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://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:
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/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
CIA
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
Coriolanus 