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Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
1 01:33 Grom the Affective [20] 
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3 00:55 Grom the Affective [33] 
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19 20:18 Anomalous Sources [308] 
Page 2: WoT Background
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1 01:31 Grom the Affective [24]
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1 00:20 Grom the Affective [15]
1 00:29 Grom the Affective [16]
1 01:47 Grom the Affective [14]
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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1 02:04 Skidmark [12]
Page 4: Opinion
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Page 5: Russia-Former Soviet Union
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Page 6: Politix
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1 00:47 DarthVader [18]
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--Tech & Moderator Notes
Rantburg.com is moving to a new server — please donate!
by Chris Covert
Backend Mechanic
Purveyor/Curator of Russian news (Russia Desk)


On August 1st, I will purchase the first six month block for a new server. It will reside with a server provider I have used for more than 20 years. They are absolutely reliable, and this new setup will ensure instances of loss of service will be far less frequent and of less duration.

The new server will be the permanent home of Rantburg.com going forward. It will be hardened and sit atop a network, which helps mitigate DDOS attacks.

Data of the new server:
  • 2 x Intel Xeon E5530 Quad-Core CPU

  • 32GB RAM-DDR3

  • 1x 1000GB SSD HDD 1x 500GB SSD HDD -- Hardware RAID

It will take about three weeks to set it up. I plan for it to be fully working by September 1st.

  • By August 8th: Internals installed and tested, including the database

  • By August 17th: Firewall installed and tested

  • By August 25th: Tests for all the scripts that mods and regulars use to post articles, including setting up database backups completed.

  • On August 28: The Rantburg.com name will begin to propagate to the new server. In that time -- using the rantburg.com name -- service will be non existent to spotty. I will have an alternate name set up -- newrantburg.1dogstar.net -- which will ensure continuation of the service until the rantburg.com name is fully propagated.

Fred deserves a lion's share of the credit for keeping Rantburg.com going on his dedicated box with a broadband set up, but as I learned years ago, the quality of service is far less than you should expect on a professionally managed network.

It’s time for a major upgrade, one that, despite its monthly cost, will relieve Fred of the financial burden of maintaining his home service. The new server per month costs a lot less than the current service does.

The server will be a FreeBSD server, a dedicated Unix software suite I have used for many years. The backup server I developed for Rantburg.com - rantburg.1dogstar.net - uses FreeBSD, and the service has been working flawlessly for a year.

But we do require your help. I will invest the first six months of the new service; thereafter net of my costs for the new server, the money will go to Fred.

This time for this bleg, however, all monies go to Fred.

Fred maintains a Paypal account — link on the right side bar. He also has a Zelle account. If you email him and ask real nice, he will give you an address, if you want to send a check.
I tried the PayPal button for the first time instead of mailing a check — I don’t want badanov to be out of pocket after he fronted the cost in addition to doing all that work for free. Such things are very exciting for me. ;-)

Continued on Page 47
Posted by: badanov || 07/31/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [308 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks badanov. Setting up new web servers are fun!
Posted by: DarthVader || 07/30/2025 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Xeon was a good choice.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/30/2025 1:27 Comments || Top||

#3  How do you follow people on this site?
And how do you post memes and .gifs inline?
There is a button to post photos but it's bugged out. It just sprays a bunch of random text into my comment.
Posted by: Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 || 07/30/2025 2:39 Comments || Top||

#4  We don’t have a following capability, sorry. But you can ask someone to meet you in the O Club chatroom — which is for everyone, not just whatever officers would be here — and exchange information there, if the other person is willing. Posts there age out and disappear instead of being archived like here in Rantburg proper.

About gifs and things, I don’t know, but tweets have Embed and YouTube has Share.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/30/2025 3:29 Comments || Top||

#5  We have discord: https://discord.gg/MDHJEhuw

You can access the o-club here, but be advised between 15 mins. after and 35 mins after , odd hours time Zulu, the server is shut down to update the database (it also is the backup server). Loads of spam also is conveyed there, until a mod clears it out.

Posted by: badanov || 07/30/2025 5:34 Comments || Top||

#6  There is an informal group chat at Facebook, but you must get one of the participants to follow you.

