ukraine

“Age of Impunity”: Israel Bombards Lebanon for Second Day; 558 Killed Including 50 Children, 94 Women; 1,835 Injured

Israel bombarded 1,500 Hezbollah militant targets in Lebanon again on Tuesday, with the death toll from airstrikes since Monday mounting to 558, along with another 1,835 injured.50 children had been killed in the barrage, along with at least 94 women.

Israel said one of its strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed Ibrahim Muhammad Qubaisi, identified as a senior Hezbollah military commander who oversaw Hezbollah’s missile systems.

The UN refugee agency said it was “outraged and deeply saddened” by other Israeli attacks that killed two of its staff members. Thousands of Lebanese have fled southern Lebanon in search of safety from the Israeli attacks, clogging roads north to Beirut. But Israel has also targeted sites in the capital, with one attack hitting a six-story building, killing six and injuring 15.

Vehicles wait in traffic in the town of Damour, south of the capital Beirut, as people flee southern Lebanon, 24 Sep 2024.

The Israeli military warned residents of the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon’s east to stay away from Hezbollah’s armament supply depots. The IDF has dropped leaflets in eastern Lebanon. Hezbollah urged Lebanese to discard those leaflets, warning against scanning barcodes that could compromise their personal data.

“The enemy is dropping leaflets with barcodes in the Bekaa region and may drop them elsewhere. Please do not open or circulate the barcode. You must destroy it immediately,” the statement said, warning the code could “take all your information.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a stark warning at the General Assembly on Tuesday that the world has entered an “age of impunity” as Israel’s onslaught in Gaza — and now, escalation against Lebanon — continues without consequence, despite the clear ability of world powers to stop the atrocities.

In his address at the opening of this year’s session of the United Nations General Assembly, Guterres said the widespread abuses of international humanitarian law that the world has witnessed over the past year are now threatening the basis of the UN charter and international order.

Immunity for such abuses is now the norm, he said, as world powers have refused to stop the “non-stop nightmare” in Gaza and Israel’s aggression that has put Lebanon “at the brink” of becoming “another Gaza.” He also raised atrocities being committed against Ukraine and the people of Sudan, where a famine and civil war rage on.

The US and some Arab countries support a ceasefire in the Mideast, but Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud government are opposed. Cease-fire talks have been stalemated for months. With fighting on two fronts, Netanyahu warned Israelis that they are headed into “complicated days.”

Meanwhile, the US Navy reported that a replenishment ship operating in the Middle East sustained damage in an incident which is under investigation. The damage to the USNS Big Horn comes after the oiler had supplied the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group. All crew members were reported safe and the vessel was being supported by private tugboats.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier shown here in the Arabian Sea (DOD: 1 Jun 2019). US military personnel in CENTCOM AOR are vulnerable to reprisal attacks by Lebanese Hezbollah allies, such as the Shia Houthis along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden or pro-Iranian Shia militias in Iraq.  

Israel’s recent massive pager and walkie-talkie attack, described as ‘a war crime’ by the UN head of human rights, followed by this onslaught in Lebanon, coincided with the opening of the UN General Assembly in NYC and Pres. Biden’s final address to the international body. This brazen offensive demonstrates Benjamin Netanyahu’s contempt for the UN and the sitting US president.  The Biden Administration has been working feverishly to reach a ceasefire to release the 100 Israeli hostages and Netanyahu seems to be the impediment. A ceasefire and hostage release would give Pres. Biden a small diplomatic victory before he retires, something which Netanyahu seems determined to deny him.

The Israeli attack also risks widening the conflict in the Middle East which benefits Moscow, Beijing, and Pyongyang. Any discord and instability in the Middle East distracts and diverts Washington’s resources and attention. The US supplies both Ukraine and Israel with arms and foreign aid, but is also the main military ally of Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. A Chinese aircraft carrier recently approached Japanese maritime waters and a Russian military aircraft violated Japanese airspace. Last week North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles and publicly displayed one of its uranium-enrichment facilities.

A wider war in the Middle East could also lead to a rise in oil prices and re-kindling inflation in the US. While sanctions have constrained Iranian oil output in recent years, Tehran remains an oil producer and asserts control over the passage of tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a trading route that facilitates the transport of about 15% of global oil supply.

“If Iran got involved in this war, then it would disrupt oil supply worldwide,” said a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

As long as Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party remain in power, the chances for a lasting peace in the Middle East or a Two-State Solution are zero. And these ongoing hostilities delay Netanyahu’s bribery and corruption trial in Jerusalem. Already indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Netanyahu also faces a potential probe regarding the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attack by Palestinian armed groups and whether he deliberately ignored any intelligence warnings.

Sources:

Israel bombards Lebanon for second day as death toll reaches 558 (voanews.com)

Hezbollah warns Lebanese over dropped Israeli leaflets — Naharnet

US Navy ship operating in Mideast damaged in incident, officials say (voanews.com)

Japan says Russian patrol aircraft violated its airspace | Fox News

Wider Middle East war could spike oil prices and rekindle US inflation, experts say – ABC News (go.com)

UN Chief: World Has Entered “Age of Impunity” as Israel’s Aggression Spreads | Truthout

Exploding pagers and radios: A terrifying violation of international law, say UN experts | OHCHR

Illinois Man Pleads Guilty to Felony Destruction of Property During 6 Jan Attack on Capitol

Justin LaGesse (red circle) and Theodore Middendorf (yellow circle) march through the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021. Image: FBI

Justin LaGesse (37) of McLeansboro, IL, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of destruction of government property during the 6 Jan 2021 breach of the US Capitol.

Additionally charged in this matter as a co-defendant is Theodore Middendorf (36) also of McLeansboro. This matter is ongoing.

On 6 Jan 2021, the two miscreants arrived in Washington, D.C., carrying with them an American and Gadsden flag. At approximately 2:51 PM, LaGesse entered into the US Capitol by climbing through a broken window next to the Senate Wing Door. He then turned around and helped Middendorf through the window. After spending some time in the lobby, LaGesse and Middendorf continued to traverse through the Capitol before exiting the building. LaGesse partially pulled down his neck gaiter and began to harass several police officers who were protecting the Capitol. Among other things, LaGesse called the officers “f— traitors” and “f— communist scum.”

By approximately 4:09 PM, the two seditionists had moved to the north side of the Capitol where a large group of rioters were attempting to breach the building via the North Door. Police officers defended the door and blocked the rioters’ entry. As the officers held back the attackers, LaGesse and Middendorf approached the nearby exterior window of a room inside the Capitol and struck the glass window several times with the bases of their flagpoles. The Architect of the Capitol determined that the total cost of the damage to the window was $41,315.25.

In the 43 months since 6 Jan 2021, more than 1,488 suspects have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to attacking the US Capitol, including nearly 550 seditionists charged with feloniously assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The FBI investigation remains ongoing.

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

Justin LaGesse’s name is associated with the above right-wing website. He and Theodore Middendorf represent America’s Fedayeen Saddam (FS), white supremacist dead-enders desperately trying to clutch onto the last vestiges of white privilege in the US. Whatever sort of life Justin LaGesse had before 6 Jan 2021, he threw it away with his hatred and this federal felony conviction.

Sources:

District of Columbia | Illinois Man Pleads Guilty to Felony Destruction of Property During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

Russia Increases Intelligence Footprint in Mexico

CIA Director William Burns said the US government is “sharply focused” on Russia’s expanding footprint in Mexico, which he said was partly the result of Russian spies being expelled from foreign capitals after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. (Image: UK Daily Mail)

Russian intelligence services are building up their presence in Mexico for spy operations targeting the US. The Kremlin has added dozens of personnel to its embassy staff in Mexico City in the past few years, even though Moscow has only limited trade ties with the country. US officials say the trend is concerning and believe the extensive buildup is aimed at bolstering the Kremlin’s intelligence operations targeting the US, as well as its propaganda efforts aimed at undermining Washington and Ukraine.

In Marc 2022, USAF Gen. Glen Van Herck, head of US NORTHCOM, testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia’s GRU military intelligence service had a massive presence in Mexico.

“I would point out that the largest portion of GRU members in the world is in Mexico right now. Those are Russian intelligence personnel, and they keep an eye very closely on their opportunities to have influence on the US or gain access,” Van Herck said.

Even though Mexico has extensive trade ties with the US, it has traditionally tried to steer away from fully aligning itself with Washington’s foreign policy and has maintained friendly relations with Russia and Cuba.

John Sipher, who worked in the CIA’s clandestine service for 28 years, said Russia has always told Americans offering to spy for Moscow to head to Mexico.

Last month, an electrical engineer with dual US and Turkish citizenship was arrested and charged with mishandling classified documents while working for the US DoD.

FBI agents arrested Gokhan Gun and accused him of printing more than 250 documents while working at the Defense Department. Many of the documents are labeled “classified.” The defendant was about to go on a fishing trip to  Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In the 1970s, Christopher Boyce and his high school friend Andrew Daulton Lee were found guilty of providing US satellite secrets to the Soviets. Over two years, Lee traveled to Mexico City to deliver classified information to agents at the Soviet Embassy and collect money for him and Boyce. Their case became the subject of a book and a major Hollywood film, “The Falcon and the Snowman.”

US Marshals escort captured fugitive Christopher Boyce in manacles from Seattle in 1981. Note the cigarette in the deputy’s right hand. Bettmann Archive via Getty Images.

Harold “Jim” Nicholson, a high-ranking CIA officer convicted in 1997 of passing secrets to Moscow, was serving his sentence for espionage when he tried to use his son to collect his “pension” payments from Russian agents in Mexico. His son was eventually arrested and convicted in 2010, and his father was convicted for a second time.

Two years ago, a prominent Mexican scientist, Hector Cabrera Fuentes, pleaded guilty to being co-opted by Russian agents into surveilling a US government informant living in Miami. Fuentes was leading a double life with two families on two continents, and Russian spies used that to coerce Fuentes into cooperating.

Unlike the US, where Russian intelligence is under intense scrutiny from the FBI and consulates have been shuttered, Mexico offers a convenient, lower-risk setting for Moscow to oversee agents in the US and stage other operations.

The Russians would likely want to use Mexico’s proximity but relative safety beyond US law enforcement’s reach to support both American agents and Russian officers operating under “deep cover” in the US. An American source working for Russian intelligence could travel back and forth across the US-Mexico border and meet up with Russian handlers to get paid, debriefed, resupplied and receive training on communication methods or other tradecraft.

Russian intelligence could conceivably also take advantage of Mexico’s proximity to target Putin’s political enemies inside the US.

The Russians likely would have little interest in having operatives try to cross the southern border illegally with migrants. But Russian intelligence agencies would have the option to work with cross-border criminal networks if it suited a particular mission, and if they were ready to tolerate a much higher risk. Part of the mandate of the GRU is to prepare possible sabotage operations in the event of a war with the US, and Mexico would be a practical base for such contingency plans.

Russia can manipulate the information landscape in Mexico to undercut international support for Ukraine but also to sow social divisions. Russia has expanded its state-funded media outlet RT in Mexico and runs a large advertising campaign for the channel. In April, the Russian ambassador to Mexico posted a false report by Russian state media claiming that the US was recruiting members of drug cartels from Mexico and Colombia to send them to fight in Ukraine. The baseless account was picked up by some Mexican news organizations.

On 1 Oct, Mexico inaugurates its first ever female president in Mexico City and Vladimir Putin was invited. Ukraine requested Mexico, an International Criminal Court (ICC) signatory, to arrest him on an active international warrant when he arrives. The Mexican government responded that it had no intention of arresting him. The Kremlin later announced that a representative for Putin would attend President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum’s inauguration. In other news south of the US border, this week the US instituted sanctions against Mexican businesses for drug trafficking (please see next article).

Sources:

Back to the Cold War: Russia uses Mexico as a hub for spying on the U.S. (nbcnews.com)

Dual citizen of U.S., Turkey accused of printing classified documents – UPI.com

Mexico rejects Ukraine’s request to arrest Russia’s Putin during visit | Reuters

US Sanctions Mexican Businesses, Colombian Nationals for ‘Significant’ Drug Trafficking Network

Map courtesy of Stratfor and the BBC.

The US Treasury announced a series of new political sanctions on businesses in Mexico and citizens of Colombia allegedly tied to a “significant” flow of illicit drugs into the US and human trafficking: the leadership of Colombia’s Clan Del Golfo and businesses owned in Mexico by alleged fentanyl traffickers known as the Sinaloa Cartel.

Clan del Golfo, also known as Los Urabeños, is one of America’s largest drug trafficking organizations and “a key contributor” to human smuggling.

The Sinaloa Cartel fentanyl traffickers are described as “one of the most notorious and pervasive” drug-trafficking organizations in the world allegedly responsible for “a significant portion” of illicit fentanyl and other deadly drugs trafficked into the US.

The US Treasury Dept coordinated with the DEA, the Colombian National Police, and Mexico’s Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera. Treasury has sanctioned more than 350 targets over the last two years for alleged involvement in drug trafficking activities at all supply chain stages — from major cartel leaders to “under-the-radar labs, transportation network, and chemical suppliers.”

Sources:

Counter Narcotics Designations; Issuance of New Russia-related Frequently Asked Questions | Office of Foreign Assets Control (treasury.gov)

Colombian nationals, Mexican businesses target of Treasury sanctions for ‘significant’ fentanyl trafficking – UPI.com

West India Faces Health Crisis: Over 6,000 Cases of Dengue and Chikungunya Reported

A new variant of Chikungunya, identified by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune, is spreading rapidly with increased severity. Hospitals in Nagpur are filling up with patients suffering from both dengue and chikungunya, two mosquito-borne illnesses transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes. Patients in this vicinity were already suffering from Zika virus, as reported here on Coriolanus (15 Sep).

Since Jan 2024, Nagpur has recorded 2,873 cases of dengue and 3,556 cases of chikungunya. While dengue cases have been rising steadily throughout the year, chikungunya cases began to spike in June, with 82 initial cases. Experts believe many more cases remain unreported, indicating the actual numbers could be higher.

Pune is located southeast of Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra. The city covers an area of about 7,290 sq km with a population of 3,124,458 people.

The disease is causing severe joint pain similar to arthritis, with some patients also experiencing heart issues. In certain cases, platelet counts have dropped dangerously low. Chikungunya has also led to encephalitis, a condition where the brain swells due to inflammation, making the illness even more dangerous.

This year’s chikungunya outbreak is far worse than previous years. Patients are suffering from prolonged joint pain that can last over a month, and the daytime-biting mosquitoes are causing widespread distress. Authorities are urging residents to take extra precautions against mosquito bites as efforts to control the outbreak continue.

This outbreak is a consequence of global climate change. As the planet warms and climate change lengthens the mosquito season, the world’s deadliest creature will expand its geographical range to new regions and re-emerge in areas where mosquito numbers had subsided for decades.

Droughts, heatwaves, floods, and rainfall are increasing in severity and regularity across the globe. These provide favourable conditions for mosquitoes to breed and could help spread their viruses to higher latitudes and altitudes. Climate change also increases mosquito-borne disease risk in less obvious ways, says Dr Katie Anders from the World Mosquito Program (WMP).

“When households store water in response to drought, this can increase local mosquito breeding sites and disease risk. Land use changes can also drive migration to cities, increasing the population at risk of explosive outbreaks of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases.”

Each year mosquito-borne diseases kill more than one million people and infect up to 700 million.

Sources:

Nagpur Faces Health Crisis: Over 6,000 Cases of Dengue and Chikungunya Recorded (nagpurtrends.com)

Explainer: How climate change is amplifying mosquito-borne diseases | World Mosquito Program

Russia Surveys 42-Year-Sunken Nuclear Submarine K-27 in Kara Sea

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations announced that its diving specialists are inspecting the K-27 nuclear submarine, which sank in the Kara Sea over four decades ago. The submarine, found in Stepovoy Bay, is classified as a radiation-hazardous facility. The K-27, a notorious relic from the era of the Soviet Union, has long been a concern due to the radiation threat it poses to the surrounding environment. The divers will evaluate the condition of the K-27 as part of Russia’s broader initiative to monitor and mitigate potential threats from its aging fleet of nuclear-powered vessels.

Undated image from Reddit.

Known as the “Zolotaya Rybka” [Little Golden Fish] for its high costs and crew luxuries, the K-27 represented the pinnacle of Soviet naval technology. Its elite crew enjoyed rare perks for the time, such as citrus fruits like lemons and oranges, which were uncommon for most Soviet citizens.

