warcrimes

NASA Monitoring Solar Activity With Closest Probe to Sun Ever Launched

This NASA image shows an artist’s rendering of the Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. The probe made history on Tuesday, flying closer to the sun than any other spacecraft, with its heat shield exposed to scorching temperatures topping 930 degrees Celsius (1,700 degrees Fahrenheit).. (Credit: Johns Hopkins APL / NASA)

Christmas began with a bang. At 0449 UT on 25 Dec active sunspot 3932 produced a strong M4.9-class solar flare. NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash above.

Soon after the flare, the USAF reported a Type II solar radio burst. This is a natural type of radio emission caused by shock waves inside CMEs. The drift rate of the Type II radio burst suggests that a CME will soon emerge from the blast site traveling a little faster than 1,000 km/s.”

The sun’s 11-year cycle:

During the sun’s year of highest activity in its 11-year cycle, flares and coronal emissions bombard the earth with an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP). On 1-2 Sep 1859, a massive solar flare spewed electrified gas and subatomic particles toward Earth, wreaking havoc on telegraph networks which became known as the “Carrington Event” (and the most intense solar storm in recorded history).

During this 1859 geo-magnetic solar cyclone, people reported “the sky was on fire.”

A massive EMP from the sun– another “Carrington Event”– would have catastrophic effects on the world’s satellites, communications networks, and energy grids and hence NASA’s close monitoring of our life-giving sun.

Sources:

https://spaceweather.com/

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-cycles/en/

https://www.history.com/news/a-perfect-solar-superstorm-the-1859-carrington-event

“Gaza: Life in a Death Trap” (Doctors Without Borders Report)

Palestinian children wounded in Israeli strikes attend a hospital in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on 12 Oct 2024. (Photo: Hatem Ali / AP)

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has joined Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) by publishing a 33-page report condemning the “apocalyptic” conditions in Gaza caused by the IDF (AKA the Nakba).

“Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has witnessed 14 months of repeated attacks on civilians, the dismantling of essential civilian infrastructure including healthcare facilities, and a systematic denial of humanitarian assistance, seemingly underpinning Israel’s campaign to unravel the very fabric of society in Gaza.”

Israel’s pogrom has killed at least 45,361 Palestinians and wounded 107,803 since 7 Oct 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed and 250 taken captive during the Palestinian armed group’s raid to seize hostages in order to effectuate a prisoner swap with the IDF. Thousands of Palestinians had been held in security detention without hearing or trial prior to the 7 Oct 2023 operation.

Below are locations where MSF has been trying to mitigate the effects of the Nakba on Palestinians.

Holocaust survivors and descendants of Holocaust survivors protesting against the Gaza genocide on 13 April 2024 in London. (Photo: Social media)

Full report linked here:

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/sites/default/files/documents/MSF_REPORT_Gaza%20Life%20in%20a%20death%20trap%20Report_20241229.pdf

Russia Sentences US Citizen After Closed-Door Spy Trial

Accused espionage mastermind Eugene Spector trying to make heads or tails of a document in a Russian cell. The resemblance to 007 Agent James Bond is uncanny. (Photo: AFP)

A  Russian court has sentenced US citizen Eugene Spector to 15 years in a penal colony for “espionage” amid accusations by several Western governments that Moscow is convicting foreign nationals to use as bargaining chips in prisoner swaps.

Spector was sentenced on 24 Dec by the Moscow City Court after a trial that was held behind closed doors. Little is known about the charges the former pharmaceuticals executive faced as the court claimed classified materials during the trial warranted it being closed to the public.

Moscow has also been accused of targeting US citizens by detaining them on trumped-up charges to later use as bargaining chips in talks to bring back Russians convicted of crimes in the US and other Western nations.

At least ten AMCITs remain behind bars in Russia even after a prisoner swap on 1 Aug involving 16 people that Moscow agreed to free in exchange for eight Russians convicted of crimes and serving prison terms in the US and Europe.

(Clockwise from upper left) Ksenia Karelina, Michael Leake, Gordon Black, Eugene Spector, Marc Fogel, and Robert Woodland are living under “torturous conditions” in Russian prisons.

Meanwhile, Uzbeki citizen Ahmadjon Qurbonov (29) has been charged by a Moscow court with terrorism and other offenses in the 17 Dec killing of General Igor Kirillov, who headed Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Forces.

Uzbekistan citizen Ahmadjon Qurbonov languishing in a Russian jail. (Photo: AFP)

Russian investigators alleged Qurbonov was recruited and trained by Ukrainian intelligence services to carry out the attack.

There has been no official claim of responsibility, but Ukraine’s security service SBU has said it was behind the killing.

Kiev had accused Kirillov of being responsible for Russia’s use of banned chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops, a claim Moscow denies. Uzbekis residing in Russia now fear a backlash after General Kirilov’s assassination. These fears are well-founded as the Russian security services have been press-ganging darker-skinned migrants and Central Asian Muslims into the Russian Army to be used as cannon fodder.

Eugene Spector and the other imprisoned AMCITs, as well as Ahmadjon Qurbonov, must endure horrific conditions until another prisoner swap with the Kremlin can be effectuated. The Ukrainian intelligence services must demonstrate loyalty to their foreign operatives like this poor Uzbeki above lest they suffer recruitment problems in the future.

Maybe one day ICC-convicted war criminals Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu will share a prison cell in the Hague.

Sources:

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-sentences-us-citizen-spector-spy-trial/33251282.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-political-prisoners-remain-swap-putin/33061252.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/uzbekistan-police-monitor-family-of-suspect-in-kirillov-assassination/33250024.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/uzbeks-moscow-ukraine-assassination-general/33245647.html

North Korean Soldiers Getting Mulched for Vladimir Putin

The face of this North Korean soldier (Nork) killed in Russia’s Kursk region was blurred. Ukrainian special forces conducted BDA and recovered his diary. (Photo: East2West)

Ukrainian special forces recovered the diary of Jeong Kyung-hong (27), a fallen North Korean soldier. His last entry was to his comrade Song Ji Myung [or Yong] and reads:

“I, having left my homeland, on unfamiliar Russian land, send birthday congratulations to my friend Song Ji-myung (Yong).

I wish you health.

December 9, 2024 – Jeong Kyung-hong.”

The diary of Jeong Kyung-hong who died for Russia was recovered, with an entry wishing his friend a happy birthday. (Photo: East2West)

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said “the number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people. Russia is simply disposing of them in assaults. Why the Koreans should fight for Putin is a question that no normal person on Earth can answer.”

POV footage showing kamikaze Ukrainian drones swooping down onto North Korean soldiers was recently released by the Ukrainian army. The Norks are seen scrambling and running for their lives as the drones methodically pick them off.

At least 77 North Koreans were killed and 40 wounded in the past three days.

In a potential sign of escalation, the Pukguksong-2 ballistic missile system may be on a weapons train sent from North Korea to Russia (Credit: NK News)

Two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, enjoying their bromance and a laugh in Pyongyang, NK this past June 2024 while their people suffer incalculable grief, misery, starvation, oppression, and death. (Photo: KCNA/Reuters)

Source:

https://www.the-sun.com/news/13155797/last-diary-entry-north-korean-soldier-russia/

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/20/europe/putin-kim-north-korea-limousine-intl/index.html

GAO: Half of US Navy’s Amphibious Ships in Dire Condition

The LHD-class amphibious assault ship USS Bataan in a dry dock slip at Norfolk, Va., during a regularly scheduled maintenance period on 18 Nov. (USN photo by Mass Communication Spec. 2nd Class Bradley Rickard.)

The readiness of the USN fleet of 32 amphibious warfare ships, which are deemed crucial in quickly projecting US power around the world, is in dire shape, according to a scathing report issued this month by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The rapid deployment force used by the USMC to quickly reach and come ashore in global hot spots is so compromised by a backlog of maintenance that fully half of its ships were in poor operating condition as of March 2024.

The GAO reported that only two of the USN’s seven LHD amphibious assault vessels were in satisfactory material condition.

US Marines of the 15th MEU “bear crawl” during a USMC Black Bet Martial Arts course aboard the USS Pearl Harbor, an LSD-class “small deck” amphibious vessel, on 25 Dec 2017. (USMC Photo: CPL F. Cordoba).

Bunks for Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children (USMC) aboard USN ships.

No doubt Beijing has already digested this GAO report and will be monitoring USN readiness of its amphibious fleet with its “thousand grains of sand” approach to intelligence collection.

Besides an outright military invasion of Taiwan, Beijing can blockade the island republic with its much larger navy, cut its underseas cables, and quarantine Taipei into submission.

Sources:

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-25-106728.pdf

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/12/23/navy-amphibious-ships-poor-condition-GAO/8871734631881/

Nigeria: Government Responds to Lassa Fever Outbreak

Nigeria has a population of 236,747,130 people; GDP per capita in 2023: $5,700. (Map: who.int; Data: CIA)

The Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to coordinate multi-sectoral response to the ongoing outbreak of Lassa fever.

Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) caused by the Lassa virus. The natural reservoir for the virus is the multimammate rat also known as the African rat, even though other rodents can also act as carriers of the virus.

Nigerian health experts conferring in Abuja. (Photo: Fred Ezeh)

Lassa fever initially presents like other common illnesses accompanied by a fever, such as malaria. Other symptoms include headache, general body weakness, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pains, chest pain, sore throat, and, in severe cases, bleeding from ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and other body openings.

The NCDC reported that Lassa fever has claimed 401 lives between 2023 and 2024 (13 Oct):

“In 2023, 28 states and 114 LGAs reported confirmed cases, with 9,155 suspected cases, 1,270 confirmed cases, and 227 deaths. As of 13 Oct 2024, 8,569 suspected cases, 1,035 confirmed cases, and 174 deaths have been reported across 28 states and 129 LGAs.

NCDC statement: “Sadly, we have continued to see a steady increase in the number of states reporting Lassa fever cases, attributing it to improved surveillance, better community awareness, environmental degradation from climate change, and other harmful human activities.”

The cute culprit: the Multimammate rat. (Credit: inaturalist.org)

The US CDC suspects that that a traveler returning from western Africa to Iowa succumbed from Lassa fever this year, but that the risk to the general American public is extremely low.

Sources:

NCDC activates emergency operation center for Lassa fever

Lassa Fever: 1,154 confirmed cases, 190 deaths, and 9,492 suspected nationwide recorded in 2024 – NCDC  – Nairametrics

CIA

Lassa Fever – Nigeria

Lassa Fever Suspected in Death of U.S. Traveler Returning from West Africa | CDC Newsroom

Pakistani Airstrikes on Afghanistan Kill 46 People

Bombardment by Pakistani military aircraft in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province killed at least 46 people, most of whom were children and women, the Afghan Taliban said, adding it would retaliate.

Six people were also injured in the bombing at four locations in Afghanistan, deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said.

Pakistani government and military officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Afghanistan’s foreign office said it had summoned Pakistan’s head of mission in Kabul to deliver a formal protest note to Islamabad on the bombing by Pakistani military aircraft, warning the diplomat of consequences of such actions.

“Afghanistan considers this brutal act a blatant violation of all international principles and an obvious act of aggression,” Enayatullah Khowrazmi, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said in a statement. “The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered.”

A Pakistani official with knowledge of the matter said the airstrikes were against a camp of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) Islamist militant group.

TTP pledges allegiance to, and gets its name from the Afghan Taliban, but is not directly a part of the group that rules Afghanistan. Its stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, as the Taliban has done in Afghanistan.

A major TTP attack in Pakistan’s South Waziristan area, which borders the location of the alleged camp targeted in Afghanistan, killed 16 Pakistani security personnel on Saturday.

The neighbors have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several TTP attacks that have occurred in its country have been launched from Afghan soil – a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.

Their relationship was complicated in March when the Taliban accused Pakistan of carrying out two airstrikes on its territory, killing five women and children.

Pakistan said at the time it had conducted “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations” in Afghanistan but did not specify the nature of the operations.

“Pakistan has repeatedly urged the Taliban government to take action against the TTP within Afghan territory, but significant cooperation has yet to materialize over the past three years. Pakistani authorities are deeply concerned about the TTP’s operations from Afghanistan, emphasizing the threat it poses to Pakistan’s national security. Most terrorist incidents in Pakistan are attributed to the TTP.”

Recently Taliban cabinet minister Khalil Haqqani was killed in Kabul by ISIS-K. He came from the powerful Haqqani Network (HQN) which is closely linked to Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI.  

Pakistan and Afghanistan will continue undermining each other with proxy fighters and terrorists as both countries have competing interests, all in a mosaic of different ethnic groups and tribes, degrees of religious extremism, and the highly lucrative opium trade.

Sources:

Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan kill 46 people, Taliban official says | CNN

Khalil Haqqani: Taliban minister killed in bombing in Kabul

TTP And ISKP: Unraveling The Complex Web Of Militancy In South Asia – OpEd – Eurasia Review

Mother Raccoon Is Hiding Surprise in This House

Vietnam 63 Years Ago Today: First US Soldier Killed in Ground Combat

James T. “Tom” Davis was sent to the Republic of Vietnam in May 1961 with the US Army Security Agency (ASA) to pinpoint enemy radio transmitters. (Images: Davis family via Mark Raab)

In a tortured experience known as the Vietnam War which would eventually cost American families 58,220 of their brave sons and daughters, the very first US Army Soldier to die in ground combat was Specialist James T. “Tom” Davis 63 years ago today, on 22 Dec 1961.

James T. “Tom” Davis was a Tennessee native like Medal of Honor awardee Alvin Cullum York (immortalized by Gary cooper in the 1941 film Sergeant York),

James Davis enlisted in the US Army after high school, becoming a signals intercept specialist with the Army Security Agency (ASA).

The ASA was formed in 1945 to intercept and monitor enemy and friendly radio communications (AKA SIGINT). The ASA operated covertly in Vietnam as “radio research units.” Coriolanus is proud to write that one of his military instructors in university served with the ASA during the Vietnam War.

Excerpts from Mark Raab’s excellent article:

“The 3rd Radio Research Unit arrived at Tan Son Nhut on 13 May 1961 and was the first entire US Army unit to deploy to Vietnam. The men who got off the plane wore civilian clothes, a reflection of their secretive assignment. Previously, members of the military arrived as individuals and were placed in units after they were in-country. US personnel in Vietnam in May 1961 were assigned to Military Assistance Advisory Group-Vietnam, formed in November 1955. The US had approximately 3,000 military personnel in Vietnam at the time.”

“Tracking a Viet Cong radio signal west of Saigon on 22 Dec 1961, Specialist Davis and a contingent of ten South Vietnamese soldiers headed to meet the enemy. But their vehicle struck a powerful mine, killing nine ARVN soldiers. Specialist Davis pulled his surviving ARVN driver out of the disabled truck and fired upon the attacking Viet Cong guerillas with his carbine. Some 50 feet away from the vehicle, Davis was hit by enemy fire and fell.”

“The Viet Cong, no longer receiving any return fire, rushed to the wounded Davis. They shot the Soldier in the head and rifled through his pockets searching for anything valuable. The guerillas didn’t recover his watch which Davis kept in his breast pocket away from his electronic devices.” But Specialist Davis’ efforts weren’t in vain.

“Using fresh intelligence from the 3rd Radio Research Unit, US and ARVN personnel headed west to attack the Viet Cong at the Thieng Quang pineapple plantation in Operation Chopper on 24 Dec 1961, the first helicopter assault of the Vietnam War and the birth of the Air Cavalry.”

Specialist James “Tom” Davis was buried in his hometown at Livingston’s Good Hope Cemetery on 3 Jan 1962. On 10 Jan, less than three weeks after his death, the ASA officially named the 3rd Radio Research Unit’s Tan Son Nhut compound “Davis Station.”

Historical Footnotes:

Major Dale Buis (L) and Sergeant Chester Ovnand (R) courtesy of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

In 1959, the first American soldiers to die in Vietnam were Major Dale Buis and Sergeant Chester Ovnand when their compound was attacked by Viet Cong guerillas.

The first American personnel to die in Vietnam were two CIA pilots supporting the French military during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954: James McGovern and Wallace Buford.

 

(Undated photo of CIA pilot James Bernard McGovern Jr)

Endnotes:

During the Cold War, Airman John Cash was a SIGINT specialist. As a crack Morse code interceptor, he deciphered Soviet signals for USAF intelligence.

While monitoring the Soviet Morse Code chatter on 5 Mar 1953, Airman Cash became the very first American to hear of the death of the Soviet supreme leader, Joseph Stalin. The “Man in Black” then relayed the important information to his superiors, a secret Johnny Cash wouldn’t reveal for many years and the rest is history.

Sources:

https://www.historynet.com/first-us-soldier-killed-vietnam/

Johnny Cash, the Man in Black, Was a Morse code Intercept Operator during the Cold War

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alvin-Cullum-York

Kiev In Flames After Massive Russian Attack:

“A Tale of Two Cities”

Ukrainian rescuers extinguishing a fire at the site of a 20 Dec Russian missile attack in Kiev. (Photo: Roman Pilipey /AFP via Getty Images)

This undated but highly appropriate photo below was taken in the closed Russian city of Yekaterinburg:

ICC-indicted war criminal Vladimir Putin continued his Nakba against Ukrainians with a massive drone attack against Kiev as winter begins to set in. This is the man that President-elect Donald Trump admires. Casualty counts are still being tabulated.

Ukrainians take shelter in a metro station during the 20 Dec attack on Kiev.

This poor child was heard calling “Mama!” as a woman led her briskly to safety, away from the burning car behind them, following Russian air strikes on Kiev on 20 Dec.

St. Nicholas Church was among the buildings damaged in Kiev.

More than 600 residential buildings in the capital were left without heating as a result of the attacks.

A Ukrainian woman appears shocked, cradling her terrified dog, in the wake of the attack.

