by 105 to 3,000; up from a low of 600 during the 1960s. The government released these figures on World Rhino Day (22 Sep) to show that “if the will to protect these animals is there, the most poached megafauna species on Earth can thrive.”

Source:

India’s Rhino Stronghold Sees 86% Drop in Poaching and Five-Fold Increase in Rhinos (goodnewsnetwork.org)

IDF Airstrikes Kill 14 in Gaza Strip as American Activist is Buried in Turkiye

Palestinians gather amid the rubble near a fuel tank damaged in IDF bombing in Gaza City on 14 Sep 2024.

Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people as friends and family members of a Turkish-American activist killed by an Israeli soldier honored her in a funeral in Turkiye.

The airstrikes in Gaza City hit one home housing 11 people, including three women and four children, and another strike hit a tent in Khan Younis with displaced Palestinians. The attacks followed airstrikes earlier this week that hit a tent camp on Tuesday and a UN school sheltering displaced people on Wednesday.

A campaign to inoculate children in Gaza against polio slowed down. The WHO reported that about 559,000 people under the age of 10 — seven out of every eight children the campaign aimed to vaccinate — have recovered from their first dose. The second doses are expected to begin later this month.

Relatives, officials, and others look at the coffin of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi (26) during her funeral ceremony at a mosque in Aydin Province, Turkiye, on 14 Sep 2024. She was shot and killed by the IDF in the occupied West Bank.

The war has caused vast destruction and displaced roughly 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times, and plunged the territory into a severe humanitarian crisis. Gaza’s Health Ministry reports over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, adding women and children make up just over half of the dead.

Source:

Israel strikes Gaza as American activist killed by Israeli fire is buried (voanews.com)

Russia’s Medvedev Threatens Nuclear Strike Would Turn Kiev into ‘Gray Spot’ on the Map

Former Russian President and current Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev has hiked Moscow’s threat of the nuclear option. Vladimir Putin controls about 5,977 nuclear warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, recently warned that Kiev could be turned into a “gray melted spot” if restrictions against Ukraine’s use of Western weapons were loosened.

Russian officials have threatened that a possible decision by the West to allow Kiev to use donated weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory would result in a major escalation of its war against Ukraine that could include the use of nuclear weapons.

Kiev has repeatedly said it needs to be able to conduct longer-range strikes into Russian territory to defend itself against invading Russian forces.

In an apparent reference to a recent US-UK summit, Medvedev wrote that “the Anglo-Saxon imbeciles” do not want to admit that there is an end to Russia’s “patience” and that experts who have suggested Russia could resort to using nuclear weapons against Ukraine would be proven correct if that patience is exhausted.

“What do Western leaders and their political establishments, playing at war, think our country’s reaction to probable missile strikes ‘deep into the territory [of Russia]’ would be?” wrote Medvedev, who has frequently used his position to voice threats against Kiev and the West since Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Medvedev said a nuclear conflict is a “very bad story with a very difficult outcome,” claiming that is why Russia has not decided to use “nonstrategic or strategic” nuclear weapons so far. However, he said, if it came to that there would be a “giant gray melted spot” on the site of Kiev, which he called the “mother city of Russia.”

Recent media reports claim Russia received Fath-360 missile systems from Iran. These missiles have an effective range of 19-75 miles and can carry a 330-lb warhead filled with high explosives.

Source:

Russia’s Medvedev Threatens Nuke Strike Would Turn Kyiv Into ‘Gray Spot’ On The Map (rferl.org)

Venezuela Arrests US and Spanish Citizens Over Alleged ‘Plot’

Three US citizens, two Spaniards and one Czech citizen were arrested in Venezuela for allegedly plotting to destabilize the country. Reportedly, hundreds of weapons had been seized and the detainees were plotting to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other top officials. The Spaniards were detained in Puerto Ayacucho, south of the capital Caracas.

The arrests come two days after Washington sanctioned 16 Venezuelan officials who are closely aligned with President Maduro, following his disputed election victory in July.

The Venezuelan government alleged the detained Spaniards are linked to Madrid’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI). However, Spanish government sources denied the two belong to the intelligence organization.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello alleged “the CIA is leading this operation, and that does not surprise us but they, the National Intelligence Centre of Spain, have always maintained a low profile knowing that the CIA operates in this area. These two detainees even tell us about a group of mercenaries they are looking for to bring to Venezuela with very clear objectives to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, myself, and another group of comrades who are leading our party and our revolution.”

The US has rejected the accusations.

Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of July’s presidential election by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), which is closely aligned with the government. But the CNE has not published any detailed voting tallies supporting a Maduro victory. Data published by the opposition suggests its candidate, Edmundo González, won instead.

