[SUDANTRIBUNE] Sudan is teetering on the edge of a catastrophic escalation in violence and a devastating famine that could claim hundreds of thousands of lives, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T rk warned on Thursday.
The ongoing conflict, marked by widespread human rights abuses and a collapsing humanitarian situation, threatens regional stability.
Since fighting erupted in 2023, Sudan has become the world's largest humanitarian and displacement crisis. ''We are looking into the abyss,'' T rk stated, highlighting the desperate plight of the Sudanese people.
More than 600,000 people are facing imminent starvation, with famine already reported in five areas, including the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur. The World Food Programme recently suspended operations in Zamzam due to intense fighting, further jeopardizing food security. An additional five areas are projected to face famine within the next three months, and 17 more are at high risk.
The conflict has displaced an estimated 8.8 million people within Sudan, while another 3.5 million have fled to neighbouring countries. A staggering 30.4 million people — a significant portion of Sudan's population — require humanitarian assistance. Less than 30% of hospitals and clinics remain operational, and disease outbreaks are rampant in overcrowded displacement camps.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2025 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
”We’ll placate the big, dumb oaf with a superficial trade thing so he doesn’t notice our continued war against the Jewish entity.”
[IsraelTimes] South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says that he wants to “do a deal” with US President Donald Trump to resolve a dispute over his country’s land policy and genocide case against Israel at the World Court.
Trump cut US financial assistance to South Africa in an executive order this month, citing disapproval of its approach to land reform and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Washington’s close ally.
Ramaphosa tells a conference organized by US bank Goldman Sachs in Johannesburg that he wanted the “dust to settle” after the executive order, but that the longer-term goal was to go to Washington to mend relations.
“We don’t want to go and explain ourselves. We want to go and do a meaningful deal with the United States on a whole range of issues,” Ramaphosa says. “I’m very positively inclined to promote a good relationship with President Trump.”
Ramaphosa does not say what the deal could involve, only that it could touch on trade, diplomatic, and political matters. "Give us money"
South Africa is not hugely dependent on US aid, but some fear that its preferential trade status under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) could be under threat with Trump in the White House.
The country tries to project itself as non-aligned in geopolitical conflicts, not tying its interests too closely to those of rival powers the United States, China, and Russia.
But Trump has cited the ICJ case as an example of South Africa taking positions against Washington and its allies.
#2
Their transition to Cuba began in 1995. Pretty much a steady decline and exit of talent and huge influx of migrants. President Johnson's "Great Society on steroids.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The approximate damage caused to Crocus Group by the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk near Moscow amounted to 150-200 million dollars. These figures were given to RIA Real Estate by Emin Agalarov, president of Agalarov Development, son of Crocus Group owner Araz Agalarov.
Speaking about financial losses, Emin Agalarov emphasized that the terrorist attack is, first and foremost, “a huge tragedy for people.”
“From a business perspective, this was a devastating effect for the entire Crocus Group; the work of all facilities was paralyzed and attendance decreased,” the businessman said, adding that Crocus City Hall was visited daily by 6–7 thousand people.
What will happen to the destroyed concert hall is still unknown; there is no certainty, he clarified.
According to Agalarov, about 70 million dollars were spent on the construction of the building 15 years ago.
“The damage to the concert hall itself is about 100 million. The damage to the shopping center from the loss of attendance is about the same, 150-200 million,” the company’s president concluded.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall was carried out on March 22, 2024. They broke into the concert hall filled with people and opened fire, then started a fire. As a result of the attack, 144 people were killed and another 551 were injured.
The criminal case against 19 persons involved in the terrorist attack was separated into a separate proceeding.
President Vladimir Putin said that the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall was carried out by radical Islamists, but Russia is interested in who ordered it. Information received from those detained confirms the Ukrainian connection to the terrorist attack, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov said earlier. He stressed that the Islamists could not have prepared the terrorist attack at Crocus themselves; they were assisted.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/28/2025 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Australia’s 39 universities have endorsed a definition of antisemitism to be enforced on campuses, using a formulation closely aligned with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition.
We’ll see if this is just posturing or real. Given that the antisemitism task just arrested a bunch of Eastern European immigrants for drunkenly doing a Nazi salute, it’s quite possible the zeitgeist is still at the fig leaf stage.
The decision follows the findings of the Senate that Jewish students feel threatened by “brazen antisemitism” on the country’s campuses. Establishing a uniform definition of antisemitism “will help universities in their efforts to combat this scourge,” says Universities Australia, which represents the schools.
