[RedState] Remember when the Biden administration announced that it would place a ban on menthol cigarettes? Well, it appears the White House could be close to making such a prohibition a reality.
The ban is supposedly, and racistly, intended to save black people from themselves, given that menthol cigarettes are popular among African American smokers. However, there are reasons to speculate that President Joe Biden could be slow-walking the process for political reasons.
The proposed prohibition on menthol smokes was introduced about two years ago and was met with criticism from folks on the left and the right.
The regulations, which would broadly ban the product, were first proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) two years ago and have sparked a contentious debate between health advocates and civil liberties and business groups. The FDA has repeatedly missed target dates for finalizing the proposed ban, the latest of which was earlier this week.
"The FDA remains committed to issuing the tobacco product standards for menthol in cigarettes and characterizing flavors in cigars as expeditiously as possible; these rules have been submitted to the [Office of Management and Budget] for review, which is the final step in the rulemaking process," an FDA spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "As we’ve made clear, these product standards remain at the top of our priorities."
The spokesperson said the agency, which handed the regulations off to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final approval months ago, is limited from discussing the process further since the proposal remains pending. White House spokesperson Kelly Scully declined to comment, also noting the rulemaking process is ongoing.
But the Biden administration's continued delays in finalizing the regulations has caused angst among proponents of banning menthol cigarettes, many of whom have argued such an action is vital for achieving goals laid out in President Biden's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative. The administration was first expected to finalize the ban in August 2023, meaning its delays have stretched more than seven months.
However, the delay, which has extended seven months past the initial August 2023 deadline, has frustrated those supporting the ban. Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society, said the "continued inaction is a shocking deference to the tobacco industry."
Those opposing the ban point out a myriad of flaws. Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, said the measure "could have had far-reaching economic consequences for convenience stores by cutting 30% of sales and the livelihoods of over 600,000 workers."
Critics have also pointed out that the policy would disproportionately criminalize black Americans while creating a black market for the product.
The continual delays have also raised speculation that Biden could be stalling until after the 2024 election is over because there has been backlash from the black community, a demographic from which the president has already lost a considerable level of support.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/06/2024
10:24 ||
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Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
They were saying that menthol cigarettes were worse for you than regular way back in the 1960's.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] A $9 million lawsuit has been filed against Portland ...a formerly lovely city in Oregon, governed by an unholy alliance of communists, anarchists, and incompetents. In 2017 the city was named as the fifth most business-friendly in the nation. It took only three years for the city to degenerate to the point where it became a national embarrassment, with antifa and Black Lives Matter bullying taxpayers and occasionally shooting one as an example to the others... Public Schools after a then-third-grade female student was allegedly raped by two male students in a school bathroom.
The suit, filed in March in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleged that the school as well as a non-profit after-school program had failed to protect the girl, who was 9 years old at the time, after a series of sexual assault incidents, according to KATU 2.
In the 2021-22 school year, the girl attended Scott Elementary School in NE Portland as well as a Schools Uniting Neighborhoods after-school program run by the Latino Network.
The lawsuit claimed that the girl had been the victim of multiple incidents of nonconsensual sexual touching by male students both at school and at the after-school program. One of these incidents reportedly involved a boy touching her genital area over her clothing while a teacher was present.
A second male student touched the girl in March 2022, with the female student reportedly trying to protect herself by punching him in the face.
The lawsuit stated that staff at Scott Elementary were made aware of the incident and both the girl and the male student were suspended. The girl’s father was reportedly told that they would make a "safety plan" for her.
The lawsuit said that in April 2022, two male classmates in the after-school program threatened the female student and told her to tell staff members she needed to use the restroom.
She complied and went to the restroom, with the lawsuit alleging that the two male students followed her, locked her in a stall, removed her clothing, and took turns raping her. She attempted to escape and told the male students to stop, but they blocked the door to stop her from leaving while "smiling."
"After the incident, Plaintiff rinsed her mouth with water to wash the germs from the unwanted kissing out of her mouth," the lawsuit stated.
Portland Public Schools and Schools Uniting Neighborhoods allegedly failed to notify law enforcement of the incident after they were notified, instead launching an "internal investigation" which included interviewing the girl without alerting police or her guardians about the attack.
The victim’s father became aware of the attack in the days following and was allegedly told that the male students would remain in the school under a "safety plan," as they had a different lunch period than the victim.
The father unenrolled his daughter from Scott Elementary, while the students received a one-day suspension and were allowed to remain. She was eventually enrolled in another school.
The student has suffered "emotional trauma, pain, suffering, emotional distress, shame, embarrassment, social anxiety, difficulty with concentration, academic setbacks, diminished self-esteem and sense of security, mistrust in the intentions of others, and post-traumatic stress disorder," the lawsuit stated.
The girl’s father reportedly took her to a children’s hospital as well as a child abuse program after the attack, and staff there confirmed that there was both physical and mental evidence of physical and sexual abuse.
The lawsuit claimed that the defendants were "negligent," failing to teach children about "appropriate sexual boundaries," failing to train Portland Public Schools employees to recognize and prevent child sexual abuse, failing to monitor the behavior of students, and "causing the Plaintiff to feel that if she protected herself from unwanted sexual contact, she would be punished by way of reprimand and/or school suspension," among other allegations.
Sydney Kelly, a Portland Public Schools spokesperson, told the outlet, "The district learned of these new allegations last week when we received the lawsuit, and we are investigating. We are mandatory news hounds, meaning we must report any instance of possible child abuse and neglect. We take our responsibilities as mandatory news hounds seriously and follow the law around reporting."