Sources:

Venezuela arrests US and Spanish citizens over ‘plot’ (bbc.com)

Former CIA Employee Sentenced Ten Years in Prison for Spying for China

A screenshot from a video by an FBI undercover agent taken of Alexander Yuk Ching Ma in Jan 2019 during a meeting. (Photo: AP)

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma (71) of Honolulu, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, was sentenced to ten years confinement and five years of supervised release for conspiring to gather and deliver national defense information to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Ma was arrested in August 2020, after admitting to an undercover FBI agent that he had facilitated the provision of classified information to intelligence officers employed by the PRC’s Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB).

Ma worked for the CIA from 1982 until 1989. His brother, who is now deceased, also worked for the CIA from 1967 until 1983. As CIA employees, both men held Top Secret security clearances that granted them access to sensitive and classified information, and both signed nondisclosure agreements.

After Ma and his brother were recruited by the SSSB, they provided Chinese intelligence officers with a “large volume of classified and sensitive information.” They were paid $50,000 in cash; an hourlong video showed Ma counting the money. Two years later, Ma applied for a job as a contract linguist in the FBI’s Honolulu field office. By then, US intelligence knew he was collaborating with Chinese intelligence officers, and they hired him in 2004 so they could keep an eye on his espionage activities.

Over the next six years, Ma regularly copied, photographed, and stole classified documents. He often took them on trips to China, returning with thousands of dollars in cash and expensive gifts, including a new set of golf clubs.

At one point in 2006, his handlers at the Shanghai state security bureau asked Ma to get his brother to help identify four people in photographs, and the brother did identify two of them. The fate of those he identified are not known.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Ma confessed that he knowingly and willfully conspired with SSSB intelligence officers to communicate and transmit information that he knew would be used to injure the US or to advantage the PRC. Further, Ma must cooperate with the US and undergo polygraph tests for the rest of his life, as well as submit to debriefings by the USIC. Prosecutors told the court that Ma has been cooperative and has taken part in multiple interview sessions with government investigators.

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma (USMS# 12272-122) is incarcerated at FDC Honolulu, an administrative security federal detention center in Hawaii.

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | Former CIA Officer Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Conspiracy to Commit Espionage | United States Department of Justice

Former CIA officer sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying for China | Espionage | The Guardian

‘Catastrophe’ as Central Europe Deals with Deadly Floods

Flooding overwhelmed Slobozia Conachi, Romania (Photo: BBC)

In Glucholazy, southern Poland, firefighters built sandbag barriers to protect residents near the river. (Photo: BBC)

The flooded village of Krosnowice, southern Poland. (Photo: BBC)

Emergency services are shoring up flood defenses in central and eastern Europe after torrential rainfall caused by Storm Boris swelled rivers and damaged thousands of homes. Four people were killed in eastern Romania. In the Czech Republic, 51,000 households in the country’s northern areas were evacuated. Flood barriers have gone up in the capital Prague. Poland evacuated people from Glucholazy, a town near the Czech border, after a river burst its banks.

Extreme precipitation is becoming more likely in Europe, as across much of the world, due to climate change. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which can lead to heavier rainfall.

“We are again facing the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present on the European continent, with dramatic consequences,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said.

These flood victims face another peril. Floods greatly increase the risk of diarrheal disease along with other waterborne, water-related, and communicable diseases. Diarrheal pathogens—cholera, E. coliShigella, rotavirus, norovirus, Cryptosporidium, and others—can spread through direct contact with floodwater itself or through compromised water sources.

Standing water left by flooding can become a breeding ground for mosquitos that carry pathogens. Communicable diseases can spread like wildfire through refugee and evacuation shelters.

Sources:

Central Europe floods: Rush to shore up flood defences amid deaths and evacuations (bbc.com)

After the floods: Diarrheal disease threats lurk behind natural disasters (defeatdd.org)

Zika Cases in Pune, India, Reach 100, Five Deaths Reported

Pune continues to grapple with an increasing number of Zika virus cases, as the total number of patients in the city has now reached 100. The most affected area in Pune is Dahanukar Colony, which has recorded 20 cases, followed by Erandwane with 16. The five Zika-related deaths involved elderly individuals with pre-existing health conditions.

The virus is transmitted by daytime flying Aedes, or “tiger mosquitos.” An invasive species, Aedes is now found on all continents except Antarctica.

Alarmingly, 45 of these patients are pregnant women. Zika can cause birth defects in newborn babies.

Dr. Rajesh Dighe, Assistant Health Officer at Pune Municipal Corporation, provided updates on the situation, noting that efforts to control the spread of the Zika virus are ongoing. This recent spike in Zika cases follows a series of warnings from health authorities, who had anticipated a possible outbreak. The city is now facing increased pressure to manage the outbreak, particularly as the number of pregnant women affected by the virus grows.

