Undated social media image of Dallas Humber.
Dallas Humber (34) of Elk Grove, CA and Matthew Allison (37) of Boise, ID, leaders of the Terrorgram Collective transnational terrorist group, were charged with a 15-count indictment for soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials, and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The FBI arrested Humber and Allison.
The indictment alleges that the defendants spread videos and publications called “The Hard Reset,” “White Terror,” and “The List,” and solicited group members to carry out attacks against “racial enemies” and on crucial infrastructure. The following incidents attacks were inspired or guided by Terrorgram:
- An individual shot three people (killing two) outside of an LGBT bar in Slovakia (Oct 2022);
- An individual who planned an attack on energy facilities in New Jersey (July 2024);
- An individual who stabbed five people near a mosque in Turkey (Aug 2024).
The defendants also allegedly produced several videos and instructional manuals on how to construct and detonate a “dirty bomb” (an explosive device with radioactive materials) to “fumigate the cities” of minority groups.
Terrorgram is the white supremacist version of the Islamic State (IS), motivating and inspiring “useful idiots” to murder and attack innocent people, as well as cause carnage and chaos.
If convicted of all charges, Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison each face a maximum penalty of 220 years in prison. These two young miscreants caused innocent people to be hurt or killed while throwing away their own lives over hatred.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Sources:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1366641/dl?inline
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/terrorgram-collective-federal-charges-white-supremacists-california/
IDF Missile Strike on Gaza Humanitarian Area Kills and Wounds Dozens; Israel Pressing Congress for Help Against South Africa at ICJ
Plumes of smoke rise above the tents of displaced Palestinians following an Israeli military strike on the al-Mawasi camp for internally displaced people, near the city of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, on 13 July. Israel said warplanes struck a Hamas compound within the Khan Yunis humanitarian zone early Tuesday. File Photo by Saber Arar/UPI | License Photo
Israel’s military conducted a missile strike of early Tuesday that targeted a humanitarian area in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians. The Mawasi coastal community area is home to many Palestinians displaced after the IDF devastated the wider Gaza Strip after 7 Oct 2023. The Palestinian news agency WAFA said dozens had been killed and wounded, without providing precise casualty figures. It described five missiles striking the area, cratering the ground.
The IDF described the strike as hitting “significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center,” without immediately providing additional evidence.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reports over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced approximately 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Meanwhile, the IDF halted a UN convoy for more than eight hours on Monday who were trying to work on a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza and Gaza City. “The convoy was stopped at gun point just after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint with threats to detain UN staff,” a UN official posted on the social platform X. “Heavy damage was caused by bulldozers to the UN armored vehicles.”
The convoy later returned to a UN base but it was unclear if the polio vaccination campaign resumed Tuesday in northern Gaza.
Discreetly and audaciously during this unprecedented IDF carnage against the Palestinians, Israel is reportedly lobbying members of the US Congress to press South Africa to drop its legal proceedings in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over alleged war crimes in Gaza. Israeli officials want members of Congress to make clear to South Africa that there will be consequences for continuing to pursue the legal case. The official filing is linked below.
Last December, South Africa filed a case at the ICJ accusing Israel of violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention, alleging Israel’s actions “are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part” of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Israel has rejected the accusations.
Israeli diplomats were instructed to ask members of Congress and Jewish organizations in the US to reach out directly to South African diplomats in the US and make clear South Africa would pay a heavy price if it doesn’t change its policy. But the US wants to maintain a positive relationship with South Africa in order to counter the influence of Russia and China.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already been indicted by the ICC for alleged war crimes and now he has exposed Israel to international legal jeopardy at the ICJ. The UN General Assembly convenes in NYC within a matter of weeks.
Sources:
Israel asks Congress to press South Africa to drop ICJ genocide case (axios.com)
https://www.un.org/en/high-level-week-2024
Two More Russian Ex-Convicts Recruited by Wagner Mercenary Group Sentenced for Murders
Freeze frame image of sociopathic Wagnerites in Syria using a sledgehammer to execute Mohammed Taha Ismail Al-Abdullah (31) who reportedly deserted Bashar al-Assad’s government army (Summer 2017).
On 9 Sep a court in Siberia sentenced Andrei Ashcheulov to eight years in prison for shooting a man to death for questioning his parking. He was serving an 18-year prison term for leading a criminal gang when he was recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine in 2023. Ashcheulov was pardoned after he returned from the war.
On the same day, a different court sentenced Sergei Kozlov (36) to 19 years prison for killing his pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend in October 2023. He was also ordered to pay 12 million rubles ($11,060) to the victim’s family. Before Wagner recruited him from prison in 2022, Kozlov was serving a 6 ½ year term for attacking a woman and her daughter with an ax.
In July, the Agentstvo Telegram channel reported that as of 4 Oct 2023, 27 people had been killed in 20 incidents by former military personnel who returned home from the war in Ukraine; 12 of the registered deadly incidents involved former Wagner mercenaries.
