Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip walk through a dark streak of sewage flowing into the streets of the southern town of Khan Younis on 4 July 2024. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Julian Borger at The Guardian reports that the first verified case of type 2 poliovirus in 25 years in Gaza, in a baby, has resulted in the paralysis of the infant. This child will be the first of many if the UN is not allowed to administer vaccines to 650,000 children in the Strip, which will definitely require a ceasefire. Israeli authorities are allowing refrigerated units into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, but are refusing a cease-fire. Without a ceasefire, families will not line up their children to receive the oral vaccine. Some 95% of the infants in Gaza need to have the vaccine administered to prevent an outbreak, and they need two doses. But aid workers cannot safely move around to make arrangements for administering the doses.
Aid organizations want to use Deir al-Balah to store and distribute the vaccines, but the IDF has evacuated and invaded the area, risking destroying the remaining medical infrastructure there. Some 250,000 Palestinians have been expelled from their shelters since the beginning of August. Allowing refrigerated units in without a necessary cease-fire is tantamount to someone mailing in a bill but neglecting to sign the check and put a stamp on the envelope.
There is no cure for polio once it is contracted and victims will either be paralyzed or die. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on the Gaza population has killed more than 15,000 children.
“Gaza Polio,” by Juan Cole, Digital, Dream / Dreamland v. 3 / Clip2Comic, 2024
Meanwhile, hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters, drones, and armored personnel carriers raided Jenin and Tulkarm and other areas in the occupied West Bank. But they were there not to arrest rabid Israeli settlers who have killed over 500 West Bank Palestinians over the past two years, but other Palestinians, killing at least ten of them.
Sources:
Israel Rejects UN Ceasefire to Allow Polio Vaccinations in Gaza – Truthdig
At least 10 Palestinians killed in major Israeli raids across West Bank | Reuters
Belarus Ramps Up ‘Military-Patriotic’ Camps for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children
An officer of Belarus’s Interior Ministry teaches a child to fire an automatic weapons in March 2020.
Following the unprecedented pro-democracy demonstrations that broke out after Belarus’s disputed 2020 presidential election, the Aleksandr Lukashenko regime undertook a ruthless crackdown on dissent that included jailing activists, shutting down independent media, and generally dismantling civil society.
And among those left most completely isolated were the country’s thousands of orphans and children whose parents have been deprived of custody. Following Vladimir Putin’s lead of indoctrinating Ukrainian children, Aleksandr Lukashenko is doing the same for orphans and parentless children in Belarus.
Orphans from state and Belarusian Orthodox Church institutions have been sent to camps at military installations, instructed in military drills and weaponry, trained by mercenaries from Russia’s notorious Wagner Group, and assigned to write letters of encouragement to Russian soldiers occupying parts of Ukraine. The state’s “patriotic” education efforts are jointly coordinated by the Education, Defense, Interior, and Emergencies ministries. Although such camps for vulnerable children have been run since at least 2007, the war in Ukraine and Belarus’s growing authoritarianism have made the effort a government priority.
Disadvantaged teens participating in a Belarusian militarized camp in July 2010.
The number of camps for orphans and other socially disadvantaged children hosted by military units has increased steadily since 2020. In 2021-22, there were about 480 of them, state media reported, and in 2023, 583 such camps were organized with the participation of “nearly 6,000 children.”
For 2024, the government planned to host 14,000 children in camps conducted by veterans, mercenaries, and active-duty personnel, some with programs titled “Kindness and Courage.”
Wagner mercenary fighters instruct children at a “military-patriotic” club near Minsk in 2023 in this screen grab from a video posted by state TV commentator Ksenia Lebedeva “This is not Mary Poppins, you know,” Lebedeva wrote. “Our children are choosing the right toys and the right teachers.”
The Emergencies Ministry University runs a high school for orphans, disadvantaged children, and children from troubled families. This year, 93 percent of the school’s graduates planned to study at military-technical institutes. The Moscow-affiliated Belarusian Orthodox Church was operating about 20 military-patriotic clubs around the country. In May, the Education Ministry authorized Orthodox monasteries to open shelters for vulnerable children.
