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Today: 53 articles and 176 comments as of 14:52.
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Lebanese Army evacuates protestors from government buildings
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Wolesi Jirga Speaker calls for suspension of two Jirga officials who beat up MP Belqis Roshan
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Turkish ambassador in Somalia said Turkey has pledged to train 5,000 soldiers for the Somali National Alliance
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

"For nominal fee, separate Shipping & Handling charges and mineral/oil rights"
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Africa North
Through Turkey's mediation, Malta plans to steal Libya’s continental shelf
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Where is Malta going to store it or are they planning to fence it to Erdogan right away?
Posted by: AlanC || 08/09/2020 8:02 Comments || Top||

#2  For some reason I don't think the UK Airforce will be defending this time. They may get a surprise visit from some other country with aviation assets though.
Posted by: Thaith Elmeresing6163 || 08/09/2020 8:08 Comments || Top||


Reports of Italy preparing to withdraw its military units from occupied misrata airbase after growing pressure from Turkey
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  What ever happened to the Lepanto mindset, paisan?
Posted by: Mercutio || 08/09/2020 12:19 Comments || Top||

#2  That was the Spanish and the Venetians and loose change. "They" spent 450 years between then and now cutting Venice down to size and the Spanish Empire isn't exactly a going concern either. Even Generalissimo Franco is still dead.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/09/2020 19:41 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Juan Guaido to restore Venezuelan ties with Israel within days: newspaper
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Israeli media reported on Saturday, that "the leader of the Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south...
n opposition, Juan Guaidó
...President of Venezuela's National Assembly, recognized as president of the nation by countries other than Russia, China, Cuba, and kindred beacons of personal liberty...
, will work to resume relations with Israel after 11 years of estrangement caused by former President Hugo Chavez," following the 2009 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...
conflict.

According to the online newspaper Israel Hayom, the Venezuelan opposition leader "will seek to resume relations with Tel Aviv again."

The newspaper said, "Guaidó has appointed a Venezuelan of Jewish origin, who is Rabbi Pinchas Brenner, who led the Jewish community in Venezuela for years, as an ambassador to Israel, and in preparation for this step, a virtual embassy was opened via the Internet."

However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat...
they said Israel has yet to recognize any ambassador to their country.

The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez severed relations with Israel 11 years ago, in protest against the Israeli military operation at the time in the Gaza Strip.

His successor, Nicholas Maduro, would later follow suit and not restore ties with Israel.
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Turkish lira collapses to new low
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Ottoman Turkish lira hit new lows on Thursday as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
continues to face economic uncertainty with the lira continuing to fall and inflation rising.With a continued lack of foreign investment and tourism levels down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ottoman Turkish citizens are feeling the pain of the economic turmoil that threatens the country. In just two weeks, the lira went from around 6.80 to $1 at its lowest point to over 7.20 in the first week of August.

Ismail Berker Beysel, an undergraduate student and an IT analyst intern, has noticed the rise in prices lately. While the extent of the increase varies from product to product, he noted that there was a large increase overall.

"I had to make some adjustments to my shopping routines," he told Al Arabiya English. "But nothing too major. I canceled some of my online subscriptions because of increasing foreign currencies. Also, I focused on investments and savings to plan ahead."



Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  a year ago $1 got ~5.5 Turkish Lira

five years ago $1 got ~3 Turkish Lira
Posted by: lord garth || 08/09/2020 8:23 Comments || Top||

#2  With a continued lack of foreign investment and tourism levels down due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Like that's the only source of their problems.
Posted by: Raj || 08/09/2020 8:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Well they can stay afloat for a month or two selling those hats .
Posted by: Mercutio || 08/09/2020 12:20 Comments || Top||

#4  "How does a bankruptcy happen ? , First slowly , then all at once . "
Posted by: Thaith Elmeresing6163 || 08/09/2020 13:13 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Beirut would be ‘erased’ had full chemical load exploded, bulk likely stolen
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The amount of ammonium nitrate which led to the deadly Beirut explosion must have been much less than the original stockpile or else the Lebanese capital would have been "erased," Russian military expert Viktor Murakhovsky said.

The Beirut blast, which claimed the lives of at least 158 people and injured 6,000 others, was so intense it smashed masonry, shattered windows, sucked furniture out of apartments onto the streets and left almost 300,000 people in disaster-stricken Beirut without homes fit to live in, according to Lebanese officials.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
had said the earth-shattering kaboom was due to a stockpile of 2,750 tonnes of the industrial chemical ammonium nitrate, used in fertilizers and explosives, catching fire after having been stored at the port since 2013 without safety measures.

However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
Murakhovsky said that if the full amount announced by Lebanese officials did explode, it would have erased Beirut off the map.

The military expert added in an interview with Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that it is much more likely thon the lam amounts from such a stockpile were stolen over the years.
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  that it is much more likely that large amounts were stolen over the years

...or sold and sent to terrorist trouble spots in the region for IED and bomb making.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2020 1:08 Comments || Top||

#2  No wonder Nasrallah was upset.
Posted by: gorb || 08/09/2020 2:56 Comments || Top||

#3  I was wondering about that myself.