On top of this, medical staff in Pune hospitals are dealing with an acute blood shortage.

Sources:

Zika Cases in Pune Reach 100, Five Deaths Reported | The Bridge Chronicle

Blood Shortage Hits Pune Amid Rising Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya Cases | The Bridge Chronicle

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

Donald Trump Confuses Nicky Jam for a Woman Ahead of Latin Star’s Endorsement Speech in Las Vegas

Former president Donald Trump held a campaign rally at the World Market Center in downtown Las Vegas, where Nicky Jam, a 43-year-old male reggaetón veteran took the stage to show his support for the GOP candidate. But in an inter-galactically embarrassing faux pas, the ex-POTUS mistakenly referred to Nicky as a ‘she‘ when introducing him to the crowd.

“Do you know Nicky? She’s hot. Where’s Nicky. As the male singer approaches the stage, Trump then says, “Oh, look, I’m glad he came up.”

Nicky Jam, wearing a black sweatshirt and a red ‘Make America Great Again’ baseball cap, then took the stage to deliver a brief statement.

Artist Art Candee wrote, “Guess Donald Trump doesn’t know what a woman is…” and Team Kamala mocked the former president by posting a video of the flub on social media:

“Trump: Latin music superstar Nicky Jam. Do you know Nicky? She’s hot (Nicky Jam is a man),” the campaign wrote.

This is just one of a series of imbecilic comments and gaffes that Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have made during the 2024 campaign. Political analysts, as well as his niece Mary Trump (a professional psychologist), have been raising alarms about the mental fitness of this elderly man who could be Commander-in-Chief of the world’s most powerful, and nuclear-armed, military.    

Source:

Donald Trump Confuses Nicky Jam for Woman at Las Vegas Rally (billboard.com)

Endangered Cotton-Top Tamarin Triplets Born at Disney World

Three infant cotton-top tamarins are perched atop the back of one of their parents Saturday shortly after their birth at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. They are the second set of the critically endangered tamarins to be born at the resort this year. (Photo courtesy Walt Disney World)

The second set of critically endangered cotton-top tamarin triplets to be born this year at Walt Disney World have arrived.

The three tiny primates were born at Animal Kingdom’s Discovery Island on Saturday and are bonding with their parents and siblings. An earlier batch of the small-but-powerful monkeys were born there in January.

Weighing only one pound in adulthood, the cotton-top tamarin is found in the rain forests of northwestern Colombia. They are known for their sophisticated social behaviors and have demonstrated evidence of simple grammatical capabilities.

Despite their small stature, their athletic capabilities are impressive — they can leap 15 feet from a stationary branch — while their appearance is highlighted by a wild mane of bright-white hair atop their heads.

The male and female parents of newborn tamarins share infant care equally, carrying their young on their backs until approximately 14 weeks of age.

An estimated 6,000 cotton-top tamarins remain in the wild, making them one of the rarest primates in the world. Disney World says it is working with organizations such as Proyecto Titi in Colombia to help protect the species through its Disney Conservation Fund.

Source:

New set of endangered cotton-top tamarin triplets born at Disney World – UPI.com

Ukraine Update: 49 Ukrainians Freed in Prisoner Swap; Son of Prominent Kiev Rabbi KIA

49 Ukrainians were released from Russian custody and returned home as part of another prisoner swap. “[Representatives] of the Ukrainian armed forces, National Guard, State Border Guard Service, and civilians are among those released,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram. Leniye Umerova, who was arrested in Crimea after she came to visit her sick father, soldiers who defended the Azovstal metallurgic plant in Mariupol, and noted military physician and Hero of Ukraine laureate Viktor Ivchuk were among the prisoners returning. Russia has yet to provide details of the swap. 

Anton Samborskiy (AKA Matityahu) was killed in combat on Ukraine’s front lines. Samborskiy was the adopted son of Moshe Reuven Azman, one of the country’s most prominent rabbis. At his funeral, Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine said Samborskiy’s death shows that Jews and other minorities are willing “to pay with their lives for Ukraine’s right to remain a free country.”

To the south, the US State Department approved the sale of 32 F-35A fighter jets to Ukraine’s neighbor, Romania, a NATO ally, in a deal worth $7.2 billion. Ukrainian pilots began training this week at a special center in Romania on US-made F-16 fighter jets.

Sources:

49 Ukrainians Freed In Latest Prisoner Swap With Russia (rferl.org)

Kyiv’s Jewish Community Mourns Top Rabbi’s Son Who Died In Combat (rferl.org)

U.S. Approves $7.2 Billion Sale Of F-35 Jets To NATO Ally Romania (rferl.org)

British Diplomats Ousted from Moscow for ‘Espionage’

© Russian Federal Security Service

The Kremlin is expelling six British diplomats for suspected espionage and “threatening Russia’s security” and “numerous unfriendly acts.”