Latino Network wrote, "We take the allegations very seriously and are working with our legal representation to provide counsel to our organization. We want to affirm that the allegations of sexual assault are not directed towards any current or former Latino Network staff member."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
10:13 ||
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#2
Dem first wives historically meddle. GOP first wives historically just sit back and take vile abuse from the left.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/06/2024 12:07
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#3
Jill Biden is pro-Arab or pro anything but Israel.
In June 2023, Biden and her daughter Ashley attended the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan and Rajwa Al Saif. In the same month, she visited Egypt, Morocco and Portugal... Wikipedia
[BBC via Gateway] A federal appeals court blocked one of Joe Biden’s student loan bailout programs.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday blocked Biden’s plan to cancel loans for borrowers who claim they were victims of ’misleading information’ by colleges.
A three-judge panel — one Reagan appointee and two Trump appointees — said Biden’s program was ’almost certainly unlawful.’
ABC News reported:
A Biden administration plan to provide student debt relief for people who say they were victims of misleading information by trade schools or colleges is "almost certainly unlawful" a federal appeals court said in a ruling blocking enforcement of the policy against a group of privately owned Texas institutions.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal ruling, dated Thursday, came in a court challenge filed by Career Colleges and Schools of Texas. The panel sent the case back to a lower court, saying the judge should issue an injunction against enforcement while the appeal continues.
At issue are rules that broadened existing policy, affecting students who borrowed money to attend colleges and universities that are determined to have misled them on matters such as whether their courses would actually prepare them for employment in their field or the likely salary they would earn upon obtaining a degree. According to the opinion, if a federal student loan is discharged under the policy, the government can seek reimbursement from the school accused of the misleading practices.
Biden has used a series of workarounds to circumvent the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his student loan bailout program.
Last year the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against Joe Biden’s student loan relief program so the Department of Education rolled out a workaround forbearance program to cancel $39 billion in student loans by counting non-payments as payments for a period of time.
Only it isn’t your typical forbearance program. Borrowers won’t have to pay back ’missed’ payments or make up the difference of ’reduced’ payments. No interest will accrue on any of the missed payments.
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That's whole game of graft. We convince the hicks that we'll sock it to the rich, then turn around and write these loopholes so the rich will give us money for reelection to protect their money. "Fair Share" is never defined just a term to use to fuel envy and hatred and to scare the plutocrats to bribe us.
You don't need as much taxes if you don't have as much government.
#5
Get spending under control (yeah, I know) and the tax problem solves itself.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/06/2024 10:53
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#6
Hey! DC Swamp.
Want to do something for the TAXPAYERS?
You're kidding, right?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/06/2024 12:05
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#7
irish+rage+boy last year I paid 25% of my salary in federal income tax. I paid fuel tax, property tax, sales tax. There is also a portion of what I pay for telephone and internet that goes to the feds. I had to pay tax on my social security last year and this year even though that money had already been taxed.
[ZERO] US intelligence is 'convinced' that Iran is readying a retaliation response against Israel for the Monday attack on the Iranian embassy complex in Syria, US officials have told CBS News, and that an attack could be imminent.
The officials say that the US "has picked up intelligence that Iran is planning a retaliatory attack that would include a swarm of Shaheed loitering drones and cruise missiles. Officials say the timing and target are unknown, but a proportional response to the Damascus attack would be to hit an Israeli diplomatic facility."
As for possible timing they believe it will come between now and the end of Ramadan next week. Israel has already issued firm warnings that any direct attack from Iranian soil will be met with a "stronger" response, taking the conflict to the next level.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
04/06/2024
02:01 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
They know this for a fact because they feed operational intelligence to Iran?
#7
"What's that, Lassie? Timmie's 12th Imam is in the well?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/06/2024 9:24
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#8
Problem is, a major Iranian response is always imminent.
Even when nothing is happening.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/06/2024 9:50
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#9
I am convinced it is going to rain. Sure, today is sunny and clear, but it is going to rain. I can't say when or how much, but when it does, I'm gonna say "I told you so!"
#12
"Iran's stern warning that the United States must "bear responsibility" for an Israeli airstrike on its consulate in Damascus, despite U.S. claims of non-involvement, marks a tense moment in international relations."
"...when liberal media outlets express shock over the likely imminent bloodshed on U.S. soil, remind them that Joe Biden rolled out the welcome mat for terrorists to enter through our southern border. Oh, and lest we forget, Obama gave billions of dollars to Iran to finance their heinous acts of mass murder and mayhem."
#14
Iran has tried a great many major responses over the years. I note that none were successful.
In fact, the 10/7 Hamas eruption was supposed to be part of a major response that included Hamas/Islamic Jihad elements in the West Bank and Hizbollah coming across the Lebanese border on the heels of a massive missile barrage. Unfortunately for that long-planned sharp, short war (version 2.0), Hamas jumped the gun and blew their wad — Gaza now will need to be rebuilt from the underground up.
[WSB-TV2 Atanta] ATLANTA — A former Atlanta-based activist, Sir Maejor Page, who is accused of creating a bogus Black Lives Matter group to steal $500,000 from donors to fund his lavish lifestyle, is now on trial in federal court.
An investigation by the FBI concluded that Sir Maejor, also known as Tyree Conyers-Page, had created a Facebook page called Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta and had been soliciting money through the page through a GoFundMe account.
Page is facing charges of money laundering and wire fraud in Ohio after he allegedly used money through his Black Lives Matter nonprofit for personal purchases.
