Shamsud-Din Jabbar (42) from Texas, drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. After hitting the crowd, Jabbar exited the vehicle and fired upon local law enforcement. Police officers returned fire, and the subject was pronounced deceased at the scene. Two law enforcement officers were injured and transported to a local hospital.
At least 16 people, including the suspect, were killed according to the New Orleans coroner. At least 35 others were injured, some critically.
An ISIS flag was located in the rented Ford pickup truck, as well as weapons and a potential IED. Other potential IEDs were also located and rendered inert in the French Quarter. A fire broke out the same day of the attack at an Airbnb in the St. Roch neighborhood, which investigators believe the suspect rented. A man from Jabbar’s house in North Houston surrendered after law enforcement entered.
The FBI reported that Jabbar was born and raised in Texas and served in the US Army for ten years. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and was honorably discharged at the rank of Staff Sergeant.
Suspect Had Troubled Background: Perfect for Recruitment
Jabbar’s past criminal history included a 2002 arrest for misdemeanor theft and a 2005 arrest for driving with an invalid license. Jabbar was twice divorced, resulting in financial problems.
A Texas judge issued a temporary restraining order against Jabbar in 2020 after his second wife asked for one during their divorce case. The order mandated that Jabbar refrain from threats, physical harm or other stipulated behavior against his ex-wife and either of their children, and required her to avoid the same activity. In a court filing, Jabbar’s ex-wife stated the marriage had become “insupportable because of discord or a conflict of personalities.”
Like the similar Christmas attack in Magdeburg Germany in Dec 2024, the suspects were mentally defective with suicidal ideations. This made them perfect for ISIS recruitment online. The attackers are convinced that the West is at fault for their unhappy and miserable lives, so if they’re going to kill themselves, take as many infidels as possible and be rewarded with a first-class ticket to Paradise. Lenin called them “useful idiots.” There will be more copycat attacks in the future using this successful tactic by disgruntled miscreants who are cynically radicalized and recruited online by ISIS. Compare the eyes of the perpetrators in the above and below photos.
The ‘unstable’ 50-year-old Saudi doctor, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, calmly ate shrimp and drank beer before he allegedly rammed his SUV into a crowded market in the city of Magdeburg that killed five and injured scores of revelers.
The FBI has set up a digital tip line asking the public with information or video of the incident to submit them to www.fbi.gov/bourbonstreetattack or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Sources:
FBI Statement on the Attack in New Orleans — FBI
Shamsud-Din Jabbar: What we know about the New Orleans attack suspect | CNN
Montenegro: Twelve Killed in Mass Shooting, Suspect Kills Himself
Two children were among twelve people killed in a mass shooting that started at a restaurant in the small town of Cetinje in Montenegro and continued at three different locations.
Per CIA: Montenegro has a population of ~620,000 people and GDP per capita is $27,800. Montenegro became an official EU candidate in 2010 and joined NATO in 2017.
A local man is suspected of carrying out the shootings, identified by the police as Aleksandar Martinovic (45). He “killed members of his own family”, a government minister said, adding that the suspect was thought to have been drinking heavily before the rampage. The suspect died of a self-inflicted wound to the head.
Police stand at a checkpoint near where a gunman opened fire at a restaurant and killed several people in Cetinje, Montenegro, on 1 Jan 2025 (Photo: Stevo Vasiljevic / Reuters)
The mass shooting was the second gun rampage over the past three years in Cetinje, Montenegro’s historic capital. In Aug 2022 an attacker also killed ten people, including two children, before he was shot and killed by a passerby.
Montenegro is known for its gun culture and many people traditionally have weapons. The national security council will now consider “all options” in the aftermath of the attack, including a complete ban on the possession of weapons.
In any country, alcohol and easy access to firearms is a lethal combination as these poor victims discovered. The takeaway here is the Montenegrin government is considering a nationwide ban on firearms. But this is unlikely for several reasons. The history of ethnic violence in the Balkans (e.g. the Second World War, the Bosnia Civil War, and Kosovar Albanian independence) may make gunowners reluctant to surrender their weapons. Moreover, little Montenegro ranks fifth in Europe on the Global Organized Crime Index. These powerful gangs may surrender their legally registered weapons but will no doubt keep their unregistered firearms.