The IHRA definition has been adopted by hundreds of countries, universities, and other entities around the world as a tool to fight antisemitism.
Pro-Palestinian groups are protesting the decision, with the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) saying the definition “silences dissent, shields Israeli war crimes, and criminalizes Palestinian voices.”
The Universities Australia definition of antisemitism reads:
“Antisemitism is discrimination, prejudice, harassment, exclusion, vilification, intimidation or violence that impedes Jews’ ability to participate as equals in educational, political, religious, cultural, economic or social life. It can manifest in a range of ways including negative, dehumanizing, or stereotypical narratives about Jews. Further, it includes hate speech, epithets, caricatures, stereotypes, tropes, Holocaust denial, and antisemitic symbols. Targeting Jews based on their Jewish identities alone is discriminatory and antisemitic.
“Criticism of the policies and practices of the Israeli government or state is not in and of itself antisemitic. However, criticism of Israel can be antisemitic when it is grounded in harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions and when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel or all Jews, or when it holds Jewish individuals or communities responsible for Israel’s actions. It can be antisemitic to make assumptions about what Jewish individuals think based only on the fact that they are Jewish.
“All peoples, including Jews, have the right to self-determination. For most, but not all Jewish Australians, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity. Substituting the word ‘Zionist’ for ‘Jew’ does not eliminate the possibility of speech being antisemitic.”
[DW] German prosecutors have charged a suspected "Islamic State" extremist with murder in the stabbing rampage in Solingen that left three people dead.
German prosecutors on Thursday charged the suspect behind a fatal knife attack at a local festival in the western German city of Solingen.
The suspect, identified as 26-year-old Issa Al H., was charged with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and membership in 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.... " (IS) terror group.
The Solingen knife attack and a series of similar incidents shook Germany and fueled the heated political debate about migration and deportation in the months leading up to last week's federal election.
WHAT HAPPENED IN SOLINGEN?
On the evening of August 23, 2024, three people were killed and 10 others injured at an outdoor festival celebrating Solingen's 650th anniversary.
The mills of Justice grinding slowly…
The suspect, a Syrian citizen, is accused of deliberately stabbing festival visitors with a knife.
Issa Al H. was arrested after a day-long manhunt. He has remained in jug ever since.
Within days of the stabbing rampage, prosecutors said they believed the attacker had radical Islamist beliefs and tried to kill as many people as possible because he considered them non-believers.
Islamic State grabbed credit for the attack.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE SOLINGEN KNIFE ATTACK SUSPECT?
Issa Al H. had been slated for deportation from Germany to Bulgaria in 2023 under EU rules known as the Dublin regulation.
But he evaded law enforcement and managed to remain in the country. No further effort to deport him was made.
A committee of inquiry in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia is investigating why the deportation to Bulgaria, which had been planned long before the attack, did not take place.
[PJMedia] Max Primorac, former acting chief operating officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), testified before Congress that the Biden administration ditched strict vetting procedures put in place during the first Trump administration. This move allowed "vast sums of money" to go to Middle Eastern countries that ended up funding terrorists.
"I approved strong vetting policies for humanitarian assistance in countries swarming with terrorists. That, too, was ignored by the Biden administration," Primorac told a Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency hearing on foreign aid. He also said "vast sums of U.S. money have been diverted to fund snuffies 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 a rusty iron fist by Hamas with 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... , Syria, 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... , and Afghanistan" and that "NGOs have been hit with heavy fines for violating our anti-terrorism financing laws."
The concerns about USAID are well founded. The NGO's receiving USAID money and then delivering cash to terrorist groups and terrorist front organizations deserve a full congressional investigation.
The Middle East Forum has been tracking these payments for years. Their executive director, Greg Roman, also testified before the subcommittee. Roman testified that USAID gave a $125,000 grant to the Islamic Relief Agency, "an entity linked to al Qaeda, even after a whistleblower raised red flags." Another group, Helping Hand for Relief and Development, received a $78,000 grant "despite openly working with the snuffies who orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai massacre in India."
Washington Free Beacon:
USAID money also went to Jammal Trust Bank in Lebanon, which the U.S. Department of the Treasury later designated as a sponsor of the terrorist group Hezbollah. In another example, the agency funded the Gazan charity Bayader and Unlimited Friends Association, whose officials have called for the region to be "cleansed" of the "impurity of the Jews," and which maintains close relations with Hamas leadership, according to Roman.
He said federal workers who approved such grants should be liable for criminal charges under anti-terrorism financing laws.