On 24 May 1968, a nuclear reactor malfunctioned. By the time the crew managed to surface the submarine and return to their base at Gremikha on Russia’s Kola Peninsula, all 144 crew members had been exposed to radiation. Sadly, nine of them succumbed to radiation poisoning in the months that followed. The K-27 was permanently taken out of active service in June 1968 and eventually decommissioned in 1979. 

In 1982, the K-27 was towed to the Arctic Novaya Zemlya nuclear testing range and deliberately sunk in the Kara Sea at a depth of 108 feet. Soviet authorities filled the submarine with asphalt to seal its fuel-filled reactors and drilled a hole in its aft ballast tank to ensure it would remain submerged.

Vyacheslav Mazurenko, a 22-year-old warrant officer at the time, later recalled the chilling instant they realized the gravity of their predicament: “We had a radiation detector, but it was turned off. When our radiation supervisor switched it on, it went off the scale.” 

Source:

Russia explores the 42-year-sunken nuclear sub K-27 in the Kara Sea (bulgarianmilitary.com)

Donald Trump and JD Vance Face Criminal Charges over Springfield Pet-Eating Hoax

Photo: AFP

An Ohio law allowing citizens to file criminal charges is being used to target former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) over their vile comments about Haitians in Springfield.

The Haitian Bridge Alliance filed criminal charges against the two Republican candidates at Clark County Municipal Court on Tuesday. A copy of the six-page complaint is linked below.

“The criminal charges stem from the devastating harm of Trump’s and Vance’s baseless fearmongering that legal Haitian immigrants to the Ohio town are eating their neighbor’s pets,” Chandra Law Firm said.

Alliance’s cofounder Guerline Jozef sought the “immediate arrest” of Trump and Vance for disrupting public service, making false alarms, committing telecommunications harassment, committing aggravated menacing, and violating the prohibition against complicity.

“The Haitian community is suffering in fear because of Trump and Vance’s relentless, irresponsible, false alarms, and public services have been disrupted,” lead counsel Subodh Chandra said in a statement. “Trump and Vance must be held accountable to the rule of law. Anyone else who wreaked havoc the way they did would have been arrested by now.”

“There’s nothing special about Trump and Vance that entitles them to get away with what they’ve done and are doing,” the attorney added. “They think they’re above the law. They’re not.”

Sheriff Deborah K. Burchett is tasked with the responsibility of preserving the peace of the public, overseeing the enforcement of court orders, providing courthouse security, and jail operations within Clark County, Ohio, where the criminal complaint was filed. If an Ohio judge issues an arrest warrant based on the complaint, Sheriff Burchett or the Ohio State Highway Patrol would have the responsibility of arresting Donald J. Trump and JD Vance.

Source:

2024-09-22 Guerline Jozef affidavit re Trump, Vance, and Springfield FINAL (chandralaw.com)

Criminal charges filed against Trump and Vance for Springfield, Ohio conduct; arrests sought | Chandra Law Firm | 216-578-1700 | Cleveland, Ohio

Trump and Vance face criminal charges over Springfield hoax – Raw Story

Sheriff | Clark County, OH – Official Website (clarkcountyohio.gov)

Curious Old Grizzly Bear Makes Himself Home in Crawlspace Under California House

A California couple’s home has become a makeshift duplex after a new neighbor moved into their crawlspace: a grizzly bear.

Bob Nesler and Susan Nesler said the bear, which they named Junior, leaves late at night to forage for food and returns to their crawlspace in the early morning.

“That’s his den right now. We gotta get him out of there because, you know, I think we’d be held responsible if anybody got hurt, but he hasn’t bothered us in any way.”

he Neslers said they do not want to see Junior harmed.

“They’re not dangerous creatures at all, unless you’re a trash can,” Bob Nesler said.

They said Junior has thus far been an ideal neighbor — aside from one issue.

“He does leave piles of scat,” Bob Nesler told KNBC-TV. “That’s about my biggest complaint.”

Kevin Howells from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said officials are attempting to encourage Junior to leave by setting up a sprinkler.

“Easiest option here is to let it leave on its own, stress free and get that space boarded up,” Howells said.

Source:

Watch: Bear moves into California couple’s crawlspace (yahoo.com)

Unpopularity of Putin’s War on Ukraine Growing in Russia

A child protester outside the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow on 22 Sep with a sign reading: “Return my dad. I’ve been waiting two years.” (Image: RFE/RL Current Time)

A group of wives, mothers, and children of mobilized Russian soldiers deployed in their country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine protested outside the Defense Ministry in Moscow, with an unspecified number of detentions reported. The protest in the Russian capital on 21 Sep coincided with the date two years ago when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on a partial mobilization. The group reportedly was demanding a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, as well as a demobilization. At one point, the protesters, numbering about two dozen, were confronted by a group hurling abuse and trying to disperse them. There is no information available yet as to what punishments these loved ones of mobilized Russian soldiers will receive.

More evidence of the growing unpopularity of the Russian invasion comes from lowered interest in a pro-war singer’s concerts. At least two cities in Russia canceled Shaman’s performances of his “Victory” tour due to low ticket sales.

Pro-Kremlin Singer Yaroslav Dronov (AKA Shaman). Photo: Pelagia Tikhonova / Moskva News Agency

Last month Shaman kicked off his 100-city tour in Red Square with plans to perform in Ukrainian cities occupied since Russia’s invasion. The singer said he aims to “program” his audience to think about Russia’s victory over Ukraine, more than two and a half years into the war.

However, his scheduled performances in Nizhny Tagil on 24 Sep and Magnitogorsk on 3 Oct were cancelled. The independent investigative outlet Agentstvo reported that only half of the tickets had been sold for the Nizhny Tagil show, and there was “not much hype” surrounding the Magnitogorsk event.

Earlier this month, authorities in the Stavropol region canceled another of Shaman’s shows and required him to refund 15 million rubles to the regional government.

Agentstvo also noted that Shaman’s concerts in the cities of Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, and Tver are at risk of being canceled due to poor ticket sales. TV ratings for Shaman’s performances have reportedly been lower than other popular programs.

As casualties mount on the frontline and successful Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s infrastructure increase like the spectacular strike shown below, more people will grow disillusioned and discontent with Vladimir Putin. Unfortunately, the Russian masses will be basically powerless to overthrow the regime because of the dense internal security apparatus the Kremlin controls.

2,000 tons of ammo, including North Korean-made rounds, were destroyed in this recent attack that registered as small earthquakes and also drew the attention of NASA’s fire-spotting satellites. There was no information as to Russian casualties caused by Ukraine’s new jet-powered Palianytsia cruise missile.

Sources:

Mothers, Wives, Children Of Russian Soldiers Protest, Demand Demobilization (rferl.org)

Russian Cities Cancel Pro-War Singer Shaman’s Shows Amid Low Ticket Sales – Agentstvo – The Moscow Times

Ukrainian Drones Just Blew Up 2,000 Tons Of Ammo in Southern Russia (forbes.com)

France Deploys Notorious Anti-Riot Police Unit to Martinique

Martinique has a land area of 436 sq mi and a population of nearly 350,000. Map: Brittanica.com

France deployed a contingent of special anti-riot police that’s been banned for 65 years to the French Caribbean island of Martinique, where protesters have gathered despite the government barring demonstrations in parts of the island. The local government issued a curfew after violent protests broke out last week over the high cost of living. Six police officers and one civilian were wounded. Police launched tear gas and several stores were looted.

But the curfew was met by defiance by many on the island, with massive peaceful protests breaking out Saturday night. Videos from local media show crowds of thousands peacefully walking along highways overnight banging on drums and waving flags.

As protests continued without violence, a contingency of French anti-riot police arrived on the island and checked into a hotel in Fort-de-France. The size of the force was not disclosed.

French riot police in action in 2018. Photo: Stephane Mahe/Reuters

The elite riot police, known as the Companies for Republican Security, were banned in the French territory following bloody riots in Dec 1959 for allegedly using disproportionate force against protesters, ending in the deaths of a number of young demonstrators. The force is rarely deployed in French territories in the Caribbean but was called on during riots and strikes in Guadeloupe in 2009.

Martinique’s leaders requested the forces amid the recent protests. Beatrice Bellay, a representative of the socialist party blasted the move, saying: “Martinique is not in a civil war, it is a social war. This measure … only serves to aggravate tensions and distract attention from the legitimate demands of the people of Martinique.”

A man holds a flare during an anti-government protest in Fort-De-France, Martinique in 2021. 5,000 to 15,000 residents of Martinique demonstrated in protest on 27 March 2021, denouncing the possible statute of limitations on a complaint filed by civil parties for the use of chlordecone in causing life endangering illnesses. Photo: Reuters

Martinique is burdened with a chronic high rate of unemployment, as well as rising costs of imported food and other basic necessities. Banana is the foremost plantation crop grown in Martinique and the widespread use of carcinogenic chlordecone for five decades to control banana pests gave rise to an ecological disaster and an angry population. Although this practice had stopped in 2003, the recalcitrant dangerous pesticide remained largely in the soil.

Until all soil has all been successfully de-contaminated, use of the land for any new agricultural activities is unsafe; people have been warned to refrain from eating self-produced vegetables. The challenge to create meaningful employment in Martinique under these social-economic and environmental constraints is thus formidable.

Sources:

Long-forbidden French anti-riot force sent to Martinique as thousands defy bans on protests (voanews.com)

Intractable Social-Economic Problems of Martinique (openedition.org)

Former CIA Officer Sentenced to 30 Years for Sexually Assaulting Scores of Women

Undated photo of Brian Jeffrey Raymond courtesy of the FBI.

Brian Jeffrey Raymond (48) of La Mesa, CA, a former CIA officer who drugged and sexually assaulted dozens of women, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Raymond was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and to pay $260,000 in restitution to the victims. After his release from prison at the age of 78, Raymond will be required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

This miscreant drugged more than two dozen women and performed nonconsensual sexual acts or made sexual contact with at least ten women. Raymond also photographed and recorded videos of victims without their consent while they were drugged or otherwise incapacitated. He had previously worked for the CIA for over 20 years.

Raymond would lure women he met on dating apps back to his government-leased apartment, later drugging and assaulting them.

The assaults date back to 2006 and took place in multiple countries, including Mexico and Peru. An investigation of Raymond began in May 2020 when police in Mexico City responded to a naked woman screaming for help on the balcony of Raymond’s residence. She said that Raymond had raped her and accused him of drugging her when the two had drinks at his apartment. Police then searched Raymond’s devices as apart of the investigation. They discovered several explicit videos and images showing Raymond sexually assaulting numerous women.

Several of the women spoke in court about the trauma caused by Raymond’s actions. Many did not realize they had been assaulted until they were approached by police and shown images or videos taken by Raymond.

“My body looks like a corpse on his bed,” said one woman of the photos. “Now I have these nightmares of seeing myself dead.”

Another woman testified in court: “Was I raped? Was I sexually assaulted. I will never know, and that haunts me too.”

Raymond’s sentencing comes as the CIA faces intense scrutiny over its handling of sexual misconduct cases. A 648-page internal watchdog report revealed that the agency routinely failed to address such incidents. More than two dozen women reported that they had experienced sexually assault or unwanted contact, later facing retaliation after they reported it to the CIA.

CIA personnel undergo extensive background investigations and must undergo routine polygraph examinations during their careers. How this sexual predator operated in the USIC for 14 years without getting caught is remarkable. Moreover, Raymond presents a dilemma for CIA. Foreign intelligence agencies may start putting clues together and uncover CIA sources in countries Raymond operated in.

From a counterintelligence perspective, Raymond holds a treasure trove of US secrets in his head. His incarceration in the BOP must take that into account. Lastly, Brian Jeffrey Raymond cost the American taxpayer a small fortune with all the expensive training he received and living overseas in government-paid housing and expense accounts.

Sources:

Former CIA officer sentenced to 30 years for sexually assaulting scores of women | CIA | The Guardian

As the CIA promises to stop sexual misconduct in its ranks, new cases of workplace assault emerge | PBS News

Whooping Cough (Pertussis) Spreading in US and Canada

Undated image courtesy of USATODAY.

The CDC reports that whooping cough (pertussis) is spreading in the US. In 2020, the US had about 6,000 cases of pertussis, roughly 2,000 cases in 2021, 3,000 cases in 2022 and about 5,000 last year. Now the US has seen 14,569 cases this year, compared with 2,844 at the same time last year, according to the CDC’s Nationally Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.

In Canada, more than 12,000 cases of whooping cough, or the 100-day cough, have been reported to date in 2024, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). That’s far higher than the roughly 500 to 4,500 nationwide infections typically reported each year. 

Whooping cough starts with symptoms that look a lot like a regular cold: a runny nose, sneezing, a low-grade fever and a tickly cough. A week or two later, the infection moves into a new stage, leading to a violent full-body cough.

These coughing fits can be so severe that they cause patients to vomit or break ribs, and they’re often accompanied by a whooping sound as the person tries to catch their breath. Antibiotics can treat the infection, but only if it’s caught within the first few weeks, before the arrival of the exhausting, painful cough. Then, the only treatment is comfort care with plenty of rest and fluids while the infection runs its course.

Unvaccinated babies and adults are those at highest risk of severe infection and, rarely, death. But doctors have increasingly been seeing vaccinated people with infections, too.

Pertussis vaccination rates are high in the US – around 90% – and did not dip during the pandemic as they did in some other countries. Despite that, the upward trend in infections has continued.

The increase in cases is not fully understood. There’s evidence that it may be due to changes in the bacteria that causes the infection or changes in the vaccines.

Gavin and Tara Hills with their seven children were anti-vaxxers. (Social media).

The above family of anti-vaxxers from Ontario, Canada, changed their minds about vaccinations too late. Gavin Hills, his wife Tara, and their seven children are now in quarantine at their Kanata, Ont. home while the children are being treated for whooping cough.

The children, who are aged 10 months to 10 years, are “doing okay.” The irony of the timing is not lost on them, says Gavin Hills. While it’s frustrating to be quarantined, what’s more frustrating is knowing that the whole thing could have been avoided, Hills says. For six years, he and his wife were on the fence about vaccine safety, so they chose to hold off on vaccinating until they understood the issue better. But by then, it was too late and they caught pertussis.

Ottawa Public Health is treating them with antibiotics for the potentially serious illness and they should recover soon.

Sources:

About Whooping Cough Outbreaks | Whooping Cough | CDC

Whooping cough cases are soaring. Can infecting people help test a better vaccine? | CNN

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/whooping-cough-spike-1.7308407

Germany: Social Democrats Narrowly Defeat Far-Right in Brandenburg Elections

Map: Courtesy of freeworldmaps.net

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) party narrowly won an election in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. Three weeks after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made gains in two other east German states, the SPD came out on top. 

According to final results, the SPD won 30.9% of the votes while the AfD came a close second with 29.2%. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a new leftist movement, came in third with 13.5% while the centre-right Christian Democrats took 12.1%. 

The SPD’s victory brought a reprieve to Scholz, whose three-party governing coalition has fared poorly in elections so far this year. Social Democrats have governed Brandenburg since 1990, and a loss there would have been a major setback for Scholz, who has his constituency in the state capital of Potsdam. 

Any political defeat of the right-wing in any country is a victory, no matter how big or small. Germany holds federal elections October 2025.

This is the enemy.

Source:

Social Democrats narrowly beat out far-right in Brandenburg elections | Euronews

Chinese Aircraft Carrier Comes Closer Than Ever to Japan

In 2012, Liaoning (16; Chinese: 辽宁舰; pinyin: Liáoníng Jiàn) was the first aircraft carrier commissioned in China’s navy after extensive refurbishing. Total airpower: 40 fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. (Image source: http://www.armyrecognition.com).

On 18 Sep, a Chinese aircraft carrier sailed closer to Japan than ever before, prompting Tokyo to express serious concerns to Beijing about China’s increasing military activity in the region.

The Chinese carrier Liaoning, accompanied by two destroyers, entered Japan’s “contiguous zone” – a section of sea beyond territorial waters where Japan still exercises some control. According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, the fleet passed between Japan’s Yonaguni and Iriomote Islands, east of Taiwan.

Chinese warships also sailed near the disputed Senkaku Islands, which are controlled by Japan but claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu Islands.

Hiroshi Moriya, Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, condemned the incident, calling it “absolutely unacceptable” for national and regional security. He emphasized that China has been ramping up military activity around Japan in recent years. The Japanese government conveyed its concerns to China through diplomatic channels.

Tensions between the two nations have escalated following other recent incidents. Last month, Japan reported that a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft entered its airspace, followed by a Chinese survey ship breaching Japanese territorial waters near Kagoshima Prefecture.