A Tale of Two Cities

Just as ICC indicted war criminal Russian President Vladimir Putin is cruelly immiserating the people of Ukraine this winter, so too is similarly indicted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu cruelly immiserating the people of Gaza. Ukrainian lives matter, and so do Palestinian lives.

Do either of these ten-year-old girls below look like terrorists?

The visibly emotional Nadine (10) questioned why she and the people around her were being pitilessly attacked by the IDF. (Photo: Social media)

After losing her eye in an IDF attack, Areej Asaliya (10) said “My life will never be the same again.” But what future would poor Areej have had anyway in the impoverished devastated ghetto of Gaza? (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

One of the major differences between Putin’s Nakba against the Ukrainians and Netanyahu’s pogrom against the Palestinians: Funding.

The hard-working American taxpayer is rightfully funding the defense of one people from suffering while wrongfully funding the suffering of another. Since Feb 2022, the US has allocated $113.4 billion in emergency funding to support Ukraine. Meanwhile, the US committed over $3.3 billion in foreign assistance to Israel in 2022, the most recent year for which data exists. About $8.8 million of that went toward the country’s economy, while 99.7% of the aid went to the IDF. From 1951 to 2022, US aid to Israel totaled $317.9 billion.

Sources:

https://www.rferl.org/a/air-raid-warning-attacks-kyiv-ukraine/33248178.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-strikes-kyiv-ukraine-/33246699.html

https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/gaza-israel-hamas-militant-group-10-year-old-breaks-down-viral-video-7318773/

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-money-has-the-us-given-ukraine-since-russias-invasion/

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/

https://archive.is/Vr1wz

https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/20/russia-ukraine-ballistic-missiles-drones-cyberattack-putin/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-winter-cold-power-1.6661362

Will US Make an Example of Luigi Mangione?

Luigi Mangione escorted by an army of police officers as if he was a nefarious and dangerous super combination of Hannibal Lecter and Osama Bin Laden.

After the murder of Mammonish UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson, a wealthy man who proudly put profits over people, NYPD detectives began the nationwide manhunt for his alleged killer.  After being identified by a fast-food worker in Altoona, PA, Luigi Mangione was arrested and readied for extradition to NYC where he would be prosecuted by Manhattan County District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

On 17 Dec, a Manhattan County Grand Jury indicted Luigi Mangione (full indictment linked below):

Mangione Charged with one count of Murder in the First Degree and two counts of Murder in the Second Degree

But two days later on 19 Dec, the federal government (through the SDNY AUSA) charged Luigi Mangione with a litany of charges that includes death (by lethal injection).

From the official AUSA statement:

“As alleged, Luigi Mangione traveled to New York to stalk and shoot Thompson in broad daylight in front of a Manhattan hotel, all in a grossly misguided attempt to broadcast Mangione’s views across the country.“

Why would the federal government pursue charges when a Manhattan County Grand Jury already indicted Luigi Mangione?

Luigi Mangione’s defense counsel questioned conflicting federal charges she described as “highly unusual.”

“Is there one case? Two cases? Two investigations? Is it a joint investigation?” Karen Friedman Agnifilo asked US Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker. 

“There are a lot of factors here that I think are very confusing, highly unusual,” she added.

Perhaps because the Empire State does not have capital punishment and the federal government may want to make an example of Luigi Mangione.

When you re-read the AUSA statement, the US Attorney admits the USG wants to quash the “grossly misguided” message, as well as the messenger.

Put another way, the American elites simply won’t tolerate attacks on capitalism or the murder of one of their own. Some people have to be made examples of. Uncle Sam has a history of making examples. First, in 1953 two alleged “atom spies” were executed:

In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were the only American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War, a case prosecuted by the notorious Roy Cohn.

The funeral services were held in Brooklyn on 21 Jun 1953. The Rosenbergs were buried at Wellwood Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Pinelawn, NY. The Times reported that 500 people attended and some 10,000 stood outside.

Based on subsequent Russian decryptions, Ethel Rosenberg knew about Julius’ espionage work “but that due to ill health she did not engage in the work herself” and an innocent woman was executed.  

Another example was the infamous federal execution of Timothy McVeigh on 11 Jun 2011. Instead of being imprisoned in a Supermax BOP facility for life with other convicted terrorists and murderers, American society demanded vengeance for the 168 people killed (including 19 children) and 684 injured in the 19 Apr 1995 terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, OK.

Execution chamber, USIP Terre Haute, IN.

Since 1976, sixteen people have been executed under federal jurisdiction by the US government. All were executed by lethal injection at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, IN. According to the US BOP, there are 4,982 prisoners incarcerated for Homicide, Aggravated Assault, and Kidnapping Offenses. Not all federally convicted murderers in prison are executed.

And what is this misguided message the US government wants to extinguish? The dangerous and inconvenient truth that unregulated capitalism, particularly in the health insurance industry, doesn’t work for the poor and suffering masses and that seeking private retribution for these injustices simply won’t be tolerated.

Today, the elites seem to be demanding vengeance– not justice– for killing one of their own or else the Manhattan DA would be trying this open and shut murder case. But since Mangione won’t face the death penalty in a NYS court, the US government intervened, giving itself the option of extracting its pound of flesh from Luigi Mangione. Having said that, Coriolanus strongly suspects that should Luigi Mangione be federally convicted, he will face life behind bars in a remote prison in Colorado.

But America’s wealthy elites and CEOs ought to pay attention to the suffering of the masses which will only increase under the imminent Trump-Musk-Putin regime and Project 2025. Nationwide, health industry executives and politicians have been scrambling to secure their homes with infrared robotic cameras, bulletproof glass, and secret doors to safe rooms. A robust phalanx of sinister-looking bodyguards and a medic have been observed accompanying super-oligarch Elon Musk.

A common and daily scene during the French Revolution.

Sources:

https://manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-announces-murder-indictment-of-luigi-mangione/

https://manhattanda.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mangione-Indictment-FINAL-as-filed.pdf

Luigi Mangione’s attorney takes issue with federal, state charges

https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/luigi-mangione-charged-stalking-and-murder-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-and-use

https://www.justice.gov/d9/2024-12/signed_complaint_mangione.pdf

https://manhattanda.org/

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg – Wikipedia

 Terrified CEOs resort to extreme secret security tactics after Brian Thompson assassination amid copycat fears | Daily Mail Online

US: Avian Flu Advisory

California Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a State of Emergency to streamline and expedite the state’s response to Avian influenza A (H5N1), commonly known as “Bird Flu.” Tests have confirmed H5 avian flu in two cats that died after drinking recalled raw milk and LA county health authorities are investigating three other possible cases in cats that weren’t exposed to raw milk.

The virus has spread in 16 states among dairy cattle, following its first confirmed detection in Texas and Kansas in March 2024.

In Louisiana, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a non-commercial backyard flock (non-poultry) in Bossier Parish.  This is the first case of HPAI in domestic birds in Louisiana during this outbreak, which began in February 2022.

The Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has detected highly pathogenic avian influenza in an Ottawa County flock, following an investigation from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD)

According to an announcement from the department Monday, this is the first detection of the disease in a Michigan poultry flock since the state worked to manage the largest outbreak of the disease in May 2024 and the second in an Ottawa County commercial facility since the disease was first detected in the state in 2022. 

According to the CDC, the public health risk associated with these avian influenza detections in birds remains low.  As a reminder, the proper handling and cooking of all poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 ˚F is recommended as a general food safety precaution.

The avian flu will probably be the Trump administration’s first health challenge. The incoming president gained experience during the COVID pandemic and Americans will see how Trump and his cabinet handle this growing emergency which potentially threatens the economy, people, and cats.   

Sources:

USDA Confirms Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Backyard Non-Poultry Flock in Louisiana | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

CORRECT-ATTESTED.pdf

Governor Newsom takes proactive action to strengthen robust state response to Bird Flu | Governor of California

Highly pathogenic avian influenza detected in Ottawa County, MDARD warns.  • Michigan AdvanceLos Angeles County confirms avian flu in cat deaths as more cases suspected | CIDRAP

Germany: Demented Saudi Refugee Rams Car into Crowd Killing Several and Injuring Hundreds

A nine-year-old child and four adults have been killed after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.

More than 200 people were injured – at least 41 critically – in the attack on Friday evening.

A black BMW SUV ploughed 400 meters through the crowded market in an attack that lasted about three minutes. The suspect has been named in local media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had worked as a doctor.

Taleb al-Abdulmohsen (Social media)

Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said that the investigation was ongoing but suggested the background to the crime “could have been disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany”.

The suspected attacker has no known links to Islamist extremism and he appears to be a “lone actor.” His social media and posts appear to suggest he had been critical of Islam.

A source close to the Saudi government told the BBC it sent four official notifications known as “Notes Verbal” to German authorities, warning them about what they said were “the very extreme views” held by al-Abdulmohsen.

The source, who asked not to be named, said these notifications were ignored.

However, another experienced counter-terrorism expert said the Saudis may be mounting a disinformation campaign to discredit someone who tried to help young Saudi women seek asylum in Germany.

Al-Abdulmohsen is thought to have driven into the market through an entry point which was reserved for emergency vehicles.

The suspect is a psychiatrist who lived in Bernburg, around 40km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg. Originally from Saudi Arabia, al-Abdulmohsen arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee. He ran a website that aimed to help other former Muslims flee persecution in their Gulf homelands.

Friday’s incident is not the first time people at a Christmas market have been attacked in Germany.

In 2016, Anis Amri, a Tunisian man who failed to gain asylum in Germany and had links to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, drove a truck into crowds gathered at a church market in Berlin, killing 12 and injuring 49 others.

Two years later, a gunman opened fire on a Christmas market in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, killing five and injuring another 11 people. The gunman was shot dead by police two days later.

Only last month, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser talked about the need for “greater vigilance” at the highly popular markets but said there were no “concrete” indications of danger.

She also reportedly pointed to tougher laws on weapons in public spaces following a knife attack in Solingen, west Germany, in August in which three people died.

The RW AfD will gain in the snap elections and auslanders (even innocent ones) will be deported from Germany in 2025.

Elon Musk recently tweeted:

“Only the AfD can save Germany.”

AfD Neo-Nazis spent Election Day at Mar a Lago. The tall man on the left is a reputed porn star. (Image: Social media)

All of this terrorism, discord, and xenophobia in the West makes Vladimir Putin’s day. Elon Musk must be ecstatic that his tweet reached an international audience before news of this callous and brutal attack at Christmas revelers in Germany reached most Americans in the US.

Sources:

German Christmas market attack: Nine-year-old among five killed

December 21, 2024 – Coverage of the Germany Christmas market attack | CNN

China: Seven Alleged Spies Arrested in Guam During US Missile Testing

Seven Chinese citizens have been arrested for allegedly attempting to illegally enter Guam, a US territory, while the military was conducting a key missile defense test.

The incident, which occurred on 10-11 Dec 2024, has raised concerns about potential espionage as four of those detained were found “in the vicinity of a military installation,” Guam’s Customs and Quarantine Agency said. The arrests came as the US Missile Defense Agency conducted an interception test involving advanced radar systems at Andersen Air Force Base on 10 Dec 2024.

“Conducting espionage against US military facilities, especially those with missile launch capabilities, could provide the PRC with potentially valuable intelligence,” US think tank Institute for the Study of War said.

The USN destroyer John Paul Jones launches an SM-6 during a live-fire test of the ship’s Aegis weapons system. The Missile Defense Agency’s first flight tests involving its defense of Guam architecture will include the Aegis series. (Photo: US Navy)

The arrested individuals reportedly arrived on the island by boat from Saipan. Guamanian authorities have launched an investigation into the incident, but there has been no immediate response from China’s foreign ministry to the arrests or the allegations.

Chinese intelligence uses the million grains of sand approach to collect information and China’s satellites and radar can efficiently gather telemetric data, so these seven alleged spies were sent to Guam to pick up any scrap of ancillary information about the missile launch, the vessel, photos of crew members, telephone numbers, or any grain of sand that will help create a mosaic of intelligence in Beijing.

Sources:

Seven Chinese nationals tried to illegally enter Guam as US tested missile, authorities say | The Independent

First flight test for Guam missile defense planned for end of 2024

Future White House Press Conferences Under Donald J. Trump

Below are the questions the White House Press Corps should be asking President Trump next year:

“Thank you, Sir, for answering my question about deportations. One follow-up, please. Does President Musk agree with you?”


“Sir! Sir!” How long did it take President Putin to select your Cabinet appointments?”


“Sir! Will President Musk be given Air Force Two?”


“Thank you, Sir! Does President Putin email or call you with his instructions?”


“Mr. President, did you run this idea past Elon Musk? And he OK-ed it?”


“Sir, how long does it President Putin to make decisions impacting US national security? And has his English improved when he gives you directions?”

Golden Retriever Gets Puppy Sibling to Grow Up With

Human Rights Watch (HRW): Israel Using Water as Weapon of War Against Palestinians in Gaza Strip

Palestinians struggling to collect drinkable water in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. (Photo: Hatem Khaled / Reuters)

Calling it an “act of genocide,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that since October 2023 Israeli authorities have deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of clean water required for survival in the Gaza Strip. Full report with graphs and photos linked at bottom.

“If we can’t find drinkable water, we drink the sea water,” a displaced Palestinian father testified to HRW. “It happened to me many times when I had to drink the sea water. You don’t understand how much we are suffering.”

Moreover, for years ecologists have accused Israel of using sewage as a weapon against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to spread disease and misery. See report linked at bottom.

A Gaza residential street is inundated by sewage. (Photo: Rosa Schiano / International Solidarity Movement)

Meanwhile, over the past 24 hours the IDF killed 32 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including children, and at least four in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians mourn over the body of loved ones killed after an IDF strike at Al-Ahli Arab hospital (AKA the Baptist Hospital) in Gaza City. (Photo: Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP)

During this 14-month pogrom, the Gaza Health Ministry reports that a minimum of 45,129 Palestinians have been killed and 107,338 wounded or maimed, including non-combatant women and children. The number of deaths is likely to be far higher as many bodies are believed to remain buried underneath the rubble across the devastated Strip. The IDF claims that 17,000 of the deceased were militants. The retribution ratio for the 7 Oct 2023 raid that killed 1,200 Israelis is 40:1. The 250 innocent Israelis were seized to conduct a prisoner swap for any number of the thousands of Palestinians being held incommunicado without trial or hearing in security detention by the IDF. See full report linked at bottom.

This week Amnesty International projected “End Gaza Genocide” on the EU HQ building in 24 languages similar to this:

In a report released earlier this month, Amnesty International concluded that Israel’s devastating war on Gaza meets the legal threshold for genocide. Apologists for the brutal Likud regime have feebly attempted to parse the language of this damning report, but as the Immortal Bard wrote: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Amnesty has called on EU leaders meeting to halt all arms transfers to Israel, ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements, and ensure justice and accountability for Israeli crimes.

(The above photo courtesy of the Washington Post was verified as genuine by snopes.com)

The avuncular-looking Avi Dichter must have heard your plea, young lady.

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud) said: “We’re rolling out Nakba 2023.” (Photo: Abir Sultan / Flash90)

The IDF certainly has, Sir.

Is Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague, Holocaust survivor Rene Lichtman, the government of Ireland, or US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) incapable of describing ethnic cleansing or genocide– or are they antisemitic for calling out the patently and blazingly obvious? Are people all over the world blind?

Fortunately, not everyone in the world is blind to suffering.

For years, the US Democratic Party position for peace in the Middle East was based on crafting a Two-State Solution. The Likud Party’s interests are antithetical to that of the US Democratic Party. Not paying attention to the American peace movement cost Kamala Harris the White House in 2024.

That any world leader takes Benjamin Netanyahu’s telephone call or wants to be photographed next to him absolutely staggers the imagination.

Sources:

https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/12/19/extermination-and-acts-genocide/israel-deliberately-depriving-palestinians-gaza

https://theecologist.org/2013/nov/02/gaza-sewage-weapon-war

https://archive.is/xnHsM

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/anatomy-of-a-genocide-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territory-occupied-since-1967-to-human-rights-council-advance-unedited-version-a-hrc-55/

https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a79363-report-special-committee-investigate-israeli-practices-affecting

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-12/ty-article/israeli-security-cabinet-member-calls-north-gaza-evacuation-nakba-2023/0000018b-c2be-dea2-a9bf-d2be7b670000

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/19/live-israel-kills-14-in-northern-gaza-as-it-continues-to-deny-un-access

https://amnesty.ca/human-rights-news/israel-opt-horrifying-cases-of-torture-and-degrading-treatment-of-palestinian-detainees-amid-spike-in-arbitrary-arrests/

https://www.snopes.com/

Ukraine/Russia Update

Janis Timma in an undated photo (Credit: Getty)

The body of Latvian basketball star Janis Timma was found after he reportedly fell from a Moscow apartment complex.

The 32-year-old, who played for teams like Zenit Saint Petersburg and Orlando Magic, was discovered in the stairway of a high-rise building on his ex-wife Anna Sedokova’s birthday.

The NBA ace had recently faced backlash when he announced his intention to play professionally in Putin’s Russia despite his brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Janis Timma told Latvian outlet LSM in Oct 2024:

 “It’s something interesting to me. I thought why not give it a try?”

Popular Ukrainian singer and actress Anna Sedokova was pictured crying after learning of her ex-husband’s completely unexpected demise in Putin’s Russia. (Credit: Instagram)

The preliminary cause of the young athlete’s death with his whole life and career ahead of him was ruled as a suicide.

Most likely thanks to the UK, Ukraine will have a new weapon to fight Russia.

A Ukrainian commander revealed the existence of the weapon, called “Tryzub,” during a defence conference on Monday.

Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, who commands Kiev’s unmanned forces, said Ukraine was only the fifth country to have an operational laser.

Ukrainian troops will use the laser to shoot drones and planes out of the sky (Photo: Reuters)

“As of now, we can use this laser to shoot down aircraft at altitudes of over two kms.”

Tryzub is the name of the golden trident on Ukraine’s coat of arms and is the symbol of the country. Ukraine developed the weapon most likely with help from the UK which designed the DragonFire DEW system.

Former UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps suggested in Apr 2024 the UK’s laser weapon DragonFire could be sent to Ukraine.

Finally and as expected, North Korean soldiers have become expendable “cannon fodder” for Vladimir Putin and the Russians are trying to cover it up.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says this blurred image from a video shows Russians burning the face of a dead North Korean soldier. (Volodymyr Zelensky’s official Telegram channel)

At least 100 North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia have been killed, with nearly 1,000 wounded in the Kursk region, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). The high casualties were attributed to the troops’ inexperience with drones and unfamiliar terrain.

A language barrier is hurting enemy efforts as well. North Korean soldiers opened fire on the vehicles of the so-called Akhmat battalion resulting in eight dead Kadyrovites (Chechens loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov). In military terms this is called “fratricide.”

North Korea has reportedly sent over 10,000 soldiers and significant artillery supplies to aid Russia’s war effort against Ukraine which neither Russia nor North Korea have officially confirmed.

Despite the reported losses, intelligence suggests North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is training additional troops for deployment. Experts say Kim is keen to acquire advanced technology from Russia and gain battle experience for his troops. Kim Jong-un will also neatly pocket the monthly $2,200 salary of each North Korean soldier sent to die for Russia.

A screenshot of an image released by the Ukrainian drone warfare unit Magyar’s Birds. The unit said it shows the bodies of North Korean soldiers killed in the Kursk region. Part of the image has been blurred by RFA. (Magyar’s Birds)

Sources:

https://www.the-sun.com/sport/13108326/basketball-star-janis-timma-dead/

https://www.the-sun.com/news/13119788/ukraine-laser-gun-drones-trident/

https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-updates-zelenskyy-wants-strong-trump-on-our-side/live-71103227

https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2024/12/16/north-korea-ukraine-russia-casulaties/

https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2024/12/17/north-korean-soldier-video-russia-12172024/

German Chancellor Scholz Loses No Confidence Vote Ahead of February Elections

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks on the day of a confidence vote called by him to pave way for snap election, at lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, 16 Dec 2024. Herr Scholz is no Frau Merkel. (Photo: © Liesa Johannssen / Reuters)

394 Bundestag deputies voted against Scholz while only 207 expressed confidence in the chancellor, with 116 abstentions.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier can now move to dissolve the legislature and formally declare the agreed 23 Feb 2025 election date.

Friedrich Merz – the top candidate of the conservative CDU-CSU opposition alliance of ex-chancellor Angela Merkel – is well ahead in opinion polls.

The political contest comes at a time when Europe’s top economy is struggling to revive its stuttering export-led industrial sector amid high energy prices and tough competition from China. Berlin also faces major geopolitical challenges as it confronts Russia over the Ukraine war and as Donald Trump’s looming return to the White House heightens uncertainty over NATO and trade ties.

Germany’s political turmoil comes as France has also been roiled by crisis and gridlock which saw President Emmanuel Macron asking centrist politician François Bayrou to try to form a new government.

German politics in the post-war era was long staid, stable and dominated by the two parties, the CDU-CSU and the SPD, with the small FDP often playing kingmaker.

The Greens emerged in the 1980s, but the political landscape has been further fragmented over the past decade by the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), a shock for a country whose dark World War II history had long made far-right parties taboo.

Formed as a Eurosceptic fringe party, the AfD grew into a major political force when it protested against Merkel’s open-door policy to migrants, and now has around 18 percent voter support.

(Map: Courtesy of BBC)

While other parties have committed to a “firewall” of non-cooperation with the AfD, some of them have borrowed from its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric. Following the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, some CDU lawmakers were quick to demand that the around one million Syrian refugees in Germany return to their home country.

The winter election is all the more heated as it comes at a time “the German model is in crisis,” said Berlin-based political scientist Claire Demesmay of Sciences Po Paris.

According to Demesmay, Germany’s prosperity “was built on cheap energy imported from Russia, on a security policy outsourced to the USA, and on exports and subcontracting to China.”

NATO members Germany, France, and Canada are experiencing political unrest and doubts for the future which is music to the Kremlin’s ears as Vladimir Putin wants to undermine America, NATO, and the EU.  In no surprising move, Elon Musk posted the following message:

“Only the AfD can save Germany.” 

 AfD Neo-Nazis Spent Election Day at Mar a Lago. The tall man on the left is a reputed porn star. (Image: Social media)

Source:

German Chancellor Scholz loses no confidence vote ahead of February elections

Twelve People Found Dead Inside Restaurant at Popular Ski Resort

Twelve people were found dead inside an Indian restaurant at a popular ski resort in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, apparently all employees.

The Mtskheta-Mtianeti Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Georgia said that the bodies were discovered in Gudauri — a popular and well-known ski resort near the Russian border located approximately 75 miles north of the country’s capital city of Tbilisi.

Gudauri ski resort in Georgia on 17 May 2019. (Photo: Reinhard Kaufhold / Picture-Alliance /DPA /AP)

“In the resting area on the second floor of the Indian restaurant located in Gudauri, the bodies of 12 people employed in the same facility were found,” Georgian officials said in a statement. “At the initial inspection, no signs of body injuries or signs of violence were detected.”

However, according to a preliminary investigation, authorities discovered that a power generator had been placed in a closed space within an indoor area of the resort near some bedrooms. An investigation under Article 116 of the Criminal Code of Georgia has been launched, suggesting that the deaths were due to negligent manslaughter.

The investigation into the deaths is ongoing. But prima facie, this mass manslaughter seems to be unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning.

Source:

12 people found dead inside restaurant at popular ski resort – ABC News

Democratic Republic of Congo: Mystery Illness Could Be Severe Malaria

The DRC has a population of 115,403,027; 75% of them live under the poverty line. (Map: CIA)

Health officials are narrowing in on the cause of dozens of unexplained deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that a severe form of malaria is likely responsible.

The illness was considered a mystery for weeks. It has killed at least 37 people and sickened 592. Local authorities previously told Reuters that the death toll exceeded 140.

Health officials in Africa have been referring to the illness as “Disease X” while awaiting test results.

Concurrent health issues among the population, such malnutrition and known viral infections, could exacerbate the illnesses.

Millions of displaced people live in places like Bulengo IDP Camp. (Photo: Concern Worldwide)

An Anopheles stephensi mosquito feeding on a human host. (Photo: alchetron)

Mosquitos are man’s greatest acme predator. Mosquito-borne diseases kill more than one million people and infect up to 700 million each year – almost one in ten people. 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.

Sources:

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/congo-disease-outbreak-severe-malaria-rcna183299

https://www.cdc.gov/global-health/impact/fighting-the-worlds-deadliest-animal.html

NYC Resident Pleads Guilty to Operating Secret Police Station of Chinese Government in Lower Manhattan

Chen Jinping is smiling now but five years in an FCI may slap that grin off his face. (Photo: FBI)

Chen Jinping (60) of New York, NY, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an illegal agent of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in connection with opening and operating an undeclared overseas police station, located in downtown Manhattan, for the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

Chen Jinping and co-defendant “Harry” Lu Jianwang conspired to act as illegal agents of the PRC government and also obstructed justice by destroying evidence of their communications with an MPS official. While acting under the direction and control of the MPS official, the defendants worked together to establish the first known overseas police station in the US on behalf of the Fuzhou branch of the MPS. The police station — which closed in the fall of 2022 — occupied an entire floor in an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

The clandestine police station was situated on the third floor of the Changle Association of America on East Broadway in Chinatown.

Lu and Chen helped open and operate the clandestine police station. None of the participants in the scheme informed the US government that they were helping the PRC government surreptitiously open and operate an undeclared MPS police station on US soil.

China may have more illegal police stations operating in the US. (Map courtesy of the UK Daily Mail.)

The FBI has created a website for victims to report efforts by foreign governments to stalk, intimidate, or assault people in the US. If you believe that you are or have been a victim of transnational repression, please visit:

https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/counterintelligence/transnational-repression.

Chen faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Per Chen’s plea agreement, the government has agreed to dismiss the obstruction of justice charge against him. Lu has pleaded not guilty to both of the charges against him and is awaiting trial.

One Police Plaza and 26 Federal Plaza are sneezing distance away from this ex-Chinese spy post. This was both remarkable and brazen of China. Apparently Canada is also coming to grips with the same problem of clandestine illegal Chinese government police stations.

No doubt the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) will uncover these illegal and nefarious Chinese mouchards,

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/new-york-resident-pleads-guilty-operating-secret-police-station-chinese-government-lower

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11988889/China-six-illegal-police-stations-US.html

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca

https://www.cbc.ca/

China: Food Poisoning Afflicts 15 Tourists from Hong Kong

15 individuals from Hong Kong were affected by food poisoning after returning from a group tour in Guangdong, China. The incident has raised alarms about food safety and hygiene, prompting health officials to remind the public of the importance of maintaining personal and environmental hygiene, especially when travelling abroad.

The affected group, comprising five males and ten females aged between 57 and 94, began experiencing symptoms including abdominal pain, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, and fever after dining at two restaurants in Zhanjiang. Fourteen of the individuals sought medical treatment either while on the Mainland or after returning to Hong Kong. Among them, one person required hospitalization but has since been discharged following treatment.

The group consumed a variety of seafood dishes, including oysters, abalone, shrimp, sea cucumber, and fish. Preliminary assessments suggest that the food poisoning may have been caused by norovirus or Vibrio parahaemolyticus, both of which are known to be associated with seafood consumption and can lead to severe gastrointestinal symptoms.

In response to the outbreak, the CHP has reached out to Mainland health authorities, sharing the details of the cases to facilitate further investigations. They are also appealing to other participants from the three-day tour organized by E King Travel (International) Limited to come forward for follow-up and medical surveillance.

Health officials are urging anyone who experiences symptoms related to foodborne illness—such as fever, gastrointestinal distress, or general malaise—to seek immediate medical attention.

Source:

Fifteen tourists affected in Hong Kong food poisoning cluster linked to Guangdong trip

Tiger Has Been Chained Up Her Whole Life

Meet Susu from Thailand:

If Susu could purr, she would. Thank you kind tiger rescue folks in SE Asia.

Did Coriolanus Solve the Great Drone Mystery?

Followers of the Watch asked me to analyze the drone phenomenon gripping the US and Europe.

This drone was photographed in the Bay Shore section of Toms River, NJ with a Sony A7 IV equipped with a 600mm lens. The drone seemed to be well above the 400 feet height FAA regulations allow. (8 Dec 2024 photo: Doug Hood / Asbury Park Press)

If these mysterious drones were a threat to US national security, they would have been immediately destroyed. These were some of the lessons learned following the 11 Sep 2001 al-Qaida aviation attacks on the US.

Air defense personnel were temporarily deployed in Washington DC after 9/11. (Photo: US Army)

NORAD “detected, tracked, and intercepted two Russian TU-95 and two PRC (Peoples Republic of China) H-6 military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on 24 July 2024.”

Having said that, by way of history let us delve in to the mystery.

Years ago, millions of Americans used to communicate through shortwave (SW) radio. Today SW radio enthusiasts continue bouncing signals to each other worldwide, but the numbers have decreased significantly with the advent of the Internet.

American family listening to shortwave radio circa 1950s.  

But short wave (SW) radio communications are unregulated, so Federal Communications Commission (FCC) vehicles used to patrol the US to monitor SW communications as a form of surveillance to ensure national security.

Cropped out of the photo is the antenna array atop this FCC vehicle. (Photo circa 1930s).

During the Vietnam War, US Army Security Agency (ASA) units monitored both friendly and enemy short wave radio communications. One of Coriolanus’ instructors and mentors hailed from the legendary ASA.

Spec. 4 James T. Davis was the first US Army Soldier killed in ground combat in Vietnam tracking enemy signals on 22 Dec 1961.

Conducting surveillance of unregulated activity is both time consuming (and dangerous in wartime), but a necessary evil.

Let us fast-forward a few years to 1974 when the film Phase IV portrayed super-intelligent ants creating complex designs, structures, pyramids, and mathematically perfect geometric shapes.

Coriolanus highly recommends Phase IV to cinephiles, the only Hollywood movie directed by Saul Bass and inspired by H.G. Wells 1905 short story Empire of the Ants.

Following release of this fascinating movie which would go on to become a cult-classic, an epidemic of crop circles emerged worldwide.

Crop circles created a new mysterious worldwide phenomenon and a bonanza for conspiracy theorists. Network TV capitalized on this and UFOs, as well as other ancient and occult mysteries. In 1976 this popular show began which some of you may remember:

But in reality, crop circle enthusiasts in the 1970s read the newspapers, magazines, and watched TV to copy-cat and out-do each other. There were no laws nor regulations preventing creating crop circles on one’s farmland.

Let us fast forward again to today where people are confronted by another mystery: Fleets of unidentified drones flying overhead. Many, not all, of these flying platforms are government drones legitimately conducting security missions using infrared sensors, radiation detectors, and UV cameras in the vicinity of sensitive areas, such as the home of the President-elect in NJ or military installations. But at the same time, drone enthusiasts are mischievously launching their first-person-view (FPV) devices into the sky. The reality is that poorly regulated drones have turned the skies over the US into a “Wild West free-for-all.”

Using this image above as an analogy, how can a civilian on the ground distinguish which balloon is friendly or hostile?

Taking advantage of this congested air traffic might be hostile espionage drones collecting information on behalf of nefarious actors. Several drones were spotted over USAF and RAF bases recently and NATO upgraded its CI/OPSEC posture because of the very real threat of Russian sabotage. But government efforts to disable the offending drones with electronic warfare weapons might damage friendly collection platforms flying in the same vicinity.

Aviation enthusiasts track airplane numbers worldwide via the internet. One hobbyist may log the sighting of “G-BNKH” in Reno, Nevada, and another may log the tail number in Detroit, Michigan two weeks later. This is an amusing, harmless hobby for people on the internet.

But the internet also harbors nefarious actors as well. As posted previously on Coriolanus, sexual deviants troll the internet in communication with each other in search of victims. In similar regard, drone enthusiasts are also communicating with each other, using a tactic called “swarming.” This was a technique perfected by combat-jihadists in Iraq. The enemy forces marshal to one location and then scatter after the operation. In the US, these drones scatter with their beacons disabled and under FAA radar.  

Simply put, technology and easy access to drones have surpassed federal and state regulatory laws, as well as their ethical use. Much was said about creating the atomic bombs during the Manhattan Project: technology exceeded mankind’s ethical and moral foundation.

As the laws stand, Americans can fly drones just about anywhere, anytime, except directly over FAA-restricted airspace such as the White House. Directly from the FBI: “Potential conflicts in federal criminal law and absent legislative action, the FBI is unable to effectively protect the US from this growing threat [of unregulated drones].” FBI agents are wasting precious resources and time knocking on doors trying to locate these domestic on-the-ground mischief makers.

The US Congress is finally pushing legislation for stricter regulation of these flying nuisances who have caused a 1938 “War of the Worlds” hysteria in the US.  

Examples of car-sized drones:

The Volodrone has a 400-pound capacity. Note the size ratio to a person below. (Photo: Volodrone)

Unspecified military drone. (Photo: Paolo Longo / EyeEm via Getty Images)

Sources:

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)

Countering Malicious Drones — FBI

AARO Home

Volocopter debuts giant drone powerful enough to lift 440 lb

He Was The First U.S. Soldier Killed in Ground Combat in Vietnam

When the Martian invasion of ‘War of the Worlds’ was broadcast in 1938, it freaked everyone out – Click Americana

Ludwig van Beethoven (Baptized 17 Dec 1770 – Eternalized 26 Mar 1827)

Above is reported to be the only portrait the Immortal Maestro ever posed for. Completed between Feb and Apr 1820 by Joseph Karl Stiele.

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in D minor (“Ode to Joy”, Opus 125) is the anthem of the EU. Since 1940, the “Ode to Joy” has been a staple in Japan at Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

The personal words and thoughts of the greatest composer of all time may be analyzed in a collection of his translated correspondence: Beethoven’s Letters. This is where Coriolanus learned of his tinnitus.

Beethoven’s letters became the synthesis for the 1994 film Immortal Beloved where Gary Oldman portrays the tortured genius. Although the film received mixed reviews, Coriolanus recommends its viewing.

The Grand Maestro’s homage to my namesake was the Coriolan Overture (Opus 62). Below Benjamin Zander conducts the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra:

In 1969, Spanish pop star Miguel Rios released his tribute to the Grand Maestro with “Song of Joy.” This single became enormously popular in 1970, reaching Number One on music charts in Australia, Canada, West Germany, Switzerland, and the US.

Embedded below is the favorite of your humble author: Beethoven’s 7th Symphony in A major (Opus 92). Maestro Bernard Haitink conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (2009).

As Shakespeare knew centuries ago: “The man that hath no music in himself…is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils….”

Source:

The Merchant of Venice (Act V, Scene I)

High Ranking Russian General Assassinated in Moscow

Unindicted war criminal Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces.

Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was kinetically euthanized by a bomb hidden in a scooter as he left his apartment building on the way to his office. Kirillov’s assistant also died in the Moscow operation.

Lt Gen Igor Kirillov is believed be the highest-ranking military official killed beyond the combat zone since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

Kirillov (54) was under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.

An official with the SBU said the agency was behind liquidating Kirillov who was described as a “war criminal and an entirely legitimate target.”