My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/chris.covert.1441

My X page is https://x.com/badanov

Posted by: badanov || 07/30/2025 5:34 Comments || Top||

#7  You can contact me at gmail grurkka

I have two Rumble channel: Telnyashka and Rantburg.
Posted by: badanov || 07/30/2025 5:35 Comments || Top||

#8  It just sprays a bunch of random text into my comment.

I thought those were your comments.
Posted by: Skidmark || 07/30/2025 9:55 Comments || Top||

#9  "Use your words"
Posted by: Frank G || 07/30/2025 12:06 Comments || Top||

#10  #

This gibberish test is what happens when I press "foto" instead of the usual dialog box that lets you upload content. Like on every other social media site on the internet.
Posted by: Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 || 07/30/2025 12:29 Comments || Top||

#11  How do I block other users? Like the jerk who said my comments are random text. I don't demand others be censored, I just don't want to see them.
Posted by: Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435 || 07/30/2025 12:33 Comments || Top||

#12  ^ Close your eyes and hum
Posted by: Frank G || 07/30/2025 12:46 Comments || Top||

#13  #12 How do I block other users? Like the jerk who said my comments are random text. I don't demand others be censored, I just don't want to see them.

We have no provisions for that.

Sorry.

Posted by: badanov || 07/30/2025 12:48 Comments || Top||

#14  It just sprays a bunch of random text into my comment.

When I press Foto, I get a file browser window. Maybe you are not pressing the mouse right.

As for I thought those were your comments, I laffed.
I'm just a guest here, but as near as I can tell, the Three Commandments are:
1. Be insightful
2. Be snarky
3. Be both
Posted by: SteveS || 07/30/2025 13:15 Comments || Top||

#15  Rantburg’s code could use a bit of cleaning up, ‘tis true. Something badanov and Fred will look into after the current move is complete. When they’re ready we’ll put out a call for the list, and get it all done at once so that it all dovetails neatly instead of each fix cascading other problems.

At that point we’ll point out limitations deliberately built in to prevent spam and other malicious actors — because of the sandbox we play in, there are bad people out there who would do serious harm if it weren’t for the security precautions Fred has worked to improve upon since the early days of stopping script kiddie DDOS attacks on the Burg. Y’all remember the epically annoying temper tantrums of little JUSTICE from Saudi Arabia?

It occurs to me, Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435, that some of your complaints may because you tripped one or some of those safeguards.

But we aren’t ever going to install Mean Girl flourishes here, no matter how popular TikTok and Facebook.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/30/2025 14:33 Comments || Top||

#16  /\ Perfect.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 07/30/2025 15:59 Comments || Top||

#17  It occurs to me, Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435, that some of your complaints may because you tripped one or some of those safeguards.

I have another suggestion
Posted by: Frank G || 07/30/2025 16:50 Comments || Top||

#18  You all are cute with your Discord.

Xeon is the Cristal of Chips. Thumbs up.
Posted by: mossomo || 07/30/2025 16:54 Comments || Top||

#19  Looking forward to putting together my inaugural post!:

Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 07/30/2025 20:18 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Two participants in the attack on Pskov paratroopers were given 17 and 14 years in prison
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced two members of the gangs of Shamil Basayev
…Shamil Salmanovich Basayev, AKA Emir Abdullah Shamil Abu-Idris and by his kunya, “Abu Idris” (1965-2006). He was a Chechen warlord in the post-Soviet Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which after his death became the Al Qaeda-linked Caucasus Emirate. In 2015 most of the hard boys changed their allegiance to the local Islamic State affiliate, Vilayat Kavkaz, whereupon a majority chose to escape the Spetsnaz still hunting them by making hijra to the caliphate in Syria — those who survived the reconquest and the SDF prison camps are about to become the property of the HTS government of Syria, which will be educational for ll involved. Basayev is known for the 2004 Beslan school siege and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis (the Nord-Ost siege)…
and Amir Khattab in the case of the attack on the Pskov paratroopers of the 6th company in 2000. This was reported on July 30 by the Investigative Committee of Russia.