In response, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Lin Jian, defended the activity of Chinese warships, stating it was following both Chinese domestic laws and international regulations.

Japan has strengthened its defenses in the southwestern region, including remote islands, viewing them as critical to its overall defense strategy. China now has two more aircraft carriers, including one entirely designed and built domestically.

China is increasingly flexing its growing military power. This summer, two Chinese aircraft accompanied Russian bombers near Alaska for the first time and a military hospital ship has been treating patients for free along Africa’s coast (see previous posting on Coriolanus). This naval incident occurred during the annual UN General Assembly in NYC, so Beijing may also be testing its diplomatic prowess. According to the Global Firepower Index (GFI), China is ranked third out of 145 militaries surveyed; Japan is ranked seventh; Taiwan is ranked 24th.

Sources:

Chinese aircraft carrier comes closer than ever to Japan (bignewsnetwork.com)

Global Firepower – 2024 World Military Strength Rankings

US, Canada Consumer Safety Alert: LUCID Platform Beds Sold by Walmart, Target, Amazon Recalled

Photo of the recalled Lucid Upholstered Square Tufted Platform Bed (Charcoal)

Nearly 137,000 beds sold by major retailers Walmart, Target, and Amazon have been recalled because the frames could collapse or break, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). 890 were sold in Canada. So far, there have been 245 reports of the beds breaking or collapsing, which caused at least 18 injuries including contusions.

The beds were manufactured in Malaysia and sold online through Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond, Belk, Brookside, eBay, Home Depot, JCPenney, Lowes, Macy’s, Menards, Overstock, QVC, Sears, Target, Malouf VIP, Wayfair, and Walmart.

Customers should immediately stop using the recalled beds and contact Lucid for a free replacement bed frame.

Consumer Contact: Lucid toll-free at 888-910-0235 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Monday through Thursday, or on Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, by email at recall@lucidmattress.com.

Sources:

CVB Recalls LUCID Platform Beds with Upholstered Square Tufted Headboards Due to Fall and Injury Hazards | CPSC.gov

Upholstered Platform Bed (lucidmattress.com)

Nearly 137,000 beds sold by Target, Walmart recalled for collapsing (scrippsnews.com)

SAS Flight Diverted After Mouse Scurries Out of Passenger’s In-Flight Meal

Economy class cabin of an SAS A350 (Photo: SAS)

A Scandinavian Airlines flight traveling from Norway to Spain was forced to make an emergency landing in Copenhagen, Denmark after a mouse scurried out of a passenger’s in-flight meal. A passenger said the situation was surprisingly calm. Passengers were later flown to the Spanish city of Malaga on a different plane without further incidents.

The emergency landing was part of SAS company procedures as the mouse posed a safety risk on board. Rodents can chew through electrical wiring, making them strictly forbidden on most airlines.

Source:

Flight diverted after mouse scurries out of passenger’s in-flight meal (scrippsnews.com)

Israel on Warpath: 22 Killed in Gaza, 37 in Beirut; Two Lebanese Hezbollah Commanders Dead

Palestinians inspect a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza city after it was hit by an Israeli strike. Reuters

An Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza city’s Al Zeitoun neighbourhood has killed at least 22 people as strikes across the enclave intensified.

Israel’s strikes on Gaza have killed at least 119 people in the past 72 hours, the enclave’s Health Ministry said on Saturday, excluding the latest toll from the attack on the school.

A separate strike hit Al Falah school in the same area, injuring a number of people. The Israeli military claimed it was targeting Hamas operatives in the school. The Israeli military often accuses Hamas militants of hiding in schools where thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter. The group has repeatedly denied this claim.

The death toll in the enclave since 7 Oct 2023 has risen to 41,391, while 95,760 have been wounded. Over the past three days, 209 people were injured.

Beirut after IDF airstrike. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack showed Israel “gives no weight to any humanitarian, legal, or moral considerations”.

The latest Israeli attack killed senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil along with at least 37 people on Friday. The strike, which destroyed a residential building in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, also wounded 68 people.

Calls for blood donations for the victims were multiplying on social media. People searching for their loved ones also took to social media to ask for help, sharing pictures of their missing relatives, including children. Lebanon’s medical infrastructure, already under strain from the massive pager and walkie-talkie sabotage attack, was taxed again. UN human rights chief Volker Turk  denounced the rigged device attacks carried out in Lebanon, saying they constitute a breach of international human rights law and could amount to a war crime.

Volker Turk advised the UN Security Council that using devices disguised as “apparently harmless portable objects” is an act of violence aimed at spreading “terror among civilians”. The human rights chief called for an independent, thorough, and transparent investigation, and for those who ordered and carried out the attacks to be held to account.

Lebanese Hezbollah counterattacked with rocket launches into Israel; four casualties were reported.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is making conditions for a ceasefire or eventual peace in the Middle East impossible. IDF attacks are not only enraging the Arab population, but adding to deep-seeded resentments with every loss or maiming of a family member. The Lebanese people (and the Iraqis) already rank as the world’s angriest population for manifold reasons; the next generation of anti-Israeli enemies has been spawned. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has been attempting in good faith some sort of cease-fire or deal to release the remaining hostages being held by armed Palestinian groups. At one point, Washington must restrain the bellicose Likud Party or the US will be needlessly sucked into a war of Netanyahu’s making.

Sources:

Israel rules out political solution as strike on Beirut kills Hezbollah commanders | The National (thenationalnews.com)

Booby-trapped device attacks in Lebanon breach international law, says UN rights chief | The National (thenationalnews.com)

Israeli strike on Gaza school-turned-shelter kills at least 22 people | The National (thenationalnews.com)

Lebanese, Iraqis among world’s angriest populations: report (newarab.com)

Ohio “Man of God” Sentenced for Organizing and Rallying 6 Jan Attackers

(Images: US Dept of Justice)

Pastor William Dunfee (59) of Frazeysburg, OH, was sentenced to 30 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $2,000 in restitution for one felony offense of civil disorder and a misdemeanor offense of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds on 6 Jan 2021. He rallied seditionists to storm the US Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transition of Presidential power.

As the seditionists attacked and threatened the lives of members of Congress after a Donald Trump speech urging them to “fight like hell”, Dunfee used a bullhorn to egg them on, falsely proclaiming the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

A pastor of the New Beginnings Ministry Warsaw in Ohio, Dunfee pushed a metal barricade against officers with the US Capitol Police who were attempting to hold the line and then entered the Capitol building without authorization.

During sentencing the Honorable Judge Reggie Walton asked Dunfee, “What kind of man of God would do that, Sir?”

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 | Ohio Man Sentenced to Prison on Felony and Misdemeanor Charges for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

American Warzone: Four KIA, 20 WIA in Late Night Shooting in Alabama

US Army medics treating wounded soldiers in Vietnam on 2 Apr 1967. In the US, 44,341 people die by firearms in an average year, a rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people. Americans suffer from wartime casualty amounts every year without going to war. Image: http://www.flickr.com

Four people were killed and more than 20 wounded following a shooting in a nightlife area in Birmingham, AL. Just after 11 PM, “multiple shooters fired multiple shots on a group of people” in the Five Points South area.

Two men and a woman were found dead at the scene; a fourth victim died at a hospital. Other victims were transported to hospitals in private vehicles. The University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital was treating 11 victims and their conditions have not been released.

The victims were all located on the sidewalk or the streets and detectives are trying to determine if the shooters walked up to the victims or drove by a vehicle.

The Five Points South area of Birmingham has numerous entertainment venues, restaurants, and bars and is often crowded on Saturday nights. Police said there were no immediate arrests.

In an average year, 1,175 people die by guns in Alabama. With a rate of 23.9 deaths per 100,000 people, the Cotton State has the fourth-highest rate of gun deaths in the US.

Alabama Firearms Licenses in 2021: 194,920

An estimated 55.5% of adults in Alabama have guns at home.

Sources:

At least four killed, multiple injured in late night shooting in Alabama (archive.md)

EveryStat – EveryStat.org

10. Alabama – Gun map: Ownership by state – statistics and rates (cbsnews.com)

Ukraine Destroys 71 of 80 Russian Drones Overnight

A Ukrainian police officer stands next to a destroyed car following a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv late on 21 Sep. At least 12 people were injured. Photo: AFP

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that air-defense systems shot down 71 of 80 Russian attack drones launched overnight. It said six more drones were neutralized by electronic warfare. The air force also said Russia had launched two guided missiles from occupied parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk region. It did not say what happened to the missiles. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air-defense units had destroyed 15 drones that Ukraine launched overnight. Late on 21 Sep, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said explosions rang out in Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — with a guided bomb hitting a residential high-rise, injuring at least 12.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to kick off his US visit on 22 Sep with a stop at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, a Pennsylvania factory producing key munitions for his country’s fight against Russia. Scranton is Pres. Biden’s birthplace. This ammunition plant manufactures 155 mm artillery shells used in howitzer systems that can strike targets from up to 32 kms away. The US has so far provided Kiev with more than three million of the shells and Ukraine fires up to 8,000 of them daily.

An employee handles 155 mm shells at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant on 16 Apr. Photo: Charly Triballeau / AFP.

Pres. Zelensky addresses the UN General Assembly in NY on 24 Sep and will meet separately at the White House with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on 26 Sep. Pres. Zelensky will reportedly meet with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump as well at an undisclosed time.

Sources:

Ukraine Says It Destroyed 71 Of 80 Drones Fired By Russia Overnight (rferl.org)

Ukraine’s Zelenskiy To Begin U.S. Trip With Visit To Pennsylvania Munitions Factory (rferl.org)

Possible Widespread Labor Action by Longshoreman’s Union at East Coast Ports on 1 Oct

ILA’s Dennis A. Daggett says union will be on the “right side of history” if it must strike on 1 Oct 2024. “Corporate greed must end,” he emphasized.

A major strike is on the horizon for thousands of maritime workers, posing a threat to East Coast ports responsible for offloading billions of dollars of goods. 

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), the largest union of maritime workers in North America, has vocalized plans to go on strike at all of its Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports 1 Oct if a new contract agreement can’t be reached with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). The union is arguing for better wages and continued protections against automation and new technology in its terminals.

“A sleeping giant is ready to roar on Tuesday, 1 Oct 2024, if a new Master Contract Agreement is not in place,” ILA President Harold J. Daggett said in a statement Monday.  “My members have been preparing for over a year for that possibility of a strike.”

According to a statement from USMX, negotiations with the ILA began in the last week of May. Now, the union’s current six-year contract is less than two weeks away from expiring.

The Port Authority of NY and NJ is “closely monitoring developments and remain hopeful. For the over 600,000 regional jobs our port supports and the $240 billion in goods moved through here each year, we urge both sides to find common ground and keep the cargo flowing for the good of the national economy,” said a spokesperson for the Port Authority. 

The ILA has argued that the USMX is denying workers fair contracts with adequate wage raises and proper benefits. 

“USMX claims to offer industry-leading wages, however, their interpretation of ‘leading wages’ is polar opposite to ours,” a statement from the ILA on Monday said. 

“Our members are struggling to pay their mortgages and rent, car payments, groceries, utility bills, taxes, and in some cases, their children’s education. USMX’s corporate greed has made them delusional — profits over people. They have taken advantage of a low entry-wage and a tiered progression system for thirty years,” the statement continued. 

The union said its rank-and-file members will no longer accept contracts that include small wage increases of a dollar or less. It argued further that for more than three decades, ILA workers only saw annual wage increases of 2.02% per year on average — with some years having wage raise percentages of zero, according to the ILA statement. 

The ILA is the largest union of maritime workers in North America, representing upwards of 85,000 longshoremen on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, Great Lakes, major U.S. rivers, Puerto Rico and Eastern Canada, and the Bahamas. The longshoremen of the ILA kept cargo moving non-stop during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sources:

ILA Union

Layout 1 (usmx.com)

Major maritime strike could threaten ports across the East Coast (nbcnews.com)

Possible widespread strike on East Coast ports poses a serious risk – Internewscast Journal

Taiwan: Pesticide Found in Food Poisoning Victims

Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed that eight people who fell ill due to suspected food poisoning had terbufos, a hazardous chemical compound found in some pesticides, in their systems.

Terbufos, which can potentially kill humans, is used on various crops, including bananas, beans, citrus, coffee, groundnuts, sorghum, and maize as soil cover to combat wireworms, mossy beetles, beet flies, and the black bean louse.

Four of the eight sampled patients were all found to have reduced acetylcholinesterase, reflecting organophosphorus poisoning. The suspected food poisoning happened last week when an 83-year-old woman died after eating millet dumplings she prepared. Several relatives and friends who came to mourn her death ate the leftover dumplings and exhibited symptoms such as vomiting and convulsions.

A sample of the millet dumplings known as “Abai,” a traditional cuisine of some of Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples at the center of the food poisoning incident. CNA photo 18 Sep 2024.

Even at low levels of exposure, terbufos can lead to serious negative health effects, including neurological harm. Terbufos is used in 19 American states.

Sources:

Terbufos found in suspected food poisoning victims’ systems: CDC – Focus Taiwan

Terbufos in the United States: Harmful Health Effects and Widespread Use – Earthjustice

North Koreans Are Getting Sick of Propaganda Song “Friendly Father”

North Korean military choir members sing on the eve of the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s founding day in Pyongyang, DPRK, 8 Sep 2018.

North Koreans are growing weary of being bombarded by “Friendly Father,” an upbeat propaganda song praising leader Kim Jong Un that has been blanketing the country for months now.

People are forced to sing it before every public event and a loudspeaker car drives through cities blaring it.

“He is holding his 10 million children in his arms and taking care of us with all his heart,” go the lyrics.

“The love you give me is like the sea. The trust you give me is like the sky,” says verse two. “You are always by our side, and make all our wishes come true.”

“Every factory, company, school, work unit, and neighborhood-watch unit in the province has both children and adults sing this song whenever the opportunity arises,” according to an anonymous informant.

North Korean students sing in music class at the Pyongyang Orphans’ Secondary School in Pyongyang, DPRK, 1 Sep 2016. (Jon Chol Jin/AP)

The government created a high-quality music video for the song depicting people from all walks of life enthusiastically singing along to it.

Friendly Father was inspired by an earlier propaganda song called “Friendly Name” that sung the praises of Kim’s father and predecessor Kim Jong Il. The melody is different but many of the lyrics in “Friendly Father” are callbacks to the earlier song, which most North Koreans know by heart.

The order to promote the song comes from the Central Party of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party.

It’s gotten to the point where people actively avoid places where the song is played publicly if they can help it. For example, in the city of Hyesan, on the border with China, there is a park where retired people gather to spend their free time by talking, singing, dancing, playing games, or exercising. 

But when the park turned off their music and began playing “Friendly Father” over the park’s public address system, the senior citizens went home. The park, which used to teem with old folks from sunrise to sunset, is now empty almost every day.

Another problem with the song stems from Korea’s Confucian culture. Often complete strangers are expected to grant older people a certain amount of respect simply because they are older, with the promise that they will receive the same respect from the young when they reach the same age.

However, “people in their 70s and 80s are being forced to call Kim Jong Un, who is only in his 40s and is about the same age as their sons, their ‘friendly father.’”

North Koreans sing at a picnic gathering at a park in Pyongyang, 18 Apr 2012, a national holiday celebrating the birthday period of the late leader Kim Il Sung.  (Vincent Yu/AP)

People scoff at the notion that Kim Jong Un could be their “friendly father,” because they do not trust his leadership abilities, the second resident said.

“They have no hope in their leader, but they are forced to familiarize their eyes, ears, and mouths with the image of him as their friendly father through the song.”  Propaganda efforts are getting bigger and louder as people’s dissatisfaction with society and food insecurity increases.

Source:

North Koreans are getting sick of propaganda song “Friendly Father” — Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

Iceland Locals Save Baby Puffins by Tossing Them Out to Sea

Imagery and Story: Kyana Sue Powers, Megan Cook, Andy Witchge

People in Iceland patrol the streets at nights with flashlights and boxes. They are rescuing baby puffins, also known as pufflings. If found, they would be rounded up and gently tossed off the cliffside in the morning. At six weeks old — when their fluffy down matures and their beaks are still black — a puffling is ready to fly the nest. Once they head out to sea, they will spend three to four years of their life flying abroad, before returning to the cliff sides to start a family of their own. 