The senior general’s assassination has shocked Russia’s military and political establishment. There have been numerous Ukrainian operations targeting Russia’s forces on Ukrainian territory. As posted on Coriolanus, a senior rocket scientist was recently rendered ineffective near Moscow by the ever-improving Ukrainian espionage network.  

Sources:

Russia: Ukraine official says it killed Russian general by a bomb in Moscow | AP News

Ukraine’s spies target Russian figures in increasingly audacious attacks

North Korean Soldiers Killed, Wounded in Russia’s Kursk

Schemes, an investigative unit of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, received photos from Ukrainian military sources purportedly showing the bodies of dead soldiers in Kursk, allegedly including North Korean fighters.

Ukrainian intelligence said at least 30 North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia have been killed or wounded in the western Russian region of Kursk, the first time Kiev has given such a detailed report on North Korean losses since Pyongyang sent troops to help Moscow.

The remarks were partially backed up by the Pentagon on 16 Dec without speculating on numbers. North Korean soldiers were largely unprepared for modern drone warfare and were decimated by precision strikes. Unconfirmed field reporting claimed several North Korean soldiers were seen pleading with Ukrainian drone operators for their lives.

People’s Army troops training in North Korea. A North Korean defector said the soldiers won’t be ready for combat and will be killed immediately. He was right. (Photo: AFP)

Washington on 16 Dec also hit Russia and North Korea with new sanctions that the Treasury Department said targeted Pyongyang’s financial activities and military support for the Kremlin, echoing similar moves made by the EU earlier in the day.

The sanctions target North Korean banks, generals, and others, along with Russian oil shipping companies.

Ukrainian troops began their incursion into the Kursk region in August and still control some areas. Russia began deploying thousands of North Korean troops in the region in October.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on 14 Dec that Moscow had started involving more North Korean troops in an effort to push back Ukrainian forces in Kursk.

Russian casualties are estimated to exceed an appalling 600,000. President Vladimir Putin is looking to avoid a politically unpopular second mass mobilization. But he has 10,970 North Korean soldiers to conduct “meat attacks” until his protégé Donald Trump takes office on 20 Jan 2025.

Sources:

Ukraine, U.S. Say North Korean Soldiers Killed, Wounded In Russia’s Kursk

North Korea Designations; Non-Proliferation Designations; Russia-related Designations | Office of Foreign Assets Control

Dominican Republic: Malaria Increase

The culprit: Anopheles mosquito

Southern Dominican Republic has seen an increase in Malaria. 984 cases have been reported to date in 2024. Only 265 people were affected last year in the same reporting cycle.

Three provinces recorded the highest incidence of malaria: Azua (485), San Juan (453), and Bahoruco (six).

Malaria when not treated in time can have serious consequences, according to organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a contagion can cause serious kidney and brain complications in a person, and even death.

Symptoms of the disease can include fever, vomiting and headache. But the classic form of manifestation in the body is with high temperatures, accompanied by sweating and chills, which appear 10 to 15 days after the mosquito bite.

Dengue is another vector-borne disease that is present in the Dominican Republic, where a tropical environment predominates, making it conducive to more than one person having to be assisted in a health center each year for becoming infected.

Mosquitos are man’s greatest acme predator. Mosquito-borne diseases kill more than one million people and infect up to 700 million each year – almost one in ten people. 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.

Sources:

Malaria has an active presence in the south of the country

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

Malaria – PAHO/WHO | Pan American Health Organization

Canada: Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Resigns from Trudeau’s Cabinet

Chrystia Freeland, who stepped down as finance minister and deputy prime minister on Monday, arrives for a national caucus meeting in Ottawa. (Photo: Spencer Colby / The Canadian Press)

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Monday she’s resigning from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, just hours before she was set to deliver the government’s fall economic statement.

This is a disastrous development that throws the government’s economic agenda into a tailspin and leaves a huge gap on Trudeau’s front bench at a time when Liberal Party support has collapsed in the polls.

Freeland’s move to leave just before tabling the economic statement — the government’s fiscal road map at a time of great uncertainty, as Canada stares down president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat — is unprecedented.

In a letter to Trudeau that was subsequently posted on her social media account, Freeland said she had no choice but to resign after the prime minister approached her on Friday about moving her to another cabinet role.

The competent ex-finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was also the Deputy Prime Minister with lots of experience dealing with President Trump the first time he blighted the White House from 2016 to 2020. This is another blow to PM Justin Trudeau who has already lost the support of the NDP. The Conservative Party has been tabling a series of non-confidence motions, which, if passed would topple the government, much like what happened in France. Similarly, Germany will also hold a snap election months ahead of the scheduled one this autumn.

For years the Liberal leader of Canada has also ignored the clarion calls of Canadians supporting the recognition of Palestine and stopping military aid to the murderous Likud regime in Israel. Democratic Party support for Israel cost Kamala Harris the election this past November when the enormous anti-war segment of the party stayed home just like in 1968.

Source:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-faces-frustrated-mps-after-chrystia-freeland-s-shock-resignation-1.7411380

Updates: Disgraced Prince Andrew’s Banned Spy Buddy Revealed; Russian Flight Stowaway in Stew Again

Chris Yang (50), the former chair of Hampton Group, had been in the UK for almost two decades.

British authorities exposed Yang Tengbo as the banned associate of Prince Andrew. AKA Chris Wang was first stopped by UK counter-terrorism services in 2021 and ordered to surrender his devices. Court documents said Yang had split his time between China and the UK and told officials he considered the UK his second home.

The alleged spy is considered to have engaged in “covert and deceptive activity” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As a spy, Yang Tengbo has been rendered ineffective and this episode is just another black eye for the disgraced Prince Andrew who cavorted with the thoroughly abhorrent sexual deviant the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Now an update on this unfortunate asylum seeker who almost made it to France and Canada.

Svetlana Dali, the Delta Airlines stowaway who flew from JFK in NY to CDG in Paris on 26 Nov 2024, was identified by her daughter and ex-husband in December. (Photo: FBI)

Svetlana Dali was arrested for the second time this month on Monday, after a first arrest by the FBI on 4 Dec for stowing away on a Delta Air Lines flight from the US to France.

Dali had cut off her ankle monitor and was trying to sneak into Canada. The person she was staying with in Philadelphia discovered the bracelet cut and alerted authorities. An arrest warrant was issued for bail jumping out of the Eastern District of New York.

The Russian national was apprehended in Buffalo, NY. She was on a Greyhound bus trying to cross into Canada and was unable to produce a passport.

Svetlana Dali was taken into custody, where it was determined that she was wanted on an open warrant.

Svetlana Dali is desperately trying to leave the US. Perhaps she is absolutely terrified of the incoming Trump administration. Many people are. Ms. Dali sat in the bathroom of the Delta Airlines flight and did not have an opportunity to eat any of the cheap airline food in economy class, nor did she steal a revenue generating seat from the airline. She basically didn’t cost Delta Airlines a dime. And Ms. Dali did teach the TSA a valuable lesson in airport security procedures.

Unless this modern-day Holly Golightly (with a little bit of Blanche DuBois in her) somehow poses a grave and serious threat to US national security, let her leave America fer Chrissake!

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/16/alleged-chinese-spy-linked-to-prince-andrew-named-as-yang-tengbo

https://news.sky.com/story/who-is-h6-what-we-know-about-the-chinese-spy-with-links-to-prince-andrew-13274721

Svetlana Dali, the Delta Air Lines stowaway, arrested again trying to flee US – ABC News

When Not In Use, Your Cat Should be Stored in a Cool Dry Place and Out of Reach of Children

FBI Arrests Key Member of International Child Sexploitation and Mutilation Cult in Arizona

Warning: Some readers will find the text on the screen immediately below graphic and disturbing. This is one of the most heinous stories Coriolanus has ever come across.

This is an example of what these sadists request from underaged victims. Basically “kids are targeting kids” in the most despicable and nefarious manner. (Photo provided)

The FBI arrested Baron Martin (20) of Tucson, AZ for producing child sexual abuse material and cyberstalking offenses carried out as part of his participation in online violent terror networks known as “764” and “CVLT”. The 20-year-old defendant described himself as the “king of extortion” and claimed to be the “catalyst for thousands of extortions.”

Members of “764” systematically target underage females, groom them, extort them, and force them to mutilate themselves or others and either film or photograph such activity, at times while streaming it online for other members of the network.

Cult members find child victims on platforms such as Roblox. (Photo: Getty Images)

Previously captured and sentenced miscreants of this horrific international child sexploitation and mutilation cult include:

Baby-faced Bradley Cadenhead was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to nine counts of possessing and promoting child pornography. One video retrieved from Cadenhead’s computer showed one of his followers killing a victim’s hamster. (Supplied image)

In 2022, deranged-looking Kaleb Merritt (23) was sentenced to 350 years after he drove 20 hours to kidnap and rape a 12-year-old girl he had been abusing online. (Supplied image)

If convicted, Baron Martin faces 30 years in prison and up to ten additional years for cyberstalking. This deviant-sadist will be 60 years old when he is released from the tender mercies of Uncle Sam. Baron Martin will not have contributed one thin dime towards FICA and his Social Security retirement during his long federal incarceration.

Anyone with information regarding child sexual exploitation please call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit https://tips.fbi.gov/home.

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

This is one of the most horrendous criminal enterprises Coriolanus has ever come across. These are deranged youngsters predating upon vulnerable youngsters. You wonder what the mothers of these deviant torturers are thinking. Nefarious entities like 764 and CVLT make your humble author wish that he could unretire.

After conviction, throw away the key and weld the prison cell door shut forthwith.

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/arizona-man-associated-online-terror-network-arrested-production-child-sex-abuse-material

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/764

Archived link:

https://archive.is/PBslJ#selection-977.170-977.264

Israeli and Jordanian Intelligence Chiefs Coordinate on Syria

Major General Ahmad Husni, Director of the Jordanian General Intelligence Director (GID)

The director of the Israeli Shin Bet security agency and senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers recently met with the director of the Jordanian general intelligence service, Ahmad Husni, and senior Jordanian military commanders.

On their agenda: A chemical weapons stockpile in Syria, the numerous different armed rebel groups, some of them once affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and the Golan Heights.

While the conference was going on, the IDF struck military sites across Syria and seized an area in the Golan Heights on the Syrian side of the border between the two countries. The Syrian mission to the UN says Israel’s capture of the territory is a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.

Jordanian intelligence (the GID) is one of the most important and professional intelligence agencies in the Middle East. GID has been instrumental in foiling several terrorist attacks both in Jordan and around the world.

Jerusalem is wise to heed any advice from the King of Jordan.

King Abdullah II of Jordan is a UK Sandhurst Military Academy graduate, pilot, and former Special Forces officer.

In 1997, so incensed was King Abdullah’s father, the late King Hussein, by a brazen Mossad poisoning assassination attempt on Palestinian resistance leader Khaled Mashaal in Amman, he called Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately demand the antidote. Hussein threatened that if Mashaal died, so would the identified Mossad agents who fled to the Israeli Embassy in Amman. After the admonishment, Netanyahu called a subordinate and uttered two words: “Do it.”

Israeli officials quickly provided the Jordanians with an antidote and medical advice as doctors in Amman fought to save Mashaal’s life.

Khaled Mashaal in Gaza City, 9 Dec 2012. He recovered from the amateurish fentanyl poisoning attack thanks to King Hussein. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

The smartest thing Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has done in decades was to consult with the Hashemite Kingdom over the future of Syria. Jordan is a key mediator between Israel and the Syrian rebel groups, including the Sunni Islamist opposition group Hayʼat Tahrir ash-Sham (HTS) that led the revolution that toppled the Assad regime. Moreover, the GID has a history of penetrating Sunni jihadist groups like the HTS.

Nota Bene: Jordan’s military (100,000 active-duty personnel) is considered to be among the most professional in the region, and is seen as particularly well-trained, organized, and equipped. According to the Global Firepower Index (GFI), Jordan is ranked 80 in military firepower out of 145 countries.

At least 3,000 US troops operate in Jordan, which has a defense agreement with Washington that allows them “unimpeded access” to many Jordanian military facilities.

Sources:

Israel and Jordan held secret talks on Syria

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

https://gid.gov.jo/

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-troop-numbers-jordan-surge-record-high-amid-gaza-war

https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=jordan

Begging royal mercy: How Israel recovered from the botched Mashaal hit, 25 years ago | The Times of Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Intelligence_Department

Question: What Newspapers or Journals Do American CEOs and Oligarchs Read?

Answer: Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Inc Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Platinum Business, Bloomberg Business Week, ad nauseum. Clever CEOs will read the Economist* and charge it to their company.

Do these above purveyors of news discuss human interest stories involving struggle, rent costs, suffering, illness, civil rights, health insurance costs, homelessness, or social justice?

For the most part, no.

The carefree 0.01% at the top of the American pyramid is divorced from the struggling 99.9% at the bottom of the pyramid. Oligarchs are coldly indifferent to the plight of the masses because they: a) have an innate sense of entitlement; b) are safely cocooned from the travails of the masses simply by what they read for news.

Then the insouciant and aloof elitists (top level) and their media proxies (second level) are shocked and outraged about the killing of one of their own and will deploy an army of centurions (third level) to find the perpetrator (bottom level) of such a dastardly deed. We are of course discussing the late CEO of United HealthCare Brian Thompson whose health insurance business policies callously placed profits over people. The mantra of “Deny, Defend, Depose” were allegedly found on the bullets that killed this 50-year old oligarch.

Such elitists live in palatial estates in Greenwich, CT, drive Lexus luxury cars, travel First Class to destinations like St. Tropez, and ensure their offspring receive the best private education possible, including legacy admissions to Yale or Harvard Universities.

Said a writer about American healthcare CEOs: “They Eat Off Your Family Member’s Grave.” Below CCTV captures such an image of a ghoul at a cemetery desecrating a grave.

(Undated screen capture: Fox 8 Cleveland)

Bon appetite, healthcare industry CEOs!

Said a writer pithily and accurately: “Only in America you can be driven into homelessness by someone like Brian Thompson, then legally murdered by someone like Daniel Penny (who recently strangled a man on the NYC subway), while the money that could have saved you is spent on murdering children in Gaza.”

Health Insurance CEO “Wanted” posters in NYC. Discourse and imagery like this has completely shocked these clueless and aloof elitists. (Screenshot: TikTok)

So CEOs, pray keep reading Barron’s, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Inc Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Platinum Business, or Bloomberg Business Week, and never mind learning about the lower levels of the pyramid that provide you and your families luxuriant lifestyles while sending your children to Princeton, Harvard, Yale, or Brown University.

*The Economist reports non-financial news (Bagehot, Lexington) as well as occasional human-interest stories and a dedicated weekly obituary.

Source:

Further | Deny, Defend, Depose: They Eat Off Your Family Member’s Grave | Opinion

Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) Kills Afghan Minister in Kabul Suicide Blast

Khalil Haqqani, the uncle of the Taliban’s acting interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the first senior cabinet member to be killed in an explosion since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021. (Photo: Social media)

Khalil Haqqani, the refugee minister in Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration, was killed recently in an explosion in the capital, Kabul.

The blast occurred inside the ministry’s compound and killed two others. Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIS-K has been active in Afghanistan and regularly targets both Taliban regime officials and civilians.

One possible reason behind the attack is the rivalry between ISIS-K and the Taliban connected to the takeover of Afghanistan. This was a substantial blow to the Taliban because Khalil Haqqani was a key figure in maintaining relationships with foreign donors and was responsible for fundraising activities on behalf of the Taliban and the HQN.

The Haqqani Network (HQN) is a formidable Pashtun network based in eastern Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan which originated during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (1978–92). The HQN participated with the Taliban in an insurgency after the US invasion of late 2001/early 2002. In 2012, the US Government designated the Haqqani Network (HQN) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The HQN and Pakistan’s ISI have a close and nebulous cooperative relationship. The US designated Khalil Haqqani as a global terrorist on 9 Feb 2011 and had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Map: CIA

Although the ISIS-K suicide bomber was killed in the martyrdom attack, HQN will extract a steep price from other members of ISIS-K after locating them. Pakistan’s ISI will no doubt assist in locating ISIS-K cells on behalf of their ally. Beijing must also be concerned about the increasing instability in Afghanistan as they have just established a railway network into the impoverished but mineral-rich country. China’s firms are investing millions of dollars in the Afghan economy as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.  

Note the tiny sliver that connects Afghanistan to China is the high altitude Wakhan Corridor. This is not where the railway connects the two countries. Years ago, there was one unimproved road connecting Afghanistan (Badakhshan Province) to China (Xinjiang Province) and this has probably not changed over the years. Below is what the border crossing looked like years ago.

Sources:

Afghan Taliban Minister Killed In Kabul Blast

CIA

China Deepens Its Engagement With Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan – The Diplomat

Influential Afghan Taliban Minister Khalil Haqqani, 2 Others Killed In ISIS-K Suicide Bombing – News18

Bashir al-Assad Exiled to Russia Against His Will

Two tyrants in happier times. (Undated photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

On his Facebook account, ousted Syrian despot Bashar Assad claimed he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack. He left Damascus on the morning of 8 Dec, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. Assad said he left Damascus in coordination with Russian allies to the naval base in Latakia where he planned to keep fighting.

Russian military vehicle in Syria. (Undated photo)

The former Syrian dictator alleged that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Kremlin decided to evacuate him to Moscow on the night of 8 Dec.

Sidenote: A Syrian friend of mine informed me that Bashir al-Assad “didn’t even tell his brother Maher and just abandoned him.”

But did Bashir al-Assad really intend to abandon his brother? Undated photo of Maher al-Assad.

Russian Ilyushin-76 military cargo plane.