The FBI also said Page responded to several messages through the Facebook account in telling people that their "funds had been donated to be used to fight for George Floyd and that none of ’the funds have been used for personal items. All movement related.’"
Page was arrested in Toledo, Ohio in 2020 as authorities raided the home that he bought there.
In the federal complaint against him, it said Page bought the home under the name of Hi Frequency Ohio, an organization for which he was listed as treasurer and general counsel for.
The complaint outlined several purchases, including a security system which cost $1,310, tailored suits and accessories totaling $2,065, furniture purchases totaling more than $12,000, Walmart purchases totaling more than $4,000, and Home Depot charges of $2,125.67.
#4
Actually I am surprised that he is being prosecuted at all. I had thought that BLM was the ultimate get out of jail free card. Maybe sanity is returning.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/06/2024 7:11
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#5
But Lowlifes Matter
What should his sentence be vs. what it will more likely be?
[AmericanThinker] Readers of the New York Times can be forgiven for thinking that Gaza suffers from the greatest famine on the planet today, because that paper's coverage bias leaves room for no other conclusion. But a very different picture emerges when consulting the website of the UN World Food Programme (UNWFP), which alphabetically lists 14 territories with a food emergency.
For each of these 14 areas, the UNWFP notes the number of people affected by food insecurity except for Ukraine, where the UNWFP says only that "One in five households is estimated to be food-insecure." If the remaining 13 countries are ranked by the total number of people affected, according to the UNWFP, the resulting list looks like this:
1) Gaza: 1.1 million
2) Sahel: 3.3 million
3) Somalia: 4.3 million
4) Haiti: 4.97 million
5) Congo: 5.4 million
6) South Sudan: 7.1 million
7) Ethiopia: 11.8 million
8 and 9) Syria: 12.9 million
8 and 9) Myanmar: 12.9 million
10) Afghanistan: 15.8 million
11) Yemen: 17 million
12) Sudan: 18 million
13) Nigeria: 26.5 million
So, according to the UNWFP's own reported figures, Gaza has the fewest people affected by hunger. Note that the UNWFP is hardly hostile to Gaza, to which it has already granted statehood (the UNWFP's page for Gaza is called "the State of Palestine").
How does the Times cover the famine affecting the fewest people, compared to the three famines affecting the most people?
A search of the Times website containing the words "Gaza" and "famine" from April 3, 2024 going back to October 7, 2023, produces 205 results. There are 179 days in that date range, so that means the Times has published about 1.1 articles per day mentioning "Gaza" and "famine" (even though the first few weeks of that date range included no events affecting food supplies, so the relevant daily average is actually higher).
Searching the exact same dates and the word "famine" and "Yemen" for the same 179 days yields just 16 articles, and incredibly, the word "Gaza" still appears 9 times in the headlines and/or snippet text summaries below each headline resulting from a search for stories about hunger in Yemen. But in reality only five of the 16 articles specifically focus on Yemen (with "Yemen" or "Houthis" in the headline of the story).
So, comparing just the articles resulting from the search, the 17 million people in Yemen affected by hunger got one Times article for every 3.4 million Yeminis compared to the 1.1 million Gazans who got 205 articles (one article for every 5,366 hungry).
Now for a look at the NYT famine coverage for Sudan during the same period. A search yields just 18 articles and this time the word "Gaza" appears 20 times in the headlines and/or snippet text summaries below each headline. But just three of the 16 articles actually focus on Sudan (with "Sudan" or "Sudanese" in the headline of the story). So, comparing just the articles resulting from this search, the 18 million people in Sudan affected by hunger got one Times article for every six million hungry), compared to the 1.1 million Gazans who got 205 articles (one article for every 5,366 hungry). So one hungry Gazan has the same importance to the NYT as about 1,118 hungry Sudanese.
Finally how much coverage has the NYT given to food insecurity in Nigeria, where a famine emergency affects 26.5 million people -- the most among the 13 territories listed by the UNWFP as having a hunger emergency? A search for "famine" and "Nigeria" yields a whopping six articles. Even more outrageous, "Gaza" still appears four times among the headlines and snippets of the six search results, but not a single article has a headline or snippet mentioning "Nigeria."
Ironically, this Times article (from the same group of six that result from a search for "famine" and "Nigeria") indirectly acknowledges the paper’s skewed coverage: "While hunger crises in regions such as South Sudan and Tigray have unfolded with little media attention, there is intense international scrutiny on Gaza."
Some of the disproportionate Gaza coverage is attributable to Arif Husain, the Pakistani-American head of the UNWFP, who has tweeted more about hunger in Gaza than anywhere else since October 7th. Nearly all of Husain’s feed since October 7th is about Gaza, and his bias stands out even more in his Tweet of November 23, 2023. In that Tweet, Husain notes that "Evil comes in all ways, shapes and forms!" and shares the infamous video of the ex-Obama official harassing a NY street vendor. While such harassment is indefensible by anyone (whether a VIP or not), it’s hardly at the level of raping, burning, beheading, and massacring 1,200 people and abducting another 240; yet Hamas’ atrocities on October 7th never inspired a single tweet about "evil" from Husain. Indeed his Twitter feed is conspicuously silent from October 7th until October 15th, when he reposted about the need to help Gaza.
In one of the six NYT articles resulting from a search for "famine" and "Nigeria," (with the headline "Half of Gazans Are at Risk of Starving, U.N. Warns"), Husain is quoted as saying, "I’ve been doing this for about 20 years... I’ve been to pretty much any conflict, whether Yemen, whether it was South Sudan, northeast Nigeria, Ethiopia, you name it. And I have never seen anything like this, both in terms of its scale, its magnitude, but also at the pace that this has unfolded."