"This is a threat to American national security and potentially criminal, and this committee should take action to ensure that the Department of Justice acts on it, and does everything in Congress's power to not just investigate but refer criminal actions to the proper authorities," said Roman.
A little perspective: The USAID budget is $40 billion. Much of that money goes to feed about 200 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who are starving to death. The funds sent to terrorists represent a tiny fraction of the agency's budget.
Can we feed the hungry without funding terrorists? The entire foreign aid system, not just USAID but also aid programs in the State Department, the Agriculture Department, the Commerce Department — every department in the executive branch that sends money overseas — needs to be reformed, consolidated, or ended.
Washington Times:
Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, said the U.S. Agency for International Development also paid $1 million of American taxpayers’ money to a Ukrainian carpet company, $255,000 to an organic coffee and tea producer and $150,000 to a knitwear company.
There are thousands of USAID contracts that fund idiotic programs.
"A Ukrainian pickle outfit received $148,000, a meatpacking plant got $319,000 and a Ukrainian vineyard got $89,000," Senator Ernst said.
[IsraelTimes] Palestinian Authority president left out of Arab leadership summit in Riyadh, where Gaza was main agenda item; diplomat says regional leaders will abandon Abbas if backed into corner
The leaders of seven Arab countries gathered for an emergency summit in Riyadh last week with rounding out a counterproposal to US President Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... ’s 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 a rusty iron fist by Hamas with 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... takeover plan at the top of the agenda.
Trump, for now, is standing by his controversial proposal to "clean out" the Gaza Strip’s entire population, though his aides have indicated the idea was largely aimed at spurring Arab allies to come up with their own plan for the post-war management of the enclave that removes Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... from power.
While the Arab plan is still being finalized and no conclusions were reached in Riyadh, Arab leaders are in agreement that the Paleostinian Authority must play a role in the effort, four diplomats briefed on the gathering told The Times of Israel.
There is also consensus on another matter — that PA 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....> is not critical, and perhaps even counterproductive, to the effort.
Accordingly, Abbas was not invited to the Riyadh meeting, according to two Arab diplomats and two European diplomats.
And not for a lack of trying. Ramallah made quiet overtures for Abbas to attend, but enough of the participating leaders expressed pushback that Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... withheld an invitation, the four diplomats said.
FRIENDS NO MORE?
As usual, the most fervent opponent to including Abbas was United Arab Emirates President Muhammed bin Zayed, said three of the diplomats.
Abu Dhabi has long sparred with the PA president, often referred to by his nom de guerre Abu Mazen, accusing him of corruption.
But this time, bin Zayed was joined by Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i Emir Tamim bin Hamad. Doha hosts Hamas leaders and has been fuming over Abbas’s decision to shutter Al Jazeera operations in the West Bank to protest the Qatari-backed network’s coverage of the PA crackdown on terror groups, said the first Arab diplomat.
Not only did Egypt’s President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi also not come to Abbas’s defense, but he has refused requests by the PA president’s office for a one-on-one meeting, said the second Arab diplomat.
Cairo has been brokering talks between the PA and Hamas about establishing a temporary committee to govern Gaza after the war.
Ramallah wants control over the panel, fearing that if Gaza is managed separately from the West Bank, efforts to reunite the two territories under one governing body will be undermined.
For its part, Egypt wants the panel to be linked to the PA, but to retain independence and be run by technocrats approved by both the Authority and Hamas. Cairo argues that consensus support from Paleostinian factions is essential to the panel’s legitimacy, and also fears that Ramallah is unprepared to take major responsibility for Gaza as its grip over the West Bank slips.
Moreover, Egypt feels that too direct of a link between the Strip’s interim administrative committee and the PA will make it more likely that Israel blocks its formation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of Hamas being replaced by the more moderate PA, often likening the two rival factions. The premier did, however, allow PA officials to assist in the operation of the recently reopened Rafah Crossing after pushing back on the idea for months.
Even Jordan’s King Abdullah, who is known as Abbas’s closest ally in the Arab world, did not advocate for the PA leader to attend the summit. The first Arab diplomat speaking to The Times of Israel said the Hashemite leader has privately expressed frustration over what he views as Abbas’s failure to quickly and adequately adapt to the changes taking place in both the region and Washington.
The Jordanian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
’IMPOSSIBLE TO SATISFY MOST OF THEM ANYWAY’
While the first European diplomat accepted some of the criticism against Abbas, the official argued that other Arab contentions against the PA leader were off the mark.