Sources:
https://ocindex.net/country/montenegro
Ukraine: Russian Helicopter Downed by Sea Drone for First Time
A Ukrainian Magura V5 drone boat armed with R-73 missiles. (Image credit: Russian Telegram channels) Inset: the Russian Mi-8 as seen by the targeting system. (Image credit: Ukrainian Military Intelligence)
Ukraine claims that for the first time one of its sea drones has downed a Russian military target in the air during a day of intense attacks by both sides as the war edges closer to its three-year anniversary.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR) claimed on 31 Dec that a Magura V5 sea drone equipped with missiles shot down an Mi-8 helicopter in a battle near Cape Tarkhankut on Crimea’s west coast.
Another Russian helicopter, the GUR said, was hit by fire but managed to return to a Russian airfield.
“GUR soldiers destroyed an air target for the first time in the world using a Magura V5 naval drone,” the intelligence agency said in the post, which had grainy video of what it said was evidence of the attack.
The video has not been independently verified.
In the video, you saw the Mi-8 release chaff to divert missiles. This downing of a helicopter by a maritime drone is another historic first in this nearly three year long war. The face of war is changing exponentially and at this conflict’s end, the Ukrainian military and intelligence services will be one of the most experienced and capable forces in the West. Indubitably, Chinese military observers are making note of these developments for any future conflict with India, Taiwan, or the US in terms of producing weapons, as well as deploying them.
The Mi-8 is the world’s most-produced helicopter, with over 17,000 units used by over 50 countries. In addition to its most common role as a transport helicopter, the Mi-8 is also used as an airborne command post, armed gunship, and reconnaissance platform. The Mi-8 is “the AK-47 of the skies.”
Sources:
Ukraine Says It Downed Russian Helicopter With Sea Drone For First Time
Cuba: Hepatitis A Advisory for Tourists
The Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) has issued an alert for tourists who plan to visit the island due to the increase in cases of hepatitis A, a highly contagious virus that can seriously affect health.
Hepatitis A is mainly transmitted through contaminated food and water, as well as by close contact with an infected person. This viral disease affects the liver and can be especially dangerous if not treated properly. The increase in cases in Cuba is due to the consumption of raw or undercooked food and the use of non-potable water, which favors the spread of the virus.
The hepatitis A virus can remain on surfaces for several months and is not spread through casual contact, such as sneezing or coughing. However, people can become infected if they eat food handled by someone with the virus who did not wash their hands well after using the bathroom, if they ingest contaminated water or food, or if they have sexual contact with an infected person.
Symptoms usually appear within a week of infection and include unusual tiredness and weakness, nausea, abdominal pain, clay-colored stools, loss of appetite, low-grade fever, dark urine, joint pain, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes).
To prevent infection, hepatitis A vaccination, which consists of two injections separated by six months, is recommended. In addition, tourists traveling to countries with active outbreaks, such as Cuba, should follow some key precautions:
• Wash all fruits and vegetables with bottled water and peel them before eating.
• Avoid eating raw or undercooked meat and fish.
• Drink only bottled water and use it to brush your teeth.
• Do not consume drinks or ice of dubious origin.
• If bottled water is not available, boil tap water before consuming it or use it to make ice.
• Wash your hands frequently, especially after using the bathroom or before preparing food.
In the event of any symptoms of hepatitis A, travelers are urged to see a doctor as soon as possible for treatment and to avoid serious long-term complications.
Tourism in Cuba is an industry that generated over 4.7 million visitors in 2018 and is one of the main sources of revenue for the island. 1,109,339 Canadians vacationed in Cuba that year.
The hepatitis A alert may be the result of vexing potable water problems in Cuba. Water shortages are increasingly flaring tempers, including in capital Havana, as problems mount for hundreds of thousands of residents already ragged from shortfalls in food, fuel, and electricity. Upwards of 600,000 people – more than 1 in 20 on the Caribbean island of ten million citizens – are suffering from water supply issues.
Sources:
https://www.codigosanluis.com/alerta-en-cuba-por-brote-de-hepatitis-a/
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/hundreds-of-thousands-in-cuba-without-water-1.7036536
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Cuba
US Treasury Sanctions GRU-Affiliated Entity That Used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Interfere in US 2024 Election
Excerpt from the US Dept of the Treasury press release linked at bottom:
“At the direction of, and with financial support from, the GRU (Russian military intelligence), the Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE) and its personnel used generative AI tools to quickly create disinformation that would be distributed across a massive network of websites designed to imitate legitimate news outlets to create false corroboration between the stories, as well as to obfuscate their Russian origin. CGE built a server that hosts the generative AI tools and associated AI-created content, in order to avoid foreign web-hosting services that would block their activity.”
GRU insignia.