However, each year (in late August or September) pufflings come crashing down on streets and residential homes, as their internal compass ushers them to the moon… and the “moon” turns out to be the electronic lights of the city. In the same way that baby sea turtles can be disoriented — and misdirected — by city lights in coastal towns, pufflings will often fall for the allure of artificial lights. 

Thankfully, the residents of Vestmannaeyjar know to keep an eye out for wandering pufflings, and they take the volunteer position seriously. Residents can find between four to ten pufflings in a single night during puffling season. Before they release pufflings, locals are encouraged to record the weight of each puffling on an official “Puffin Patrol” website. 

Image via Andy Witchge / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

The baby puffins are gently picked up and placed in a box and brought to the south side of Iceland where they are released. Typically, instinct takes over and the pufflings are able to fly toward the ocean without issue. 

Volunteer work is critical to keeping puffin populations up. Globally the Atlantic puffin is considered vulnerable, but in Europe, it’s on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. And in Iceland, specifically, they are critically endangered. 

This is due in part to declining fish populations, rising sea temperatures, and oil spills. 

For puffin patrollers, caring for the wayward baby birds is akin to helping little, lost friends. In fact, the scientific name for the Atlantic puffin subspecies, Fratercula arctica, literally translates to “little brother of the North.”

Sources:

Inspired by Iceland

Beautiful Puffin and Shore View

Why Icelanders are tossing baby puffins off of cliffs (goodgoodgood.co)

IDF Investigating Soldiers for Throwing Bodies of Palestinians from West Bank Rooftop

The IDF said it was investigating soldiers after footage emerged that appeared to show troops throwing bodies from the roof of a building in the occupied West Bank in the aftermath of a “counter-terrorism” operation jointly conducted with the Israeli Security Agency. Photo by Alaa Badarneh/EPA-EFE.

The Israeli military launched a major investigation after a video shot in the north of the occupied West Bank appeared to show its troops tossing bodies from the roof of a building in contravention of international law.

Three Israeli troops on a rooftop are seen pushing a body over the building’s edge but the feet get caught in electrical or telephone cables leaving it hanging before one of the soldiers leans over the side and frees it, plunging the body head-first to the ground, evidenced on the graphic footage obtained by CNN.

Two soldiers lift another body by the hands and feet and swing it back and forth before launching it over the edge like luggage. A soldier then approaches a third body and kicks it off the top of the building, falling out of sight.

CNN said it was not able to confirm if the victims were still alive when they were thrown — but they do appear to be dead or unconscious.

“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with IDF values ​​and the expectations from IDF soldiers. The incident is under review,” the military said in a statement.

Filmed by residents of Qabatya, near Jenin, and witnessed by an AP reporter, the incident occurred amid an IDF operation which killed seven people. The identities and cause of death of the rooftop victims were not yet known.

Al-Arabi correspondent Ameed Shehadeh said he saw troops first attempt to retrieve the bodies on the roof by unsuccessfully trying to demolish the building with a bulldozer before heading to the rooftop and throwing them down.

Rule 113 of the Geneva Conventions titled “Treatment of the Dead,” requires state parties to conflicts, both international and civil, to treat the remains of deceased enemy combatants with respect and that failure to do so is a war crime.

Rule 114 requires parties to the conflict to return remains upon request to the other side or to their families, if asked to do so, along with their personal effects.

The latest incident came two weeks after the IDF mounted one of the largest “anti-terror” operations in 20 years targeting Jenin and the Palestinian refugee camp there. At least 36 Palestinians were killed and several were seriously injured. Among the Palestinian dead were children and elderly people.

As reported in open press and posted here on Coriolanus, IDF soldiers were captured on video raping a Palestinian man in prison this summer. Rather than being outraged at this indefensible transgression, Likud cabinet members were outraged that an IDF soldier leaked the video. And as you read on Coriolanus, several anonymous IDF soldiers with a conscience informed the Israeli press that Palestinians were being used as “human booby-trap detectors” to enter tunnels or suspicious-looking locations in Gaza in front of nervous IDF soldiers.

These alleged incidents of brutality are the results of years of de-humanizing Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims as inferior and sinister. Right-wing nationalists in Israel and the US conflate Palestinians or Arabs with Hamas or Al-Qaida. Palestinians or Iranians are a perennial bête noire that must be destroyed.

The US required roughly 100 years, say 1790 to 1890 (the Wounded Knee Massacre) to pacify and relocate the non-white indigenous peoples of North America, euphemistically under “Manifest Destiny.” To facilitate this deplorable end, subtle and not-so-subtle messaging that “Indians” were “savages” or “heathens” was rampant in written and spoken discourse.

Part of the “white man’s burden” was saving the white woman and civilization from the darker savages, like this clean-cut cowboy saving “Penelope” from a perennial bête noire, a “redskin.” (Public domain imagery)

The same applies to Israel which was born in 1948. Since then, Palestinians have been called so many horrendous non-human slurs in Israeli discourse, Wikipedia devotes an entire page to this hideous practice (linked below). For example, 86 of 522 Israeli children’s books depicted Palestinians as “inhuman, war lovers, devious monsters, bloodthirsty dogs, preying wolves, or vipers.”

Should anybody be therefore surprised when so-called inferior beings like the Palestinians are treated so inhumanely, alive or dead?

According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, most of Gaza’s 40,000 dead are women and children.

Sources:

IDF investigating soldiers for throwing bodies of Palestinians from West Bank rooftop – UPI.com

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

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1153216

Four Russian Soldiers Charged with Torturing and Killing Pro-Kremlin American Volunteer

US citizen Russell Bentley joined pro-Kremlin forces and was allegedly tortured and killed by Russian soldiers in April. Undated image: WIKIMEDIA / CREATIVE COMMONS (C).

Russell Bentley, a Texas man who as the “Donbas Cowboy” gained notoriety for joining Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine, was ironically tortured before being killed in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Donetsk, Russian authorities said.

They also said that his alleged abductors tried to cover up the death by detonating a car containing his body.

In a statement released on 20 Sep, the Investigative Committee said four members of the Russian armed forces — Vitaly Vansyatsky, Vladislav Agaltsev, Vladimir Bazhin, and Andrei Iordanov — had been charged in connection with Bentley’s death in April.

Bentley (64) was a fixture in the low-level Russian incursion in Ukraine dating back to 2014. Calling himself the “Donbas Cowboy”, Bentley became a popular figure on Russian propaganda networks for his criticism of the US government.

Bentley, whose military call sign was “Texas”, went missing in Donetsk in April.

Margarita Simonyan, Russia’s leading pro-Kremlin journalist and editor in chief of the state-controlled broadcaster RT, wrote on X at the time that Bentley died for “our people” in Donetsk.

The commander of the Russia-backed separatists’ Vostok Battalion, Aleksandr Khodakovsky, said on Telegram then that “those who killed Russell Bentley” will face “punishment.” But the message was removed from Telegram shortly after it was posted.

Bentley’s wife, Lyudmila, then claimed that Russian soldiers from a tank battalion abducted him.

According to the Investigative Committee, Vansyatsky, Agaltsev, and Iordanov tortured Bentley on 8 Apr and he died shortly afterward. Vansyatsky and Agaltsev are suspected of blowing up a car with Bentley’s body in it and ordering Bazhin to get rid of what was left of his remains.

The four men have been charged with abuse of power, torture that led to a death, desecration of a body, and conspiracy to hide a body.

The Investigative Committee did not specify why the four men tortured Bentley to death, but many of his friends in Donetsk have suggested that the Texan may have been mistaken for a spy.

Bentley fought for the Vostok battalion between 2014 and 2017 and obtained Russian citizenship in 2021.

Source:

Russian Soldiers Charged With Involvement In American’s Death (rferl.org)

Four Proud Boys Who Led Charge During 6 Jan Attack on US Capitol Sentenced

Since their founding during the 2016 presidential race, the Proud Boys have been ardent defenders of Donald J. Trump, well before the 6 Jan 2021, Capitol attack. Photo credit: Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

Four men from Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia were sentenced to various terms after they were convicted of multiple felony and misdemeanor charges related to attacking the Capitol on 6 Jan 2021. This group of violent Make America Great Again (MAGA) “Proud Boys” were the vanguard of the attack on the restricted Capitol grounds on 6 Jan 2021, injuring several USCP officers. Their attack paved the way for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol grounds.

The Honorable US District Judge Jia M. Cobb sentenced the following miscreants: Stephen Chase Randolph (34) of Harrodsburg, KY; James Tate Grant (31) of Cary, NC; Jason Benjamin Blythe (28) of Fort Worth, TX; and Paul Russell Johnson (38) of Lanexa, VA.

Stephen Chase Randolph leading the attack. Randolph received eight years in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.

James Tate Grant assaulting a police officer. He received 36 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution. Image: DOJ

Jason Benjamin Blythe received 30 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.

Paul Russell Johnson was sentenced to five years of probation, conditions of which include, intermittent confinement on the weekends for the first year, followed by two years of home confinement and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine as well as $2,000 in restitution. 

A fifth defendant, Ryan Samsel (40) of Bristol, PA, will be sentenced on 4 Feb 2025.

All five white supremacists were convicted of civil disorder and some were convicted of assault with a deadly or dangerous weapon and inflicting bodily injury.  

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

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

Source:

District of Columbia | Four Men Sentenced for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

Satellite Photos Show Expansion of Suspected North Korean Uranium Enrichment Site

Satellite photos taken by Planet Labs of the Kangson complex show construction work expanding facilities on the southwestern side of the main building in Feb 2024. (Planet Labs)

A suspected North Korean uranium enrichment facility that may have been toured by leader Kim Jong Un recently has grown significantly since construction was first spotted there in Feb 2024.

The Kangson facility, just outside of the capital Pyongyang, is being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for possible production of enriched uranium, which can be used for nuclear power generation – but is also a vital ingredient for an atomic bomb.

North Korea is extremely secretive about its nuclear program, and has not allowed IAEA inspectors back into the country after expelling them in 2009. In Feb 2024, the IAEA said that construction began on a new annex along the side of the main building of the Kangson complex.

That is corroborated by a satellite photo of the complex taken in February by Planet Labs, an US-based private satellite imagery company, which shows the expansion work is visible.

North Korean state media reported on Kim’s visit to an unnamed “production base of weapons-grade nuclear materials” last week, saying that he expressed “great satisfaction” with the improved nuclear capabilities, which would help North Korea’s “revolutionary cause.”

Experts disagree which site the North Korean supremo visited. Regardless of which facility Kim toured, the photos of the visit do not reveal anything that changes North Korea’s military threat and is a reminder of just how menacing Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal is. Kim Jong-Un had stressed that ramping up production of nuclear materials was a priority, even though his people continue to suffer from food insecurity.

According to the World Food Program (WFP), 10.7 million North Koreans are undernourished and 18% of children are stunted (impaired growth and development due to chronic malnutrition). With a population of 25.9 million, that means approximately 40% are suffering from malnourishment under Kim Jong-Un’s regime.

Sources:

Satellite photos show expansion of suspected North Korean uranium enrichment site — Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)

Application of Safeguards in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (iaea.org)

DPR Korea | World Food Program (wfp.org)

Ukraine Offers to Help Flood-Affected European Countries

Ukraine, fighting for its survival against Russia, has offered to send its emergency service units to neighboring Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to help overcome the ongoing floods.

Several European countries are dealing with severe floods caused by the heaviest rainfall in years. The floods had claimed at least seven lives, as thousands of houses were damaged across Europe, with tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate from the disaster areas.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he was moved by Ukraine’s offer of help and Czech Republic Foreign affairs minister Jan Lipavský confirmed the offer in a statement on X (Twitter).

Ukraine has also suffered from a major humanitarian disaster caused by flooding after the Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine’s south 6 July 2023, which President Zelensky called one of Russia’s “most serious crimes against the environment and people.”

In the Ukrainian-controlled part of the area flooded after the dam’s destruction, emergency service rescuers and volunteers evacuated thousands of locals, even under heavy shelling from Russian forces.

Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion, Ukraine has sent its emergency service workers on a mission abroad at least once: to help Turkey after a deadly earthquake hit it on 6 Feb 2023, claiming over 50,000 lives across Turkey and Syria.

Source:

Ukraine offers neighbor countries help with deadly floods (kyivindependent.com)

Recent Analysis of 2019 Wuhan Market Animals May Help Find COVID-19 Origin

The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market sits closed in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, 21 Jan 2020. Some scientists believe infected animals were first brought to the Wuhan market in late November 2019, which then triggered the pandemic. 

Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people, an effort they hope could allow them to trace the outbreak back to its source.

Researchers analyzed genetic material gathered from the Chinese market where the first outbreak was detected and found that the most likely animals were raccoon dogs, civet cats, and bamboo rats. The scientists suspect infected animals were first brought to the Wuhan market in late November 2019, which then triggered the pandemic.

Scientists say they found which sub-populations of animals might have transmitted the coronavirus to humans. That may help researchers pinpoint where the virus commonly circulates in animals, known as its natural reservoir.

While the research bolsters the case that COVID-19 emerged from animals, it does not resolve the polarized and political debate over whether the virus instead emerged from a research lab in China.

An expert group led by the World Health Organization concluded in 2021 that the virus probably spread to humans from animals and that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later said it was premature to rule out a lab leak.

An AP investigation in April found the search for the COVID origins in China has gone dark after political infighting and missed opportunities by local and global health officials to narrow the possibilities.

Scientists say they may never know for sure where exactly the virus came from.

In the new study, published Thursday in the journal Cell, scientists from Europe, the US, and Australia analyzed data previously released by experts at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It included 800 samples of genetic material Chinese workers collected on 1 Jan 2020, from the Huanan seafood market, the day after Wuhan municipal authorities first raised the alarm about an unknown respiratory virus.

Chinese scientists published the genetic sequences they found last year, but did not identify any of the animals possibly infected with the coronavirus. In the new analysis, researchers used a technique that can identify specific organisms from any mixture of genetic material collected in the environment.

One researcher said the new study, while significant, left some critical issues unanswered.

“There is no question COVID was circulating at that market, which was full of animals. The question that still remains is how it got there in the first place.”

Source:

New analysis of 2019 Wuhan market animals may help find COVID-19 origin (voanews.com)

Israel Detects First Case of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF)

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) was discovered for the first time in Israel in grazing beef cattle in the Golan Heights, the eastern Jezreel Valley, and southern Carmel, as well as in ticks collected from the said animals. CCHF is a zoonotic disease, transmittable from animals to humans. The health ministry emphasizes that it is not possible to contract the disease by eating meat or drinking milk. Workers near grazing cattle must take extra precautions to prevent infection.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is a viral disease that affects cattle, sheep, and humans. Most of the time, the disease appears without symptoms in animals but can cause severe morbidity in humans. 30% to 40% of people diagnosed with CCHF die from the disease. The virus is transmitted through the bite of a tick that feeds on the blood of infected cattle and sheep or through contact with their body fluids. This is the first time that the virus has been diagnosed in Israel, despite the fact that the virus is prevalent in the countries of the Middle East, Africa, West Asia, and Southeast Europe.

There is no vaccine available for either people or animals. General supportive care with treatment of symptoms is the main approach to managing CCHF in people. The antiviral drug ribavirin has been used to treat CCHF infection with apparent benefit. Both oral and intravenous formulations seem to be effective.

Sources:

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (who.int)

אבחון ראשון בישראל של נגיף בבקר במרעה ובקרציות בקר, הגורם למחלת קדחת דימומית קרימיאן-קונגו משרד החקלאות וביטחון המזון (www.gov.il)

Unknown Mozart String Trio Discovered in German Library

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 Jan 1756 – 5 Dec 1791). Mozart composed over 800 pieces and enjoyed billiards, dancing, and kept pets, including a canary, a starling, a dog, and a horse for recreational riding. Mozart had an ear for languages, as well as music. His cause of death is still not known, although records indicate he was suffering from “severe military fever.”

A previously unknown piece of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was probably in his early teens has been uncovered at a library in Germany. The piece dates to the mid- to late-1760s and consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio lasting around 12 minutes.

Born in 1756, Mozart was a child prodigy and began composing at a very early age under his father’s guidance. Researchers discovered the work at the city’s music library while compiling the latest edition of the so-called Koechel catalogue, the definitive archive of Mozart’s musical works.

The newly discovered manuscript was not penned by Mozart himself but is believed to be a copy made around 1780. The piece was performed by a string trio at the unveiling of the new Koechel catalogue in the Austrian city of Salzburg and will its German premiere at the Leipzig Opera on Saturday.