Residents of Kabardino-Balkaria Aslanbek Kazanchev and Anzor Batyrov (both are included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring) found themselves in the dock. They were found guilty under three articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - participation in a gang (Part 2 of Article 209), armed rebellion (Article 279) and an attempt on the life of a serviceman (Article 317).

“By the verdict of the Southern District Military Court, Kazanchev and Batyrov were sentenced to 17 and 14 years of imprisonment, respectively, to be served in a strict regime penal colony,” said Svetlana Petrenko, official representative of the Investigative Committee.

The investigation and the court established that on February 29, 2000, Kazanchev and Batyrov, as part of a united armed gang under the general leadership of Basayev and Khattab, took part in an attack on servicemen of the 6th company of the 104th regiment of the 76th Pskov division of the Airborne Forces. The attack, which lasted until the morning of March 1, took place in a mountainous and wooded area near the village of Ulus-Kert in the Shatoi district of Chechnya. As a result, 84 servicemen were killed and four more were wounded.

On July 25, the Southern District Military Court sentenced two members of Basayev's gang, Vakhit Khamzatkhanov and Takhir Begeldiev (both are included in the Russian Federation's list of terrorists and extremists), to 21 and 24 years in a strict regime penal colony for participating in an attack on Russian servicemen in Chechnya in October 1999. As part of a detachment of about 400 militants, they ambushed Russian fighters in the village of Chervlennaya in the Shelkovsky District. In the shootout, 15 Russian soldiers were killed and another 28 were wounded.

In May, the FSB published a video of the arrest of four members of the Basayev and Khattab gang, involved in attacks on Russian servicemen in 1999-2000. The operations took place in Stavropol Krai, Ingushetia, Dagestan and Astrakhan Oblast. The detainees were also in an ambush in the village of Chervlennaya. In addition, they participated in a battle with Pskov paratroopers near the village of Ulus-Kert in February 2000.


Continued on Page 47
Posted by: badanov || 07/31/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [14 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Europe
French ministers condemn ‘brutal’ force used to remove Franco-Jewish children from airplane
[IsraelTimes] Aurore Berge and Benjamin Haddad pan Spanish carrier Vueling over incident last week, say there was no justification for disembarkation of 50 summer campers

A summer camp counselor has accused Spanish law enforcement officers of using brute force against her during the removal of a group of French Jewish teenagers
…ten year olds are not anything like teenagers…
from a plane bound for Gay Paree from Spain, French government ministers and her lawyer said Wednesday.

Ministers Aurore Berge and Benjamin Haddad met with the counselor on Tuesday after French authorities last week contacted the CEO of the Spanish low-cost airline Vueling and the Spanish ambassador to La Belle France to determine whether the youngsters had been discriminated against on the basis of their religion.

Forty-four minors and eight adult French passengers were kicked off flight V8166 from Valencia to Gay Paree on July 23, for what Spanish police and the airline described as unruly behavior.

But the ministers said the counselor, who asked to remain anonymous and is described as "shocked," disputed that account. They say she described the crew as hostile from the outset, saying a child briefly sang but stopped when asked, and claimed no behavior warranted the group’s removal or the Civil Guard’s response.

"No action justified the disembarkation or the excessive and brutal use of force by the Civil Guard against the young woman, who has just been notified of 15 days of total incapacity to work," the ministers said in a statement, adding that her testimony had been corroborated by other passengers on board.

Berge is Minister for Equality between Women and Men and for the Fight against Discrimination, while Haddad is Minister Delegate for European Affairs.


…forced the children off the aircraft; they are now in Valencia, waiting to return to France.

In line with Hamas’s campaign of lies echoed by Al Jazeera, Haaretz, and others, we are seeing numerous severe antisemitic incidents recently; this is one of the most serious.


The counselor’s lawyer, Muriel Ouaknine Melki, told The Associated Press that she was left with bruises on her legs, arms and body after she was brutally handcuffed and held in an arm lock. Ouaknine Melki said her team is collecting evidence before lodging a complaint.

The Club Kineret association, which organized the summer camp, did not immediately answer requests from The Associated Press for direct testimonies from people who were removed from the plane.