At a session of the UN Human Rights Council in March 2023, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) expressed alarm at “Belarusian military training programs of children,” saying that more than 18,000 children “as young as 6” had passed through the training — which included the use of firearms — in 2022.
All of these innocent children are being indoctrinated to be loyal to the state and Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Source:
Belarus Ramps Up ‘Military-Patriotic’ Camps For Orphans And Other Vulnerable Children (rferl.org)
Kentucky Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Attacking US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021
Dan Edwin Wilson (48) of Louisville, KY, was sentenced to five years in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and $2,000 restitution for attacking the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021.
In late 2020, Wilson began planning to obstruct and interfere with the joint session of Congress at the Capitol during the 6 Jan 2021 certification of the Electoral College vote. On 22 Dec 2020, Wilson—who in an encrypted messaging application went by the moniker “Live Wire”—responded to a discussion regarding traveling to Washington, D.C. for 6 Jan 2021, by writing, “Ooh Rah. Curb stomp crew all in!!!”
Later that same day, Wilson wrote, “We are willing to work and coordinate with others, but I am a gray ghost ranger,” referring to Wilson’s affiliation with a particular militia. Wilson also discussed bringing firearms to Washington, D.C. for 6 Jan 2021, but he ultimately wrote, on 24 Dec 2020, “In my opinion I don’t think it’s time to gun up for the sixth we have to play this out but if they seat Biden on the 20th all bets are off it’s gonna happen even if Trump wins we have to get this government under control it’s been crossing my mind if we go to a Civil War do we try to take Washington DC first or do we try to take state capitals first.” On 27 Dec 2020, Wilson wrote, “I am ready to lay my life on the line. It is time for good men to do bad things.”
Should Democrat Kamala Harris win the election this November, this dangerous maniac and militia member will be incarcerated during her entire first term. Every day Dan Edwin Wilson will see portraits of President Harris hanging proudly on the walls of his US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facility.
In the 43 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,488 seditionists have been charged in nearly all 50 states for attacking the US Capitol, including nearly 550 suspects charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement personnel. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.
Source:
Hungarian National Arrested on Charges of Conspiring to Export 200 US Military-Grade Radios to Russia
Masked Russian soldier employing tactical radio. Undated imagery.
US authorities detained a Hungarian man on suspicion of engaging in illegal export activities to Russia. Bence Horváth (46), a resident of Spain, was detained at San Francisco International Airport on 23 Aug as he entered the US. Horvath and his accomplices allegedly violated the 2018 Export Control Reform Act. The Justice Department alleged Horváth operated as part of an international intermediary and procurement network with direct contractual relations with Russian government institutions. He and others operating in Spain, Serbia, Hungary, Latvia, and other unnamed countries are suspected of procuring American technology and smuggling it to Russia.
Bence Horvath faces up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million for violating the Export Control Reform Act.
A complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Source:
Trump Campaign Staff Accused of Verbally Abusing Arlington National Cemetery Official
President Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference annual meeting at National Harbor on 2 March 2019. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
Members of Donald Trump’s campaign staff were reportedly involved in an altercation with an Arlington National Cemetery official during a wreath-laying ceremony that has been criticized as a cheap, tawdry campaign stunt.
Allegedly two members of his staff verbally assaulted and pushed a cemetery official who tried to prevent Trump staffers from taking video and photos in a section where recent US casualties are buried. Only cemetery staff are authorized to conduct photography in the area known as Section 60. Trump was at Arlington to mark the third anniversary of an attack on US forces in Afghanistan during the chaotic withdrawal from the country.
GOP candidate Trump has repeatedly tried to blame Vice President Kamala Harris for the 26 August 2021 suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 American service members.
Per Arlington National Cemetery:
“Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign. Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”
After this incredibly egregious misstep, the ex-President then followed that up by resharing a vulgar post on his social media site Truth Social suggesting Vice President Kamala Harris used sexual favors to advance her career. A CNN anchorwoman described Trump as “divorced from reality” and Kamala Harris simply said “Donald Trump was out of his mind.”
As the Trump Campaign disintegrates and continues to alienate women, another damaging video of GOP VPOTUS candidate JD Vance has emerged of Vance attacking childless women, this one from during his run for the Senate seat he now occupies.