Courts in Russia tend to hand mitigated sentences to such felons, citing their “patriotism” and “contributions” they made to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Wagner’s late leader and founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in late June 2023 that 32,000 former inmates recruited by his group from prison had returned home after being granted clemency as part of their remuneration for fighting in Ukraine.
Mercenaries from the Wagner Group have been accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine, including decapitating captured Ukrainian servicemen. On top of fighting professional soldiers and unwilling conscripts, the Ukrainian army must also deal with homicidal sadists and maniacs on the battlefield.
Sources:
Two More Ex-Cons Recruited By Wagner Mercenary Group Sentenced For Murders (rferl.org)
In Omsk, a soldier who killed an 18-year-old pregnant woman was sentenced to 19 years (sibreal.org)
Wagner Group Accused of Beheading Ukrainian Servicemen – Newsweek
The Latest Protests in Cuba Are About Thirst: Over 600,000 People Live Without Drinking Water
Cubans lining up to get drinking water in Pinar del Río province, Cuba, in Oct 2022. Ramon Espinosa (AP)
The water crisis in Cuba is not new, but the country’s overall deterioration, the impossibility of adequate pipeline maintenance, and the shortage of fuel have clearly exacerbated the problem. The water management sector is the second largest consumer of electricity in the country. Cuban authorities have acknowledged that more than 600,000 people suffer from a lack of water. In Havana alone some 130,000 clients are affected by the water shortage, and that there are several provinces in the interior of the country with thousands of clients without service.
Breakdowns of pumping equipment, constant power outages, and water leaks are blamed. At the end of 2023, there were approximately 2,000 of these water leaks in Havana that remained unrepaired “for days and months.”
The constant complaints about the poor maintenance of the water management system and the proliferation of sewage in the Cuban capital are also blamed on the poor work of Aguas de La Habana, the company in charge of the water, sewage, and sanitation services. There are very few people who want to work for the state company today because of low wages.
Last year, the president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH) said that 478 population centers had a total or partial lack of water supply; that some 2.7 million people received water every three or more days, and that some 475,000 Cubans received water via tanker trucks. Although the government has tried to solve the water problem by sending tankers, they often cannot be transported due to the shortage of fuel or tires. An entire informal market has also been created. Cubans who can afford to pay up to 8,000 pesos ($25) can access water from these tanker trucks.
Source:
New Tick-Borne Virus Discovered in China Can Affect Brain
A newly described virus is carried by the tick species pictured above which can spread to humans through bites. (Image credit: Bramborica, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
A new tick-borne virus discovered in China can spread to humans and can cause neurological disease. The germ, dubbed Wetland virus (WELV), was first detected in a hospital patient who was treated in the city of Jinzhou in June 2019, according to a recent report in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The 61-year-old experienced fever, headache, and vomiting approximately five days after visiting a park in a large wetland in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of northern China. He told doctors he’d been bitten by ticks at the park. Antibiotics didn’t ease the man’s symptoms, indicating that the infection wasn’t caused by bacteria.
An analysis of DNA and RNA in the man’s blood revealed a never-before-seen orthonairovirus — a group of related viruses that includes several carried by ticks. Other examples of these viruses include the one behind Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a rare and deadly illness that can spread to humans via tick bites or through exposure to infected people’s bodily fluids.
Related: Tick season: What to know about bites, removing ticks and tick-borne diseases
WELV had not previously been seen in animals or humans. After uncovering the virus in the hospital patient’s blood, the researchers went looking for it in ticks and animals in northern China, including in the wetland park the man had visited.
They collected nearly 14,600 ticks and grouped them by location and species for analysis. Roughly 2% of the ticks tested positive for WELV genetic material. Five tick species could harbor the virus, but proportionally, ticks in the species Haemaphysalis concinna tested positive most often. The virus was also detected in a small percentage of the sheep, horses, and pigs the researchers examined, as well as in a handful of rodents called Transbaikal zokor (Myospalax psilurus).
Sources:
New tick-borne virus discovered in China can affect the brain, scientists report | Live Science
Mountain Lion Loose in Northern California Community
The mountain lion was initially spotted on Auburn Folsom Road and Eagles Nest, the Auburn Police Department said before posting screenshots of surveillance footage of the cougar. The Department of Fish and Wildlife was notified and residents who encounter the cat should call 911 or Fish and Wildlife officials at 916-358-2917.
Mountain lion sightings have grown in prominence since a deadly attack on two brothers last spring near Georgetown in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Facebook pages have been created to report mountain lion sightings in California. This sighting came nearly three weeks after a mountain lion was spotted in downtown Vacaville on 17 Aug.
Experts say mountain lions rarely attack people and they often try to avoid human interaction. The attack last spring was the state’s fourth that resulted in a death of the 21 known attacks since records started being kept in 1986.
Two isolated mountain lion populations in southern California’s Santa Ana and Santa Monica Mountains are at risk of local extinction, perhaps as soon as within 50 years, according to a study published in the journal Ecological Applications.