“I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said. “At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge nor was such proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said in the English text of his statement. “The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”

The London-trained oculist in mufti directing his generals. (Undated photo)

Russia had a sizeable military presence in Syria and their intelligence services were aware for months that Bashir al-Assad’s hold on power was untenable. Unsurprisingly, the Kremlin evacuated the Syrian despot. Putin’s envoys immediately began negotiating with the HTS rebels about the fate of the Russian naval and air bases in Tartus and Khmeimim.

According to the Financial Times, between 2018 and 2019, Assad sent about $250 million in cash to Russia, a period that coincided with when Syria became dependent on Moscow’s military support.

Nearly two tons of banknotes in $100 and €500 bills were flown from Syria into Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to be deposited at sanctioned Russian banks.

One wonders who the target audience of Bashir al-Assad’s English language Facebook post was intended for. Would it be the Alevi minority population that he once protected in Syria but has since abandoned? Possibly. Since the internet is choc-a-bloc with videos of Assad’s now exposed torture chambers, the London-trained ophthalmologist would be incredibly tone deaf if he was writing to the Syrian people or the West. With two tons of Bashir al-Assad’s US and British cash safely in the hands of the Putin-controlled Russian banking system, the former dictator of Syria and his usefulness to Vladimir Putin has now completely ended.

Asma al-Assad, the good-looking wife of the deposed dictator in an undated photo.

Since Bashir al-Assad and his communications are under complete surveillance by the GRU, his public Facebook post may have been an indirect signal to Tehran for intervention without angering Putin.

Sources:

Middle East latest: Assad says he had no plans to leave Syria but was evacuated by Russians | AP News

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/12/16/assad-regime-airlifted-250m-from-syria-to-russia-ft-a87348

https://i.insider.com/560173489dd7cc1b008bc45b?width=889

Japan: Highest Rate of Erythema Infectiosum (“Apple Disease”) Since 1999

Tokyo’s 2024 population is now estimated at 37,115,000 inhabitants.

A significant increase in cases of “apple disease,” or erythema infectiosum, has been reported in Tokyo, marking the highest number of infections since 1999. 796 cases were reported in the week leading up to 1 Dec based on data from 264 medical facilities. This translates to an average of 3.02 cases per facility, surpassing previous records.

Photo courtesy of the CDC.

Parvovirus B19 infection is usually mild in people who are otherwise healthy. Common symptoms include “slapped cheek” rash in children and joint pains in adults. Complications can occur among people with underlying blood disorders or weakened immune system. Infection early during pregnancy can cause a slight increase in the risk of a miscarriage.

Nearby Saitama has also reported cases of “apple disease.” The recent rise in cases has prompted health officials to issue warnings, especially to expectant mothers, advising caution during this outbreak. The number of infections has exceeded warning levels for the first time since 2018, signaling a need for increased awareness and preventive measures in the community.

Sources:

Tokyo reports highest cases of erythema infectiosum, or “apple disease”, since 1999

About Parvovirus B19 | Parvovirus B19 and Fifth Disease | CDC

Canadian Parliamentarian on Donald Trump: “Idiotic” and “Juvenile”

3 Dec 2024 Truth Social post by Trump after referring to Canada as America’s 51st State.

After idiotically and needlessly threatening America’s greatest friend and neighbor, a NATO ally and NORAD partner with tariffs, President-elect Donald Trump then boorishly claimed Canada was America’s 51st State in front of PM Justin Trudeau who tactfully ignored the slight. President-elect Donald Trump then posted the above image on Truth Social. But what he imbecilically posted was the Matterhorn Mountain in the Swiss Alps. You can easily see it.

Photo of the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps courtesy of photographylife.com.

Afterwards on Parliament Hill, a Canadian lawmaker referred to Trump as “idiotic” and “juvenile.” Canada which enjoys universal health care (which has been going through some problems recently) and suffered 289 firearms-related homicides in 2023 is doing fine without the US. In 2022 Americans suffered an appalling 48,000 gun-related deaths, like a warzone without the Taliban or al-Qaida. You wonder how Vladimir Putin, who wants to sow discord between the US and NATO, as well as the EU, transmitted his instructions to his protege to offend Ottawa.

Then-President Donald Trump idiotically points at a partial solar eclipse without eye protection from the balcony of the White House in 2017. Trump intends to permanently eliminate Daylight Savings Time (DST). (Photo: Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images)

America’s soon-to-be Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief:

Sources:

‘He’s A Juvenile’: Canadian Lawmaker Slams Trump’s ‘Idiotic Behavior’ After Tariff Threats – Canada | Donald Trump News

Fast Facts: Firearm Injury and Death | Firearm Injury and Death Prevention | CDC

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510006901

Cat and Golden Retriever Insist on Sledding Together

Author’s Note: Followers of the Watch have asked that I analyze the spate of drone sightings over the US which Coriolanus will address imminently.

Gaza Strip: 96% of Palestinian Children Feel Imminent Death  

The American taxpayer dollar hard at work: Palestinian children injured in IDF air raids treated at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, 24 Oct 2023. (Photo: Ahmad Hasaballah / Getty Images)

The estimated death toll in Gaza is more than 44,000 and over 100,000 maimed. A recent assessment by the UN Human Rights Office found that 44% of the fatalities it was able to verify were children.

A new study of children living through the war in Gaza has found that 96% of them feel that their death is imminent and almost half want to die as a result of the trauma they have been through.

A needs assessment, carried out by a Gaza-based NGO sponsored by the War Child Alliance charity, also found that 92% of the children in the survey were “not accepting of reality”, 79% suffer from nightmares and 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression.

“This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,” Helen Pattinson, chief executive of War Child UK, said. “Alongside the levelling of hospitals, schools, and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war.”

Two centuries ago, the ‘enemy’ wasn’t called terrorist, jihadist, or Hamas operative, but a ‘savage’ or a ‘redskin.’

The American Indian Wars (1865-1898) resulted in 1,944 total US casualties, including the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn (AKA “Custer’s Last Stand”). And how did the indigenous muqawama fare against the mighty US Cavalry and the rapid-fire Gatling gun?

“By the close of the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 Indigenous people remained of the estimated five million-plus living in North America before European contact.”

I bet you the children of those Indigenous people in North America 150 years ago felt the same way as Palestinian children in Gaza feel today.

No wonder war crimes-indicted Benjamin Netanyahu shut down al-Jazeera and is kicking the UNRWA out of Gaza: Eliminate any witnesses as well as any humanitarian organizations that can help Palestinians with food or medical care.

Sources:

Gaza and the West Bank – Where we work – War Child


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

https://www.history.com/news/native-americans-genocide-united-states

Death feels imminent for 96% of children in Gaza, study finds | Gaza | The Guardian

Russian Missile Scientist Assassinated Near Moscow

Mikhail Shatsky was rendered ineffective by Ukrainian intelligence operatives. (Undated photo)

A senior Russian cruise missile engineer was shot dead near Moscow which Ukrainian media attributed to their country’s espionage services.

Mikhail Shatsky was deputy chief of design and head of software at the Moscow Experimental Design Bureau Mars, which develops automatic control and navigation systems for satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles. Mars is part of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

The Russian military uses Kh-59, Kh-69 and Kh-101 missiles against Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force recently intercepted two Kh-59/69 missiles over the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Shatsky was apparently gunned down as part of a “special operation” by the Ukrainian military’s HUR defense intelligence agency.

Said an anonymous security service source:

“Anyone in any way involved in developing Russia’s military-industrial complex and thus supporting Russian aggression against Ukraine is a legitimate target for the [Ukrainian] defense forces.”

Meanwhile, President Zelensky visited frontlines as Russia continued to pound Ukraine’s power infrastructure with a massive drone and rocket attack in an attempt to cripple the energy grid to freeze and demoralize the civilians with winter fast approaching.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits soldiers of the 27th Rocket Artillery Brigade on 12 Dec.(Photo: AFP)

Ukraine’s sabotage apparatus continues to improve and Shatsky has been added to the list of other Russian High Value Targets (HVT) neutralized within Russia’s borders by car bomb, blunt trauma, or direct gunfire. This particular liquidation is reminiscent of Iranian nuclear scientists who have been reputedly killed over the years by Israeli intelligence.

Earlier this year Canada donated 10,500 9mm Browning Hi-Power automatic pistols to Kiev which are perfect for use by the Ukrainian police or their espionage network.

Canadian Forces soldiers firing reliable 9mm Browning Hi-Power pistols. (Photo: Able Seaman Camden Scott / DND)

Sources:

htps://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/12/12/top-russian-cruise-missile-engineer-gunned-down-near-moscow-reports-a87316

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadian-military-second-world-war-pistols-slated-for-destruction-will-instead-be-sent-to-ukraine

UN Warning: Increase in Permanently Dry Land is ‘Redefining Life on Earth’

Just over 75 percent of the world’s land has been left “permanently drier” over the previous three decades, with massive implications for agriculture, food production, the eco-system, and mass forced migration the UN warns.

Dry land now covers around 40% of the Earth’s land mass, excluding Antarctica, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) study found, cautioning the shift could affect up to five billion people by 2100.

“Some 77.6% of Earth’s land experienced drier conditions during the three decades leading up to 2020 compared to the previous 30-year period.”

This is an “existential threat” posed by seemingly irreversible trends. Dry land regions where agriculture is difficult increased by 4.3 million square kms between 1990 and 2020, an area a third the size of India.

At the same time that land is being depleted, global demand for resources is increasing. By 2030, food production is estimated to require an additional 300 million hectares of land.

The changes are largely attributed to global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, which alter rainfall and increase water evaporation. The effects of the chronic water shortages include soil degradation, ecosystem collapse, food insecurity, and forced migration.

Already, 2.3 billion people live in expanding dry areas with projections showing a “worst-case scenario” of five billion people living in the conditions as the planet continues to warm.

This will add to the countless numbers of refugees trying to escape desertification, drought, poverty, famine, misery, and the attendant violence associated with desperate resource mongering, like we see in Haiti today.

North African migrants swimming from an overcrowded dinghy on 27 July 2015. Up to 30 refugees may have drowned that day according to the International Office of Migration (IOM). (Photo: Santi Palacios / AP)

Sources:

https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/press-releases/three-quarters-earths-land-became-permanently-drier-last-three-decades

Desertification and land degradation threaten global well-being

https://www.treehugger.com/what-is-desertification-5115926

US Charges Syrian National Living in South Carolina with Torturing Dissidents at Damascus Prison

Samir Ousman Alsheikh (L); then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) (2011 photo: SNHR)

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles, CA returned a superseding indictment charging Samir Ousman Alsheikh (72) of Lexington, SC with torture.

The defendant was the head of Damascus Central Prison (AKA the Adra Prison) from 2005 through 2008. In that role, Alsheikh allegedly ordered subordinates to inflict and was sometimes personally involved in inflicting severe physical and mental pain and suffering on political dissidents and other prisoners.

Samir Ousman Alsheikh was previously indicted for immigration fraud when he allegedly made similar false statements when applying for a visa that enabled him to enter the US in 2020, become a lawful permanent resident, and obtain a green card.

Recently an AMCIT named Travis Timmerman was freed from a Syrian prison who although himself was not tortured, heard the cries of the suffering from nearby cells.

Travis Timmerman in undated photo courtesy of http://www.indiatoday.in

Amnesty International debriefed former Syrian prisoners years ago and below are examples of how people were brutally tortured by the sadists in the ousted regime.

The “Tire” (Illustration: Mohamad Hamdoun)

The “Welcome Party” (Illustration: Mohamad Hamdoun)

The “Flying Carpet” (Illustration: Mohamad Hamdoun)

Members of the public who have information about human rights violators in the US or abroad are urged to contact US law enforcement through the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the HSI tip line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or visit https://tips.fbi.gov/home.

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/pr/former-syrian-prison-official-charged-torture

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-syrian-prison-official-charged-immigration-fraud

https://snhr.org/

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/08/syria-torture-prisons/

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-citizen-freed-syrian-prison-identified-travis-timmerman-not-austin-tice

Jack and the Green Sprouts Listeria Outbreak Sickens Four

The sprouts were sold in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and recalled in early Oct 2024. At that time, the FDA says that there were no known illnesses associated with the sprouts.

Listeria monocytogenes infections can take up to 70 days to appear, although most people get sick within a month. The sprouts were recalled on 4 Oct 2024 and seventy days from that date is 16 Dec 2024. Some people may still get sick from eating tainted sprouts in October.

(Listeria bacteria image: CDC)

The classic early symptoms of listeriosis are nausea and diarrhea. If the illness progressed to a more serious form if the bacteria get into the bloodstream, patients experience a stiff neck, high fever, severe headache, muscle aches, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps.

About 1,600 people contract Listeria infections every year in the US and about 260 of those patients die.

Sources:

Jack and the Green Sprouts Alfalfa Sprouts Recalled For Listeria

CDC

Without Firing a Shot: This is How the Cold War Ends (for Now)

President-elect Donald Trump has picked the worst picks humanly possible to sit on his future cabinet: Unvetted, unqualified quacks, wonks, polemicists, misogynists, crackpots, racists, conspiracy theorists, oligarchs, TV personalities, kleptocrats, dipsomaniacs, and Islamophobes. One advisor wants to ban the polio vaccination. We need not go into their names again as they have been painfully burned into our braincells.  

A Russian TV host gleefully claimed that “Trump’s Cabinet picks will dismantle America.”

Republican programs will intentionally weaken, sicken, pauperize, and demoralize the American people with their destructive health, social, and economic policies. This is called “social murder” when unnatural deaths occur due to social, political, or economic oppression, instead of from direct violence. Failing to provide reproductive rights to pregnant women fall into this category. The concept of “social murder” was originally coined in 1845 by German philosopher Friedrich Engels and this is what he saw two centuries ago:

Poorhouses and debtor’s prisons were designed to punish the penniless.

The American public is already suffering with 44,000 firearms murders a year. Countless numbers of people died during the COVID epidemic when GOP governors did not enforce health regulations, such as masking, vaccinating, or avoiding mass gatherings. Women unable to receive reproductive care have died. The number of US fatalities will increase in all categories of morbidity under the incoming Trump administration to the delight of the Kremlin.

Senior US intelligence officials have already signalled their departure when Trump assumes the Presidency and only a sober and sane US Senate confirmation process of these odious Cabinet picks might help mitigate the future catastrophes that await the American people. But hope is not a plan as the US Army taught your humble author decades ago.

The American people can thank Fifth Columnists like these two grinning Republicans below for helping to hand over America to the Kremlin without the Russians having to fire a single shot.   

Examples of Lenin’s “useful idiots” You wonder how these two altacockers will feel when President Trump cuts their Social Security and Medicare benefits? (Photo: Jeremy Pelzer/Cleveland.com)

In October 1962, President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba to prevent Soviet nuclear missiles from reaching an island 90 miles from the American shore. The Cold War was inches or seconds from becoming atomic hot.

So terrified were people of a nuclear war with the USSR,  Noël Regney (music) Gloria Shayne (lyrics) quickly wrote and produced this melodic song (in the key of C Major) as a plea for world peace which you will no doubt recognize:

The Kennedy Administration competently and coolly resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis when the Soviets withdrew their missiles from Cuba; the US in turn removed Jupiter nuclear IRBMs from Turkiye and atomic Armageddon was averted.

So, what would WWII veteran and Cold Warrior President John F. Kennedy say today about Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” walking with Russian President Vladimir Putin pictured below?

45th President Donald Trump being led by his KGB handler in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018. In President Putin’s right hand are the detailed instructions he readied for his American protege. Putin speaks German fluently and English competently so he transmits his orders directly to Trump without need of an interpreter.

Sources:

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

Intelligence IGs head for the exits ahead of Trump’s return – Defense One

Cuban Missile Crisis

landscapecover.pdf

Alleged Chinese Spy with Links to Prince Andrew Banned from UK

Prince Andrew is pictured with the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming. Photo: @AmbLiuXiaoMing circa 2020.

A Chinese businessman described as a “close confidant” of the Duke of York has lost an appeal against a decision to bar him from the UK on national security grounds. The man, known only as H6, brought the case after being banned from entering the country in March 2023. H6 had formed a close working relationship with Prince Andrew.

H6 brought his case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a court set up to consider appeals against decisions to ban or remove someone from the country on national security or related grounds.

In the published ruling, the judge said that the then-home secretary, Suella Braverman, was “entitled to conclude that [H6] represented a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom, and that she was entitled to conclude that his exclusion was justified and proportionate”.

The court assessed that this meant H6 was in a position “to generate relationships between senior Chinese officials and prominent UK figures which could be leveraged for political interference purposes by the Chinese State”.

H6 was believed to be associated with the United Front Work Department (UFWD), an arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with conducting influence operations.

MI5 had expressed concern about the threat posed to the UK by political interference by China and that bodies such as the UFWD were “mounting patient, well-funded, deceptive campaigns to buy and exert influence”.

The Home Office said they believed H6 had been engaged in covert and deceptive activity on behalf of the CCP and that his relationship with Prince Andrew could be used for political interference.

In November 2019, Prince Andrew stepped back from royal duties amid growing public anger about his friendship with the late US financier and thoroughly loathsome sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Questions were subsequently raised about his finances after he reached a settlement – believed to run into the millions – in a civil sexual assault case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers. The disgraced prince has always denied assaulting Ms. Giuffre.

Prince Andrew (L) and the incredibly repulsive Jeffrey Epstein (R).


Last month, a royal biography claimed the prince’s brother, King Charles, had cut Prince Andrew off financially, ceasing to pay for security at his home or provide him with a personal allowance.

Lo, how the mighty have fallen. Far above the proletariat, rather than seeking gainful employment like the working class people in the UK or the US, Prince Andrew cultivated contacts with Chinese intelligence to enrich himself. MI5 and MI6 already have their hands full with Chinese and Russian espionage and here Prince Andrew further dishonors himself publicly by putting Beijing’s interests over London’s for a mere 30 pieces of silver. At least no one died by this nefarious relationship that the public is aware of.