“The GRU provided CGE and a network of US-based facilitators with financial support to: build and maintain its AI-support server; maintain a network of at least 100 websites used in its disinformation operations; and contribute to the rent cost of the apartment where the server is housed. Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin played a key role in coordinating financial support from the GRU to his employees and US-based facilitators.”
The USG sanctioned Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin (undated photo from public domain)
This is indeed another “smoking gun found at the crime scene” and Russian interference was just another factor in the Democratic Party’s catastrophic loss last year.
But regardless of Russian interference, Americans have proven they can elect a person of color twice to the White House, as well as a woman. In 2016, Hilary Clinton won the popular vote over Donald Trump by 2,864,974 votes, but lost the medieval and anachronistic Electoral College vote with help from the Kremlin. Ultimately, anti-war Democrats and Independents disgusted by US support for Israel in the Gaza war simply stayed home on 5 Nov 2024, like their disgusted predecessors did in 1968 over VPOTUS Hubert Humphrey’s support for the wholly unpopular Vietnam War.
American Vietnam War protestors in 1968
American Gaza war protestors in 2024
For the sake of the Democratic Party and future elections, instead of blaming Russian interference or scapegoating the tiny Arab-American community for the 2024 catastrophe, they should re-examine their foreign policy and not ignore the tremendous anti-war segment of the American population.
VPOTUS Kamala Harris meets with indicted war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on 25 Jul 2024. This loathsome man, the :curse of Israel,” is responsible for over 45,000 deaths and 100,000 injuries in what scholars denounced as a genocide of the Palestinian people. (Photo: Nathan Howard / Reuters)
Sources:
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2766
https://tostpost.com/news-and-society/27504-valery-korovin-biography-and-photos.html
UK: Woman Who Vanished 52 Years Ago In Coventry Reappears Safe And Well
(Sheila Fox, missing since 1972, in an undated photo courtesy of the West Midlands Police)
Sheila Fox, who vanished from Coventry in 1972 at just 16 years old, has been found alive after over five decades. The breakthrough came after West Midlands Police launched a fresh appeal for information, releasing a photo from around the time of her disappearance. Within hours of the appeal, the public provided valuable leads that ultimately helped officers track down Fox, who is now 68 years old and living in another part of the country.
In 1972, when Fox disappeared, authorities believed she may have been in a relationship with a man and could have left Coventry to start a new life elsewhere. Despite numerous investigations over the years, she was never found. However, with the help of a photo from the time, officers from the cold case investigation team revisited the case, determined to give her family the closure they had longed for.
Detective Sergeant Jenna Shaw praised the team’s hard work and the public’s assistance in solving the case. The investigation was complex, involving the examination of old evidence, but the breakthrough was a reminder of how new perspectives and public involvement can lead to resolutions.
While the details of Fox’s life over the past 52 years remain private, authorities are relieved to have located her and ensured she is safe and well. Her family, too, now has the long-awaited answers they needed. The case highlights the importance of not giving up on cold cases, as even the oldest investigations can sometimes have happy conclusions.
Sources:
The BBC
Newsx.com
Under the Trumpf Junta, How Soon Before America Joins the List of Pariah States?
After Trumpf’s stunning 2024 electoral win, Russian despot Vladimir Putin gleefully declared that the “New World Order” is dead. According to former National Security Advisor John Bolton, Trumpf mulls about withdrawing the US from NATO. Under Project 2025, America’s Richard III will attempt to deport massive numbers of vulnerable migrants while further eroding the country’s social safety nets and civil liberties. The maps below from worlddata.info represent current and former Pariah and Rogue states:
“Pariah states are those states that are considered outcasts because of their government. Anyone who does not abide by international rules or refuses to cooperate with the international community in wide areas must expect sanctions. Many of the former and current pariah states owe their classification to their autocratic rule, under which their own people suffer.”
“The term ‘rogue state’ goes back to the US government under George W. Bush, which used it to describe aggressive states that threaten either the USA itself or its allies. Although the term was new, the concept of the exclusion of dangerous nations was introduced in 1994. The first countries to be considered ‘Rogue States’ were North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, and Libya.”
Salon magazine wrote this heinous hobglobin that offended the people of Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Denmark, and Panama the “21st century Jefferson Davis.” (Photo illustration by Salon / Getty Images.)
Sources:
https://www.worlddata.info/pariahstates.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn
Tiny Octopus Befriends Diver Who Visits Him Everyday
Octopi are intelligent, affectionate, and playful creatures, as you will see below.
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Coriolanus 