Jessica Beauvais, 32, was arraigned in Queens Supreme Court on Tuesday on a 13-count indictment in connection with a fatal hit-and-run of an NYPD cop
She faces up to 15 years in prison
Beauvais allegedly ran over Officer Anastasios Tsakos, 43, on the Long Island Expressway while driving drunk and sped off
Prosecutors described how Beauvais allegedly whined: 'Why did my first accident have to be a cop?' as she sat in the back of a squad car after her arrest
She posted a livestream hours earlier downing drinks and and saying 'f**k the police'
Tsakos, 43, left behind a wife and two young children
[KhaamaPress] Australian embassy in Afghanistan is expected to be closed days before foreign troops completely leave the country.
Department of Foreign Affairs and business officials will visit Afghanistan through other residential posts, The Canberra Times reported.
Scott Morrison Australian Prime Minister said, "It is Australia’s expectation that this measure will be temporary and that we will resume a permanent presence in Kabul once circumstances permit".
Scott Morrison Australian Prime Minister said, "It is Australia’s expectation that this measure will be temporary and that we will resume a permanent presence in Kabul once circumstances permit".
"This form of diplomatic representation is common practice around the world. It does not alter our commitment to Afghanistan or its people," he was quoted by The Canberra Times.
Uncertain security situations due to international troops’ withdrawal are said to have triggered such actions to be executed.
"The government has been advised that security arrangements could not be provided to support our ongoing diplomatic presence," Morrison said.
The embassy is expected to close by May 28, and the country currently has about 80 Australian troops stationed in Afghanistan who are soon scheduled to head home.
#Taliban, on Tuesday, pledged to provide a “safe environment” to foreign diplomats, after #Australia announced it would shutter its embassy over security concerns.https://t.co/5J7dC6tjSW
— Alghadeer English (@alghadeertv_eng) May 25, 2021
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2021 00:00 ||
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[All Africa] Attacks by jihadists in the north of Mozambique have terrorised the population, who have been forced to flee the violence. Many Mozambicans have opened their homes to accommodate the displaced, but host families are already struggling with their own precarious food situation, according to humanitarian workers on the ground.
"Because of the drought, it's not looking good for the three northern provinces, so the economic pressure on the host community is increasing," said Pierre Lucas, the World Food Programme's assistant director in Mozambique.
"This is why in addition to 750,000 internally displaced people, the local population is also at risk of food insecurity and the numbers are increasing."
Since October 2017, terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique have caused 2,500 deaths, according to the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... , resulting in more than 700,000 displaced people.
The last major attack occurred on 24 March in Palma, near Afungi, where French energy giant Total is building its largest gas investment on the African continent.
While there were "dozens" but no confirmed body counts after the attack, the International Organization on Migration estimates at least 50,000 people fled from Palma. Many are still in hiding and remain unreachable.
The massacres in Palma pushed the displaced into urban areas where people have very little themselves, but they continue to help their fellow Mozambicans in true solidarity, Sylvie Kaczmarczyk, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) told RFI in Pemba.
"There are food needs, even for the people living there for the past year - it's still a question of getting food daily," said Kaczmarczky. "It's very impressive that the situation is not getting tense."
But that's exactly what the WFP's Lucas fears. "This is why we and other partners are looking at these hosting communities and how we design our programme," he said. "The province already had the highest rate for moderate and severe food insecurity."
And while food and space is tight in urban areas, those who have moved to internally displaced people's (IDP) camps are truly in need - there are no shelters, running water is an hour's walk away and there are no services in place.
"In host communities, IDPs don't have job opportunities, but they have a roof and food," said La Belle Francesca Fontanini, Senior External Relations for UNHCR.
"For those living in IDP camps there is nothing - no water, no medicine, many people sick after walking for 10 days or living in the bush, and there are many cases of malnutrition. They need a shelter and they are sleeping under the sky without a sleeping mat," she added.
"In the camp, displaced people want a life. What they have there is not a life," said MSF's Kaczmarczky.
[IsraelTimes] A mysterious air base is being built on a volcanic island off Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... that sits in one of the world’s crucial maritime chokepoints for both energy shipments and commercial cargo.
While no country has claimed the Mayun Island
...also known as Perim Island, per Gerthudion Whomoper3485 in comments...
air base in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping traffic associated with a prior attempt to build a massive runway across the 5.6-kilometer (3.5 mile)-long island years ago links back to the United Arab Emirates.