But the NYT article negligently takes Husain’s sweeping claim at face value, reprinting it without any further investigation, comparative analysis, or caveats. Both the NYT and Husain apparently forgot about two far bigger famines during Husain’s tenure: the 2003-5 famine that killed about 200,000 in Darfur, and the 2011 famine in Somalia that claimed 260,000 lives.
Moreover, the article notes that, according to Husain, Gaza meets "at least the first criteria of a famine, with 20 percent of the population facing an extreme lack of food," but he is never asked why that is still more important than the exponentially larger hunger emergency in Nigeria:
"Conflict and insecurity, rising inflation and the impact of the climate crisis continue to drive hunger in Nigeria -- with 26.5 million people across the country projected to face acute hunger in the June-August 2024 lean season. This is a staggering increase from the 18.6 million people food insecure at the end of 2023."
In other words, in the last few months, the already huge number of Nigerians facing acute hunger increased by 7.9 million, but the 20% of Gaza "facing an extreme lack of food" (i.e., 440,000 Gazans) deserve virtually all of Husain’s Twitter attention and priority in the Times interview. Wouldn’t any responsible reporter striving for objectivity challenge Husain on his moral math? Apparently not at the paper of record, which can’t devote a single article to Nigerian hunger since October 7th.
But division by zero is undefined in mathematics, so -- for the sake of comparison -- suppose that the Times gave one article to Nigeria’s 26.5 million hungry people. Under that assumption, for the New York Times, one hungry Gazan deserves the same level of coverage as do 4,939 hungry Nigerians.
Such a disproportionate emphasis on Gaza inevitably causes the international community to neglect exponentially greater hunger problems. But for the Grey Lady, apparently Black lives don't matter nearly as much as Gazans. Actually, the amounts of food already delivered to Gaza should last them for years. But admitting that would not serve the anti-Israeli agenda.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
04/06/2024
01:00 ||
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[RADIOTAMAZUJ.ORG] The decision by Sudanese authorities to detain Former Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok who now heads of the leadership body of the Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces, also known as Tagadum, along with others, has ignited widespread criticism and denunciation.
The Sudanese Attorney General's office issued arrest warrants for Hamdok and other leaders of the civil democratic forces, calling on them to surrender to the nearest cop shoppe.
The Attorney General's decision was based on a complaint filed by the National Committee for War Crimes and Violations by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which lodged a case in a court in Port Sudan under articles related to waging war against the state, incitement, collaboration, and undermining the constitutional system.
Among the prominent figures detained are Yassir Arman, Khalid Omar, Siddiq Alsadiq, Mariam al-Mahdi, and journalist Shauki Abdelazim.
Almoez Hadara, a member of the Freedom and Change Forces' legal body, criticized the move, describing it as malicious. He questioned the nature and composition of the National Committee, and its claim to national status, and questioned who granted it the authority to file complaints and prosecute.
According to Hadara, under the Law of Criminal Procedure, no one has the right to form a committee for prosecution.
"The Attorney General has become a tool just as the National Congress Party used it to eliminate political opponents, using it also against its members who disagreed with it, under the pretext of legalizing violations," he charged. "I believe that the decision to file the complaint came in response to Islamist groups and others on social media, and in response to recent remarks by Yassir al-Atta regarding the prosecution’s actions."
A Sudanese political analyst, Essam-Eldeen Khadir, told Radio Tamazuj that he believes the detention memo issued by the Prosecutor General's office under the Port Sudan government is not surprising. He contends that the move is legally worthless but politically harmful.
"This move came to block the resumption of the Jeddah negotiations scheduled to resume on 28 April, as announced by the American envoy to Sudan," Khadir stated. "The government does not have control; hence, its decisions are confused and inconsistent."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
00:47 ||
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#1
The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum suspended its operations (to include visa, passport, and other routine consular services) on April 22, 2023. Why Foggy Bottom feels compelled to get involved now in the Sudan is inexplicable.
#3
^ Failed to see all of the coming with the communist takeover of Rhodesia did they. 35-45 years of geo-political trends escaped the WOKE minded bastids did it ?
#4
Skidmark: The USA broke off diplomatic relations with the Sudan for decades, and the world did not come to an end. What bribes can it now offer to end the present conflict, one that pits one side supported by Gulf Arabs and the other by Iran?
IRBM range to much of Africa's trouble spots.
Near equatorial space industry launch points.
A gateway to equatorial Africa resources for India.
A long list.
This is a local conflict with global economic impact. Don't limit yourself.
#5
Child predators are consistently assessed as highly recidivist by most reputable mental health clinicians. The best solution to child predators remains housing in the general population of incarcerated felons, especially those with large Aryan Nation sections.
[All Africa] In his first speech to the nation since his election as president of Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... , Bassirou Diomaye Faye said one of his first policy moves would be to audit the country's oil, gas and mining sectors to root out corruption.
"The exploitation of our natural resources, which according to the constitution belong to the people, will receive particular attention from my government," said Faye in the president's traditional speech given the day before the country's independence day.
"I will proceed with the disclosure of the effective ownership of extractive companies [and] with an audit of the mining, oil, and gas sector."
Senegal's first offshore oil development is due to start production in the middle in this year.
The Sangomar oil and gas project, operated by the Australian Woodside Energy is expected to produce about 100,000 barrels per day.