In the video clip shown on national TV, the Yale Law School graduate launched a broadside at teachers who don’t have children of their own, telling a crowd he thinks they are “trying to brainwash the minds of our children.”
JD Vance singled out Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, and smeared her by exclaiming, “If she wants to brainwash and destroy the mind of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”
One opinion maker described the Trump Campaign vetting process as “simply insane” and rumors are floating that Trump regrets picking JD Vance as his VPOTUS running mate.
The NYT reported that Team Kamala had a 3% national polling average lead over Trump as of 28 Aug. This is absolutely breathtaking that the 2024 US Presidential election could even be close between Donald Trump and JD Vance versus Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Sources:
Trump Campaign Staff Accused Of Verbally Abusing Arlington National Cemetery Official | IBTimes
https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2669093418/
‘This is simply insane’: Questions raised about vetting of J.D. Vance amid new blow-up – Raw Story
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/schumer-trump-regrets-weird-vance-1235069638/
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Indicted on All Charges and Banned from Leaving France
Copyright Tatan Syuflana/AP
French authorities charged Telegram CEO Pavel Durov with allowing alleged criminal activity on his messaging app. He was released after four days of questioning and barred from leaving France pending further investigation. In addition to Russia and France, Durov is also a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, and the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The co-founder of the messaging app was detained on Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris as part of a sweeping judicial inquiry.
Allegations against the Russia-born Durov, who is also a French citizen, include that his platform is being used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, and that Telegram refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.
The first preliminary charge against him was for “’complicity in managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group,” a crime that can lead to sentences of up to 10 years in prison and a €500,000 fine. Durov’s arrest in France has caused outrage in Russia, calling it politically motivated and proof of the West’s double standard on freedom of speech. The outcry has raised eyebrows among Kremlin critics because in 2018, Russian authorities themselves tried to block the Telegram app but failed, withdrawing the ban in 2020.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that Durov’s arrest wasn’t a political move but part of an independent investigation. In a statement posted on its platform after Durov’s arrest, Telegram said it abides by EU laws, and its moderation is “within industry standards and constantly improving”.
A legal move like this probably caught the attention of ‘X’ CEO Elon Musk, who has angered government officials in the UK, Australia, and Brazil for allowing right-wing hate messages or disinformation to flourish on his ‘X’ social platform.
Sources:
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov indicted on all charges and banned from leaving France | Euronews
Pavel Durov’s arrest could expose how the Kremlin used Telegram to its advantage, expert says
FBI: Trump Gunman’s Motive Still Mystery
The FBI reported that the 20-year-old Thomas Crooks acted alone, that there is no sign of foreign involvement, and a motive for the assassination attempt remains unknown. The assault rifle used in the shooting was purchased legally and Thomas Crooks was not known to the FBI when he attempted to shoot the former president at a rally in Butler, PA, on 13 July. His attack grazed Trump’s ear, killed one man, and seriously injured two others.
Crooks began searching online for Trump campaign events in September 2023. He searched for events for both Trump and President Joe Biden, who was still the Democratic nominee at the time of the shooting. He also looked for the location of both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Thomas Crooks apparently had a “mixture of ideologies,” according to the FBI.
Please see FBI evidence gallery at bottom.
Unfortunately for the FBI, they can not interrogate a corpse, hence the importance of capturing and keeping a suspect alive. By training, the USSS (permanently) neutralized the immediate threat to the ex-POTUS; but now investigators must piece together or speculate the reasons for the attempted assassination.
Imagine what the US Intelligence Community (USIC) or law-enforcement agencies could have been learned if Lee Harvey Oswald wasn’t killed by Jack Ruby in Nov 1963, if sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was prevented from committing suicide while under federal custody in Aug 2019, or if Osama Bin Laden was taken alive by Seal Team Six in May 2011?
Sources:
A photo of the AR-15-style rifle used by Thomas Crooks.
A backpack and the rifle carried by Thomas Crooks.
HVAC unit on the side of the building which Thomas Crooks used to climb onto the roof where he shot at the ex-President.
Two explosive devices in Thomas Crooks’s car. The FBI stated the receiver on the devices for remote detonation was in the ‘off’ position and that they ‘had several problems in the way they were constructed.’
Coriolanus 