The expulsions announcement came as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden  on allowing Ukraine to attack military targets deep inside Russia.

The FSB, a successor of the KGB, said the diplomats’ accreditation had been revoked on the basis of documentary evidence they were involved in “intelligence gathering and subversive activities” under the orders of a branch of the Foreign Office, “a special service whose main task is to inflict a strategic defeat on our country.”

Sky News had reported the six had returned to Britain prior to Friday’s announcement, citing a source in Whitehall who played down any link to Britain’s backing for Ukraine.

“They are already out,” said the source who categorically denied the diplomats were engaged in spying or other activities incompatible with their status.

Russia’s action, the source claimed, was more likely a fresh round of tit-for-tat ejections dating back to a 2018 nerve agent attack on British soil targeting former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia that London blames on Moscow.

Source:

British diplomats ousted from Moscow for ‘espionage’ as tensions mount over arming Ukraine – UPI.com

Kentucky Man Sentenced to Prison for Assaulting Law Enforcement During 6 Jan Attack on Capitol

Luke Hoffman (40) from Dover, KY was sentenced to 20 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution after he previously pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

From 1:25PM to 4:05PM Hoffman was one of the most dangerous attackers on 6 Jan. Amongst other things, he assaulted several police officers, attempted to steal a baton from another officer who was screaming, sprayed tear gas, and rallied other seditionists to continue rampaging.

Luke Hoffman’s wife was instrumental in his conviction by posting her husband’s actions on social media.

The FBI arrested Hoffman on 12 July 2023, in Dover, KY. This miscreant represents America’s “Fedayeen Saddam,” dead-enders desperately trying to hold on to a mythic belief of white Christian supremacy and that the country has been taken over by non-whites, liberals, LBGTQ activists, and immigrants.

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

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

Source:

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

Salmonella Outbreak Sickens 27 in Sweden

Smörgåsbord is a combination of two words: smörgås, an open sandwich, and bord, a table. The term refers to any all-you-can-eat buffet with self-service and a variety of pan-global food. Popular in Sweden since the 18th century, smörgåsbord hosts a display of colorful, complex, and lavish foods and dishes such as herring, salmon, sliced cold cuts of meat, vegetables, breads, cheeses, wild berries, pastries, and jams. The dishes can be hot or cold and may range from appetizers to desserts.

Swedish health officials are searching for the source of a Salmonella outbreak that has affected almost 30 people. Whole genome sequencing has shown that 27 people have the same type of Salmonella Typhimurium. They are suspected of having been infected by a common food. The patients fell ill between 9 and 24 Aug and ranged in age from 4 to 89 with a median of 45 years old.

The majority of those sick are women, and cases are spread across 11 different regions in the country. In 2023, 1,316 Salmonella infections were reported in Sweden.

Food contaminated with Salmonella bacteria does not usually look, smell, or taste spoiled. However, anyone can become sick with a Salmonella infection. According to the US CDC, infants, children, seniors, and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of serious illness because their immune systems are fragile.

Symptoms of Salmonella infection can include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within 12 to 72 hours after eating contaminated food. Otherwise, healthy adults are usually sick for four to seven days. In some cases, however, diarrhea may be so severe that patients require hospitalization.

Sweden is also dealing with high levels of domestic Campylobacter infections, which causes a diarrheal disease in people. Approximately 200 cases per week were recorded this summer.

According to data from the National Veterinary Institute (SVA), the rise in human infections coincides with a previously increased occurrence of Campylobacter in broiler flocks. 

Source:

Swedish Salmonella outbreak sickens 27 | Food Safety News

Congo Military Court Sentences Three Americans, 34 Others to Death on Coup Charges

AMCITs Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun (L), Marcel Malanga (C), and Tyler Thompson, attend a court verdict in Congo, Kinshasa, 13 Sep 2024. They were sentenced for taking part in a coup attempt in May 2024. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)

A military court in Congo handed down death sentences to 37 people, including three Americans, after convicting them on charges of participating in a coup attempt.

The defendants, most of them Congolese but also including a Briton, Belgian, and Canadian, have five days to appeal the verdict on charges that include attempted coup, terrorism, and criminal association. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial.

Six people were killed during the botched coup attempt led by the little-known opposition figure Christian Malanga in May that targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi. Malanga was fatally shot while resisting arrest soon after live-streaming the attack on social media.

Malanga’s 21-year-old son Marcel Malanga and two other Americans were convicted in the coup attempt. He told the court that his father had forced him and his high school friend to take part in the attack.