Faye, a former tax inspector who defeated the ruling coalition's candidate by a landslide in last month's presidential election, also sought to reassure investors, who he said are "welcome in Senegal".
"Investor rights will always be protected, as well as the interests of the state and the people," he said.
The 44-year-old pan-Africanist has become the youngest leader ever in charge of Senegal, and the youngest currently in power in Africa.
[An Nahar] Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... chief Samir Geagea ...Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005... has held Hezbollah responsible for the losses resulting from its cross-border conflict with Israel.
"We have incurred 350 to 400 victims in addition to the destruction of dozens of villages, direct economic losses that surpass millions of dollars and indirect losses that no one can accurately estimate," Geagea lamented in a Ramadan iftar banquet in Maarab.
Referring to Hezbollah and possibly Iran, the LF leader emphasized that "those who took the decision to implicate Lebanon Hezbollahstan ..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... should bear the responsibility and consequences."
He added: "The government should immediately work on implementing Resolution 1701, because we have an interest in that. That would be accompanied by the deployment of the Lebanese Army along the southern Lebanese border, so that it defends every inch of Lebanese land, especially that everyone is behind it and the Arab countries and the entire world would support it and assist it."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
00:12 ||
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[119 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
The salad days of 72 year old Geagea have come and gone. Tragically, the Christian Lebanese youth prefer to migrate rather than take part in Lebanese politics.
[An Nahar] An Israeli strike on the southern border town of Aita al-Shaab killed two people and injured one Friday, the National News Agency said, while another strike on Kfarkela injured one person.
One Israeli soldier and three Lebanese civilians were earlier maimed in overnight cross-border fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.
The three Lebanese civilians were maimed in an overnight strike on the southern border town of Kfarhamam in the Arqoob region while the Israeli army said Friday that one soldier was maimed in a Hezbollah overnight attack on Metula.
Hezbollah said it attacked soldiers and military vehicles in the Malkia post and another military vehicle in Metula.
Later on Friday, Israeli warplanes raided Kfarkela, Tayr Harfa, Aita al-Shaab, the outskirts of Shebaa and houses in Zalloutieh and Yarin, while Hezbollah targeted the Hadb Yaroun post, a group of soldiers in Manara, and surveillance equipment in the Zar'it barracks.
An Israeli tank also shelled Kfarkela and al-Khiam.
On Thursday Hezbollah carried out five attacks on posts in northern Israel and the occupied Kfarshouba Hills and Shebaa Farms near Kfarhamam.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire since Paleostinian krazed killer group Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, triggering war 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... The cross-border hostilities have killed at least 349 people in Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them... , mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 68 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel, where the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
00:11 ||
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[157 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... chief Jebran Bassil has demanded "a ceasefire in south Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ... " and "separating the matter from the developments of the war 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... ."
Calling for "solidarity in this critical period that the country is going through and is witnessing an unprecedented collapse," Bassil stressed, in remarks to Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper, his "support for the resistance in repelling any Israeli attack on Lebanon."
He, however, rejected "Hezbollah’s participation in Gaza’s war amid the lack of national consensus."
"It is clear that Hezbollah does not want a major war with Israel, and this is an appreciated and good stance, but it has meanwhile lost control of the decision to stop the war, leaving the matter in Israel’s hands. For the sake of whom has this happened? For the sake of Yahya al-Sinwar or for the sake of liberating Jerusalem?" Bassil wondered.
Urging the relevant countries to "help us achieve that," Bassil refused to link the presidential vote to a ceasefire in south Lebanon, emphasizing that the vote should take place regardless.
Noting that he is maintaining communication with Hezbollah "at the highest levels," Bassil revealed that he has asked Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri ...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... to support him in his endeavor to "separate the domestic Lebanese file from the war in Gaza."
He also called for an agreement on a new president "because no one can impose anything on anyone in Lebanon."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
00:10 ||
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[An Nahar] State Security chief Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba has been charged by State Commissioner to Military Court Judge Fadi Akiki in the case of the detainee Dany al-Rashid’s escape from prison, judicial sources said.
The sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper that Saliba has been charged with the misdemeanors of abuse of power and misuse of influence.
Al-Rashid had beat feet from his State Security prison in Beirut on March 27 before heading to Syria where he was eventually re-arrested by Lebanese and Syrian security agents.
According to media reports, al-Rashid was once an adviser to Saliba and the director of ex-minister Salim Jreissati’s office. He was reportedly enjoying a favorable treatment in the State Security prison -- including breaks to see his family and have dinner outside. He only decided to escape upon learning that he would be moved to an Internal Security Forces prison based on a judicial order, the reports say.
Seven other people, including al-Rashid, have been charged in the prison escape case.
Al-Rashid had been enjugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! in connection with the attempted murder of the engineer Abdallah Hanna in Zahle.
Following the charges against Saliba, intensive contacts were held between the Shiite Duo and the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... in order to "contain the fallout from these charges," Nidaa al-Watan reported, noting that Saliba is close to the FPM while Akiki is close to Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri ...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... .
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
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[An Nahar] Swiss International Air Lines said Friday it had turned back a flight in mid-air heading from Zurich to Beirut because the security situation in Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...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... had become "difficult to assess."
The flight, with 138 passengers and five crew on board, did not have permission to land back in Zurich overnight Thursday so was instead diverted to Vienna, SWISS said.
"In view of the latest developments in the Middle East... the situation in Lebanon last night was difficult to assess," a front man told AFP.
"In order to gain time and to be able to properly assess the situation, they decided to take this step out of an abundance of caution."
In Vienna, passengers were rebooked onto other flights.