The piece is referred to as “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik” in the new Koechel catalogue, according to the Leipzig libraries. The manuscript consists of dark brown ink on medium-white handmade paper and the parts are individually bound and was probably written before Mozart’s first trip to Italy.

Earlier this year, musical scholars wrote about a previously unknown system of dynamics, or code, in Ludwig van Beethoven’s original manuscripts.

Who knows what other centuries-old manuscripts or secrets of the Masters researchers will discover hidden in libraries and archives?

Source:

Unknown Mozart string trio discovered in Germany – Raw Story

A Secret Code May Have Been Hiding in Classical Music for 200 Years (msn.com)

A Lost Cat’s Mysterious Two-Month, 900-Mile Journey Home to California

Rayne Beau (pronounced Rainbow) in Roseville, CA in Aug 2024, before being returned to his owners. (Alexandra Betts via AP)

Benny and Susanne Anguiano and their two cats arrived at Yellowstone’s Fishing Bridge RV Park on 4 Jun for the cats’ first trip to the forest. But soon after they arrived, Rayne Beau was startled and ran into the nearby trees.

The couple looked for him for four days, even laying out his favorite treats and toys. When they finally had to drive back to Salinas, CA, on 8 Jun, Susanne Anguiano said she was crushed but never lost hope she would find him.

In Aug, the Anguianos received amazing news when a microchip company messaged them that their cat was at the SPCA in Roseville, CA, nearly 900 miles from Yellowstone. He was only about 200 miles away from his home in Salinas.

A woman who first saw Rayne Beau wandering the streets of the northern California city fed him and gave him water until she trapped him on 3 Aug and took him to the local SPCA. The next day, the Anguianos drove to Roseville and picked up their cat, who had lost six pounds.

The couple still doesn’t know how their cat got to Roseville but believes he was trying to get home. They have reached out to the media hoping to fill in the blanks.

Benny Anguiano said that besides microchipping their cats, they now have also fitted two of them with air tags and Rayne Beau with a GPS global tracker.

The cats love traveling in the camper and looking out the big windows to see deer, squirrels, and other animals. But the family is not ready to get on the road with their pets again any time soon.

This photograph provided by Susanne Anguiano shows her cats Rayne Beau and Starr Jasmyn snuggling in Salinas, CA, 10 Sep 2024. (Susanne Anguiano via AP)

Source:

Rayne Beau, lost cat, makes mysterious 2-month, 900-mile journey home to California – Washington Times

Oregon Man Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Law Enforcement During 6 Jan Attack on Capitol

Andy Steven Oliva-Lopez (27) from Oregon man pleaded guilty to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers during the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol. He will be sentenced on 17 Jan 2025.

Oliva-Lopez drove from his home in Oregon with a friend to attend the 6 Jan 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally scheduled to take place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. After attending the rally, Oliva-Lopez walked toward the Capitol and made his way to the West Plaza, which was, by that time overrun with rioters. At that location, US Capitol Police and MPD officers attempted to maintain lines of defense and were struggling to prevent rioters from advancing further to the building.

At about 2:04 PM, Oliva-Lopez, wearing a full-face respirator mask, sprayed streams of orange-colored bear spray at the faces and heads of police officers on the West Plaza. Over the course of several minutes, Oliva-Lopez did this on three distinct occasions. Police officers blinded by the bear spray testified that the intense pain levels were either eight or nine on a scale of ten.

Thanks to online sleuths, the FBI arrested Oliva-Lopez on 23 Jan 2024.

Oliva-Lopez’s plea agreement states his estimated sentencing guidelines range is 51 to 63 months in federal prison. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officials will read his dossier and the pain Oliva-Lopez inflicted on the police officers defending the Capitol when he repeatedly sprayed them with bear repellant.

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

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

Sources:

gov.uscourts.dcd.271080.28.0.pdf (courtlistener.com)

District of Columbia | Oregon Man Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Law Enforcement During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach | United States Department of Justice

Israel Launches Intense Strikes on Lebanon

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam near the border, 19 Sep 2024.

Israeli forces carried out their most intense strike on southern Lebanon in nearly one year of war, increasing tensions between the two countries despite international calls for calm. IDF jets struck about 100 multiple-rocket launchers in more than 52 strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The UK called for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, and the US is “afraid and concerned about potential escalation,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that this week’s deadly explosive attacks in Lebanon on the militant group’s communications devices were a “severe blow,” while contending that Israel had crossed a “red line” in carrying out the operation that killed at least 32 people and wounded another 3,000. Unsuspecting Hezbollah operatives and civilians answered messages on their pagers and tried to carry on conversations on their walkie-talkies, only to have them explode in their hands.

Because of the lethal devastation from the attacks, Lebanon has banned passengers flying from Beirut’s international airport from carrying pagers or walkie-talkies on board their flights. The ban applies to both checked and carry-on luggage, as well as cargo.

The longer Israel remains in a state of war, the longer Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delays his bribery and corruption trial in Jerusalem, and the approximate 100 Israelis remain hostage and vulnerable. The West should expect reprisal attacks from Lebanese Hezbollah or their allies against Israeli targets overseas.

Background Information:    

In 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon to neutralize PLO fighters conducting cross-border raids. After a ceasefire was brokered, UNIFIL kept the peace. With Democratic President Jimmy Carter out of the White House in 1981, Israeli war-hawks found a friend in Republican Ronald Reagan. In 1982, Israel re-attacked Lebanon to stamp out remaining PLO fighters who were observing the ceasefire. Israel used the 1982 Abu Nidal assassination attempt on the Israeli Ambassador in London as a casus belli, or pretext, for the invasion. Yasser Arafat and the PLO had disavowed Abu Nidal, who was a rival to the PLO Chairman.

During the invasion, the IDF used a Lebanese Christian militia, the Phalange, as one of their proxies, resulting in the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Hezbollah was established by Lebanese clerics primarily to fight this 1982 Israeli invasion. Lebanese Hezbollah would receive aid from their fellow Shiites in the newly formed Islamic Republic of Iran. After a 22-year military presence, the IDF would finally leave Lebanon on 24 May 2000, under UN Security Council Resolution 425.

Now decades later, the battle is joined once again.  

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was the 16–18 Sep 1982 mass killing of between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians—mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shias—in the city of Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. The mass murder was perpetrated by the Lebanese Forces, one of the main Christian militias in Lebanon, and supported by the IDF that had surrounded Beirut’s Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp.

Many of the bodies found had been severely mutilated. Young men had been castrated, some were scalped, and some had the Christian cross carved into their bodies.

Sources:

Israel launches intense strikes on Lebanon (voanews.com)

Sabra and Shatila massacre – Wikipedia

US Treasury Targets Key Actors in Sanctions Evasion Scheme to Support Russia and North Korea

The US imposed sanctions on a network of five entities and Dmitry Yuryevich Nikulin for allegedly enabling payments between Russia and North Korea.

The entities and Dmitry Nikulin are based in Russia and the Georgian region of South Ossetia. They are accused of actions that “supported ongoing efforts to establish illicit payment mechanisms” between Russia and the North Korea.

Western powers have accused cash-strapped North Korea of selling ammunition to Russia in defiance of sanctions over the more than 30-month-old war in Ukraine, and North Korea has recently bolstered military ties with Russia. President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Pyongyang in June and signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” that calls for mutual assistance in the event of an attack by a third country.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who met with Putin, said the agreement opened a new era of cooperation. Kim made further pledges to deepen ties with Russia after meeting last week with visiting Russian security chief Sergei Shoigu.

The new sanctions expose how the Kremlin uses illegal financial schemes to help North Korea access the international banking system in violation of UN Security Council sanctions.

The US has previously sanctioned many of the entities and individuals providing assistance to North Korea’s ballistic missile program. International sanctions against North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear program were imposed after its first nuclear test in 2006.

Sources:

Treasury Targets Key Actors in Sanctions Evasion Scheme to Support Russia and North Korea | U.S. Department of the Treasury

Sanctions List Search (treas.gov)

U.S. Hits Network Allegedly Facilitating Russia-North Korea Sanctions Evasion (rferl.org)

Earth Will Have Second ‘Tiny Moon’ for Two Months

Earth will have a second moon when a small asteroid begins to orbit the planet later this month, space researchers have announced.

The celestial visitor, dubbed 2024 PT5, is from the Arjuna asteroid belt, according to researchers at the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, an asteroid monitoring system in South Africa. Researchers say Earth’s gravity will pull the tiny moon toward our planet and act a lot like the regular moon, orbiting the Earth in a horseshoe shape, but for just shy of two months, from 29 Sep to 25 Nov.

Other so-called non-Earth objects have entered the planet’s orbit in the past, but typically have not completed full revolutions, meaning they do not act like a typical “moon.”

When they do enter Earth’s orbit, like 2024 PT5, they are dubbed “mini-moons.” This particular asteroid is scheduled to return in 2055. 2024 PT5 won’t be visible to the naked eye or even with a consumer-grade, backyard telescope.

2024 PT5 will reach a distance of about 2.8 million miles away from Earth and slow to a speed of about 2,200 mph, allowing it to be affected by Earth’s pull, even if only temporarily.

Sources:

Earth will have a second ‘tiny moon’ for two months – UPI.com

‘Dangerous Antisemitism’: Donald Trump Condemned for Scapegoating Jews If He Loses Election

Dr. Anthony Fauci has a moment as President Trump speaks during a COVID-19 briefing at the White House on 20 March 2020. Photo: NBC News

Social media critics roundly denounced former President Donald Trump suggestion Thursday that if he loses the 2024 election to Vice President Kamala Harris, Jewish people would have a “lot to do with” it.

Trump made the comment at a summit about combating antisemitism in the country, which was hosted by Jewish philanthropist Miriam Adelson.

“In my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” Trump said. “If I’m at 40%, think of it, that means 60% are voting for Kamala, who in particular is a bad Democrat. Democrats are bad to Israel. Very bad. They’ll never change because they have a section of their party now which has become amazingly, quickly very powerful vote-wise.”

Trump then repeated a campaign attack against Senate Majority Chuck Schumer (D-NY), calling him a “Palestinian.”

“Who would’ve thought that was going to happen? What the hell happened to him?” attacked Trump. “I saw him the other day. He was dressed in one of their robes. That’ll be next.”

“It’s only because of the Democrat hold, or curse, on you,” added Trump.

At the summit, Trump seemingly used Israel and American Jews interchangeably.

“Israel, I believe, has to defeat her,” Trump said of Harris on Thursday. “More than any people on earth, Israel has to defeat her.”

Trump’s remark earned widespread derision on social media, calling it “dangerous antisemitism” and could lead to violence against Jews. One critic called Trump’s language something that might be said before an imminent “pogrom.”

Source:

‘Dangerous antisemitism’: Trump slammed for saying Jews will have a ‘lot to do with’ loss – Raw Story

France Probes Online Threats Against Afghan Taekwondo Fighter Marzieh Hamidi

Marzieh Hamidi (C) chants slogans with the Paris crowd, including the “women, life, freedom” holding an Afghan flag, in support of Iranian and Afghan women, 8 Mar 2023. © Hans Lucas / Amandine Lauriol

Marzieh Hamidi, an Afghan taekwondo fighter and refugee, had suffered “cyber-harassment including death, rape, and other threats via social media,” Paris prosecutors allege. A special online hate unit was investigating the case.

“I want the terrorists threatening me with death to be identified and tried in court, so that I can live freely without fear and in full safety,” Hamidi said in a statement sent to France’s AFP news agency.

The martial artist is under police protection until the perpetrators are identified and prosecuted.

Hamadi did not qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics in her under-57 kg category, but she has been in the media spotlight in France for “speaking out publicly about women’s rights and the Taliban regime.” according to the complaint she filed on 3 Sep.

The current wave of threats followed her denunciation on social media of an August Taliban law barring women’s voices from being heard in public. Hamidi reiterated her opposition to the law in a press interview and launched the social media hashtag #letusexist.

Since 1 Sep, “a vast wave of hatred smashed down on her Afghan Whatsapp phone number which was shared; she received hundreds of calls and thousands of messages in the space of just a few hours,” the prosecutor’s complaint read.

Afghan taekwondo athlete Marzieh Hamidi, pictured at a Paris training center on 29 June 2023. Although under police protection, Hamidi feels like she lost her freedom and safety: “I don’t feel safe any more in Paris.”  © AFP – JOEL SAGET

Hamidi’s complaint specifies the offences of sharing private information, malicious phone calls, death or rape threats, online harassment, and online sexual harassment. She told RFI she had been flooded with threatening messages since posting a video on social media at the end of August denouncing “gender apartheid” in her homeland.

Sources:

France probes online threats against Afghan taekwondo fighter Marzieh Hamidi (rfi.fr)

France and allies condemn Taliban decision to ban women from universities

Report: US Health System Worst Overall Compared to Other High-Income Countries

The Commonwealth Fund, a private research and advocacy foundation, analyzed different countries’ healthcare systems and ranked the US worst among ten nations surveyed.

The report compared Australia, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Australia ranked the top overall. The US was at the bottom for access to care and health outcomes.

The report was based on data that included international population and physician surveys from 2021, 2022, and 2023; plus the World Health Organization, Our World in Data, national data registries and published research.

The US came in second to last in rankings of equal care and how efficient the administrative process is.

Experts say one issue with the US health care system is the complexity of insurance. There’s a variety of insurance plans with different requirements, which impacts how providers get paid and how the patient’s bill is paid for.

“That leads to denials of service. It leads to the bargaining that goes on between doctors and hospitals and insurance companies and between patients and insurance companies. It leads to prior authorization and disapproval of ordered services,” said Dr. David Blumenthal, former Commonwealth Fund president. “The US lags both in having +20 million Americans still uninsured. 70% of the population, though a historic low, still very high by international standards. And it also lacks in terms of the ability of lower income people to get access to basic services.”

The US did rank high in some metrics, coming in second for care processes. That includes things like preventive care and patient engagement.

The term “medical bankruptcy” is not known in most of the world, except the US. Medical bills are reported to be the number-one cause of US bankruptcies. One study has claimed that 62.1% of bankruptcies were caused by medical issues. Another report suggests that over two million Americans are adversely affected by their medical expenses.

In 2011, Debt.org reported that people aged 55 and older account for 20% of total bankruptcy filings. Even with assistance from Medicare, the average 65-year-old American couple faces $275,000 in medical bills throughout retirement. Debts and unaffordable housing contribute to America’s homelessness problem.

Sources:

Mirror, Mirror 2024: An International Comparison of Health Systems | Commonwealth Fund

US health system worst overall compared to other high income countries (scrippsnews.com)

Medical Bankruptcy Statistics (thebalancemoney.com)

Study: Many Toxic Chemicals Enter Body Via Food Packaging

Plastic wrap around food is not benign. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

A new study shows that more than 3,600 chemicals leach into food during the packaging process.

Of that number, 79 chemicals are known to cause cancer, genetic mutations, and endocrine and reproductive issues, a team of international researchers reported in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology.

While food packaging materials may comply with government regulations, the study shows these chemicals may not be completely safe.

One well-known and ubiquitous chemical the study detected in both food and the human body was bisphenol A (BPA), which was used in baby bottles, sippy cups and infant formula containers until parents boycotted those products more than a decade ago.

BPA has been linked to fetal abnormalities, low birth weight and brain and behavior disorders in infants and children, while it is linked to diabetes, heart disease, erectile dysfunction, cancer and a higher risk of early death in adults.

Then there were perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are present in the blood of an estimated 98% of Americans, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Another chemical the researchers discovered in human bodies was phthalates, which have been linked with genital malformations and undescended testes in baby boys and lower sperm counts and testosterone levels in adult males. Other studies have linked phthalates to childhood obesity, asthma, cardiovascular issues, cancer and premature death.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has more information on food safety.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Source:

Study: Many toxic chemicals enter body via food packaging – UPI.com

Homeowner Finally Relents to Stubborn Cat

Stella (circa Sep 2024)

L.P., a sane and sober contributor to a progressive website, related this story in the blogosphere. A persistent young feline kept coming around the back door of L.P.’s house who paid it little mind. But after repeated visits, L.P. finally relented and admitted the stubborn cat. Now named Stella, this affectionate five or six-month-old kitten soon adopted L.P.

L.P. advises that Stella will be taken to the vet for shots/fleas/worms protocols (and eventual spaying) before she eventually takes full command over L.P.’s home.

Lebanon: 20 killed, 450 Injured in Walkie-Talkie Explosions

Lebanese soldiers gather outside a damaged mobile shop in Sidon after what is believed to be the result of a walkie-talkie exploding inside it (18 Sep 2024).