“Dad had threatened to kill us if we did not follow his orders,” Marcel Malanga testified.

Other members of the ragtag militia recounted similar threats from the elder Malanga, and some described being duped into believing they were working for a volunteer organization.

The other Americans are Tyler Thompson Jr. (21) who flew to Africa from Utah with the younger Malanga for what his family believed was a free vacation, and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun (36), who is reported to have known Christian Malanga through a gold mining company in Mozambique.

Thompson had been invited on an Africa trip by the younger Malanga, his former high school football teammate in a Salt Lake City suburb. Teammates alleged that Marcel had offered up to $100,000 to join him on a “security job” in Congo, and they said he seemed desperate to bring along an American friend.

Congo recently lifted a more than two-decade-old moratorium on the death penalty as authorities struggle to curb violence in the country. The US State Department has not declared the three Americans wrongfully detained, making it unlikely that US officials would try to negotiate their return.

Sources:

Congo court sentences 3 Americans, 34 others to death on coup charges – Washington Times

https://web.archive.org/web/20240331012857/https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/congo-reinstates-death-penalty-after-20-years-struggles-108156667

Serbia’s First Sex-Trafficking Case Involving Chinese Citizens Set for Trial

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (L) and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R) exchange agreements during a signing ceremony 8 May in Belgrade.

A Serbian court opened proceedings this week in the country’s first publicly documented case of sex trafficking involving Chinese nationals. Two Chinese women were trafficked to Serbia, had their passports taken away, given only one meal per day, and forced under the threat of death to provide sexual services to men.

The two women were trafficked by a male Chinese citizen who “misled the victims” by promising to “find them a job as a masseuse” in Serbia and “provide housing and food” for them. He then forced them to have sex with men shortly after arriving in the Balkan country by threatening “to kill them” and warning “that he is powerful and can do anything to make them disappear.”

“After a few hours upon their arrival, he organized their sexual exploitation by” Chinese men in Serbia “under the threat that they… owed him money for the purchased [plane] tickets and that they needed to earn money to obtain work permits.”

The Chinese man, who has not been identified, was arrested in March by Serbian police in the eastern city of Bor and is set to begin his closed-door preliminary hearing after being charged with human trafficking by a court in the nearby city of Zajecar.

The Center for the Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking, a Serbian state-run organization that provides support to trafficking victims, reports 35 documented cases of human trafficking in Serbia so far in 2024.

The legal case involving Chinese nationals is likely to test the increasingly friendly relations between China and Serbia. China has become a major investor and trade partner with Serbia, and the two countries provide visa-free travel for each other’s citizens.

Sources:

Serbia – United States Department of State

Serbia’s First Sex-Trafficking Case Involving Chinese Citizens Set For Court (rferl.org)

Serbian Deals With China On Extradition, Media Cooperation Could Have Lasting Impact

Pope Francis May Have Subtly ‘Thumbed His Nose’ at Donald Trump Again

Pope Francis sternly lectures US President Donald Trump at the Vatican about global climate change and the environment on 24 May 2017.

When Pope Francis said US voters must choose between the “lesser of two evils,” he didn’t outwardly make a judgment between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The Republican rejection of immigrants and Democratic support of abortion rights equally weighted them both down.

But put in context, the statement represented a bigger swipe at Trump, argued Nayyera Haq, former President Barack Obama’s senior director of cabinet affairs.

Popes rarely discuss American politics, although Pope Francis has taken veiled shots at Trump in the past, saying in 2016 that “a person who only thinks about building walls and not bridges is not Christian,” and earlier this year calling the panic against migrants at the US border “madness.”

“This pope has thumbed his nose in somewhat diplomatic ways at Donald Trump before,” Haq reported. The first Jesuit pontiff gave Trump an encyclical entirely about environmental stewardship and climate change when they met in May 2017. Unlike the LGBTQ-hating GOP, the pope has been “rather generous, given the churches history, when it comes to tolerance of gay and lesbian individuals as well.”

“So in that sense, the Catholics who wished for a more conservative Catholic pope may not be swayed by this, but he certainly does speak to that broader sense of Christianity, social justice, and I think just faith-based social justice that the least among us, taking care of those, that is an immediate reference to refugees and immigrants,” said Haq.

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Source:

https://www.rawstory.com/pope-francis-trump/

Jack Russell Terrier Puppy Rescued from Highway Near Newark Int’l Airport, NJ

A Jack Russell terrier puppy who was found running on the highways around Newark Airport has been rescued and is slowly healing at the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge (RBARI) where he will await his fur-ever home. For weeks, reports came in of the Jack Russell terrier pup, since named Monkey, running around the busy and dangerous highways near the airport.