The 2700 tons of Ammonium nitrate should have made, assuming it all went off at once, a 1 to 2 kiloton TNT equivalent explosion but the various detailed measurements only come in at 0.1 to 0.3 kilotons
Posted by: lord garth || 08/09/2020 10:51 Comments || Top||

#4  On of the problems limiting the size of very large chemical explosions is how to get it to detonate evenly before the 'bomb' disassembles itself. Most large military bombs have multiple detonators distributed throughout the charge, both as backups and to beat the initial pulse through the charge.
Likely that huge cloud in the videos had a significant amount of 'unburned' ammonite, which then settled as dust downwind. Kind of like the unburned powder that fouls the barrel of your firearm.
Posted by: ed in texas || 08/09/2020 13:23 Comments || Top||

#5  per the various videos, e.g. this one,

there seem to have been 3 stages to the explosion(s)

stage one - white smoke with flashes at the base
stage two - larger red and black blast
stage three - even larger white blast, a half second or so after stage two, which evidently had a pressure wave

Posted by: lord garth || 08/09/2020 14:46 Comments || Top||

#6  I meant my previous comment to link to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNDhIGR-83w

but of course there are now a lot of versions of it
Posted by: lord garth || 08/09/2020 16:08 Comments || Top||

#7  It's not TNT. It's 2.7 kilotons of something lesser with the limitations described above. The live video points to a 1.5 kt or so blast. BDA should give a decent estimate.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 08/09/2020 16:45 Comments || Top||

#8  stage three - even larger white blast, a half second or so after stage two, which evidently had a pressure wave

That's the ground turned to dust. Result is the crater. As the downward portion of the blast is now reflect back up, you get the highest pressure difference and the formation of the shock wave from the ground up.
Posted by: Omick Turkeyneck9291 || 08/09/2020 19:32 Comments || Top||


Lebanon PM Diab to call for early polls after deadly blast
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Turkey offers to rebuild Beirut Port after explosion
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  Us regular folk would call it a foothold.
Posted by: Raj || 08/09/2020 8:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Take it up with Iran. It’s their property.
Posted by: Grunter || 08/09/2020 18:47 Comments || Top||


Satellite photos show ship that carried explosive cargo sunk at Beirut Port
[ALMASDARNEWS] Photos have emerged of the abandoned ship that transported the volatile cargo that went kaboom! in the port of Beirut, 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...
.
The New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...

has published satellite images of the submerged hull of the ship, the MV Rhosus, on the northern edge of the port.

According to the newspaper, the 86-metre-long single-deck vessel, flying a Moldovan flag and owned by Cyprus-based businessman Igor Grechushkin, began sinking in February 2018 after years of being stranded in the port.


​The ship was carrying 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate — commonly used as an agricultural fertiliser — from Georgia to Mozambique in the autumn of 2013. It made an unscheduled stop in Beirut after it suffered a malfunction, Lebanese lawyers representing the crew wrote in 2015.

The New York Times reports, citing then-captain Boris Prokoshev, that the ship had actually docked to pick up additional cargo to be transported to Jordan for extra cash.

Port officials barred the Rhosus from sailing upon inspecting the ship, according to the lawyers, and it was abandoned by owners after charterers lost interest in the cargo.


Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/09/2020 16:27 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2020-08-09
  Lebanese Army evacuates protestors from government buildings
Sat 2020-08-08
  Portland mayor unleashes police on violent demonstrations
Fri 2020-08-07
  Pakistain Borrows $1 Billion from Chinese Peter To Pay Back $1 Billion Saudi Paul
Thu 2020-08-06
  DOJ Atty reveals 300 domestic terrorists investigations have been opened since May 28th
Wed 2020-08-05
  Death toll from Beirut blast reaches 100 but is expected to rise even further
Tue 2020-08-04
  Beruit goes BOOM!
Mon 2020-08-03
  Israel army says it has foiled a terror attack at the border with Syria
Sun 2020-08-02
  Turkish brig.-gen. executed for revealing Qatari funding of jihadists
Sat 2020-08-01
  Turkey Sends Fighter Jets to Azerbaijan After Threat to Bomb a Nuclear Power Plant
Fri 2020-07-31
  Indonesian Court Convicts, Sentences Top 2 Jemaah Islamiyah Militants
Thu 2020-07-30
  ISIS claims responsibility for killing of top Iraqi commander
Wed 2020-07-29
  Iran launched several ballistic missiles from Iran to the Southern Arabian Gulf
Tue 2020-07-28
  Germany arrests ISIS woman who abused Yezidi woman in Syria
Mon 2020-07-27
  Islamic extremists in Nigeria execute 5 men as warning against converting to Christianity
Sun 2020-07-26
  Allahu akbar: Turks hold Hagia Sophia triumphal march

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