At least 20 people were killed and 450 were injured Wednesday in a new round of explosions in Lebanon, with the latest blasts from remotely detonated walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah militants.

One of the blasts occurred near one of the funerals organized by Iran-backed Hezbollah for three Hezbollah members and a child, who were among the 12 killed on Tuesday when thousands of pagers used by the group exploded across the country, wounding nearly 3,000 people.

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those wounded by an exploding pager, reportedly losing an eye.

Iran’s envoy to the UN said in a letter that Tehran is considering its options.

Iran “reserves its rights under international law to take required measures deemed necessary to respond,” the letter said.

Dr. Tania Baban, a physician in Lebanon working for the US-based medical charity MedGlobal, said her group performed more than 460 surgeries related to the pager blasts on Tuesday, including finger and hand amputations. She said people carrying the pagers heard them beep, supposedly with messages from Hezbollah leaders, and were reading the messages when the devices exploded. Because they held them close to their faces to read, they sustained hand, eye, neck and facial injuries, while others suffered abdominal and other injuries if they still had the pagers attached to their waistlines.

Relatives mourn Fatima Abdallah, a 10-year-old girl killed after hundreds of paging devices exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon, during her funeral in the village of Saraain in the Bekaa valley on 18 Sep 2024.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the situation “extremely worrying,” and said he discussed it in a call with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

“Even if the attacks seem to have been targeted, they had heavy, indiscriminate collateral damages among civilians, including children among the victims,” Borrell said.

A man holds a walkie-talkie device after he removed the battery, in Beirut’s southern suburbs on 18 Sep 2024.

People react around a car after a reported explosion occurred during the funeral of those killed when hundreds of paging devices exploded across Lebanon the previous day, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, 18 Sep 2024.

This massive pre-emptive sabotage will degrade Hezbollah’s ability to counterattack when the IDF invades or strikes Lebanon again. But these two waves of terrorism indiscriminately maimed, wounded, and killed innocent Lebanese civilians, as well as suspected Hezbollah members. These attacks also taxed Lebanon’s already debilitated economy and health care system.

In a recent editorial, the Canadian newspaper The Hill Times called PM Benjamin Netanyahu “the curse of Israel.” Netanyahu was already indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague for war crimes against the Palestinian people and the UN General Assembly recently called for Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territory (see article below).

The “Crime Minister,” as his critics call him, is doing everything possible to provoke Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah into a wider conflict. That would again postpone Netanyahu’s nettlesome on-going bribery and corruption trial in Jerusalem. In the meantime, the Biden Administration is doing everything possible to reach an agreement to free the remaining 100 or so Israeli and American hostages during this presidential election year. But the Likud regime seems to be at cross-purposes with the Biden Administration which is simultaneously supporting Ukraine against the other indicted international war criminal, Vladimir Putin.  

Sources:

20 killed, 450 injured in Lebanon walkie-talkie explosions targeting Hezbollah (voanews.com)

ICC statement on arrest warrants of Israeli and Hamas leaders (bbc.com)

| International Criminal Court (icc-cpi.int)

Netanyahu is Israel’s curse – The Hill Times

UN General Assembly Demands Israel End ‘Unlawful Presence’ in Occupied Palestinian Territory

Result of the 18 Sep UNGA vote on a draft resolution on the ICJ advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The US voted against. Among the abstentions were Canada, Australia, Italy, Germany, the UK, and Ukraine. UN Photo/Evan Schneider

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution that demands that Israel “brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

With a recorded vote of 124 nations in favor, 14 against, and 43 abstentions, the resolution calls for Israel to comply with international law and withdraw its military forces, immediately cease all new settlement activity, evacuate all settlers from occupied land, and dismantle parts of the separation wall it constructed inside the occupied West Bank.

The General Assembly further demanded that Israel return land and other “immovable property”, as well as all assets seized since the occupation began in 1967, and all cultural property and assets taken from Palestinians and Palestinian institutions.

The resolution also demands Israel allow all Palestinians displaced during the occupation to return to their place of origin and make reparation for the damage caused by its occupation.

The resolution stems from the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July, in which the Court declared that Israel’s continued presence in the Territory “is unlawful”, and that “all States are under an obligation not to recognize” the decades-long occupation.

Sources:

UN General Assembly demands Israel end ‘unlawful presence’ in Occupied Palestinian Territory | UN Newsn2426648.pdf (un.org)

Justice Department Disrupts Worldwide Botnet Used by Chinese State-Sponsored Hackers

The Justice Department disrupted a botnet consisting of more than 200,000 consumer devices in the US and worldwide. The botnet devices were infected by People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored hackers working for Integrity Technology Group, a company based in Beijing, and known to the private sector as “Flax Typhoon.”

The FBI investigation revealed that a publicly-traded, China-based company is openly selling its customers the ability to hack into and control thousands of consumer devices worldwide.

The botnet malware infected numerous types of consumer devices, including small-office/home-office (SOHO) routers, internet protocol (IP) cameras, digital video recorders (DVRs), and network-attached storage (NAS) devices. The malware connected these thousands of infected devices into a botnet, controlled by Integrity Technology Group, which was used to conduct malicious cyber activity disguised as routine internet traffic from the infected consumer devices. The court-authorized operation took control of the hackers’ computer infrastructure and, among other steps, sent disabling commands through that infrastructure to the malware on the infected devices

An attempt to interfere with the FBI’s remediation efforts through a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing the FBI’s disruption of the botnet.

The FBI continues to investigate Integrity Technology Group’s and Flax Typhoon’s computer intrusion activities. These efforts would not have been successful without the collaboration of partners, including French authorities, and Lumen Technologies’ threat intelligence group, Black Lotus Labs, which first identified and described this botnet, which it named Raptor Train, in July 2023.

If you believe you have a compromised computer or device, please visit the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) or report online to CISA. You may also contact your local FBI field office directly.

Sources:

redacted_24-mj-1484_signed_search_and_seizure_warrant_for_disclosure.pdf (justice.gov)

Office of Public Affairs | Court-Authorized Operation Disrupts Worldwide Botnet Used by People’s Republic of China State-Sponsored Hackers | United States Department of Justice

‘Everything Is Fine and There Are 92 Days Left’: Twin Russian Conscripts Killed Near Belgoro

Twenty-year-old Konstantin (R) and Dmitry Reshka (L) were conscripted in Nov 2023, but the twin brothers had no intention of serving for longer than the required year.

In August, Russian conscripts Konstantin and Dmitry Reshka — 20-year-old twin brothers — died on the border with Ukraine near Belgorod. In their native village of Karpovka in the Siberian Omsk region, friends and family are raising money for their funeral.

Their relatives still do not know the exact date of their death and have not been allowed to identify them. They were informed about the brothers’ deaths in early September, before the plane with their bodies arrived at the military unit in the Omsk region.

The unit commander, who had previously promised to take them “to a safe place,” has stopped responding to the twins’ mother’s messages.

In the Siberian village of 1,000 residents, Kostya and Dima Reshek were known in every yard. Their older sister, Yulia, recalls that they managed to make friends in a matter of minutes wherever they went. Neighbors confirm her words.

“Always respectful, greeted others when they met, and whoever asked, they helped everyone. No one in the whole village will say a bad word about them,” neighbor Mikhail Shananin said. “From an early age, they learned the harsh village life. From an early age, they became independent and earned money.”

“The guys were very calm by nature. And friendly, always together. Very hard-working, reliable. They helped everyone who asked them for help. Very responsible. Hobbies, like all young people — music, phones. They worked at the grapeseed plant and were going to return there after the army,” Olga Khristich said.

The Reshka brothers’ platoon (undated photo)

See article below on Vladimir Putin’s attempts at eliminating draft dodging while he sends more Russian youths into a meat-grinder.  

Source:

‘Everything Is Fine And There Are 92 Days Left’: Twin Russian Conscripts Killed Near Belgorod (rferl.org)

Los Angeles County Investigating Dengue Fever Cases

Photo courtesy of the CDC

Los Angeles County health officials are investigating a cluster of locally acquired dengue fever cases in the city of Baldwin Park. They urge all residents to use EPA-registered insect repellent, eliminate standing water around homes and ensure window and door screens are in good condition.

Dengue is a virus that is spread to people via misquotes and is common in tropical and subtropical parts of the world. According to health officials, it can cause flu-like symptoms with severe cases potentially causing shock, severe bleeding and severe organ impairment requiring immediate medical attention.

Federal health officials with the US Center for Disease Control and Prevent issued a health advisory in late June notifying healthcare providers and public health authorities of an increased risk of dengue virus this year. Global incidence of the disease is soaring. There have been higher-than-normal case numbers reported this year worldwide, while countries in the Americas reported a record-breaking number of dengue cases during the first half of the year at 9.3 million cases, more than double the number throughout all of 2023.

According to the CDC, there have been 3,277 locally acquired dengue cases this year in the US, but the vast majority were detected in Puerto Rico, where public health authorities declared an outbreak in March. Aside from California, only Florida has detected cases on the mainland. The CDC said the Sunshine State had 27 dengue patients this year.

There were 1,462 locally acquired cases for all of last year: two in California, one in Texas, 189 in Florida and the majority in Puerto Rico.

Sources:

Public Health Investigating Unprecedented Cluster of Locally Acquired Dengue Cases (govdelivery.com)

Los Angeles County investigating new locally acquired dengue fever cases – UPI.com

Russia Test-Launches Military Summons Website

A man outside military enlistment office in Moscow. Photo: Alexander Avilov / Moskva News Agency

Russia has begun testing a website for its new digital military draft system, which could prevent men from leaving the country ahead of a planned call-up later this fall.

Last year, President Vladimir Putin signed a law prohibiting draftees from leaving the country once they receive electronic call-up papers. Under the new system, a draft notice is considered received as soon as it appears on the website, and individuals are responsible for checking their own names on the dedicated online portal.

The introduction of the new system was widely seen as an attempt to crack down on draft dodging, as previous call-up papers had to be delivered in person and were therefore easily ignored. The new website was initially scheduled for launch in three regions on Sunday, but the rollout was delayed without explanation.

The independent broadcaster TV Rain reported that the website was now live. According to information provided on the website, the system is currently being tested in the Ryazan and Sakhalin regions, as well as the republic of Mari El.

The website also notes that “citizens subject to military service are prohibited from leaving Russia from the date on which the summons is placed in the registry.”

Additionally, men of military age who fail to report for service within 20 days after receiving a summons online will face restrictions, including bans on driving, applying for loans, and registering a business.

The military draft website is scheduled for a nationwide launch on 1 Nov, according to a decree issued by the Russian government earlier this year. Putin ordered the creation of a unified military draft database in 2022 following the “partial” mobilization of some 300,000 reservists that exposed inefficiencies in military recruitment and led to a large-scale exodus of Russians.

The Kremlin maintains it does not plan another mobilization drive. However, amid a manpower shortage in Ukraine, Putin expanded the age range for compulsory military service to 18-30 starting this year.

Source:

Russia Test-Launches Military Summons Website – The Moscow Times

American Warzone: Three Family Members Found Shot to Death in Vermont Home

A man, his wife and her 13-year-old son were found shot to death at their Vermont home. Authorities are looking for a suspect.

Officers responded to a report of a “suspicious person.” The investigation led them to a home in the town of Pawlet, where they found the three victims dead.

State police identified the victims as Brian Crossman Sr., (46), who was a Pawlet government official; his wife, Erica Crossman (41); and her son Colin Taft (13).Brian Crossman was shot in the head and torso, Erica Crossman was shot in the head, and her son had multiple gunshot wounds.

No one is in custody in connection with the homicides. Pawlet, a town of about 1,400 people, is located in western Vermont on the New York state line.

In an average year, 78 people die by guns in Vermont. In 2021, Vermont recorded 9,451 firearms licenses and an estimated 50.5% of Vermont adults have guns in their homes.

In the US, 44,341 people die by guns in an average year, a rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people.

Sources:

Family members found shot to death at their Vermont home in triple homicide: Police – ABC News (go.com)

EveryStat – EveryStat.org

48. Vermont – Gun map: Ownership by state – statistics and rates (cbsnews.com)

Canada To Further Cut International Student, Foreign Worker Permits

Canada announced it was slashing international student permits next year, and tightening foreign worker rules to further bring down the number of temporary residents in the country.

The move comes after several recent rounds of restrictions aimed at taming record immigration levels that pushed Canada’s population past 41 million earlier this year.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has pointed to the high immigration as straining the country’s housing sector, jobs market, and social services.

“It is a privilege to come to Canada. It is not a right,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller told a news conference.

In 2025, Ottawa plans to issue 437,000 study permits to international students, down from 485,000 this year and more than 500,000 in 2023.

It is also putting new limits on work permits for spouses of some international students and foreign workers. And it will be stepping up checks before issuing travel visas to stem a spike in fraudulent or rejected asylum claims. Ottawa has already said it would reduce the number of temporary residents to five percent of the population, down from 6.8 percent in April.

Demographically, Canada will need young people in the future as it faces an aging issue. Increasing life expectancy coupled with slower population growth means seniors will comprise a greater share of Canada’s population. The share of the population over 65 is projected to grow from about 18 per cent to nearly 26 per cent over the next five decades or so. The proportion of working age Canadians will also decline as the boomers retire. As reported in a previous post, Canadians are also emigrating to the US in larger numbers.

Canada will likely experience a declining labor force participation rate in the coming decades. Combined with slower growth of the working-age population, this means a slower growing labor force, hurting economic growth.

This move may be a short-term solution with federal elections scheduled for October 2025 and the potential that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may face a no-confidence vote in Parliament.

Sources:

Canada To Further Cut International Student, Foreign Worker Permits | IBTimes

Our aging population—a serious problem for Canada | Fraser Institute

Rare Canada Lynx Captured on Video in Vermont

A Canada lynx was spotted in Vermont for the first time since 2018 in a video recorded on 17 Aug in Rutland County.

“Canada lynx are endangered in Vermont and threatened nationally,” Brehan Furfey, wildlife biologist and furbearer project leader with Vermont Fish and Wildlife, said in a statement. “That makes any verifiable lynx sighting in our state important. This newest sighting is especially exciting because the cat was spotted in Rutland County, far south of most confirmed lynx reports in Vermont.”

Rutland County, where the lynx was captured on video, is not a suitable habitat for large snowshoe hare, or by extension, lynx. Rutland County does have, however, plenty of well-connected wild landscapes that allow wildlife to move between different habitats.

Furfey suspects the lynx was a male moving through the region looking to establish its own territory, a behavior called “dispersing.” Dispersing lynx can cover a lot of ground quickly and it’s possible the lynx is no longer in Vermont, according to Vermont Fish and Wildlife.

Source:

https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2024/08/23/canada-lynx-seen-rutland-county-vermont-endangered-large-cat/74903474007/

Pagers Rigged with Explosives Kill Nine, Wounds 2,800 in Lebanon; Israel Blamed

A victim is carried on a stretcher outside American University of Beirut Medical Center as people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded and killed when pagers exploded across Lebanon on 17 Sep 2024.

At least nine people were killed and more than 2,800 others wounded, overwhelming Lebanon’s hospitals, when pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded Tuesday. No one has claimed responsibility for this terrorist attack, but the people of Lebanon are blaming Israel. Many of the injuries were described as gruesome and some victims lost their eyes.

Lebanese press reports said the pagers were relatively new and were part of an order of 5,000 given to Hezbollah operatives in the past few months. They had been using pagers to communicate as Israeli intelligence is able to track and record cellphones.

Hsu Ching-Kuang, founder of Taiwan-based manufacturer Gold Apollo, told reporters Wednesday his company did not manufacture the pagers, but rather authorized its brand to be used on devices produced and sold by a company called BAC in Budapest. Two or three ounces of explosives were secreted into each device which exploded simultaneously across Lebanon at approximately 3:30PM.

Iran state media reported the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those wounded by an exploding pager. Lebanon’s Hezbollah issued a statement Tuesday blaming the blasts on Israel, which has not officially commented. At least two Hezbollah members were reported dead as well as a child.

The Lebanese government condemned the attack as “criminal Israeli aggression.” Beirut is a recipient of US military assistance and its security services may request forensic assistance from Washington to determine the culprits of this attack. Lebanon also enjoys close economic and political ties with France whom they can also ask for investigative help.

If Israeli intelligence was responsible, this was a monumental counterintelligence and political blow against Lebanese Hezbollah, which also served to demonstrate Israel’s espionage capabilities. And this was also an innovative method of conducting Extra-Judicial Killings (XJK) across international borders which Israeli can deny perpetrating. If ISIS, al-Qaida, the FARC, or the IRA conducted this attack, the world would condemn it as terrorism.