Last week the frightened puppy was finally caught by a professional trapper with Buddha Dog Rescue and Recovery and was taken in by RBARI.

“It is a true miracle that Monkey survived. Surprisingly, Monkey is not the first Jack Russell terrier dumped in the area in recent months,” said RBARI in a post on Facebook. “And, even more unexpectedly, it only took minutes for this adorable dog to warm up to human touch, despite evading rescuers for so long.”

Upon rescue, Monkey was treated for fleas, ticks and parasites. He received a thorough examination and vaccinations.

Source:

Jack Russell terrier Monkey rescued from highway near Newark Airport (northjersey.com)

US Army Soldier from Hawaii Arrested for Assaulting Law Enforcement with Weapon and Other Charges During 6 Jan Attack on US Capitol

Alexander Cain Poplin (31), an active duty servicemember of the US Army, was arrested in Hawaii for allegedly assaulting law enforcement and other charges related to his conduct during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

In addition to the felonies of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a dangerous weapon and civil disorder, Poplin is charged with three misdemeanor offenses, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds.

On the morning of 6 Jan 2021, Poplin attended a rally held by the former President at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Poplin was observed wearing a black Columbia jacket, a black beanie, and an Army ACU camouflage backpack. Throughout the day, he was seen holding various flags.

At approximately 2:30 p.m., Poplin was at the Lower West Plaza of the US Capitol Building and within the restricted perimeter. He was holding an “Area Closed” sign in his left hand and a flagpole with a blue flag in his right. Poplin allegedly repeatedly struck a Metropolitan Police Department officer with the blue flagpole. Video footage from open-source media and body-worn cameras captured the assault. Poplin’s alleged actions at the Lower West Plaza contributed to the chaos as rioters confronted law enforcement officers who were defending the Capitol. After the attack, Poplin reportedly posted on Facebook “we beat their fucking ass and stood for something” and “we took our house back.”

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

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

Civilian Cargo Ship Carrying Ukrainian Grain Attacked by Russian Jets in Black Sea

Ukraine accused Russia of using strategic bombers to fire missiles at a civilian ship carrying Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea.

The ship was in the maritime economic zone of Romania, a NATO member, when it was hit. The vessel was transporting the grain from Chernomorsk, Ukraine, to Istanbul when it was attacked. The ship’s cargo was bound for Egypt. Russia deployed Tupolev Tu-22 bombers to fire the missiles at around 11 PM local time on 11 Sep.

Tupolev Tu-22M-3 (Image courtesy of airliners.net).

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said the strike was “a brazen attack on freedom of navigation and global food security.”

The attack was confirmed by the Romanian Coast Guard, which said the vessel had a crew of 22 people on board. No one was injured and the ship headed to Constanta for damage assessment.

The ship was 55 kilometers from the town of Sfantu Gheorghe in the exclusive economic zone of Romania when the attack took place. The exclusive economic zone is the maritime area adjacent to a country’s territorial waters and can extend up to a maximum of 200 nautical miles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier that a cargo ship carrying wheat was hit by a Russian missile strike in the Black Sea as it was headed for Egypt.

“Today’s strike in the Black Sea was against an ordinary civilian vessel immediately after leaving Ukrainian territorial waters. According to preliminary data, fortunately, there were no casualties,” he said. “Ukraine is one of the key global donors of food security. The internal stability and life of dozens of countries in different parts of the world depends on the normal and smooth operation of our export food corridor.”

Ukraine, one of the world’s leading grain producers and exporters, has been shipping about four million tons of grain each month through the Black Sea corridor, which was set up through a deal mediated by Turkey and the UN.

The US recently signalled that it may allow Ukraine to fire missiles more deeply into Russia. Aircraft like the TU-22M-3 could have easily sunk this unarmed cargo ship. This move by the Kremlin is probably a warning that if Ukraine is permitted to strike deep targets in Russia with Western hi-tech weapons, the Kremlin will retaliate with economic attacks like this.

Sources:

Civilian Cargo Ship Carrying Ukrainian Grain Hit By Russian Strike In Black Sea (rferl.org)

US reconsidering Ukraine missile restrictions on firing into Russia (voanews.com)

NYPD Commissioner to Resign After FBI Seized His Phone

Edward Caban (L) being sworn in as NYPD Police Commissioner on 17 July 2023. Mayor Eric Adams is on the right.

NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said he would resign Thursday, one week after it emerged that his phone was seized as part of a federal investigation that touched several members of Mayor Eric Adams’ inner circle.

Edward Caban (57) had been in charge of the nation’s largest police department for about 15 months. Of Puerto Rican heritage, he was the first Latino to lead the 179-year-old NYPD and oversee its annual budget of over $5 billion. There are approximately 36,000 sworn officers in New York’s Finest.