"There’s a lot of criticism about Abbas’s corruption coming from a group that isn’t all necessarily squeaky-clean or democratically elected," said the diplomat.
"Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are all pulling Abu Mazen in different directions in terms of how they want the PA to run, as they each have different interests and are jockeying for influence," the first EU diplomat continued.
"In the meantime, Abu Mazen is pleasing none of them, but it would’ve been impossible to satisfy most of them anyway."
Nevertheless, the EU itself is not completely satisfied with Abbas. The diplomat said Abbas’s office did not coordinate his announcement earlier this month to reform the PA’s welfare system so that Paleostinian prisoners in Israeli jails, those maimed in festivities with Israel, and the families of slain attackers will receive stipends based on their financial status like all other Paleostinians, ending the previous system that rewarded those who received higher prison sentences.
The EU, for years, pushed Abbas to end the PA’s so-called "pay-to-slay" system, and Ramallah hopes that Brussels will help bankroll the new welfare payments now that they are being regulated.
But Abbas’s decision to remove the welfare program from government control and instead create an independent body headed by one of his close allies — former PA social affairs minister Ahmad Majdalani — reduces the chances that the EU will be able to provide financial support for the program, the second European diplomat said.
"We would’ve explained this had we been kept better in the loop, but we learned about the decree in the media," the official added.
Meanwhile,
...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin... Ramallah’s ties with the Trump administration have been very limited, reflecting the extent of Washington’s interest in the increasingly fragile situation in the West Bank, where Paleostinian gangs remain undeterred by the PA and Israel, and IDF operations to quash them have flattened refugee camps to Gaza levels of destruction, the diplomat stated.
ARABS FEELING BACKED INTO A CORNER
Nearly a week has passed since the Riyadh summit, and Abbas’s office has not publicized a single call from any of the Arab participants.
In the meantime, the regional leaders are gearing up for a more consequential summit in Cairo next week, where Egypt is expected to present the Arab plan for Gaza. Abbas is slated to be invited and attend this more public-facing gathering.
The first Arab diplomat said Arab leaders feel like they are in an impossible position, given the US demand that they "solve Gaza" by removing Hamas, even though Israel failed to do so after 15-plus months of war.
Stripping the terror group of its governing powers is seen as realistic, so long as its non-militant civil servants can be folded into the new system, the first Arab diplomat said.
Coaxing Hamas to give up its weapons is another story, and particularly "fantastical" absent a grinding of the peace processor that Israel continues to reject, the diplomat further said.
"The Arab leaders are really feeling the pressure from Washington, and for the first time, I see growing willingness to abandon Abu Mazen if [Arab leaders] think it’ll save them from the Trump administration," said the second EU diplomat.
"Egypt and Jordan view the Trump plan is an existential threat, so if they have to offer something far-reaching, such as a completely different PA, they might do so."
The diplomat clarified that such a move would come with massive risks, as the next Paleostinian leader after Abbas might not be as committed to nonviolence as the nearly 90-year-old PA leader has been.
The diplomat argued that Abbas is aware of regional discontent and as a result, recently took the unforeseen step of forcing longtime ally Hussein al-Sheikh to resign from his post as PA civil affairs minister.
The move is aimed at demonstrating that Abbas recognizes he cannot continue to rely on the same small group of loyalists, the diplomat said. However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... Sheikh will remain in the powerful post of Paleostine Liberation Organization Executive Committee secretary-general, so it’s unclear whether his resignation amounts to a strategic shift by the PA leader, who also controls the PLO.
#2
I see 5-10 years of living in tents for most Gazans.
and no, I'm not sympathetic
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/28/2025 11:42 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I'm loving this! You have the Arab world discussing what to do about the Paleos, a previously unsolvable problem, all for fear that Trump just might be crazy enough to do what he proposed.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2025 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like judgmental cultural relativism to me. Where does he get off condemning how other people live their lives?
And we should import it, too.
is "sarc" necessary?
Yeah, considering some of what I've heard over the years.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/28/2025 6:32 Comments ||
Top||
“My responsibility is mine, I was the military commander on October 7. I have my responsibility and I also have all of your responsibility,” Halevi said to senior officers on Monday, during a presentation of the IDF’s probes into the attack.
Earlier this evening, the investigations were released to the public.
“The investigations were shared with the defense minister, the IDF senior command, and journalists who were briefed,” writes Tzachi Braverman. “Amazingly, one official has yet to receive the investigations — the prime minister.”
“Proper procedure requires that these investigations also be shared with the prime minister without having to ask for it,” he writes.