Lebanese Hezbollah said it would continue its fight against Israel in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and that Israel should await “harsh punishment.”

US forces in Iraq should be prepared for reprisal attacks from Iran’s Shia proxies. Western commercial ships in the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden may see attacks from the Shia Houthis, who have become allies with Tehran and Lebanese Hezbollah. After the Sunni Saudi blockade created a catastrophic famine for Shia Yemenis, the Houthis accepted Iran’s aid and have since become proxies for Tehran.

Sources:

Pagers rigged with explosives kill 9, wound 2,800 in Lebanon (voanews.com)

BBC NEWS | Middle East | French nearly fired at Israelis

Russia Claims to Kill ‘Ukrainian Agent’ Plotting Assassination of Defense Executive

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said that its agents killed a suspected Ukrainian military intelligence officer allegedly plotting to assassinate a Russian defense industry executive.

The FSB identified the man as a Russian citizen born in 1984, accusing him of illegal trafficking explosives and claiming he was working on behalf of Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence agency.

According to Russian law enforcement authorities, the man was instructed by “his handlers” to create an improvised explosive device (IED), which was to be used as a car bomb targeting a defense executive in the Sverdlovsk region, a major hub for Russian defense manufacturing.

FSB agents reportedly killed the man during a gunfight as he attempted to place the IED in a cache. “While being apprehended, he offered armed resistance and was neutralized by return fire,” the FSB said in a statement.

Footage released by state news agencies showed the body of a man in a wooded area holding a handgun, along with images of what the FSB claimed were the explosive device components found in a garage.

The FSB did not identify the alleged target of the assassination plot, describing him only as a “senior employee of a defense company.”

There was no immediate response from Kiev about Russia’s allegations.

IEDs have killed high-value target (HVT) Russians during the war. The daughter of ultra-nationalist Putin-ally Alexander Dugin was killed in a bomb attack in August 2022 and in May 2023, pro-war blogger Zakhar Prilepin was seriously injured in an attack.

Sources:

Russia Claims to Kill ‘Ukrainian Agent’ Plotting Assassination of Defense Executive

Russian military intelligence officer injured in Moscow car bomb attack, Kommersant says | Reuters‘

Car bomb attack’ investigated in Moscow – amid conflicting reports military officer was target | World News | Sky News

Impeachment Proceedings Against France’s Macron Pass First Hurdle

The pomp and spectacle of the Paris Olympiad are over as reality returns for President Macron in this undated image. (AP – Thomas Padilla)

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) has accused President Macron of denying democracy in refusing to name a prime minister from one of their ranks. The procedure to impeach him got over the first hurdle on Tuesday but it’s highly unlikely the president will fall. LFI has accused Macron of carrying out an “anti-democratic coup” after he ruled out choosing its pick for prime minister, naming veteran conservative politician Michel Barnier instead.

A petition, signed by more than 300,000 people, refers to Macron’s “unprecedented authoritarian drift … in the system of representative democracy.”

Impeachment proceedings have never gone this far before. Ten years ago, a proposal tabled by the right against then Socialist president François Hollande didn’t get beyond the committee stage.However, there is little chance of Macron being forced to step down. Under Article 68 of the Constitution, the motion now has to be examined by the assembly’s Law Committee, before being put to a wider vote by MPs. The text must be approved by two-thirds of MPs – 385 out of 577.

Mathematically that’s highly unlikely as Macron can count on his centrist Ensemble (Together) coalition and the mainstream right Republicans to vote against.

Outgoing prime minister Gabriel Attal has described the motion as “a declaration of war on our institutions.” The far-right National Rally (RN) and its allies – with 143 MPs – will not vote in favour either. RN leader Marine Le Pen has termed the motion a “sinister comedy” and accused the left of spreading “disorder and chaos.” The Socialists have also announced they will not vote to impeach Macron.

Should it pass the MP hurdle, it will then go to the Senate, where Ensemble and the Republicans hold a majority.

Tuesday’s vote is, however, a strong symbolic victory for the leftist alliance.

“It’s an opportunity to put Emmanuel Macron’s early departure on the public agenda,” said LFI MP Clemence Guetté, while fellow MP Antoine Léaument hailed a “parliamentary riposte”.

The New Popular Front (NFP) has called for nationwide demonstrations on Saturday “to depose Macron”.

Source:

Impeachment proceedings against France’s Macron pass first hurdle (rfi.fr)

Canada: Justin Trudeau Under Pressure as Liberal Party Loses Montreal By-Election

Louis-Philippe Sauvé celebrated with his Bloc Québécois supporters after his win in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun. Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

Canada’s ruling Liberal party has lost a once-safe seat in Montreal, a result that is likely to put more pressure on the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to quit.

Elections Canada said that with 100% of the votes counted in the parliamentary constituency of LaSalle-Émard-Verdun, the separatist Bloc Québécois candidate, Louis-Philippe Sauvé, had beaten the Liberal candidate, Laura Palestini, by a whisker: 28% to 27.2%. The New Democratic party (NDP) candidate received 26.1%.

The election, which was held to replace a Liberal legislator who resigned, will put more focus on the political future of Trudeau, who has become increasingly unpopular after almost nine years in office.

Trudeau insists he will lead the party into an election that must be held by the end of October 2025, but some Liberal legislators have broken ranks to call for change at the top.

Alexandra Mendès, a Liberal MP who represents a Québec constituency, said last week that many of her constituents wanted Trudeau to go.

In the 2021 general election, the Liberal party won the Montreal seat with 43% of the vote, ahead of the Bloc Québécois on 22% and the NDP on 19%.

Polls now suggest that the Liberals will lose badly in the next federal election to the right-of-centre Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre. A Leger poll last week put public support for the Conservatives at 45%, a level rarely seen nationally in Canada, with the Liberals in second place at 25%.

Trudeau’s popularity has sagged as voters struggle with a surge in the cost of living and a housing crisis.

Poilievre has promised to do away with a federal carbon tax that he claims is making life unaffordable and last week vowed to cap immigration limits until more homes could be built.

Liberals concede the polls look grim but say they will redouble efforts to portray Poilievre as a supporter of the “Make America Great Again” movement led by the former US president Donald Trump.

Poilievre, an acerbic career politician who often insults his opponents, also says he would defund the CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster. In April he was ejected from the House of Commons after he called Trudeau “a wacko”.

Source:

Justin Trudeau under pressure as his party loses Montreal election | Canada | The Guardian

Portugal Wildfire Deaths Rise to Seven After Firefighters Trapped in Blaze

A woman next to her home in Covelo, Gondomar, northern Portugal. Photograph: José Coelho/EPA

Seven people have been killed and more than 50 injured in wildfires ravaging central and northern Portugal after three firefighters died when their vehicle was trapped in flames.

Portugal’s civil protection service said 54 wildfires were burning nationwide, mainly in the north, with 5,300 firefighters mobilised. France, Greece, Italy, and Spain sent eight water-bombing planes through the EU’s mutual assistance mechanism.

More than 1,000 firefighters battled to control four separate blazes near the towns of Nelas and Aveiro, south of Porto, with TV footage showing residents frantically pouring buckets of water on rapidly advancing flames. In Aveiro alone, the blazes have consumed more than 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of forest and scrubland in the last two days, roughly the same area that has been burnt by fires so far this year across the country.

The national civil protection commander said the three firefighters – two women and a man – had been killed near Nelas. Four people, including a man retrieving tools from his shed, were reported dead.

Three firefighters died in Nelas, southeast of Porto, on Tuesday. Photograph: Pedro Nunes/Reuters

The fires forced the closure of two railway lines and several motorways, including part of the main road between Lisbon and Porto and could consume a further 20,000 hectares.

The weather conditions on Monday brought the highest risk of fire in northern Portugal since 2001, experts said. After a wet start to the year Portugal and Spain have recorded fewer wildfires than last year, but temperatures were above 30C across Portugal over the weekend amid exceptionally low humidity and strong winds, which have fanned the flames.

The government increased fire-prevention funding ten-fold and doubled its firefighting budget after deadly blazes in 2017 claimed 64 lives.

Scientists have said human-caused climate breakdown is supercharging extreme weather across the world, driving more frequent and more deadly disasters, from floods – as seen this week in central Europe – to heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.

Human-caused climate breakdown is making heatwaves more likely and more intense, such as the extreme heatwave in western Canada and the US in 2021.

Source:

Portugal wildfire deaths rise to seven after firefighters trapped in blaze | Portugal | The Guardian

UK MoD: Russia Suffered Over 610,000 Casualties in Ukraine

(Undated photo: Vladimir Smirnov / TASS)

Russia has likely suffered over 610,000 causalities, killed or wounded, since the beginning of its full-scale invasion, according to the UK Defence Ministry’s latest intelligence update.

Russian officials said that in 2023, the defence ministry was recruiting at a rate of 1,600 daily. However, publicly cited figures this year put the rate at around 1,000 daily.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, claims that the total number of Ukrainian and Russian servicemen killed or wounded since the start of Russian aggression has reached one million.

The WSJ, citing confidential data dating back to earlier this year from sources familiar with the matter, wrote that “the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed stands at 80,000 and the number of wounded at 400,000.”

“Western intelligence estimates of Russian casualties vary, with some putting the number of dead as high as nearly 200,000 and wounded at around 400,000,” the newspaper reported.

The Financial Times, citing a senior Ukrainian military intelligence official, reports that Russian forces have committed 38,000 personnel to fight in Kursk region, including assault brigades redeployed from southern Ukraine.

Russian forces recently recaptured territory in the Ukrainian salient, advancing northern Obukhovka, southeast of Korenevo.

Ukrainian and Russian forces continued to advance in Glushkovsky district amid continued fighting in the area.

Russian troops march during the Victory Day military parade in Red Square in Moscow, 9 May 2024.  Photo: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters. President Putin recently ordered to boost the size of the army by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million

Source:

Russia has likely suffered over 610,000 causalities in Ukraine, says UK MoD | Euronews

Washington State Man Sentenced on Felony and Misdemeanor Charges for Actions During 6 Jan Capitol Attack

Benjamin John Silva (37) of Yacolt, WA, was sentenced to four months in prison, 24 months of supervised release to include four months of home incarceration, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.

Silva pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder on 5 Apr 2024.

Silva was identified on 6 Jan 2021, at approximately 2:49 p.m., near an entrance to the Capitol building on the Lower West Terrace, often referred to as the Tunnel. Some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement on January 6th occurred at the Tunnel. Inside the Tunnel, Silva made his way to the front of a crowd of rioters confronting an established police line.

During the melee, Silva distracted a police officer while a seditionist behind him sprayed the line of officers with a chemical irritant. When police lines held, some attackers began leaving the Tunnel. But Silva fought to stay in and to pressed forward in a concerted effort with other rioters doing the same. Defeated, Silva made his way out of the Tunnel at about 3:07 PM but remained in the area outside the Tunnel for several minutes afterward.

The FBI arrested Silva on 25 July 2023, in Oregon.

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.

US Military Aid Packages to Ukraine Shrink Amid Concerns Over Pentagon Stockpiles

Photo: USAF

US military aid packages for Ukraine have been smaller in recent months, as the stockpiles of weapons and equipment that the Pentagon is willing to send Kiev from its own inventory have dwindled. The shift comes amid concerns about US military readiness being impacted as US arms manufacturers play catchup to the huge demand created by the war against Russia.

The shortage means the Biden administration still has $6 billion in funds available to arm and equip Ukraine, but the Pentagon lacks the inventory it is willing to deliver.

The US is ramping up production of key items, such as 155 mm ammunition and Patriot missile systems, both to supply Ukraine and to refill US inventories. But it is a yearslong process that won’t quickly meet the surging demand.

Before the war in Ukraine, the US produced approximately 15,000 155 mm artillery shells each month. With new factories and production lines opening, the US is now producing 40,000 shells a month. But it will still take more than a year for the Pentagon to hit its goal of 100,000 shells each month.

Ukraine is feeling the impact of the inventory shortages, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. During a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany this month, Zelensky told the US and other allies that deliveries of promised air defense systems were moving too slowly and warned of a “significant” shortfall in vital aid.

The US is still trying to announce a new aid package roughly every two weeks which Ukraine is “supportive of because they believe getting new packages every two weeks is a morale boost.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has vowed to continue providing military support to Ukraine and announced a new $250 million aid package at the meeting in Germany this month. Austin acknowledged that the US is working to ramp up production and “speed up deliveries” to Ukraine.

“Time is of the essence, especially with winter on its way,” Austin said. “And we must all step up our support — and quickly.”

The US is simultaneously sending military aid to Israel. And as noted in a previous post, North Korea and Iran are assisting Russia with their supply shortfalls during this 2 ½ year war.

Source:

US military aid packages to Ukraine shrink amid concerns over Pentagon stockpiles | CNN Politics

The Lancet: Superbug Crisis Could Get Worse, Killing Nearly 40 Million People by 2050

This illustration of a bacteriophage shows its tripod-like form that mimics a tiny robot. These microscopic creatures have saved the lives of patients dying from superbug infections and are being used in clinical trials as a potential solution to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance. In the US alone, more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur each year. SCIEPRO/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

Cumulatively, from 2025 to 2050, the world could see more than 39 million deaths that are directly attributable to antimicrobial resistance or AMR, according to the Lancet.

Antimicrobial resistance happens when pathogens like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to evade the medications used to kill them.

The World Health Organization has called AMR “one of the top global public health and development threats,” driven by the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medications in humans, animals and plants, which can help pathogens develop a resistance to them.

The new study reveals that when it comes to the prevalence of AMR and its effects, “we expect it to get worse,” said lead author Dr. Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

“We need appropriate attention on new antibiotics and antibiotic stewardship so that we can address what is really quite a large problem,” he said.

Sources:

Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance 1990–2021: a systematic analysis with forecasts to 2050 – The Lancet

Nearly 40 million people could die from antibiotic-resistant superbug infections by 2050, new study estimates | CNN

Birth of Spectacled Bear Brings Joy to Farming Community in Peru

A spectacled bear was born in a rescue center built by a Peruvian farming community that has protected these animals for more than two decades.

The bear cub, which does not yet have a name, was discovered after park rangers in the community of Santa Catalina de Chongoyape, in northern Peru, noticed that a female bear named Lola did not leave.

Born in mid July, the little bear is the second birth after a female was born six years ago in a fenced area of several hectares where food and care are provided to ailing bears.

The farming community manages an ecological reserve where spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus) and other animals such as the white-winged guan (Penelope albipennis) are not hunted and can find a safe habitat for their lives in its carob trees and other types of flora.

The spectacled bear is a vulnerable species, according to the Red List of Threatened Species released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. They are the only bear species in South America with potentially as few as 2,500 mature individuals remaining.

Source:

The birth of a spectacled bear brings joy to a farming community in Peru | AP News

Ukraine Intelligence Chief: North Korean Aid to Russia Poses Biggest Threat to Kiev

North Korea has recently bolstered military ties with Russia, with President Vladimir Putin making a rare visit to Pyongyang in Jun 2024, where he signed a mutual defense agreement with Kim Jong-Un.

North Korean military aid to Russia is the most damaging for Ukraine, intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on 14 Sep. “Our biggest problem from all these allies of Russia is from North Korea. Because with the volume of military products that they supply, they actually affect the intensity of the fighting.” His remarks came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to deepen ties with Russia. Kyiv has been monitoring arms deliveries from Pyongyang to Moscow and feels their effect on the battlefield. “There is a direct correlation. They are supplying huge volumes of artillery ammunition, which is critical,” Budanov said.

Western powers have accused cash-strapped North Korea of selling ammunition to Russia in defiance of sanctions over the more than 30-month war in Ukraine.

North Korean state media showed leader Kim Jong Un (R) meeting with Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu (L) at an undisclosed location (Image: AFP)

Russian security chief Sergei Shoigu held talks with Kim Jong-Un this weekend at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Experts suspect it was the Kumsusan Guest Palace in Pyongyang, which has hosted both Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Shoigu heads Russia’s Security Council after stepping down as defence minister in May. He last met with Kim in July 2023, during a celebration in Pyongyang for the 70th anniversary of the 1953 Korean War armistice. Their latest meeting comes two days after North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into waters east of the Korean peninsula. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the testing spree was possibly of weapons meant “for export to Russia.”

Using debris analysis, a recent Conflict Armament Research report indicated “that missiles produced this year in North Korea are being used in Ukraine.”