Caban was one of several high-ranking city officials whose electronic devices were seized recently by federal investigators. The subject of the investigation, which is being led by the SDNY US Attorney, remains unclear. Federal authorities are also investigating Caban’s twin brother, James Caban, who runs a nightclub security business.

Other NYC officials whose devices were recently seized include First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright; Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety; his brother David Banks, the Board of Education chancellor; and Timothy Pearson, a mayoral adviser and former high-ranking NYPD official.

Mayor Adams, a first-term Democrat, was subpoenaed in July, eight months after federal agents seized his cell phones and an iPad while he was leaving an event in Manhattan. Federal authorities haven’t publicly accused him or any officials of any crimes and Adams has denied any wrongdoing. The SDNY investigation may have to do with campaign fundraising.

Under Commissioner Caban, from 1 Jan 2024 to 1 Sep 2024, the NYPD tallied 243 murders, compared with 279 in the same period last year. Burglary, grand larceny, and auto thefts were also down. At the same time, there was a 17.8% spike in reported hate crimes, 11.1% jump in rapes and smaller increases in some other categories.

Caban was criticized for his handling of officer discipline. The NYPD has stifled more than 400 cases of alleged misconduct this year which an oversight board had investigated and substantiated. Two examples follow.

In April, Caban declined to take disciplinary action against two officers involved in the fatal 2019 shooting of Kawaski Trawick inside his Bronx apartment. Caban said the officers “acted within the law” and that the city’s police watchdog agency waited too long to bring administrative charges.

In August, Caban upheld a department administrative trial judge’s recommendation to drop a disciplinary case against Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, who was accused of ordering officers to void the November 2021 arrest of a retired officer who previously worked for him. The trial judge, Rosemarie Maldonado, said the watchdog agency didn’t have jurisdiction to investigate the case.

Mayor Adams named retired FBI Special Agent Thomas Donlon interim police commissioner. The timing of Caban’s resignation is astonishing with the UN General Assembly (UNGA) convening in NYC. Several weeks ago, the director of the US Secret Service resigned in the middle of the 2024 presidential campaign.

Sources:

New York City police commissioner to resign after his phone was seized in federal investigation (voanews.com)

FBI seized phones, iPad of NYC mayor amid campaign fundraising probe | CBC News

https://www.propublica.org/article/nypd-tossed-out-police-misconduct-discipline-cases-edward-caban

Bomb Threats Reported in Springfield, Ohio, Amid False Malignant Claims Targeting Haitian Migrants

Donald Trump pandering to the Haitian vote during a 2016 visit to Little Haiti, Miami. Now Haitians have becoming a convenient scapegoat for him. Photo courtesy of Michael Bennett via miamitimesonline.com.

Local and federal law enforcement agencies responded Thursday to a bomb threat made against multiple facilities in the Ohio city of Springfield. City Hall, a driver’s exam station, an Ohio BMV facility, the Springfield Academy of Excellence, and Fulton Elementary School were all evacuated and cleared by explosive-detecting K9s.

The threat comes days after Donald Trump repeated baseless and dehumanizing claims made online that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating residents’ pets. He made the comments during his Tuesday debate against Vice President Kamala Harris which were echoed by his running mate, JD Vance.

The city of some 58,000 people has pushed back against the claims, with City Manager Bryan Heck explaining in a recorded statement “it is disappointing that some of the narratives surrounding our city has been skewed by misinformation circulating on social media and further amplified by political rhetoric in the current highly charged presidential election cycle.”

The city manager added Springfield is experiencing challenges due to the rapid growth of its immigrant population, those challenges “are primarily due to the pace of the growth rather than the rumors.”

Sources:

Bomb threats reported in Springfield amid false claims targeting migrants – UPI.com

Trump, missing-in-action with Haitians, still draws handful of supporters – The Haitian Times

North Korea Releases Rare Images of Uranium Enrichment Site

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits a uranium enrichment facility, which produces weapon-grade nuclear materials. The photos were published by North Korean state media on Friday, 13 Sep 2024. No located or date were released for the photos and certain faces in the pictures had been blurred before their release. (Courtesy: KCNA / Rodong Sinmun)

New pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touring what state media described is a uranium enrichment facility have given an extremely rare glimpse inside the isolated nation’s closely guarded nuclear weapons program.

According to a report from Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim visited the facility – a bright, sterile warehouse filled with long rows of cylindrical machinery – which is used to produce weapons-grade nuclear material for the North’s growing arsenal. The report comes as North Korea continues to ramp up its illegal nuclear weapons program and strengthens relations with Russia, deepening widespread concern in the West over the isolated nation’s direction under Kim.