An embargo on details of the investigation is set to be lifted this evening.
#1
The law of the last ten percent:
Going from almost perfect to perfect is an immense effort. The easy stuff, and the not-so-easy stuff has been done.
But...need more man power. Need to have more attention to indications coming in. Budgets are tight. Nothing's happened. And nothing. And the budget's tight. Got other responsibilities for some of the folks and you can't keep the reserves up beyond their time except...there's a budget for that and it's tight.
ANd other things need to be done and you look at those most obvious.
Ninety percent's good enough. That will do it.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/28/2025 6:29 Comments ||
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#2
Oh, and deliberately ignoring warnings from the women guarding the border.
#3
yeah, but you took them seriously, you'd have to do something about it.. Call out the QRF--again. Here come the choppers, the "evidence" and "indications" go to ground and start...hoeing gardens, playing soccer, nothing happens. Again.
Until the QRF guy starts talking about maintenance time building up. Higher's looking at his....budget.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/28/2025 11:45 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] UN health agency chief says ceasefire enabled even more children to be reached than in previous rounds, including those who may have been missed due to security issues.
#2
According to the CIA World Factbook website, almost 40% of the population in Gaza is age 0-14 years — as reported by the Hamas government, presumably before 10/7/2023, as they’ve been a bit busy since — with about another 10% aged 15-19. The median age is 19.5, and the total fertility rate is claimed to be 3.26 children born/woman.
Quite possibly Hamas made up all the numbers, n, but I know of no better source since Israel pulled out and stopped tracking their statistics.
#4
Basic math, refugee & population data voids the 600K statement.
But for S%^T & Grins
Using 600k / 5 days = 10,000 per day.
Using the hours of 8am to 6pm = 10 hours Daylight.
That's a 1,000 shots per hour (w/o a lunch or breaks).
At about 5 mins a shot, due to Paperwork, Admin and inoculation issues. That works out to 12 per hour per doctor.
Requiring a setup for 83 doctors, with staff?
All working w/o a lunch or pee breaks.
PLUS
Remember, there is religious opposition by Muslim fundamentalists, against polio vax'ing. Which Gaza kids and their parents generally seem to fall into, and were not Vax'd before?
Why now?
Also, according to the CDC data, unlike it was in the early 60's, it is now 4 shots administered over a period of years. So did the vax'ings even happen, and if so will the needed follow-up shots happen?
The first two rounds they did with an “improved” version of the vaccine, Mullah Richard. They discovered it was ineffective — I seem to recall virii discovered in the sewage, but it may have been a child falling ill — so they panicked and decided to do the whole thing over with a vaccine that actually works.
#9
religious opposition by Muslim fundamentalists, against polio vax'ing. Which Gaza kids and their parents generally seem to fall into
That’s a Pakistan problem. In Gaza they're there for all the free bennies. Also, Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood, so they aren’t anti-science, they just want their kind of pious running the expanding caliphate and most women at home rearing kids. The Turkish Gulenists are in the same gradualist mold, just perhaps one step less totalitarian in that they left politics to Recep Tayip Erdogan and his professional politicians — which is why they got the Menshevik treatment.
At the risk of being the pedantic nerd, 600,000 kids / 5 days is 120,000 per day. But the point still stands. Even more so, in fact.
If this was my circus, I'd inoculate the kids using an oral/nasal vaccine and an agricultural spray drone. If it's good enough for cabbage loopers, it's good enough for polio.
As for the 'genocide' thing, Netanyahu should get the Nobel Prize for Lamest Genocide Ever.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister’s Office mum on whether negotiators will discuss phase two of hostage-ceasefire deal; official says troops will remain in Gaza-Egypt border zone, defying agreement
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispatched negotiators to Cairo, his office said Thursday, amid uncertainty over the future of a deal with the Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... terror group that paused fighting 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 a rusty iron fist by Hamas with 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... and freed hostages held by the terror group.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced the move in a terse statement that did not include what the negotiators will discuss, but other officials indicated that the talks would revolve around maintaining the Gaza ceasefire deal, with the first phase set to officially conclude on Saturday.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered a negotiating team to leave today for Cairo, to continue talks," the PMO said.
Speaking at a presser in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the team would explore "whether we have common ground to negotiate."
But he signaled that Israel was seeking to extend the first phase, which has left Israeli troops in some areas of Gaza, rather than advance to the second stage, which would call for a full military withdrawal from the Strip; Israeli leaders have rejected going through with the pullout as long as Hamas remains in power.