Sources:

H6 v SSHD OPEN Judgment final for hand down FINAL

Alleged Chinese spy with links to Prince Andrew banned from UK

Prince Andrew’s funding cut off by King Charles, claims book

Senior Cat Caged Most of Her Life is Finally Free

Israel Destroys Syrian Naval Fleet

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

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

Destroyed Syrian ships in port. (Getty Images)

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

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

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

Source:

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

US Charges Two High-Ranking Syrian Officials with War Crimes

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

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

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

(Map courtesy of Alchetron)

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

dl

Four Taiwan Soldiers Charged with Spying for China

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The incidents happened from 2022 to 2024.

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

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

They face a maximum seven years in jail if convicted.

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

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

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

Source:

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

Japan: 46 Students Stricken with Scombroid Fish Poisoning

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Map: PBS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

Haiti gang massacres around 180 people, targeting elderly | Reuters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Map: worldatlas.com / Data: CIA)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We have two demands:

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

2. Unjustly imprisoned political detainees should be released.

Sources:

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

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

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

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

CIA

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

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

Donald Trump is Human Wrecking Ball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

SEX GAL NOW HELPING FEDS – HOOKER TURNS ON KUSHNER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Peach” also means stove or oven.

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

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

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

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

Source:

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

Donald Trump Hosted German Neo-Nazis Election Day at Mar-a-Lago

Phillipp-Anders Rau (41), an AfD candidate for the Bundestag and alleged porn star posted this photo of himself with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on 5 Nov. (Photo: parau_afd/Instagram)

Donald Trump gathered Elon Musk, his supporters, family and friends at Mar-a-Lago on US election day last month to wait for the results to trickle in. With him that day was a small group of neo-Nazi Germans.

Rightwing Beat Ulrich Zirpel posted this on social media:

“We just shouted ‘Kämpft, kämpft, kämpft’ (‘fight, fight, fight’) with president Trump at Mar-a-Lago Club right before election night!”

“Peace in Germany and Europe will be decided with the election in the USA, Rau wrote in an Instagram caption from Florida on 5 Nov. “Patriots have to work together internationally.”

Proud German rightwing Trump enthusiasts. (Photo: parau_afd/Instagram)

“In the three state elections in eastern Germany in Sep 2024, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won more votes than ever before, even though the party adopted particularly extreme positions in those states and has been classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency”.

According to the latest ARD Deutschlandtrend survey, 84% of AfD voters agree with the statement: 

 “I don’t care that the AfD has been labeled partly right-wing extremist, as long as it addresses the right issues.”

Citizens of the world and Americans must be wondering who won the US Civil War and the Second World War?

Christopher “Hammer” Pohlhaus (C) leads a rally with neo-Nazi groups Blood Tribe, and Goyim Defense League on 2 Sep 2023, in Orlando, Florida. (Photo: Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)

(6 Jan 2021 Photo/JTA-Saul Loeb-AFP via Getty Images)

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/07/far-right-activists-from-germany-spent-us-election-day-at-trumps-mar-a-lago

https://www.dw.com/en/germans-divided-over-far-right-afd-ban/a-70465031

US House Intelligence Committee Interim Report on “Havana Syndrome”

“AHI: A Real Existential Threat to the IC Workforce”

BLUF: The House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) suspects a foreign adversary is behind the Havana Syndrome. How far any executive branch investigations go under the new administration remains to be seen, but unlikely if the clues point to the Kremlin. Recently investigative journalists linked the Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI) to a Russian Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) unit numbered “29155” which CBS aired earlier this year.

Finding 1: The ICA on AHIs lacked analytic integrity and was highly
irregular, hindering the Subcommittee’s trust in the IC’s process and
conclusions.

Finding 2: The IC’s response to AHIs has likely impeded collection.

Finding 3: Congress’s oversight and investigation must continue with support
from the Trump Administration.

Opinion: Russian intelligence (GRU) covertly directed ultrasonic pulses at US personnel to harass, sicken, and degrade their capabilities. The US Embassy in Havana, had recently re-opened and these AHIs may have been launched to disrupt relations between the US and Cuba. Some CIA and FBI personnel said the Kremlin “crossed a line” by these AHIs, but the USG was unable to provide a conclusive “smoking gun.” No official reprisals were made against Russian intelligence personnel that the public is aware of.

Some US DEWs:

Link:

Click to access unclassified_ahi_report.pdf

Previous reports:

Click to access Updated_Assessment_of_Anomalous_Health_Incidents.pdf

https://www.state.gov/anomalous-health-incidents-and-the-health-incident-response-task-force/

https://theins.ru/en/politics/270425

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-year-havana-syndrome-investigation-finds-new-evidence-of-who-might-be-responsible-60-minutes/

Click to access IC_Targeting_and_Collection_Efforts_Point_Away_From_Adversary_Involvement_in_Anomalous_Health_Incidents.pdf

California BOLO Alert: Dangerous Convicted Murderer on Loose

Mug shot of Cesar M. Hernandez. (Source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

Cesar M. Hernandez (34) is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs approximately 161 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair and was last seen wearing an orange top and orange pants. He was sentenced to 80 years to life.

Cesar M. Hernandez has been on the run since 10:45 on Monday morning (2 Dec) after escaping from a van that was taking him to the Kern County Courthouse. Authorities did not disclose whether Hernandez was handcuffed or manacled when he fled.

The fugitive has been described as “dangerous.” Members of the public are encouraged to send in any tips they have about his whereabouts but not to approach Hernandez.

Anyone who sees Hernandez or has knowledge of his whereabouts should immediately contact law enforcement, call 9-1-1, or contact Lt. Anthony Sotello, the Incident Commander at (661) 721-6300 extension 5506 or at OPEC@cdcr.ca.gov.

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

Cesar Hernandez may have an accomplice to take off his handcuffs or manacles, as well as provide him a change of clothes.

Source:

CDCR Seeking Incarcerated Person Who Escaped During Transport to Kern County Courthouse – News Releases

Whither Syria?

 Abu Mohammed al-Golani (42) who deposed Bashar al-Assad (second from right). (Photo: circa 2016, AP)

Muhammad Al-Golani’s success on the battlefield follows years of maneuvering among extremist organizations while eliminating competitors and former allies.

Along the way he moved to distance himself from al-Qaida, polishing his image and his extremist group’s de-facto “salvation government” in an attempt to win over international governments and the country’s religious and ethnic minorities.

Rebel commander Anas Salkhadi later appeared on state TV and sought to reassure Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, saying: “Syria is for everyone, no exceptions. Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites, and all sects.”

Syrian President Bashar Assad has arrived in Moscow with his family and given asylum. Moscow had received guarantees from Syrian insurgents of the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria.

The US carried out a major round of airstrikes on Islamic State targets, warning the terror group against trying to regain strength in the country. The operation included dozens of airstrikes on over 75 targets involving ISIS operatives and camps using B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets and A-10 close-air support attack aircraft “to ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria”.  

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF to seize the buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria.

Just as the Taliban suddenly swept into power in Afghanistan, so did these Sunni insurgents. Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran were unable to help the Syrian Army. Demoralized and unmotivated, the army quickly dissolved, just like Kabul’s military causing both corrupt regimes to collapse with their leaders fleeing. Israel quickly offered the olive branch of peace by seizing strategic territory in the Golan Heights and striking suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets. The US pounded Islamic State (IS) guerillas not affiliated with the al-Golani’s bloc.

The key influencers in the new Syria will be Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, both countries that support foreign Sunni Muslim movements. Ankara also supports Arab and Turkmen proxies that target Kurdish militias in northern Syria where 900 US servicemen have been deployed to conduct anti-ISIS operations.

Jordan will have a central role with the new Syria. Amman has an excellent intelligence service and as a moderate Sunni government can act as an interlocutor between Damascus and her neighbors. But the Hashemite Kingdom is also concerned about the instability that a militant Salafist regime brings to the region. Secular Lebanon, home to several faiths, has similar concerns.

Iran and Russia are the biggest international losers with the ousting of the Assad Regime, but Moscow seems to have been able to secure its naval base in Tartus. Tehran lost an ally from the Shia Crescent. The same can be said of Lebanese Hezbollah which relied on their Shia-led neighbor for support. The other losers in this regime change may be Syria’s non-Sunni minorities which the Assad regime tolerated, such as the Christians, Yezidis, and Druze. And Bashir al-Assad was seen as the protector of the Alevi Shias in Syria who may face retribution at the hands of their new Sunni overlords.

An opposition fighter steps on a broken bust of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad in Damascus, Syria, 8 Dec 2024. The family’s 50-year rule finally ended. (Photo: AP / Hussein Malla)

Israel may have gained from the fall of Assad. But the new Sunni regime in Damascus may be more sympathetic and supportive of their fellow co-religionists, the Palestinians, who undergoing a genocide at the hands of the brutal Likud regime.    

Sources:

Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of Syria’s shock insurgency? | AP News

U.S. Central Command conducts dozens of airstrikes to eliminate ISIS camps in central Syria > U.S. Central Command > Press Release View

Pet Food Safety Recall: Blue Ridge Beef Puppy Mix Due to Salmonella Contamination

Blue Ridge Beef in Statesville, NC, is voluntarily recalling 9,600 lbs. of their 2 lb Puppy Mix due to a contamination of Salmonella.

The products were distributed between 6 and 23 Aug 2024 and packaged in clear plastic and sold primarily in retail stores located in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

Salmonella can affect animals eating the products and there is risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the products or any surfaces exposed to these products.

Healthy people infected with Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. Rarely, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. Consumers exhibiting these signs after having contact with this product should contact their healthcare providers.

Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever, and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.

The problem was discovered when a customer’s litter of puppies became ill and reported the issue to VDACS.

Consumers who have purchased this product are urged to return to place of purchase or destroy the food in a way that children, pets, and wildlife cannot access. Do not sell or donate the recalled products. Do not feed the recalled product to pets or any other animals. Wash and sanitize pet food bowls, cups, and storage containers. Always ensure you wash and sanitize your hands after handling recalled food or any utensils that come in contact with recalled food. For more information contact blueridgebeefnc@yahoo.com or 704-873-2072

This recall is being made with the knowledge of the Food and Drug Administration.

Source:

Blue Ridge Beef Issues Voluntary Recall Blue Ridge Beef Puppy Mix Due to Salmonella Contamination | FDA

Amnesty International: Israel Committing Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza

(Photo: ©Mahmoud Issa /Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them. Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.”

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recently released similar findings, linked below.

The IDF killed at least 44,612 Palestinians and wounded 105,834 since 7 Oct 2023. On 15 Aug 2024 the IDF claimed more than 17,000 militants have been killed. Who are the remaining 27,612 deaths?

At this rate, nearly 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza will have been killed by air and drone strokes by year’s end. These figures exclude West Bank casualties.

Nearly 100,000 homes in Gaza were destroyed last year; obviously more since the dated report linked below.

The massive pager and walkie-talkie sabotage attack Israel perpetrated on Lebanon in Sep 2024 was considered an egregious violation of international war by the OHCHR. The attacks reportedly killed at least 32 people and maimed or injured 3,250, including 200 critically. Among the dead are a boy and a girl, as well as medical personnel. Around 500 people suffered severe eye injuries, including a diplomat. Others suffered grave injuries to their faces, hands, and bodies. This incident and the the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank fell outside the scope of this Amnesty International report.

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud): “We’re rolling out Nakba 2023.” (Photo: Noam Moskowitz / Knesset spokesperson)

Avi Dichter is one of heck of a nice guy, isn’t he? If Mr. Dichter has dual Israeli and US citizenship, Donald Trump might ask him to join his administration. Remarkably, there are defenders, deniers, and apologists of this abominable genocide being perpetrated on Palestinians within the Democratic Party base. You may read their weak arguments and drivel in several liberal or democratic websites. Some parsed the wording of the Amnesty report in a feeble attempt to discredit it. And then these same polemicists wonder why the Democratic Party lost the anti-war vote and the election this past November.

Sources:

Amnesty concludes Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a79363-report-special-committee-investigate-israeli-practices-affecting

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/7/live-dozens-killed-as-israel-attacks-refugee-camp-nearby-hospital

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-12/ty-article/israeli-security-cabinet-member-calls-north-gaza-evacuation-nakba-2023/0000018b-c2be-dea2-a9bf-d2be7b670000

https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a79363-report-special-committee-investigate-israeli-practices-affecting

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


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67565872

US/Canada Product Recall: Anker Soundcore Lithium-Ion Battery Powered Bluetooth Speakers

33 incidents have been reported to the CPSC involving the lithium-ion batteries in the speakers overheating, some causing smoking and small fires, including one minor burn injury. 69,000 units were sold in the US, about 9,764 in Canada.

This recall involves the lithium-ion battery packs in Anker Soundcore Bluetooth Speakers sold exclusively on Amazon in 2023. Only lithium-ion battery packs in Anker Soundcore Bluetooth Speakers with models A3102016, A3302011 and A3302031 are included in this recall.

The recalled speakers can be identified by the unit’s “SN Code” which is visible on the underside of the Bluetooth Speakers. Consumers can type in the “SN Code” on Anker’s websites for these recalls https://us.soundcore.com/pages/a3102-recall and https://us.ankerwork.com/pages/a3302-recall to see if their product is recalled. Anker and Amazon have contacted all known purchasers. 

[b]Lithium-ion batteries can be dangerous. Watch below what happens to the poor dogs after chewing on a battery. Both dogs and a cat escaped the fire unharmed.[/b]

Source:

Anker Soundcore Lithium-Ion Battery Powered Bluetooth Speakers Recalled Due to Fire Hazard; Sold Exclusively on Amazon.com by Anker Innovations | CPSC.gov

Hawaii: Over 200 Cats Saved from Wildfire

Link: https://lanaicatsanctuary.org/

Emmanuel Macron and the Mass Murderer

Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L) welcomes French President Emmanuel Macron (R) at the Royal Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Bandar Aljaloud / AP)

President Macron is meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ostensibly to discuss peace in the Middle East during his three-day state visit just as a political crisis threatens to topple the French government.  The agenda includes ways to strengthen Lebanon’s military and the so-called “Two-State Solution” for Israel and Palestine. The optics of such a conference looks benevolent.  In 2021, Macron became one of the first Western leaders to meet Prince Mohammed in Saudi Arabia after the 2 Oct 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul.

But in reality, a President Macron is in Riyadh to drum up business for the French economy. A caravan of 50 senior officials from major French companies including TotalEnergies, EDF and Veolia, as well as start-ups in artificial intelligence and quantum physics accompanied him. Importantly, Paris wants Riyadh to acquire French-made Rafale fighter jets and all the incidental, technical, and training contracts worth billions that would come with it. This is directly meant to deal with oil-producing Shia-led Iran.

Rafale F3R Fighter Jet (Photo: Dassault Aviation / A. Pecchi)

Under the thin veil of finding peace in the Middle East, Emmanuel Macron is dealing with Muhammad bin Salman, the man behind the heinous torture, murder, and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. On 2 Oct 2018, the sadistic MBS listened in gleefully to the transmitted sounds of the butchery sent by his clumsy assassins. Linked at bottom is the official ODNI redacted version of this atrocity. Caught but embarrassed, the Saudi government eventually ‘punished’ the hit team calling it a ‘rogue operation’, but MBS walked away unscathed, becoming an international pariah along the way.

Undated photo of the late Jamal Khashoggi, Time’s Person of the Year in 2018.

But worse than this grisly murder which President Biden said was “unacceptable and won’t be tolerated,” MBS is responsible for the man-made famine in Yemen which killed an estimated 130,000 innocent Yemeni Shiites.

The Houthis are a Shia minority in Yemen, seen as apostates by the majority Sunnis on the Saudi Peninsula. After the Yemen government collapsed earlier this century, Saudi Arabia, led by the king and Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS), supported the Yemeni Sunnis in the ensuing civil war. After the Yemeni Shias defeated and humiliated the Saudi Army in 2015, MBS instituted a Saudi air and naval blockade of Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. This created a humanitarian disaster of starvation and disease. The UN estimates an estimated 130,000 deaths from lack of food, health services, and infrastructure as of December 2020.

Hashem Mahmoud Atin, a 10-month-old displaced child suffering from acute malnutrition and who is unable to reach a hospital for treatment, is held by his mother at a refugee camp in Yemen.

The famine and blockade propelled the beleaguered Shia Yemenis into the arms of Tehran and Lebanese Hezbollah, their fellow Shia co-religionists.  This is why we see Houthi drone counter-strikes against Western maritime targets in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden after Israel conducts an Extra-Judicial Killing (XJK) in Lebanon, Syria, or sovereign Iranian territory (via drone, missile, jet, or assassin). The Shia Houthis are simply supporting the two groups that are helping them to survive. This humanitarian catastrophe can be laid squarely at the feet of the notorious MBS.

Emmanuel Macron meeting up with the fabulously wealthy but odious Crown Prince for the sake of the stumbling French economy should come as no surprise. The President of the Fifth Republic recently stated that France won’t honor the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against PIFWC Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, unlike most of the EU. And France is the home of INTERPOL in Lyon. Jerusalem may have threatened to withhold the ceasefire with Lebanese Hezbollah (LH) to coerce that public comment from Macron, desperate to maintain influence in the Middle East.

While Macron (who heads La Francophonie and has a sizeable domestic Arab constituency) and MBS perform a kabuki dance about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank and calling for elections in Lebanon, they are really making mega-business deals. Arguably, Beijing has done more for the Palestinians than Paris or Riyadh.