Officials in Yemen’s internationally recognized government now say the Emiratis are behind this latest effort as well, even though the UAE announced in 2019 it was withdrawing its troops from a Saudi-led military campaign battling Yemen’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... rebels.
"This does seem to be a longer-term strategic aim to establish a relatively permanent presence," says Jeremy Binnie, the Mideast editor at the open-source intelligence company Janes who has followed construction on Mayun for years. It’s "possibly not just about the Yemen war and you’ve got to see the shipping situation as fairly key there."
Emirati officials in Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s Embassy in Washington do not respond to requests for comment.
The runway on Mayun Island allows whoever controls it to project power into the strait and easily launch Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s into mainland Yemen, convulsed by a yearslong bloody war. It also provides a base for any operations into the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and nearby East Africa.
#4
Nothing about Mayun Island in the archives, but Perim Island got some hits. It seems the Saudi coalition took it away from the Houthis in 2015, which would support the UAE theory.
[KhaamaPress] Islamabad on Monday denied reports of US military base construction inside Pak soil as international troops are working to pull out of Afghanistan
Pakistain’s Foreign Office in a press statement said that "there is no US military or airbase in Pakistain, nor is any such proposal envisaged. Any speculation on this account is baseless and irresponsible and should be avoided".
It was stated that Pak-US currently have an essential structure of cooperation in terms of ground and air-lines of communications since 2001.
According to the statement, no new agreements were put on the table in regards to the construction of the military base.
Earlier, Ariana News (ATN) in a report claimed US forces have already begun constructing a large military base across the "Durand Line" in the Shalozan Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... area of Zazai Aryub district in Pakistain the area borders Paktia province in Afghanistan.
Paktia’s provincial council told the media outlet that "the base is under construction 8km from the Durand Line inside Pakistain and "supplies are being delivered via air and ground every day".
This comes at as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in a telephonic conversation with General Qamar Javed Bajwa on discussed regional objectives and interests.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby in a recent statement said "during the call, Secretary Austin reiterated his appreciation for Pakistain’s support for Afghanistan Peace Negotiations and expressed his desire to continue to build on the U.S. — Pakistain bilateral relationship,".
"Secretary Austin and General Bajwa discussed regional dynamics and our shared interest in security and stability in the region," the statement read.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/26/2021 00:00 ||
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#1
Secretary Austin and General Bajwa discussed ... our shared interest in security and stability in the region
#2
... our shared interest in security and stability and how we might make a little money...
"there is no US military or airbase in Pakistain, nor is any such proposal envisaged. Any speculation on this account is baseless and irresponsible and should be avoided".
[AlAhram] Hundreds of Iraqis were repatriated Tuesday from a Kurdish-run camp in northeast Syria in the first such round of departures, two officials with the Kurdish administration told AFP.
"On Tuesday 94 Iraqi families, or 381 people, left the al-Hol camp, under Iraqi army escort," said a Kurdish administration official on condition of anonymity.
The transfer came as part of an agreement between the Iraqi government and the multinational coalition battling the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, he said.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Iraqi government.
The families "will be transferred to a camp in Iraqi territory," the official added without specifying its location.
He said the departures mark the "first wave" of Iraqi families to leave the al-Hol camp which is home to more than 60,000 people, including relatives of IS fighters.
Iraqis make up nearly half of al-Hol's total population, according to the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... "The families, escorted by the Iraqi army, left the camp and are now heading for the Iraqi border," a security official at the camp told AFP, also speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... It was not immediately clear if and when a second transfer would take place.
In February, Kurdish forces handed over 100 suspected Iraqi jihadists to Baghdad, according to an Iraqi security source.
Some 1,600 Iraqis suspected of having fought for IS were still being held by Kurdish forces, according to a UN report published in early February.
Since the fall of IS's self-styled "caliphate" in March 2019, Syria's Kurds have repeatedly urged the international community to repatriate foreign nationals held in northeast Syria.
But these calls have largely fallen on deaf ears with only some, mostly children, allowed to return so far.
Blinken says that $5.5 million will be for immediate relief in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... following recent hostilities between Israel and Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, as well as $32 million in additional humanitarian aid.
Blinken says he has informed both Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase.... and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the matter.