"We hope for the understanding of the passengers concerned and did our utmost to get them to their destination as quickly as possible," the front man said.
Following a review, SWISS decided to maintain its flight program to Beirut and Tel Aviv, but said it would monitor developments "very closely."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A huge bridge said to be big enough for a column of tanks to cross is set to spring up in Panama in one of the most dangerous migrant crossing points in the world.
According to reports, the structure is being built in Yaviza which sits on the Rio Chuconaco - the separation point between Central and South America and one of the most southerly points reachable by roads from North America.
Until now, the Pan-American highway - which weaves through central America towards South America - has ended in Yaviza, which sits on the edge of the 100-mile Darien Gap - a dense, lawless jungle between Panama and Colombia.
Millions of migrants brave the Darien Gap every year but are forced to mostly undertake the journey on foot, facing perilous river crossings, wild animals and even violent criminal gangs that extort, kidnap and abuse them.
According to a report by the US-based Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), that could be about to change with the construction of the new bridge across the Rio Chuconaco that could see the highway extended further south.
This would undoubtedly make the crossing safer for the millions of migrants who travel up from South America with the ultimate goal of reaching the United States.
However, news of the bridge's construction has raised a puzzling question: Who is funding the construction of the bridge, and what do they stand to gain?
According to Michael Yon, an American writer and photographer, one possible benefactor is China.
According to figures released in February this year, over seven million migrants have crossed America's southern border under the Joe Biden administration.
The total does not include an estimated 1.8 million known 'gotaways' who managed to evade law enforcement, either.
The issue of migration has long been a divisive topic in the US, and a divided America is of great benefit to the powers Beijing, with China being the US's main economic rival and key rival global superpower.
It is easy to see, therefore, why China could have an interest in aiding the passage of migrants from South American to America's southern border.
Another reason, however, could be Chinese migrants themselves.
Although the majority of migrants making the treacherous journey north from South America tend to be from countries such as Haiti and Venezuela hoping for a new life in the United States, the numbers of Chinese migrants has soared in recent years.
Figures show that authorities in Panama counted 15,000 Chinese migrants in 2023, almost eight times as many than in the same period in 2022, and more than 40 times the number seen in 2021, according to the Daily Star.
What's more, between January and September 2023, US border officials detained more than 22,000 Chinese nationals attempting to enter from Mexico.
With its Belt and Road initiative, the Chinese government is also known to be funding infrastructure projects across the globe.
Panama is among the initiative's 150 member countries, while Colombia is understood to be considering joining Belt and Road.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by American screenwriter and television producer Shawn Ryan, Michael Yon said: 'Nobody says who's putting the money in it.'
This, he said, 'indicates to me it's China – because China has a way of doing this.
'But I keep asking government people who's actually paying for this, and nobody seems to know,' he said.
According to CBN correspondent Chuck Holton who visited the construction site, the initial plan for the bridge and the new road is to connect villages in the region.
He spoke to Lead Bridge Engineer Manuel Pinilla, who told the American network: 'This area is rich in fertile soil, predominantly used for farming activities like raising livestock and growing tubers, among other crops.
Transportation is solely by boat along the river, often requiring four to five hours of travel upstream or downstream. However, with this project, they'll have a more accessible link, potentially leading to significant development.'
However, Holton told CBN that from the size of the construction project 'it looks like the builders may have other plans in the future' to continue the road.
'And if that's the case, that could change everything from an economic standpoint, a political standpoint, and from the standpoint of migration here in the Western Hemisphere,' he said.
News of the bridge's construction came as Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused Colombia and Panama of failing to do enough to protect the hundreds of thousands of US-bound migrants crossing the Darien Gap.
'Whatever the reason for their journey, migrants and asylum seekers crossing the Darien Gap are entitled to basic safety and respect for their human rights along the way,' HRW's Americas director Juanita Goebertus said in a statement.
'Colombian and Panamanian authorities can and should do more to ensure the rights of migrants and asylum seekers crossing their countries, as well as of local communities that have experienced years of neglect,' she added.
Despite the dangers, the Darien Gap has become a key corridor for migrants hoping to reach the United States.
In 2023, a record 520,000 people crossed the jungle, according to the Panamanian government.
In its 110-page report, HRW said Colombia 'lacks a clear strategy' to protect those crossing the gap, with limited government presence leaving them exposed to the Gulf Clan, a drug trafficking cartel and major player in the migrant business.
Panama, meanwhile, focuses more on restricting movement and rushing migrants through to Costa Rica, rather than 'addressing their needs or ensuring that they can exercise their right to seek asylum.'
The NGO reported that on both sides of the border, authorities were not doing enough to investigate and punish violations such as pervasive sexual abuse or look for missing people.
Since 2021, there have been more than 1,500 reports of sexual violence in the Darien Gap, but the real number is likely to be higher, HRW said.
Dozens, possibly hundreds, of people have lost their lives trying to cross or are missing in the region, it said.
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#6
If I was gonna invade the US, I'd want to land forces a whole lot closer than Panama.
Actually, I think Columbia is the one who should be worried here. Bridges lead both ways.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/06/2024 9:54
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#7
Wow DM. Wide enough for a whole column. Outstanding work.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) destroyed two bases of militants who left the al-Tanf zone on Syrian territory. The deputy head of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria (CPVS), Major General Yuri Popov, told reporters about this on April 5.
The terrorists took refuge in hard-to-reach areas of the Al-Amur (Homs province) and Al-Bishri (Deir ez-Zor province) mountain ranges.
On April 3, Popov also informed about the destruction of two militant bases in these areas.