"We said we are ready to extend the framework [of phase one] in return for the release of more hostages," Sa’ar said. "If it is possible, we’ll do that. It will be better to speak at length about it after the return of the delegation from Cairo."
The decision to send the delegation came after Netanyahu held two meetings on Thursday with security bigshots, including Katz, Sa’ar, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, according to Channel 12.
According to Hebrew media reports, the prime minister wants to extend the current first phase of the deal beyond the designated 42 days, which is set to end on March 1, and secure the freedom of more hostages as part of phase one, including more hostages Israel now believes are in poor health.
An Israeli source quoted by Hebrew media said Jerusalem was expecting more hostages to be released on Saturday, though it was unclear if this was based on any actual Hamas concessions.
Hamas early Thursday returned the bodies of the last four hostages it was set to release during the first phase of the truce, while Israel released more than 600 security inmates — more than 100 of whom were serving life sentences or were convicted of murder — in return.
According to the PMO, citing information from the military, hostages Ohad Yahalomi, Tsahi Idan, and Itzik Elgarat were murdered in captivity.
Shlomo Mantzur, the fourth hostage whose body was handed over in the exchange, was killed on October 7, during the Hamas-led invasion, hostage-taking, and massacres that sparked the war, and his body was taken to Gaza, the PMO said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that phase one of the deal "is complete."
Under the ceasefire outline agreed to by Israel and Hamas, Israel’s remaining living hostages — believed to include 24 people — are to be released during the second stage of the deal. A third stage is also ostensibly planned, during which the bodies of hostages killed on October 7 or in captivity would be released, and the war would end permanently.
ISRAEL NOT WITHDRAWING FROM PHILADELPHI CORRIDOR
An Israeli official sent a statement to width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted;border-bottom-color:gray;' title='reporter'>news hounds Thursday rejecting any withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces troops from the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, despite the deal’s requirement that it do so by the 50th day of the ceasefire.
Israel contends that the border zone is a major smuggling route that will be used by Hamas to bring more weapons and fortifications into Gaza to rebuild its decimated forces unless it is policed by Israeli troops. Both Hamas and Egypt reject a continued Israeli presence there.
"We will not leave the Philadelphi Corridor. We will not allow the Hamas murderers to again roam our borders with pickup trucks and guns, and we will not allow them to rearm through smuggling," the Israeli official said.
Israel, with backing from the US, has repeatedly said it will not allow Hamas any role in the future governance of Gaza and that it is prepared to resume fighting to prevent such an outcome. Netanyahu has also refused any role for the Ramallah-based Paleostinian Authority.
Hamas said Thursday it was ready to begin talks on a second phase, after the exchange of the four hostages for the 602 prisoners and detainees had concluded.
The terror group said the only way remaining hostages in Gaza would be freed is through commitment to the ceasefire.
"We renew our full commitment to the ceasefire agreement and confirm our readiness to enter into negotiations for the second phase of the agreement," the group said in a statement.
[IsraelTimes] Defense Minister says plans for body to help Gazans leave Strip being accelerated, adds presence in Lebanon will continue indefinitely; Syrian Druze could be okayed to work in Israel
Defense Minister Israel Katz accused the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... terror group Thursday of continuing to plot and prepare for attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians during the ongoing ceasefire 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 a rusty iron fist by Hamas with 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... , vowing that the military remained ready to prevent Hamas or any other terror group from gaining a foothold on its borders.
Speaking at a conference of regional council chairmen, Katz also said he was accelerating plans to facilitate Gazook civilians to leave the Strip permanently via Israel, seemingly continuing to champion a proposal from US President Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... even as the White House has seemingly backed away from the idea.
With Israel dispatching negotiators to Cairo Thursday for discussions apparently revolving around the continuation of the Gaza ceasefire, Katz said military pressure on Hamas would be key to freeing the nearly five dozen hostages remaining in the Strip.
"The most significant way to continue [releasing hostages] is for Hamas to know that the Israel Defense Forces is ready to return to war—and this is the truth," he said.
"We are prepared defensively because even during the ceasefire, we received information that they were plotting to attack soldiers and attack towns—this is Hamas," Katz added.
The defense minister also reiterated that there will be no place for Hamas in the civil or military governance of Gaza after the war, and said he endorsed the vision of US President Donald Trump, who has called for the permanent transfer of all of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents, after which the US would "take over" and "own" the Strip.
"I am in an accelerated process of establishing a voluntary emigration authority and enabling those who want to leave Gaza voluntarily to do so through Ashdod Port, through Ramon Airport," Katz said on Thursday.