TV: Israel conditions steps for Palestinians on ending ICC war crimes push
[IsraelTimes] Israeli officials have told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that it’ll be "nearly impossible" to take steps benefiting the Paleostinians while the Paleostinian Authority cooperates with the International Criminal Court in a war crimes probe against Israel, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
So long as the Paleostinians actively push for Israeli soldiers to be arrested abroad, "Israel won’t be able to advance confidence-building steps vis-à-vis the Paleostinian Authority," Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi is quoted as telling Blinken.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2021 00:00 ||
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[NPASYRIA] al-Arin charity, affiliated with the wife of the Syrian president, distributed food aid in the Qanawat district in Damascus on Monday, as the residents said it is to support the election campaign.
On April 29, Luna al-Shibl, Syrian Presidential Media Consultant, announced the launch of the election campaign for the current president on May 5.
The elections will be held on Wednesday and the candidates are Abdullah Salloum Abdullah, Bashir al-Assad, and Mahmoud Ahmad Merei.
A lawyer residing in Damascus, who preferred not to be named, believes that after ten years of war, the regime is still operating according to the same previous mentality that produced the current situation.
He added in a statement to North Press that "the supporters provoke me with a pre-determined election, especially as they predetermine a date for the celebration again on the day after what they call the renewal of the pledge of allegiance."
Employees in Damascus complain of being forced to march in support of Assad, under penalty of accountability for those who refuse to participate.
Khalid al-Turk (a pseudonym), an employee at the Ministry of Culture, said, "Ministry officials and members of the party division in it force employees to march in support of Assad on an almost daily basis."
On Monday evening, an election rally for Assad was held in Tishreen Park in the center of the capital, with the participation of the staff of Dar al-Assad for Culture and Arts, according to al-Turk.
Today the government-held areas enter the "electoral silence" stage, as all forms of election campaigning for candidates must stop.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2021 00:00 ||
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[JPOST] Any violations of Jerusalem will cause a "regional war," warned Hezbollah Secretary-General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... on Tuesday in his first speech since before Operation Guardian of the Walls began over two weeks ago.During the operation, Nasrallah did not make any statements and Hezbollah officials remained relatively quiet, with only one or two statements made besides for an official statement issued by the terrorist movement after the ceasefire.
Nasrallah stated on Tuesday that he had not made any statements in recent weeks because he had been sick. The Hezbollah leader delivered the speech in a quiet, raspy voice and appeared to have difficulty keeping his head up.
The Hezbollah leader stated that Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... surprised "both friend and foe" when it carried out its threat to launch rockets at Jerusalem in response to the unrest surrounding Sheikh Jarrah and the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Nasrallah stressed that Israel "misjudged" the impact of its moves, saying that Jerusalem entered a "very dangerous phase" which led to the conflict. He added that the escalation by Gaza was a "historic step" that must be "understood properly and built upon properly."
Nasrallah stressed that "violating" holy sites in Jerusalem differs from any other matter and that the reaction would be "different" than the reaction to the liquidation of commanders or destruction of homes.
The Hezbollah leader warned that Israel must understand that "any violation of Jerusalem won't stop at Gaza" terrorist groups.
"We won't substitute Paleostinians, but stand behind and next to them," said Nasrallah, calling for the creation of a "new equation" in which any violation of Jerusalem would lead to a regional war which would result in "Israel's destruction."
Nasrallah warned Israel "do not misjudge Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , as you did with Gaza, knowing that our situation is different."
The threat by Nasrallah comes after festivities were reported between police and Paleostinians on the Temple Mount in recent days.
Nasrallah emphasized the importance of Arab-Israelis acting in a unified manner with Paleostinians in Gaza and the West Bank. He added that Operation Guardian of the Walls (referred to as Sword of Jerusalem by Paleostinians) "revived" the Paleostinian issue in the global arena and dealt a blow to normalization efforts by Israel in the region.
"I can definitely say after Sword of Jerusalem that the Deal of the Century is over," said Nasrallah. "Before that, I used to always equivocate. Now I can say this with certainty."
The Hezbollah leader added that the decision by Israel not to carry out a ground invasion was the "most important manifestation of failure."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2021 00:00 ||
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#1
Hezbollah embarrassed by their current status
-Not able to extend Assad's territory in Syria
- not able to staff areas near border w Israel in Syria
- not able to make any help to Hamas
- even other Shiites are complaining about their domination and corruption in Lebanon
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/26/2021 10:47 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
Kurram Agency
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