The location and exact date of Kim’s visit to the site were not disclosed in the report, but the purpose of his inspection was clear, according to KCNA: to lay out a “long-term plan for increasing the production of weapon-grade nuclear materials.”

Experts say the images – which show Kim flanked by men in military uniforms and crisp white lab shirts – underscore North Korea’s growing confidence in its position as a nuclear power.

In a speech celebrating the 76th anniversary of North Korea’s founding on Monday, Kim pledged to “exponentially” expand the regime’s nuclear arsenal, reiterating bellicose rhetoric he has used in the past.

As reported here on Coriolanus, the North Korean supremo ordered the launch of a ballistic missile into the sea when the dust settled after the US presidential debate. For years the West kept “kicking the can down the road” regarding North Korea and the dynastic family which has been producing WMDs while starving their own people. Neighboring South Korea, Japan, and China, must be wondering how this dangerous dynasty will one day end and what type of fallout will ensue.

Sources:

North Korea releases images of Kim Jong Un visiting a uranium enrichment site | CNN

Four Black Rights Activists Convicted Over Nefarious Russian Links

Protesters gathered outside the US Embassy in London to support Omali Yeshitela (Imagery: BBC, circa Sep 2024)

Four activists for black rights have been convicted of federal charges of conspiring to act as unregistered Russian agents.

Omali Yeshitela (82), Penny Hess (78), Jesse Nevel (34), and Augustus Romain (38), face maximum sentences of five years in prison. A jury in Tampa, FL, found them not guilty of the more serious charge of acting as agents of a foreign government. A date has not yet been set for sentencing.

Yeshitela is the founder of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and Uhuru Movement. Hess and Nevel are white allies of the groups. Romain is the leader of a Georgia-based spinoff known as Black Hammer. The four carried out a number of actions in the US between 2015 and 2022 on behalf of the Russian government and received money and support from Aleksandr Ionov, the president of the Moscow-based group Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia.

Mr. Ionov used the APSP, Uhuru Movement, and Black Hammer to promote Russian views on politics, the Ukraine war, and other issues. The US State Dept is offering a reward up to $10 million for information that would lead to his arrest.

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | U.S. Citizens Convicted of Conspiring to Act as Illegal Agents of the Russian Government | United States Department of Justice

Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov – Rewards For Justice

US black-rights activists convicted over Russian links (bbc.com)

Usutu Virus Threatens Blackbirds in Germany

The blackbird is one of the most common birds in Germany, but the spread of Usutu virus is threatening their population. Numerous cases have been identified in the Rendsburg and Eckernförde areas of Germany (see map). Infested birds become disoriented, begin to stagger, and often die within a few days.

The Usutu virus, which originated in South Africa, was first detected in Germany in 2011. Since the disease mostly affects blackbirds, the Usutu epidemic is also known as “blackbird death”. The virus is generally transmitted by mosquitoes. Humans can become infected with the virus – but serious illness is rare. Most recently, the pathogen caused a severe bird mortality in Germany in 2018.

Source:

Dead blackbirds: Usutu virus reaches the Rendsburg area | SHZ

Trump Tower Declared ‘Public Nuisance’ After Killing Thousands of Fish in Chicago

Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. Locals have long derided the building as an aesthetical and architectural eyesore which doesn’t blend in with the Windy City’s marvelous architecture. (Courtesy Ghornephoto / Getty Images).

An Illinois Cook County judge has ruled that Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago has been conducting operations that violate state and federal environmental law, operates without a legitimate state environmental permit, and has killed thousands of fish over the years.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thaddeus L. Wilson on Monday found that Trump International Hotel & Tower “committed a continuing public nuisance through a series of failures to comply with state and federal law dating back to 2008.”

This ruling has taken years of litigation to achieve, with Friends of the Chicago River, the Sierra Club, and the Illinois Attorney General having filed the lawsuit in 2018.

Sources:

Trump Tower Declared ‘Public Nuisance’ After Killing Thousands of Fish | IBTimes

News Detail Page (illinoisattorneygeneral.gov)

Dog Rushes into Burning Ukraine Home to Save Helpless Kitten

A few years ago, an explosion occurred in a defense industry building near Donetsk City, Ukraine. Fire and smoke spread to nearby areas. As people rushed out of burning buildings and homes, they made sure that family members were with them, but some pets got left behind in the chaos. One dog re-entered a burning house to the surprise of the owner and neighbors. After a while, the dog emerged from the house fire with a tiny fluff ball in his jaws. The dog had gently picked up a kitten from the burning home and carried him to safety.

The lucky kitten has eight lives left.

Source:

Dog Rushes Into Burning Ukraine Home To Save Helpless Kitten (iheartdogs.com)