As Regnum reported, on March 2, it became known that the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed a militant camp near the village of Kubbasin in the Syrian province of Aleppo. It contained at least 25 terrorists involved in shelling of Syrian government forces.
On March 30, Yuri Popov said that reconnaissance and sabotage activity by militants was being recorded in the Idlib de-escalation zone. Thus, on March 29, Syrian troops repulsed attacks by illegal armed groups in the Urum es-Sughra area. Prior to this, at least six terrorists were eliminated near the village of Kafer Nebel in Idlib province.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Ministry of Health has registered fluorothiazinone tablets against antibiotic resistance, the department’s press service reported on April 5.
“The drug was completely developed and produced by the N. F. Gamaleya Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Ministry of Health,” the statement says.
The department called the development of Russian scientists unique. The medicine will treat bacterial infections caused by antibiotic-resistant microorganisms. The new product showed a favorable safety profile and high efficiency.
It is noted that the drug has no analogues in the world among antibacterial drugs with such mechanisms of action.
The chief freelance urologist of the Ministry of Health, Dmitry Pushkar, said that this antimicrobial drug can be used separately and in combination with antibiotics.
“The Russian Federation is one of the leaders in the fight against antimicrobial resistance,” said Roman Kozlov, the ministry’s chief freelance specialist in clinical microbiology and antimicrobial resistance.
The American publication The Hill in December 2023, citing data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reported the spread of “ superbugs ” resistant to antibiotics in Ukraine. Journalists noted that the microorganisms that appeared there showed resistance, including to carbapenems, antibiotics, which are called the last resort for infections.
[FoxNews] East Coast residents felt the earth move Friday morning as a minor earthquake hit New Jersey and was felt in surrounding areas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The earthquake measured at least 4.8 magnitude and struck near Lebanon, New Jersey, at 10:23 a.m., about 45 miles west of New York City and 50 miles north of Philadelphia, according to the USGS. An estimate indicates the quake might have been felt by more than 42 million people in 14 states from Maine to North Carolina. More than 152,000 Americans reported feeling shaking to the USGS.
"Our region just experienced an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.7, with an epicenter near Readington in Hunterdon County," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement. "We have activated our State Emergency Operations Center. Please do not call 911 unless you have an actual emergency."
AFTERSHOCKS ABOUND
Around 6 Friday evening, folks in New Jersey, New York City's five boroughs and Connecticut felt a 4.0 magnitude aftershock that was recorded four miles southwest of Gladstone, New Jersey, according to the USGS.
So far, the USGS said 11 aftershocks have been recorded since Friday morning's initial 4.8 rattler.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/06/2024 12:31
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#5
Is something biblical happening, God telling us He has had enough?
1. "(New York Post) – […] Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, New Jersey was at the epicenter of the 4.8-magnitude that rattled the New York City area on Friday."
2. The Statue of Liberty is hit by V=shaped bolt of lightening:
3. For the first time in 221 years, two broods of cicadas (not locusts) that spend the vast majority of their lives underground will emerge, invading backyards in 17 states.Jan 20, 2024
The BMP-3 is a much improved infantry fighting vehicle bristing with a 100mm cannon, a 30mm autocannon and a 7.62mm machine gun, all coaxially mounted.
[Regnum] Kurganmashzavod (part of the High-Precision Complexes holding of the Rostec state corporation) handed over a batch of third-generation infantry fighting vehicles to the Ministry of Defense. The press service of High Precision Systemsreported this on April 5
“Kurganmashplant “High-precision complexes” has delivered the next batch of third-generation infantry fighting vehicles BMP-3 as part of the execution of the state defense order,” the statement says.
It is noted that the company has been increasing the production volume of military equipment for two years, improving it for the tasks of the defense department.
The press service clarified that Kurganmashzavod, as part of a special operating regime, increased its staff, recruiting over 2,000 workers of basic professions and specialists in 2023 alone.
Earlier, Roman Khromov, Deputy Executive Director for State Defense and Military-Technical Cooperation of Kurganmashzavod, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that a study of a captured American infantry fighting vehicle showed that it is completely inferior to the BMP-3. He clarified that the Russian armored vehicle with a powerful weapon destroys American infantry fighting vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with one shot.
As Regnum reported, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on March 20 that since the beginning of 2024, the Armed Forces have destroyed four American Abrams tanks, five German Leopards, 27 Bradley armored vehicles and Western-made MLRS and air defense missile launchers during battles.
The head of the defense department noted that it is increasingly difficult for Western countries to argue for continued funding and supplies of weapons to Kyiv, which is why the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had to bring reserves into battle, including the most expensive samples of provided foreign equipment. Ukrainian troops lost a total of 11 thousand units of various weapons, he added.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The United Aircraft Corporation (part of the Rostec state corporation) transferred Su-34 front-line bombers to the Russian Aerospace Forces, which became the first delivery of combat aircraft in 2024. The press service of Rostecreported this on April 5
“This year’s first batch of Su-34 front-line bombers was transferred to the Russian Aerospace Forces as part of the execution of the state defense order,” the state corporation reported.
The Su-34 was assembled at the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant named after. V.P. Chkalov and after a complex of factory tests was sent to the customer.
According to UAC General Director Yuri Slyusar, all corporation factories participating in the implementation of state defense orders maintain their production rates.
“We began delivering aircraft with the first batch of Su-34 front-line bombers as part of the current year’s production program. The Novosibirsk plant confidently copes with its tasks. Factory workers understand how important our technology is today,” he said.