An Ilyushin IL-76 transport aircraft belonging to North Korean air carrier Air Koryo takes off from Beijing airport after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un left Beijing, China, on 20 Jun. Photo by Wu Hong/EPA

Observers of North Korea detected increased air travel between the two pariah states after the Jun 2024 meeting between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un. Five North Korean flights flew to Vladivostok, a trip unusually involving cargo planes.

Three cargo planes and two passenger flights of the North Korean national carrier Air Koryo traveled to Russia’s far-eastern port city. The trip involved three unusual cargo flights of the model used to transport personal armored vehicles of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his overseas trips, including his visit to China in June. The IL-76 cargo aircraft hasn’t made a trip to Vladivostok since 2010 and the cargo is unknown.

Two passenger flights make regular round-trips between Pyongyang and Vladivostok on Monday and Friday. And extra passenger flights were spotted flying during weekdays. One report cited an anonymous source saying the extra cargo flights were sent to bring back North Korean workers in the Russian city as their work permit expires soon.

As posted here on Coriolanus.page, North Korea recently released images of its uranium enrichment facility for the first time, and Kim stressed “the need to further augment the number of centrifuges in order to exponentially increase the nuclear weapons for self-defense”.

Russia, a historical ally of North Korea, is one of a handful of nations with which Pyongyang maintains friendly relations. Ties have warmed since the 2022 start of the Ukraine war ruptured Russia’s relations with the West.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million, as Moscow’s brutal invasion of Ukraine drags on for more than 2 ½ years.

Sources:

North Korean Aid To Russia Poses Biggest Threat To Ukraine, Intelligence Chief Says (rferl.org)

North Korean cargo flights fly to Russia in unusual trip – UPI.com

N. Korea Pledges Deeper Ties With Russia As Security Chief Visits | IBTimes

Putin orders military to boost troop numbers by 180,000 to 1.5 million as Ukraine fighting continues – ABC News (go.com)

IDF: ‘High Probability’ Three Hostages Mistakenly Killed in Airstrike in Nov 2023

People hold cut outs of yellow ribbons at a protest calling for a hostage deal outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem after six hostage bodies were recovered by the IDF from a tunnel in Rafah in Gaza, on 1 Sep. File photo by Debbie Hill/ UPI | License Photo

Israel’s military on Sunday concluded in an investigation there is “high probability” three Israeli hostages were killed during an airstrike in Nov 2023 intended to take out a Hamas northern Gaza brigade chief. The IDF informed the families last week that a comprehensive inquiry revealed they died by IDF actions. IDF officials and hostage families started to leak the results of the investigation.

On 14 Dec, three bodies were recovered from a tunnel in Jabaliya. The tunnel included a large elevator, large rooms, and split into side rooms, such as command centers, medical stations, prayer rooms, and rooms for manufacturing weapons. The three were abducted on 7 Oct.

Evidence included where bodies were found and their condition; a pathological report and one by the state’s forensic institute; and operations research into the battlefield situation and activities. Initially, the families were initially told the hostages had been killed by Hamas captors. In January, the IDF rejected Hamas’ assertions that they were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

In a video released by Hamas, the three hostages were seen holding up pieces of paper with their names and personal information. In a statement posted alongside the video, Hamas claimed that “they tried to keep them alive – but Netanyahu insisted on killing them.”

The airstrike on 10 Nov was intended to take out Ahmed Ghandour, who was taking cover in a tunnel.

“At the time of the strike, the IDF did not have information about the presence of hostages in the targeted compound,” the military said. “Furthermore, there was information suggesting that they were located elsewhere, and thus the area was not designated as one with suspected presence of hostages.”

In December, the IDF revealed finding five hostage bodies, three of whom were the ones later confirmed likely killed by IDF. In the same month, the Israeli military said its troops killed three hostages in Gaza after mistakenly identifying them as a threat.

Six to seven thousand Palestinians were being held in detention for alleged security violations, the majority who have never been convicted of a crime. 2,000 of the incarcerated Palestinians are being held in administrative detention, in which the Israeli military holds a person without charge or trial. Such detention can be renewed indefinitely based on secret information, which the detainee is not allowed to see. Administrative detainees are held on the presumption that they might commit an offense at some point in the future. Israeli authorities have held children, human rights defenders, Palestinian political activists, and healthcare workers, in administrative detention, often for prolonged periods.

Palestinian armed groups conducted a surprise attack on Israel on 7 Oct 2023 and seized hundreds of valuable Israeli hostages presumably for a prisoner swap. An estimated 101 Israelis remain hostage. Keeping them alive gives Palestinians a bargaining chip to release some of the thousands being held in Israeli prisons.

Sources:

Israel’s military: ‘High probability’ 3 hostages mistakenly killed in airstrike in November – UPI.com

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2023/12/15/IDF-Gaza-hostages-remains/6761702640286/

Dozens killed, injured in Gaza humanitarian zone as Israeli warplanes target Hamas

Hundreds of thousands march across Israel to demand return of hostages

Why Does Israel Have So Many Palestinians in Detention and Available to Swap? | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)

Donald Trump Unharmed After Assassination Attempt at Florida Golf Resort

This screengrab taken from AFPTV on 16 Sep 2024 shows Ryan Wesley Routh speaking during an interview at a rally calling for humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and Ukrainian servicemen from Mariupol in central Kiev, Ukraine, on 27 Apr 2022.

Former US President Donald Trump was unharmed late Sunday, after what the FBI said was an apparent assassination attempt at his golf club in West Palm Beach, FL. The incident, in which Trump was not hurt, came two months after he was grazed in the ear during a campaign event in Butler, PA.

Members of Trump’s security detail were securing areas of the golf course ahead of where Trump was playing Sunday when they spotted a gunman in the bushes. Secret Service agents fired at the suspect, who fled the area and was later arrested.

The local sheriff said the suspect left behind an “AK-47-style rifle” with a scope, a GoPro camera and two backpacks.

US President Joe Biden said in a Sunday evening statement that he was relieved Trump was unharmed. Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “deeply disturbed by the possible assassination attempt of former President Trump.”

Various national media sources cited unnamed law enforcement officials who identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh (58) of Hawaii. Social media posts show Routh backing Trump’s 2020 election campaign, but more recent posts expressing support for Biden and Harris. Routh also repeatedly discussed the war in Ukraine and appeared to try to recruit soldiers to aid in Ukraine’s war effort.

Trump has not announced any changes to his schedule and is set to speak live on X on Monday night from his Mar-a-Lago resort to launch his sons’ crypto platform.

Meanwhile, the leaders of a congressional bipartisan task force investigating the 13 Jul assassination attempt on Trump said they have requested a briefing by the USSS. The previous director the USSS resigned after the 13 Jul assassination attempt in Butler, PA, and several agents from the Pittsburgh Field Office were re-assigned.

Source:

Trump unharmed after second assassination attempt, authorities say (voanews.com)

Canada and Australia Sanction Iran

An Iranian walks next to a wall painting of Iran’s national flag at a street in Tehran, Iran, on 2 Jun 2022. Canada on Sunday expanded its list of Iranian government officials who are not admissible to the country. File Photo by Abedin Tahereknareh/EPA-EFE

Canada and Australia are banning more Iranian officials over the Middle Eastern country’s involvement in human rights violations and alleged terrorism on the second anniversary of the jailing and death of Mahsa Jina Amini. The 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman was arrested in Sep 2022 for ‘improperly’ wearing her hijab.

In Nov 2022 Public Safety Canada designated Iran as a terrorist regime under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Iranians who have served as senior officials since 15 Nov have been barred from entering the North American country. Canada changed the inadmissibility date to 23 Jun 2003 — the day when Iranian authorities detained Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. She was detained while working as a journalist outside Iran’s infamous Evin prison. She was reportedly beaten and died from her injuries on 10 Jul 2003.

Any senior official who served in the Iranian government at any time since 23 June 2003, is now inadmissible to Canada. The move also opens those with temporary or permanent resident status to undefined “enforcement action” that could include removal from the country. Accord to statistics from the Canada Border Services Agency, some 17,800 applications were reviewed under the inadmissible rule as of 26 Aug, resulting in 82 visas cancelled.

Fifteen people were also reported inadmissible under the rule, with two issued deportation orders, adding that another person was removed from the country and five cases were pending. Canada’s Iranian diaspora community has a population of more than 200,000, according to government statistics.

Australia is also imposing more sanctions on Iranian officials on the second anniversary of the jailing and death of Mahsa Jina Amini. The 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman was arrested in September 2022 for ‘improperly’ wearing her hijab.

Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said that Australia stood in solidarity “with Iranian women and girls in their struggle for equality and empowerment.”

Wong announced financial sanctions and travel bans on senior security and law enforcement officials who have allegedly been involved in the ‘violent repression’ of protests in Iran. Female activists continue to be detained and handed death sentences. She said that abuses by Iranian authorities have continued since the death of Amini two years ago.

“We have sanctioned five Iranian security and law enforcement officials who have been involved in these law enforcement so-called activities, which are ultimately a repression – a violent repression – of the Iranian people,” Wong said.

Australia has now imposed sanctions on almost 200 individuals and organizations with links to Iran, including those associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Sources:

Canada expands entry ban on Iranian officials – UPI.com

Australia imposes more sanctions on Iran over human rights concerns (bignewsnetwork.com)

Zimbabwe Orders Cull of 200 Elephants Amid Food Shortages from Drought

Elephants and giraffes near a watering hole in Zimbabwe which is home to an estimated 100,000 elephants – the second-biggest population in the world after Botswana. Photograph: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters

Zimbabwe will cull 200 elephants as it faces an unprecedented drought that has led to food shortages, a move that tackle a ballooning population of the animals, the country’s wildlife authority has said. Zimbabwe had “more elephants than it needed”, the environment minister said in parliament, adding that the government had instructed the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) to begin the culling process.

The 200 elephants would be hunted in areas where they had clashed with humans, including Hwange, home of Zimbabwe’s largest natural reserve. Due to conservation efforts, Hwange is home to 65,000 of the animals, more than four times its capacity, according to ZimParks. Zimbabwe last culled elephants in 1988.

Neighbouring Namibia said this month that it had already killed 160 wildlife animals in a planned cull of more than 700, including 83 elephants, to cope with its worst drought in decades.

Zimbabwe and Namibia are among a swathe of countries in southern Africa that have declared a state of emergency because of drought. About 42% of Zimbabweans live in poverty, according to UN estimates, and authorities say about six million will require food assistance during the November to March lean season, when food is scarcest.

The move to hunt the elephants for food was criticized by some, not least because the animals are a major draw for tourists. Namibia’s cull of elephants has been condemned by conservationists and the animal rights group Peta as shortsighted, cruel and ineffective.

But the government said the 83 to be culled would be only a small fraction of the estimated 20,000 elephants in the arid country, and would relieve pressure on grazing and water supplies.

Source:

Zimbabwe orders cull of 200 elephants amid food shortages from drought | Zimbabwe | The Guardian

281 Inmates Escape After Floods Bring Down Prison’s Walls in Northeast Nigeria

Nigeria Prison Escape© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Nigerian authorities said 281 inmates escaped after devastating floods brought down a prison’s walls in the country’s northeast. Security personnel were able to recapture seven of the inmates and an operation is still ongoing to locate the rest.

A major dam collapsed on 10 Sep, unleashing severe flooding that left 30 people dead and over one million people displaced, prompting evacuations across the state of Borno.

Map: Researchgate.net

The collapse caused some of the state’s worst flooding since the same dam collapsed 30 years ago. The state government said the dam was at capacity due to unusually high rains. Two years ago, heavy flooding in Nigeria killed more than 600 people across the country. West Africa has experienced some of the heaviest flooding in decades this year, affecting over 2.3 million people, a threefold increase from 2023, according to the UN.

This summer Africa experienced two other prison breaks. Thirteen inmates escaped a police station in Nairobi, Kenya, including a suspect who police say confessed to the murders of 42 women and was being detained over the discovery of dismembered bodies.

An attempted jailbreak in Congo’s main prison left 129 people dead, including some who were shot and others who died in a stampede at the overcrowded facility. A provisional assessment showed that 24 inmates were fatally shot by “warning” shots fired by guards as they tried to escape from the Makala Central Prison in the capital of Kinshasa. There were 59 injuries including some cases of rape.

The main prison holds both male and female inmates and it was not known if all 129 fatalities were inmates. Also, it wasn’t immediately clear how the stampede occurred as details of the jailbreak remained sparse. Makala, Congo’s largest penitentiary with a capacity for 1,500 people, holds over 12,000 inmates, most of whom are awaiting trial, Amnesty International said in its latest country report.

Sources:

281 inmates escape after floods brought down prison’s walls in northeast Nigeria – ABC News (go.com)

Mass Prison Break Includes Man Who Confessed to Killing 42 Women – Newsweek

Jailbreak attempt at Congo prison kills 129 people as chaos erupts with a stampede and gunshots (nbcnews.com)

Over 30 Killed in Mexico Cartel Stronghold After Sinaloa Leaders Detained in US

A Mexican Army soldier stands guard after an armed attack against a business selling new and pre-owned cars in Culiacan, Sinaloa State, Mexico, on 12 Sep 2024. The US issued a security alert because of “reports of car thefts, gunfire, security forces operations, roadblocks, burning vehicles, and closed roadways” in the vicinity.

Eleven more people have been killed in a wave of violence in a Mexican cartel heartland shaken by gang infighting. The latest fatalities included five men whose bodies were found on a highway south of the city of Culiacan.

More than 30 people have been reported dead in a week of bloodshed in Sinaloa, although authorities did not specify how many were believed to be linked to the cartel infighting.

The clashes follow the dramatic arrest on US soil on 25 July of Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who claimed he had been kidnapped in Mexico and delivered into US custody against his will. Zambada pleaded not guilty last week in New York in a drug trafficking case that accuses him of engaging in murder plots and ordering torture.

Zambada (76) was detained along with Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of El Chapo, who is serving a life sentence in the US. The violence is believed to pit gang members loyal to El Chapo and his sons against others aligned with Zambada, who pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges in a New York court.

Schools were closed Thursday and Friday due to the violence and the governor said Sunday’s Independence Day festivities had been canceled.

In an unexpected twist, last month Mexican prosecutors said they were bringing charges against Guzmán for apparently kidnapping Zambada — but it also cited another charge under an article of Mexico’s criminal code that defines what he did as treason.

Nowhere in the statement does it mention that the younger Guzmán was a member of the Chapitos — “little Chapos” — faction of the Sinaloa cartel, made up of Chapo’s sons, that smuggles millions of doses of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the US, causing about 70,000 overdose deaths each year. According to a 2023 indictment by the US Justice Department, the Chapitos and their cartel associates used corkscrews, electrocution, and hot chiles to torture their rivals while some of their victims were “fed dead or alive to tigers.”

El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel’s founder, is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related offenses. Last year, El Chapo sent an “SOS” message to Mexico’s president, alleging that he has been subjected to “psychological torment” in prison.

This year Mexico elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. Vladimir Putin was invited to attend the 1 Oct inauguration in Mexico City.

Source:

Over 30 killed in Mexico cartel stronghold as violence rages after Sinaloa leaders detained in U.S. – CBS News

A Cat Named Drifter is Safe After Being Trapped in Sewer for Nearly Eight Weeks

A cat aptly named Drifter is safe at home after sneaking outside and getting trapped in a sewer for nearly eight weeks.

The 3-year-old tabby — an indoor feline who had aspirations of being an outdoor cat — went missing from the home of Clifton Nesseth and Ashley Comstock in the northeastern Minnesota city of Duluth on 18 Jul. His owners presume that he went to check out the construction underway in their neighborhood at some point.

The family, including their 12-year-old daughter, April Dressel, hung up posters and searched across the city without luck. They were beginning to plan a small memorial service for Drifter on Tuesday when neighbor kids came over and said they heard meowing coming from a storm drain at the construction site. The family also heard him meowing as they started digging through the dirt and cutting through the landscape fabric.

“A little paw shot out of a tear in the fabric,” Nesseth said. “It was a tabby cat paw. We tore the fabric more and then his head popped through.”

A neighbor, Dahlia Boberg (16) captured the reunion on video.

“Drifter!” Nesseth is seen exclaiming as he lifts the cat high, while neighbors who are gathered around laugh with delight and amazement. “He’s been under there the whole time! He’s really skinny.”

Source:

A cat named Drifter is safe after sneaking out and getting trapped in a sewer for nearly 8 weeks | AP News

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. coli, Shigella, 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)