Mahmoud al-Aloul from Fatah (L), Chinese FM Wang Yi (C), and Mussa Abu Marzuk, from Hamas (R) in Beijing on 23 July 2024. China successfully reconciled their differences. For decades Beijing has pushed for international recognition of Palestine; France, the UK, and the US have not.  (Photo: Pedro Pardo / AFP / Getty Images)

In all fairness to France, they are like the US in opposing Vladimir Putin’s Nakba against Ukraine and support his ICC arrest warrant. Both are sending Kiev military and economic assistance. France does not oppose Benjamin Netanyahu’s “special military operation” against the Palestinians and oppose his arrest warrant, like the US. If the French diplomatic corps can’t understand why their influence in the Arab world has waned considerably over the decades, their myopia is worse than I thought.

Sources:

Assessment-Saudi-Gov-Role-in-JK-Death-20210226v2.pdf

France, Saudi Arabia sign strategic partnership, call for fresh elections in Lebanon

Macron’s Saudi visit targets arms deals and economic diversification

Saudi crown prince approved murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi: U.S. intelligence report | CBC News

Hamas and Fatah sign agreement in Beijing ‘ending’ their division, China says | CNN

Saudi Court Sentence Five To Death For Journalist Khashoggi’s Murder – SKN News

Xi pledges more Gaza aid and talks trade at summit with Arab leaders | AP News

California Man Arrested for Allegedly Exporting Shipments of Firearms, Ammunition, and Other Military Items to North Korea

Kim Jong-un firing an automatic pistol. The photographer is ill-positioned as he is down-range of the weapon and no one seems to be wearing hearing or eye protection. (Undated image)

The FBI arrested Shenghua Wen (41) of Ontario, CA, for allegedly exporting shipments of firearms, ammunition, and other military items to North Korea that were concealed inside shipping containers bound from Long Beach through Hong Kong to North Korea.

The FBI seized two devices that he intended to send to North Korea for military use: a chemical threat identification device and a hand-held broadband receiver that detects eavesdropping devices. Law enforcement also seized approximately 50,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition that Wen allegedly obtained to send to North Korea.

(Photos: FBI)

(Photos: FBI)

Wen is a Chinese national who is illegally in the US after overstaying his student visa and is therefore prohibited from possessing any firearms or ammunition. Wen lacks the required licenses from the US government to export ammunition, firearms, and the other devices that law enforcement seized at his home to North Korea.

Wen is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

The MSS is a vast apparatus and unknown is whether the Chinese government was aware of this conspiracy or whether they looked the other way. Espionage continues to be a less expensive way of acquiring sensitive technology from the West. The 50,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition would most likely be intended for North Korean espionage agents or their Special Forces, like the ones who deployed to Russia to fight against Ukraine.

The Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol above is issued to North Korean spies and commandos.

North Korean supremo Kim Jong-un enjoying a cigarette and light refreshment while his people starve. Nine out of ten North Koreans suffer from food insecurity.  (Photo: 13 Jun 2022, Reuters)

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

Sources:

Office of Public Affairs | California Man Arrested for Allegedly Exporting Shipments of Firearms, Ammunition and Other Military Items to North Korea | United States Department of Justice

COVID Map Update Reveals New States With ‘Very High’ Wastewater Activity

More states are detecting “very high” levels of the COVID-10 virus in wastewater.

According to the US CDC, Idaho, New Mexico and South Dakota all had “very high” levels of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in their wastewater during the week between 17 and 23 Nov., Between 10 and 16 Nov, only New Mexico’s wastewater had this level of the virus present.

Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire currently have “high” levels of COVID-19, while “moderate” levels were detected in Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wyoming.

Nineteen states had “low” levels, while 14 states and Wash DC had “minimal” levels of the SARS-CoV-2 virus present in wastewater.

The COVID-19 virus is spreading but cases of illness are not exploding because of the previous vaccination program. If Americans do not want to endure another nightmarish lockdown, they should take annual booster shots and maintain good hygiene habits. Covering the mouth when sneezing or coughing, as well as washing the hands constantly will help.  The US Senate can assist by not confirming any of the frauds or quacks the President-elect seems to have in mind for his imminent administration.

Source:

https://www.newsweek.com/covid-wastewater-map-cdc-virus-levels-variants-very-high-levels-1994758

Why Israeli Men Volunteered to Fight, But Now Refuse to Return to Gaza

Excerpted from Fergal Keane’s excellent article. She is a Special Correspondent to the BBC.

Look at these heavily armed IDF soldiers warn this Palestinian child riding a bicycle. The troop on the left seems to be aiming his assault rifle at this waif. (Photo: circa 2012)

Yuval Green (26) is among those refusing to continue fighting in Gaza.

Yuval immediately answered his country’s call to arms after the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attack by armed Palestinian groups in southern Israel. It was a mission to defend Israelis. Then came the fighting in Gaza itself. Things seen that could not be unseen. Like the night he saw cats eating human remains in the roadway.

“Start to imagine, like an apocalypse. You look to your right, you look to your left, all you see is destroyed buildings, buildings that are damaged by fire, by missiles, everything. That’s Gaza right now.”

“Start to imagine, like an apocalypse. You look to your right, you look to your left, all you see is destroyed buildings, buildings that are damaged by fire, by missiles, everything. That’s Gaza right now.”

IDF soldiers pass by destroyed homes inside the Gaza Strip. (IDF Handout via REUTERS)

One year on, the young man who reported for duty on 7 Oct 2023 is refusing to fight. There have been social media posts from soldiers in Gaza abusing prisoners, destroying property, and mocking Palestinians, including numerous examples of soldiers posing with people’s possessions – including womans’ dresses and underwear.

“I was trying to fight that at the time as much as I could,” says Yuval. “There was a lot of dehumanizing, a vengeful atmosphere.”

His personal turning point came with an order he could not obey.

“They told us to burn down a house, and I went to my commander and asked him: ‘Why are we doing that?’ And the answers he gave me were just not good enough. I wasn’t willing to burn down a house without reasons that make sense, without knowing that this serves a certain military purpose, or any type of purpose. So, I said no and left.”

That was his last day in Gaza.

Yuval is the co-organizer of a public letter signed by more than 165 – at the latest count – IDF reservists, and a smaller number of permanent soldiers, refusing to serve, or threatening to refuse, unless the hostages are returned – something that would require a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The UN has said reports of alleged torture and sexual violence by Israeli guards were “grossly illegal and revolting” and enabled by “absolute impunity.”

Ten years ago, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, warned about this phenomenon in what he called the ‘religification’ of the IDF.

“Within this context, messages about Jewish superiority and demonization of the enemy are fertile ground for fostering brutality and releasing soldiers from moral constraints.”

Michael Ofer-Ziv (29) was an operations officer in a brigade war room. (Photo: Getty Images)

The decisive moment for Michael Ofer-Ziv came when the IDF shot three Israeli hostages in Gaza in Dec 2023. The three men approached the army stripped to the waist, and one held a stick with a white cloth. A soldier had felt threatened and opened fire, killing two hostages. A third was wounded but then shot again and killed, when a soldier ignored his commander’s ceasefire order.

“I remember thinking to what level of moral corruption have we got… that this can happen. And I also remember thinking, there is just no way this is the first time [innocent people were shot]… It’s just the first time that we are hearing about it, because they are hostages. If the victims were Palestinians, we just would never hear about it.”

Coriolanus wishes these young fellow warriors well in a future of justice, peace, and tranquility in the Middle East.

The numbers of war-resisters in Israel will grow as war-related guilt, pangs of conscience, memories of horror, and PTSD spread throughout the ranks. This is an all too familiar pattern with war. As noted in a previous post, high school girls will be refusing induction into the IDF, as did a young man who will face judicial consequences for his moral stand.

Gil Zalsman, the Chair of the Israeli National Council for Suicide Prevention, had warned about the “tsunami of mental illnesses” among IDF personnel in the occupied territories and the potential increase in suicide cases after the end of the war. He stressed that referrals to crisis and mental health centers in the occupied territories increased by 40% last year.

On 22 Nov, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper wrote that at least six IDF soldiers who fought in Gaza and Lebanon, committed suicide in recent months. In the US, an average of 20 veterans dies from suicide every day.

Our special thanks to Fergal Keane at “the BeeB.” Her complete article may be read at the link below.

Source:

IDF refusers: The men who volunteered but now won’t fight in Gaza

Israeli official warns against increase in mental illnesses in occupied territories – IRNA English

United States military veteran suicide – Wikipedia

Food Recall in California: Raw Farm Milk and Cream 

Raw Farm, LLC is voluntarily recalling its raw milk and cream products due to possible bird flu contamination. Californians are strongly encouraged not to consume any raw milk or cream products in their possession or still on store shelves. Pasteurized milk remains safe to drink.  

Raw Farm milk products have tested positive for bird flu at both retail and dairy storage and bottling sites in recent days. 

Customers should immediately return any remaining product to the retail point of purchase. 

While this voluntary recall only applies to raw whole milk and cream, due to multiple bird flu detections in the company’s operation the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) urges consumers to avoid consuming any Raw Farm products for human consumption including raw milk, cream, cheese, and kefir, as well as raw milk pet food topper and pet food kefir marketed to pet owners. 

In addition to the statewide voluntary recall, CDFA has placed the farm under quarantine, suspending any new distribution of its raw milk, cream, kefir, butter and cheese products produced on or after 27 Nov. 

No human bird flu cases associated with the product have been confirmed to date, and the state is working closely with federal and local partners to investigate the situation and better understand how it might impact consumers. California continues to monitor and respond to bird flu outbreaks in dairy cows and poultry. Bird flu virus levels have been demonstrated to be high in raw milk from infected cows, and sporadic human cases identified in workers in close contact with infected dairy cows and their milk indicate that raw milk is infectious to humans.   

Public health experts have long warned consumers against consuming raw milk or raw milk products due to elevated risks of foodborne illness. Outbreaks due to Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, toxin producing E. coli, Brucella, Campylobacter, and many other bacteria have all been reported related to consuming raw dairy products. Raw milk products are not pasteurized, a heating process that kills bacteria and viruses such as bird flu.

Pasteurized milk and pasteurized milk products are safe to consume because the heating process kills pathogens, including bird flu, that can cause illness.

Drinking or accidentally inhaling raw milk containing bird flu virus may lead to illness. In addition, touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands after touching raw milk with bird flu virus may also lead to infection. Symptoms of bird flu infection in humans include eye redness or discharge, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue, trouble breathing and fever. Anyone who has consumed these specific products and is experiencing these symptoms, should immediately contact their health care provider or local health department.

Pet Safety and Raw Milk Pet Food Products

​CDPH advises consumers to avoid raw milk “pet food topper” and “pet food kefir” products marketed to pet owners. They should neither eat this food themselves nor feed it to their pets. Cats, dogs, and other animals may become sick with bird flu after drinking raw milk. Cats on infected dairy farms in multiple states have died from bird flu, most likely from drinking raw milk from infected cows. CDPH encourages pet owners to avoid feeding their pets raw pet food products in general, including raw milk-based products. To further limit risk to pets, pet owners should also keep their pets away from sick or dead birds.​​

Pasteurized milk is safe to drink. Pasteurization, one of the most significant scientific food safety discoveries in human history, is the process of heating milk to specific temperatures for a certain length of time to kill many microorganisms and enzymes that lead to spoilage and illness. Pasteurization kills the bird flu virus and other harmful germs that can be found in raw milk. CDPH advises consumers not to drink raw milk or eat raw milk products due to the risk of foodborne illnesses.

Since early October, California has reported 31 confirmed human cases of bird flu, 30 of whom had direct contact with infected dairy cows. No person-to-person spread of bird flu has been detected in California or the US. 

Farmers should contact the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s bird flu hotline at 866-922-2473 if they suspect their animals are infected with bird flu.

Source:

State Secures Broad Voluntary Recall of Raw Milk and Cream to Protect Consumers

Stowaway On Delta Airlines NYC-Paris Flight Bypassed Security Checkpoints at JFK

Different flight paths between NYC and Paris.  

A Russian woman who stowed away on a flight from New York to Paris last week was able to sneak through the security checkpoint by starting off in a lane reserved for airline flight crews. Ms. Svetlana Dali (57) was able to get through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at JFK and dodge document and ID checks during the security process.

Once the woman proceeded to the gate, she placed herself in the middle of what appeared to be a family traveling together.

Investigators believe a contributing factor may have been the massive holiday weekend crowds at the airport. The TSA said it screened nearly 2.7 million passengers at US airports on that Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

TSA checkpoints at JFK (Photo: TSA)

The woman is attempting to claim asylum in France. But French authorities are apparently denying Svetlana Dali entry to the country because she doesn’t meet the criteria for asylum nor did she have a visa, leaving her in limbo in the airport.

The Russian national remains in France after allegedly causing a disturbance and refusing to board a return flight to the US a couple of days ago.

While Ms. Dali hasn’t been arrested or detained in France, she could face charges such as criminal trespass and theft of services upon her return to the US.

But it remains unclear how she was able to board the plane.

Once on board, Ms Dali moved from one bathroom to another and never took a seat until flight attendants began to notice. Once confronted, The stowaway repeated: “I do not want to go back to the USA. Only a judge can make me go back to the USA.”

The woman was expected to be accompanied by six US marshals on her flight back to NY.

Inspectors from the TSA are preparing a civil case against the stowaway after reviewing airport security video from inside JFK. The TSA cannot bring criminal charges, though it can refer them to the Justice Department. It’s unclear whether any criminal charges will be filed.

Delta Airlines has not said how the woman was able to board the plane once she made it past the TSA checkpoint but “is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred.”

This clever and determined woman was evidently hell-bent on departing the US. She may have been absconding justice or the prospects of living in the US under the incoming Trump administration may have been too much for her. Wealthy people have already begun their exodus, like actress Eva Longoria.

Investigators will soon determine Ms. Dali’s motive for fleeing the US and if she was genuinely seeking asylum in France. Instead of fining and punishing this woman, TSA, Delta Airlines, and the FAA should learn from her experience. Should federal charges be brought before Ms. Dali, they would be in the Eastern District of NY where some compassionate judges are sitting at the bench.  

Sources:

Stowaway caught on Paris flight attempts to claim asylum

Woman who sneaked onto Paris flight bypassed checkpoints by jumping into different security lines, TSA says | CNN

Mystery Disease in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Kills 143 People

The DRC has a population of 115,403,027; 75% of them live under the poverty line. (Map: CIA)

A flu-like disease that has killed dozens of people over two weeks is being investigated in southwestern DRC, not to be confused with neighboring Congo-Brazzaville to the west.

The deaths were recorded between 10 and 25 Nov in the Panzi health zone of Kwango province. Symptoms include fever, headache, coughing, and anemia.

The deputy provincial governor reported that between 67 and 143 people had died. He warned the population to exercise caution and refrain from contact with dead bodies to avoid contamination. WHO is aware of the unidentified disease and has a team on the ground working with local health services to collect samples.

Congo is already dealing with massive food insecurity as eight million internally displaced people (IDP) require daily humanitarian assistance.

Bulengo IDP Camp. (Photo: Concern Worldwide)

Moreover, Congo is also plagued with the mpox epidemic. More than 47,000 suspected cases and over 1,000 suspected deaths from the disease have been recorded in the Central African country. Readers may recall this terrifying, but controversial, bestseller below about the Ebola virus which became a TV series.

The DRC has one of the largest reserves of potential wealth, including 200 million acres of cultivable land and large reserves of gold, diamonds, copper, zinc, coltan, and cobalt. Yet, the DRC is the sixth-lowest country on the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI). 75% of the population live below the poverty line and GDP per capita is $1,500.

Since independence, the former personal territory of King Leopold II of Belgium has suffered from political instability, a lack of infrastructure, corruption, and centuries of both commercial and colonial extraction and exploitation. Just recently, Belgium has just been found guilty of crimes against humanity for the forced removal of five mixed-race children from their mothers in colonial Congo. Five plaintiffs were forcibly removed from their Congolese mothers between 1948 and 1953 as small children and sent to a Catholic mission far from their homes. The total number of such inhuman abductions by the Belgian colonial government has not yet been uncovered.  

The above Tintin book written in 1931 was once banned in several countries for its naive and racist portrayal of the natives while highlighting “benevolent” Belgian rule. Herge was, of course, a Belgian and conservative Catholic who survived Nazi occupation.  

Sources:

Health officials investigate mystery disease in southwest Congo after 143 deaths | AP News

World Health Organization

CIA

Democratic Republic of the Congo | World Food Program

The Democratic Republic of the Congo crisis, explained: Five things to know in 2024 | Concern Worldwide

Belgium found guilty of crimes against humanity in colonial Congo | Belgium | The Guardian

Why Humans are So Obsessed with Cats

Ukraine Russia Update: WMDs, Economics

Soldiers prepare to destroy a ballistic missile at the former Soviet military rocket base in Vakulenchuk, Ukraine, 24 Dec 1997.

The US is not considering returning to Ukraine the nuclear weapons it gave up after the Soviet Union collapsed, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

A New York Times article last month that said some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine the arms before he leaves office.

“That is not under consideration, no. What we are doing is surging various conventional capacities to Ukraine so that they can effectively defend themselves and take the fight to the Russians, not [giving them] nuclear capability,” he told ABC.

Last week, Russia said the idea was “absolute insanity” and that preventing such a scenario was one of the reasons why Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.

Kiev inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse, as it inherited Crimea, but gave up its atomic arsenal under a 1994 agreement (the Budapest Memorandum), in return for security assurances from Russia, the US, and Britain.

Former US President Bill Clinton has expressed regret about his role in persuading Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons in 1994. Mr. Clinton suggested that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if Kiev still had its nuclear deterrent. These security commitments were broken in 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, and further shattered when it began a wider war against Ukraine in Feb 2022.