The study showed the extinction risk is due to low genetic diversity and mortality that affects the stability of the population. Mountain lion mortality is often caused by humans, but can also result from changes in the environment, such as wildfire and fluctuations in prey density.
Sources:
Mountain lion spotted in Auburn, according to police | Fresno Bee
US Army Brigadier General: Trump is ‘Cacophonous Buffoon’ Who Will ‘Weaken Our National Security’
Retired US Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson (Official US Army portrait)
Retired Brigadier General Steve Anderson shredded Donald Trump as a danger to American national security on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House.” He and several other senior military officials signed a letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, which was released last week.
“[Trump’s] going to weaken our national security in the most profound ways,” Anderson said. “I mean, first of all, all of our allies think that he is really a cacophonous buffoon. And whenever I travel overseas, people are always saying, what is going on with America? You can’t seriously be looking at bringing Donald Trump back into office.”
BG Anderson said that he’s forced to tell international audiences that there are 50 million-plus people who have bought into Trump’s “con.”
The retired US Army general urged Americans to “step up” and “understand what’s going on.”
Someone important who does understand is Mary Trump, a psychologist and Donald Trump’s niece. She reports that her uncle’s mental condition is declining and that he is now “demonstrably untethered from reality.” She addressed the former president’s cognition after his rambling, incoherent answer to a question about childcare. Asked last week at the Economic Club of New York what legislation he would advance to make childcare more affordable, Trump blathered on incomprehensibly for almost two minutes.
“It’s deeply disturbing that somebody as unhinged and incoherent as Donald Trump is allowed to run for the presidency in the first place (and that leaves aside all of the other disqualifying things about him),” Mary Trump wrote, lamenting a lack of urgency from the media “in the face of Donald’s increasingly bizarre behavior.”
“Surely a political press corps that spent months arguing that President Biden’s age rendered him mentally unfit, wouldn’t look the other way when the Republican candidate, the oldest person to run for president in American history, is not only old but decompensating before our very eyes. The difference of course is that Biden is aging while Donald is dementing.”
Sources:
‘Cacophonous buffoon’ Trump will ‘weaken our national security’: Brigadier general – Raw Story
Scores Killed in Vietnam by Asia’s Most Powerful Storm of 2024
Aerial imagery of damaged buildings and debris on a street after Typhoon Yagi hit Ha Long, in Quang Ninh province. (8 Sep 2024; Nhac Nguyen / AFP)
Nearly 60 people were killed in Vietnam as the region’s most powerful storm of the year swept across the north of the country.
Typhoon Yagi made landfall on Vietnam’s north coast on Saturday, battering Quang Ninh and Hai Phong with winds of up to 149 kilometers per hour (92 mph) and injuring 247 people. More than 8,000 homes were damaged by winds which tore down power and telecommunications lines; waves as high as 13 feet sank 25 boats and swept away fish farms. Torrential rainfall – as much as 16 inches in some provinces – destroyed more than 120,000 hectares (297,000 acres) of rice and other crops.
Scientists say extreme weather, fueled by rising temperatures, will have an increasing impact on this region in coming years, warning of more intense and unpredictable storms in a warming world.
In the US, Louisiana is bracing for Tropical Storm Francine which is predicted to make landfall this week as a Category II hurricane.
Sources:
Scores killed by Asia’s most powerful storm of the year — Radio Free Asia (rfa.org)
Tropical Storm Francine strengthens, expected to hit Louisiana | AP News
Beachgoers Rescue Kitten Hiding Under Snow-Covered Rocks in Milwaukee, WI
Kitten here >
If you look carefully to the right, you can see her little face. (Phoro: Urban Cat Coalition)
As soon as Karen Hendrickson heard about the stray kitten hiding amongst the rocks at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee, WI, she knew she had to rescue her. It was cold and stormy, and the waves of Lake Michigan were crashing against the rocks, not far from where the kitten had taken refuge.
“It was freezing out there,” Hendrickson, a volunteer at the Urban Cat Coalition said. “The waves were really starting to crash in …. and if she would have gotten wet, I don’t think she would have made it.”
But catching this kitten — a tortoiseshell who was about 5 months old — wasn’t easy. “I was thinking, ‘Well, it’s a kitten and they like to play,’” she said. “I didn’t have any toys on me, but I took the shoe string out of my boots and started playing with her under the rocks. I also had a bit of deli ham with me and I started feeding her a little bit of it.”
Slowly but surely, Hendrickson gained the kitten’s trust. When the kitten ventured out from her rock shelter, Hendrickson managed to grab her and took her to the vet. Despite having lived out in the cold for several weeks, the kitten was in relatively good health, although she had to be treated for fleas and worms. She also got a name — Ruby.
Photo of Ruby (Urban Cat Coalition)
Since her adoption, Ruby has changed into a playful, confident kitten. “She just loves attention. Ruby comes running over and she’s very talkative.” The kitten now happily lives with a new owner and feline brother to boss around.
Sources:
Urban Cat Coalition
Beachgoers Notice A Tiny Face Hiding Under The Snow-Covered Rocks – The Dodo
Coriolanus 