A Vueling spokesperson said the passengers were removed after the minors repeatedly tampered with the plane’s emergency equipment and interrupted the crew’s safety demonstration. A Civil Guard spokesperson said the plane captain ordered the group’s removal at Valencia’s Manises Airport after they repeatedly ignored crew instructions.

Berge and Haddad also lashed out at a statement from the Spanish minister of transport, “equating French children of Jewish faith with Israeli citizens, as if that somehow justified the treatment they received.” Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente has deleted a tweet from July 26 in which he called the minors “Israeli brats.”
So sweet of him.
“At a time when antisemitic acts have been on the rise across Europe since the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, the ministers call on Vueling and the Spanish authorities to fully investigate and clarify the events,” Berge and Haddad said. “We will never accept the normalization of antisemitism.
Not when they can pontificate about it, anyway. The normalization that happens every day back in France in schools and on the streets is not worth fussing about.
We will always stand with our fellow citizens who suffer from antisemitic hatred, and we will never compromise.”
As you say.
Vueling has denied that the incident was related to the passengers’ religion. The Civil Guard spokesperson said the agents involved were not aware of the group’s religious affiliation.
Just that they were singing in Hebrew, which Catholics, Moslems, and even atheists do all the time, roght?

Continued on Page 47
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/31/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [33 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Spanish are the people who invented Limpieza de sangre - discriminating against Jews by blood and not religion.
Posted by: Grom the Affective || 07/31/2025 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Jews and Moslems both, following the completion under Ferdinand and Isabella of the Reconquista and their offer to both of a choice between conversion and expulsion.
Posted by: trailing wife || 07/31/2025 0:38 Comments || Top||

#3  ^Given the way current day Spain bends over and spreads it for Muslims ...
Posted by: Grom the Affective || 07/31/2025 0:55 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Over 100 aid trucks entered North Gaza via Zikim today, but looters prioritized grabbing high-value items like Nutella and sugar
[X]
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred || 07/31/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [20 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Food rots in Gaza while Africans starve!!!
Posted by: Grom the Affective || 07/31/2025 1:33 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Chechen member of Tahrir al-Sham driving around in Syria —seemingly with his new car

Continued on Page 47
Posted by: badanov || 07/31/2025 00:00 || Comments || Link || [15 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria/HTS



Who's in the News
21[untagged]
11Hamas
3Govt of Syria/HTS
3Islamic State
2Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
2Govt of Iran
1Hezbollah
1Narcos
1Palestinian Authority
1al-Shabaab (AQ)
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
1Devout Moslems
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1al-Qaeda

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On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2025-07-30
  In 1st, entire Arab League condemns Oct. 7, urges Hamas to disarm
Tue 2025-07-29
  PM said to propose Israel begin annexing parts of Gaza if Hamas again rejects truce deal
Mon 2025-07-28
  Up to 43 dead after attacks on church and homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo carried out by Islamic State linked group
Sun 2025-07-27
  The June 19th near battle between USS Reagan and ChiComs
Sat 2025-07-26
  Hamas reports 122 Palestinians, including 83 children killed by starvation in Gaza
Fri 2025-07-25
  Houthis Hijack Israel-Linked Ship In The Red Sea
Thu 2025-07-24
  Shin Bet detained a woman accused of plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Netanyahu using an improvised explosive device
Wed 2025-07-23
  Illegal immigrants are now 'going on strike' to protest ICE raids
Tue 2025-07-22
  Syria starts evacuating Bedouin families from Sweida in bid to restore calm after more than 1260 killed
Mon 2025-07-21
  Mali: FAMa announced that over 70 terrorists were neutralized
Sun 2025-07-20
  Clashes end in Suwayda after govt forces deployment, 940 dead
Sat 2025-07-19
  Hezbollah Leader Naim Qassem: We're ready to fight — no to disarming, no to surrender.
Fri 2025-07-18
  Libya: Armed clashes reported in Najila between militia forces and Dbeibah's defense units
Thu 2025-07-17
  Israeli airstrikes hit the Syrian Presidential Palace and the Syrian General Staff HQ in Damascus


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