Russia’s 2025 Budget: 35% for National Defense

President Vladimir Putin has approved a new, multiyear budget that sets defense spending for next year at record-high levels, signaling no let-up in Russia’s determination to defeat Ukraine.

The approved budget, which was published on the government’s main website on December 1, calls for 35.5 percent of all spending to be allocated for national defense in 2025. That’s up from a reported 28.3 precent this year. The $145 billion defense-related spending is at a level not seen since the Cold War.

The flood of government spending has caused the economy to wobble in recent months. Officials have steadily ratcheted up already high wages and benefits for volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine, a sign that recruiting efforts are growing more difficult as the war stretches on more than 32 months.

But that has resulted in labor shortages in many industries, driving up wages and prices. Prices for basic staples like potatoes or butter have skyrocketed in recent month. The unemployment rate has dropped to 2.4 percent

The central bank, meanwhile, has hiked interest rates to levels not seen in years, in a bid to cool down the economy. But that in turn has dampened real estate transactions — as mortgages become unaffordable — and prompted business leaders to grouse about the potential for bankruptcies.

The “Guns versus Butter” argument faced by Western democracies is not an issue for authoritarian regimes like Russia or North Korea and the common man continues to suffer with food insecurity and malnourishment. Iran has been cutting back on social services to help fund its defense against Israel, evidenced by the poor quality of food being served in their national universities. You may remember my recent post about food poisoning in Iran and the complaints from the students and teachers.

Putin’s Hypersonic Missiles Not Invincible

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed in a video address the day after the Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile destroyed a target in Ukraine that his superweapon could not be intercepted:

There are “no means of countering such weapons today. Missiles attack targets at a speed of Mach 10, which is 2.5 to 3 kilometers per second. Air defense systems currently available in the world and missile defense systems being created by the Americans in Europe cannot intercept such missiles. It is impossible.”

The Oreshnik is a new, experimental intermediate-range missile derived from the RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile. This hypersonic missile reached Mach 11 during its flight.

While hypersonic weapons present unique challenges to missile defense, experts and available evidence suggest that Putin’s claim is an exaggeration of the current technological realities.

Hypersonic missiles travel “at speeds greater than Mach 5” while maneuvering unpredictably, making them far more difficult to track and intercept than conventional ballistic missiles. Their speed and agility significantly cut the time defense systems have to respond, posing a serious challenge to current radar and sensor technologies.

However, describing interception as “impossible” ignores ongoing advancements in missile-defense technology. Systems such as the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense are designed to counter fast-moving threats, including some hypersonic missiles. While not foolproof, these systems are continually being upgraded to address evolving threats.

According to Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at the Oslo Nuclear Project, the US and Israel possess anti-missile systems capable of shooting down an Oreshnik.

“Systems like SM-3 from Aegis or Aegis Ashore, as well as most likely Arrow 3 and THAAD, can absolutely deal with this type of threat,” Hoffmann told CNN on 22 Nov.

Several countries, including the US, are developing technologies specifically aimed at countering hypersonic threats. Key initiatives include:

a) The Glide Phase Interceptor being developed by Northrop Grumman in collaboration with Raytheon. These companies are working under contracts with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to create a system capable of intercepting hypersonic missiles during the glide phase of their trajectory, when they are most vulnerable.

b) Advanced radar systems such as the new generation Long-Range Discrimination Radar are designed to detect and track hypersonic weapons.

c) Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) are laser-based systems being explored as potential countermeasures for hypersonic threats.

DragonFire DEW fires during a trial by the UK MOD in Jan 2024. (Photo: UK MoD / Open Government License

Despite Putin’s claim, Russia has not provided conclusive evidence that the Oreshnik missile is operationally deployed or that it has been tested in conditions replicating modern Western missile defense environments. So far, Russia has used Oreshnik once and against a country that does not have Western air defense systems capable of shooting down hypersonic missiles.

According to Maxim Starchak, an expert on Russian nuclear policy and strategic weapons, Moscow tends to exaggerate its capabilities and “itself may not actually know if air defense systems can intercept this [Oreshnik] missile. These claims remain unsubstantiated without tests or real combat attempts to shoot it down.”

Previous tests of Russian hypersonic weapons, such as the Avangard glide vehicle, have demonstrated capabilities but also faced skepticism regarding their real-world applicability and effectiveness.

Furthermore, the US and its allies have conducted successful interceptions of fast-moving targets in controlled environments. For example, tests of THAAD and Aegis systems have demonstrated their ability to intercept medium-range ballistic missiles, albeit inconsistently against hypersonic targets.

Putin’s statement fits a pattern of emphasizing Russia’s advanced military capabilities to assert strategic dominance and influence international perception. Previously, he made similar claims about the impossibility of intercepting other weapons systems, including the Sarmat ICBM and the Zircon hypersonic missile.

Despite Russian claims that the missile is on “combat alert,” the Sarmat has faced significant setbacks since its 2022 flight test, with four failed launches, the latest occurring on 21 Sep 2024.

The Zircon missile, capable of reaching speeds up to Mach 9, is one the Kremlin’s fastest hypersonic weapons.

Courtesy of graphicnews.com and Getty Images

Nevertheless, when Russia launched two Zircon missiles at Kiev on 25 Mar, according to Ukrainian sources, both were intercepted by air defense systems.

Photographs of missile debris were later published. Systems like the Patriot and the SAMP/T can destroy the Zircon in its terminal phase, slowing to Mach 4.5, a view supported by Western analysts.

“The good news is that in missile warfare, especially dealing with Russian weapons, ‘claimed’ and ‘actual’ capabilities are often very different. … Is Zircon an undefeatable superweapon: NO. Is learning how to counter it difficult, YES,” Sharpe wrote 3 Apr 2024 in The Telegraph.

Sources:

US will not return nuclear weapons to Ukraine 

Putin Approves New Budget With Record Defense Spending

Putin claims new Oreshnik missile is unstoppable, sparking doubts

Clinton regrets persuading Ukraine to give up nuclear weapons

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Urges ICC Member States to Address Threats to Tribunal

Chief prosecutor Karim Khan posing for a picture at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 27 May 2022. The Kremlin put Khan on a ‘wanted’ list after the Hague-based court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin in Mar 2022. (Photo: AFP)

HRW made the appeal in a statement issued before the annual session of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Assembly of States Parties in The Hague.

HRW said the court has been under “extreme pressure” since ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas’s Mohammed Deif. These include threats from US legislators who said they would impose sanctions on ICC officials and those cooperating with the court.

“ICC warrants, whether against Vladimir Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu, send a critical message that no one is above the law,” said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

“ICC member countries should make a commitment during their annual meeting to take all necessary steps to ensure that the ICC’s crucial work for justice can continue without obstruction.”

Notably, Special Counsel Jack Smith (pictured below) completed an assignment successfully prosecuting war criminals at the ICC before returning to the US to deal with Donald J. Trump.

Rejecting the arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu would make the US a rogue superpower.

President Biden has already recklessly said Netanyahu’s arrest warrant is “outrageous.” I doubt that US-AG Merrick Garland would agree with his boss since he assigned the former ICC prosecutor to go after Donald Trump. If the US does not abide by the rule of law, why would Washington expect its citizens or other countries to respect domestic or international laws?    

Moreover, the loathsome Benjamin Netanyahu– the “curse of Israel”– disgustingly went to a familiar tool in his bag by slandering those who say he is committing war crimes in Gaza as being antisemitic. Netanyahu uttered the same blasphemies earlier this year when hundreds of anti-war protests erupted on US campuses (and throughout the world) protesting the Nakba.

Well, that makes everybody pictured below, you, the loyal Followers of the Watch, as well as Coriolanus antisemites. How about them apples?

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who ran for President in 2016.

(Undated image courtesy of Forward Magazine)

Holocaust survivor Rene Lichtman (R) at a vigil in Farmington Hills, MI protesting the ongoing Nakba on 30 Jun 2024. (Photo: WSWS)

Climate activist Greta Thunberg (R) with friends (social media)

Sources:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/12/2/live-israeli-forces-kill-10-palestinians-in-north-gaza-four-in-west-bank

Sanders: It Is Not Antisemitic to Oppose Israel’s Assault of Gaza | Truthout

‘Sophisticated’ Spy Ring Passed Secrets to Russia for Three Years

Bulgarian nationals Katrin Ivanova (L) and Vanya Gaberova (R) are on trial at the Old Bailey alongside Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev. (Imagery: Elizabeth Cook / PA)

A “sophisticated” UK-based spy ring passed secrets to Russia for nearly three years and gathered information on targets across Europe.

Three Bulgarian nationals – Katrin Ivanova (33), Vanya Gaberova (30), and Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev (39) – allegedly carried out surveillance on individuals and places of interest to Russia.

Among those said to have been targeted were an award-winning Bulgarian journalist who worked with the late Russian opposition dissident Alexei Navalny. The journalist was allegedly the subject of discussions about killing or kidnapping him and taking him to Moscow. Other alleged discussions concerned the deployment of two female defendants in a “honey trap” ploy to capture more information.

Alison Morgan KC, opening the case for the prosecution on Thursday, said: “Over a period of nearly three years they sought to gather information for the benefit of Russia, an enemy of the UK, information about various targets, both people and physical locations. Information of particular interest to the Russian state. Their activity caused obvious and inevitable prejudice to the safety and interests of the United Kingdom.”

She said of the defendant’s alleged activities: “It was high risk and it was highly sophisticated. The defendants earned significant sums for what they were doing. None of them engaged in this activity blindly.”

The defendants allegedly worked with a number of other people who spied for Russia between 2020 and 2023 in London, Vienna, Valencia, Montenegro, and Stuttgart.

The spy ring included two more defendants, Orlin Roussev and Biser Dzhambazov, who have pleaded guilty to espionage charges. The defendants plotted with a Russian agent, Jan Marsalek, who was known as “Rupert Ticz” and was said to be an Austrian national, to obtain material useful to Russia.

Jurors were told that Dzhambazov (43) was in a relationship with both Ivanova and Gaberova, and the latter was formerly involved with Ivanchev.

Morgan said the defendants may try to “rely on the relationships” and suggest they were misled “or were simply following people around Europe out of love or dedication”.

The defendants were tasked to spy on prominent individuals of obvious interest to Russia, often because they were dissidents who had fled their homeland for their own safety. A range of activities were alleged including surveillance operations, following people around and finding out where they were and then reporting back to the Russian state.

Their nefarious activities allegedly included surveillance in 2022 at the Patch barracks, a US military base in Stuttgart, Germany, which the defendants believed to be a location where Ukrainian forces were being trained.

US Army Gen. Mark Milley, CJCS, meets with leaders responsible for the training of Ukrainians at Grafenwoehr, Germany, 16 Jan 2023. (Photo: Jordan Sivayavirojna / US Army)

Messages were exchanged between Marsalek and Roussev in which they discussed “options” relating to Christo Grozev, a Bulgarian journalist who has been the lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat, the award-winning investigative journalism group. These options were said to have included carrying out surveillance of him, kidnapping him and taking him to Moscow, killing him and infiltrating Bellingcat.

The defendants deny conspiring to collect information for a purpose prejudicial to the safety and interest of the state between 30 Aug 2020 and 8 Feb 2023. Ivanova also denies possessing 18 false identity documents, including British and other passports and documents.

The trial is expected to go on until February next year.

Another Russian espionage ring has been rendered ineffective by the British security services. As non-diplomats, these spies will be incarcerated once convicted and no doubt they will be traded in a future prisoner swap with the Kremlin. The head of MI6 recently told a conference in Paris that Russian espionage and sabotage operations in Europe are at the highest in 40 years. British and friendly intelligence services have less than 50 days to work with the USIC before the pro-Kremlin Donald Trump assumes the Presidency. Rumors are already circulating that high-ranking CIA personnel are going to resign once Trump becomes POTUS next year.

Source:

‘Sophisticated’ spy ring passed secrets to Russia for three years, UK court told | UK news | The Guardian

Hawaii: Avian Influenza Confirmed in Backyard Flock of Birds

(Map: Courtesy of welt-atlas.de)

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was detected in a backyard flock of various birds in Central O‘ahu. The property involved is within the area served by the Wahiawā Wastewater Treatment Plant, where a recent detection was reported through the National Wastewater Surveillance System.

This is the first confirmed detection of the virus in Hawai‘i. The virus detected here matches the strain that has infected  domestic poultry on the US mainland.

HPAI causes severe illness with a high mortality rate among affected birds. With the confirmation of avian influenza, HDOA today issued a quarantine order on the site which requires that all birds on the property be depopulated and the premises cleaned and disinfected. While confirmatory tests were being conducted, HDOA had placed a hold order, which prevents movement of any animals from the property.

Human illness with H5N1 is uncommon and reported symptoms among humans infected in the US have been mild. People in Hawai‘i are unlikely to get sick from H5N1 influenza at this time. H5N1 infection in humans on the US mainland have been reported almost exclusively among workers who have close contact with infected animals. The most common symptoms of avian flu in humans are conjunctivitis and upper respiratory symptoms like sore throat and cough. Sustained human-to-human transmission has not been reported.

To report multiple or unusual illnesses in poultry, livestock, or other wild birds or animals, contact HDOA Animal Industry Division at 808-483-7102 or 808-837-8092.

Residents who believe they may have been exposed to sick birds or other wildlife should contact the Disease Outbreak Control Division Disease Reporting Line at 808-586-4586 for additional guidance.

Americans can sleep well knowing that their next Commander-in-Chief and his tentative picks to lead critical USG health agencies have been roundly denounced as crackpots, dunces, and quacks. Only during the confirmation hearings can the US Senate save Americans from potential epidemics at the hands of mountebanks like Mehmet Oz, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Dr. Marty Makary, Janette Nesheiwat, or Paul Weldon.

Source:

Department of Agriculture | Avian Influenza Confirmed in Backyard Flock of Birds

China’s New Fighter Jet Compared to US F-35

Top, the US F-35; bottom Chinese J-35A Falcon Hawk. (Photo: AFP)

Produced by the Chinese aviation company, Shenyang, the new jet took more than a decade to build and strongly resembles the F-35 made by Lockheed Martin. USAF Chief of Staff David Allvin said “you could practically see where they got their blueprints.” In 2013, Defense Acquisitions Chief Frank Kendall told a Senate hearing that stolen F-35 data helped US rivals speed up their own fifth-generation fighter projects.

The J-31 is more svelte than the F-35, despite the fact that the Chinese model has two engines, while the US-made F-35 has one.

Chinese designers may have chosen to build their aircraft with two engines to give the jet more power, suggested one analyst.

But the design could have also been chosen for a more primitive reason: the second engine could serve as a backup in case of mission failure.

“Maybe they have less faith in the reliability of the aircraft,” says Greg Malandrino, a former US fighter pilot.

Chinese pilots will have to make do with a smaller workspace than American F-35 pilots. The US fighter jet’s cockpit is cushier, roomier, with a bigger canopy, while the Chinese plane’s cockpit reflects “a more utilitarian approach to pilot ergonomics.”

Chinese J-35A fighter (top) and American F-35 (bottom). (Photo: Chen Yang/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Malandrino, says he did not notice any significant differences in the design of the two cockpits. The cockpit of a fighter jet, whether Chinese or American, is not known for comfort. The seat is designed to provide the pilot with a way out of a tricky situation.

“You’re sitting on ejection seat,” he says. “It’s basically a rocket seat.”

All variants of the F-35 have a top speed of 1.6 Mach; the J-35 1.8 Mach. But in terms of stealth, the J-31 spits a lot of smoke from its exhaust pipe when it’s in the air, which could make it easier to detect the plane.

But experts agree that the real power of a fighter jet lies in the overall strength of the military they serve. Says Forecast International: “People are thinking about two jets operating in a dog fight. But in the real world, it depends on the entire combat system.”

“Until the two countries fight, it’s just guesswork. You really don’t know till the shooting starts.”

These two jets represent the cream of the crop in air superiority. Chinese espionage and copycatting US technology have evidently been successful. Decades ago, the USSR manufactured a space shuttle called the “Buran“ which looked like a twin of the US Space Shuttle, thanks to the KGB. See photo below. Air-to-air combat exercises will sharpen the skills of USAF and Chinese pilots, but as the analyst above wrote, no one knows the outcome until the battle joins.

Sources:

China debuted a new fighter plane. How does it compare to the F-35? – Radio Free Asia

The Reason Why This Soviet Space Shuttle Looks So Familiar | The National Interest

Morocco: One Dead, Twelve Stricken with Food Poisoning

(Map courtesy of worldeasyguides.com)

A 24-year-old man has died and 12 other people have contracted a foodborne illness caused by consumption of snacks from a fast-food restaurant in Agadir city. Some of the critically ill victims were admitted to emergency rooms. The authorities opened an investigation into the incident and the suspected restaurant has been temporarily closed.

This incident of food poisoning questions the monitoring services and their role in enforcing health codes and punishing violators.

The Al-Salam neighborhood and the Jet Residence area of Agadir have become a destination for professionals serving ready-made and fast food, due to its large population density and large variety of foods.

Westerners traveling to exotic destinations for vacation must exercise caution with the comestibles they enjoy. As we saw in Laos, alcohol poisoning killed several people at a resort. In this incident, locals were sickened and one killed. Tourists may want to inspect food inspection certificates at restaurants in foreign destinations, but that is not a guarantee of anything as these documents could easily be forged.

Source:

Agadir: Food poisoning epilepsy a young man in his twenties and sends 12 others to the emergency in critical condition.

Marmot’s First Bath with Electric Brush

This marmot is simply having the time of its life. Nice and clean! Imagine doing this to your cat or dog?

Footnote: Marmots are large ground squirrels with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. They are the heaviest members of the squirrel family. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, when they hibernate underground.

Will a domesticated marmot like the one above also need to hibernate during winter?

Source:

Marmot – Wikipedia