Earlier this month, Katz said he had ordered the army to formulate a plan to allow Paleostinians to leave Gaza, adding that he welcomed "Trump’s bold plan, which could allow a large portion of Gaza’s population to relocate to various places around the world."
Citing conversations with senior military officials, the defense minister said the main takeaway from the Hamas-led October 7 attack — when thousands of bandidosDeath Eaters killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, starting the ongoing war — was that Israel cannot allow radical organizations to be present near any of its borders, and stressed the country’s willingness to return to fighting if necessary.
Israel "did not agree to a ceasefire in Gaza," he said, "because we lacked ammunition or because our soldiers were worn out. We agreed to a ceasefire for only one reason—because we want to bring back the hostages alive, and those who are no longer alive."
The defense minister hailed the success of the truce’s first phase, which saw 25 hostages returned alive alongside the bodies of eight dead. He claimed that Hamas only agreed to release 10 to 12 hostages in the first phase in earlier parts of the negotiations.
KATZ: IDF MAINTAINING STRATEGIC INTERESTS IN GAZA AMID TRUCE
He also emphasized that the IDF is continuing to safeguard Israel’s strategic interests during the ceasefire, namely by maintaining a defined buffer zone in Gaza, including outposts along the Gaza-Egypt border, which has been a hotbed of arms smuggling.
"The most significant order we gave was to not allow smuggling through humanitarian aid and not to let in ammunition and weapons. When there are penetrating tunnels, if you do not control this route, then during these 42 days [of ceasefire], everything would have been filled with weapons," he said.
An Israeli official sent a statement to news hounds Thursday rejecting any withdrawal of IDF troops from the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, despite the deal’s requirement that it do so by the 50th day of the ceasefire.
WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS ARE LIKE GAZA BORDER
Katz also addressed the situation on other fronts, repeating points he has made in recent days about the IDF’s long-term commitments in the West Bank, Leb ...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. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... , and Syria.
Concerning the West Bank, Katz called Israeli settlements "the protective shield for the majority of Israel’s population."
"For me, Judea and Samaria and the border communities are the same," he said, using a Biblical term for the West Bank. "We discovered that Hamas had planned to attack before October 7 both in Samaria and along the border. I’m talking about files that were seized on this matter."
The defense minister addressed the ongoing counterterror operation in the West Bank, which was scaled up following a botched bus-bombings attack last week.
"Today, the Jenin refugee camp is empty of residents, and the IDF is inside the camp. I told them they are not leaving the camp for at least a year."
He also discussed southern Lebanon, where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group is still holding, as Israel continues to delay the full withdrawal of its forces, staying at five strategic points along the border.
"We are staying without a time limit, it depends on the situations, not on the time," he said, adding, "We received a green light from the US."
’WE DO NOT TRUST’ NEW SYRIAN LEADER, ONLY THE IDF
Katz referred to the new Syrian leader — Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda fighter who had a $10 million bounty on his head — by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, and said, "We do not trust him. We only trust the IDF."
Katz emphasized Israel’s "strong commitment" to the Syrian Druze community, noting that Israel is considering allowing members to work inside Israel on a daily basis, and is "preparing to provide them with assistance through organizations and in various ways."
He reiterated his demand that southern Syria be demilitarized. Israel has set up a series of military posts there and has vowed to stay in the area as long as it feels is necessary.
"Two days ago, the new regime made its first attempt to man positions and outposts [in southern Syria]—the Air Force attacked and hit them," Katz noted.
[IsraelTimes] Eyewitnesses say officers and soldiers were executed by firing squad, civilians were hanged; bodies buried in seven mass grave sites around capital, watchdog finds
More than 1,000 Syrians died in detention at a military airport on the outskirts of Damascus, killed by execution, torture or maltreatment at a site that was widely feared, according to a report to be published Thursday tracing the deaths to seven suspected grave sites.
In the report, shared exclusively with Rooters, the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre said it identified the grave sites by using a combination of witness testimony, satellite imagery and documents photographed at the military airport in the Damascus suburb of Mezzeh after the ouster of President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... in December.
Some sites were on the airport grounds. Others were across Damascus.
Rooters did not examine the documents and was unable to independently confirm the existence of the mass graves through its own review of satellite imagery. But Rootersnews hounds did see signs of disturbed earth in images of many of the places pinpointed by SJAC. Two of the sites, one on the Mezzeh airport property and another at a cemetery in Najha, show clear signs of long trenches dug during periods consistent with witness testimony from SJAC.
Shadi Haroun, one of the report’s authors, said he was among the captives. Held over several months in 2011-2012 for organizing protests, he described daily interrogations with physical and psychological torture intended to force him into baseless confessions.
Death came in many forms, he told Rooters.
Although detainees saw nothing except their cell walls or the interrogation room, they could hear "occasional shootings, shot by shot, every couple of days."
Then there were the injuries inflicted by their tormentors.
"A small wound on the foot of one of the detainees, caused by a whipping he received during torture, was left unsterilized or untreated for days, which gradually turned into gangrene and his condition worsened until it reached the point of amputation of the entire foot," Haroun said, describing a cellmate’s plight.
In addition to obtaining the documents, SJAC and the Association for the Detained and Missing Persons in Sednaya Prison interviewed 156 survivors and eight former members of air force intelligence, Syria’s security service that was tasked with the surveillance, imprisonment and killing of regime critics.
The new government has issued a decree forbidding former regime officials from speaking publicly, and none were available to comment.
"Although some of the graves mentioned in the report had not been discovered before, the discovery itself does not surprise us, as we know that there are more than 100,000 missing persons in Assad’s prisons who did not come out during the days of liberation in early December," said a colonel in the new government’s Interior Ministry who identified himself by his military alias, Abu Baker.
"Discovering the fates of those missing persons and searching for more graves is one of the greatest legacies left by the Assad regime," he said.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad’s crackdown on protests spiraled into a full-scale war. Both Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, have long been accused by rights groups, foreign governments and war-crimes prosecutors of widespread extrajudicial killings, including mass executions within the country’s prison system and using chemical weapons
...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented... against the Syrian people.
The SJAC said all the survivors it interviewed were tortured.
The report focuses on the first years of the uprising, from 2011 to 2017. But some of the testimonies from former regime officers based at Mezzeh detailed events up to the regime’s fall.
The Mezzeh military airport was an integral part of the Assad government’s machinery of enforced disappearance and housed at least 29,000 detainees between 2011 and 2017, according to the report.
By 2020, according to the report, air force intelligence had converted more than a dozen hangars, dormitories and offices at Mezzeh into prisons.
SJAC, a US-based Syrian-led human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... group funded by European governments and, until the recent funding freeze by the Trump administration, the US government, said its estimate of the dead comes from two air force intelligence datasets listing a total of 1,154 detainees who died there between 2011 and 2017. The datasets were leaked in a Facebook group monitored by SJAC as the regime collapsed and cross-checked by the organization against documents and witness testimony. The estimate does not include people who were executed after being sentenced to death by a military field court set up inside a hangar.
According to witness testimony in the report, officers and soldiers were executed by firing squad, while civilians were hanged. Two witnesses said many of those executed were buried near the hangar.
In December, the US Justice Department unsealed war crimes charges against two ranking Syrian air force intelligence officers over " the infliction of cruel and inhuman treatment on detainees under their control, including US citizens, in detention facilities at the Mezzeh Military Airport."
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence, called on his fighters to lay down their arms and end the armed confrontation with Turkey. This was reported by the Turkish government newspaper Daily Sabah.
"I take historical responsibility for this call (for disarmament). All groups (linked to the PKK) must lay down their arms and the PKK must disband," the Turkish publication quotes Ocalan as saying.
According to him, the dissolution of the PKK is necessary because it was created in the last century, during a period when democratic paths were closed. Now, according to Ocalan, the situation has changed, because peace and democratic society have become the language of the modern era.
It was previously stated that the armed forces of Turkey and Syria would carry out a large-scale military operation against the PKK if the West puts forward new demands.
It is not specified what demands the West is talking about. It is also noted that Türkiye did not make efforts in Syria so that “the PKK could continue to exist.”
As reported by Regnum News Agency, on January 6, the Hürriyet newspaper, citing sources, reported that the new Syrian authorities, during negotiations with the PKK leadership, demanded that they lay down their arms. It was noted that the Kurdish representatives demanded that in exchange for the surrender of their arms, they be given a division or army corps in the Syrian army being created and that the oil fields in the north of the country, controlled jointly with the United States, be equally divided.
On December 25, Erdogan said the PKK had no choice but to lay down its arms, vowing otherwise to “bury the Kurdish fighters along with their weapons.”
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK began in 1984. Ankara considers the group a threat to national security, regularly conducting raids against its supporters in the country and operations in northern Iraq and Syria.
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.
...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 
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