Russian Su-34 bombers are an important part of the strike power of Russian front-line aviation. Their capabilities make it possible to use promising aviation weapons, increase the range of destruction of ground and surface targets, and also increase the accuracy of bombing.
As Regnum reported, earlier on April 5, Kurganmashzavod (part of the High-Precision Complexes holding of the Rostec state corporation) transferred a batch of third-generation infantry fighting vehicles to the Ministry of Defense. It was noted that over the past two years the enterprise has been increasing the production volume of military equipment and improving it to meet the customer’s requirements.
On March 22, the Rostec press service reported a multiple increase in the production of FAB-500 aerial bombs. The state corporation clarified that they also doubled the production of FAB-1500 aerial bombs and began producing three-ton FAB-3000 bombs.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The enemy attacks Krynki every day, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces hold their positions.
In the Kherson direction, the occupiers do not abandon their intention to dislodge Ukrainian units from their bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnieper.
During the day, 72 clashes were recorded at the front. The enemy made 14 attacks in the Kherson direction near Krynoki. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced this in an evening report on Friday, April 5.
In total, Russian troops carried out 10 missile and 67 air strikes, and carried out 97 attacks from multiple launch rocket systems on positions of Ukrainian troops and populated areas.
In the Kupyansk direction the enemy did not conduct offensive (assault) operations.
In the Liman direction, Ukrainian soldiers repelled two enemy attacks in the area of the village of Terny, Donetsk region, where the invaders tried to break through the defenses.
In the Bakhmut direction, more than 10 attacks were repelled in the areas of the settlements of Andreevka, Zelenopole, Kleshchievka, Ivanovskoye, Donetsk region, where the Russians tried to improve the tactical situation.
In the Avdeevsky direction, 18 attacks were repelled in the areas of the settlements of Berdychi, Umanskoye, Yasnobrodovka and Pervomaiskoye in the Donetsk region, where the enemy, with the support of aviation, tried to dislodge Ukrainian units from their occupied lines.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the Defense Forces continue to restrain the Russian invaders in the areas of the settlements of Georgievka, Konstantinovka, Novomikhailovka in the Donetsk region, where the invaders, with the support of aviation, tried to break through the defense 10 times.
In the Orekhovsky direction, during the day, the enemy, with the support of aviation, made one unsuccessful attempt to attack the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the village of Staromayorskoye, Donetsk region.
In the Kherson direction, the enemy does not abandon his intention to dislodge Ukrainian units from the bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnieper. Thus, during the day, 14 unsuccessful attacks were carried out on the positions of Ukrainian Armed Forces troops in the area of the settlement of Krynki, Kherson region.
During the day, Defense Forces aircraft carried out strikes on nine areas where personnel were concentrated and one enemy anti-aircraft missile system.
The missile force units destroyed one control point, two air defense systems, one artillery weapon, one UAV control point and two areas where enemy weapons and military equipment were concentrated.
Let us remind you that over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces liquidated 860 invaders. Since the beginning of the full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russian army has lost 445.9 thousand soldiers.
[TOLONEWS] Najibullah Haqqani, the acting Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology, urged the world to abandon 'hostile' decisions and engage with the Islamic Emirate.
Haqqani, in a special interview with TOLOnews, asserted that the Islamic Emirate will never succumb to non-Islamic and non-Shariah compliant demands for the sake of interaction with the world.
He stated, "Abandon hostile decisions, grasp the realities, and start your interactions with the Islamic Emirate. Never entertain the thought that the Islamic Emirate would accept demands that contradict Shariah and are against the national interests of the Afghan people."
In another part of his address, Haqqani provided statistics showing that 61% of the country's citizens have access to telecommunications services; however, he described this number as an initial figure.
Haqqani said that currently more than 18,000 telecommunications sites are operational across the country, and 22.7 million SIM cards have been registered with the ministry.
The acting Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology said: "Currently, there are 22.7 million active SIM cards in the sector, and we define an active SIM card as one that has been used within the past six months. If no calls have been made in six months, that SIM card gets blocked."
According to Najibullah Haqqani, significant sections of the Ministry of Telecommunications were dispersed and under the influence of other ministries and administrations before the Islamic Emirate's return to power.
He also mentioned that a serious effort has been made to combat corruption, and corruption will be eradicated in the future.
Najibullah Haqqani stated: "The companies Afghan Telecom and Afghan Post have come back under the Ministry of Telecommunications, and the ATRA (Afghanistan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority) came under the Ministry of Telecommunications. Now, the Ministry of Telecommunications that we currently oversee differs significantly from the ministry that existed before the Islamic Emirate."
The acting Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology further said that the 10% tax from credit cards is transparently transferred to the state's treasury, revealing that so far, five billion afghani in revenue has been generated from this tax.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
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Gospozha Zakharova complains about a time honored practice of every political entity since the dawn of time.
[Regnum] American intelligence services use journalists as agents, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the Telegram channel on April 5.
A year after the arrest of Evan Gershkovich, an employee of the American edition of The Wall Street Journal, one of the March issues of the newspaper came out with a black and white photo of an American journalist detained on suspicion of espionage with the phrase “His report could be here.” To this, Zakharova said that Gershkovich could write about terrorist attacks on Russian cities and fellow journalists killed by the Kyiv regime.
“I could if I was engaged in journalism and not espionage,” the diplomat emphasized.
Zakharova also drew attention to the fact that not a single American newspaper came out in support of another American journalist, Gonzalo Lira, who spent eight months in torture in a Ukrainian prison, eventually being killed in January. At the same time, the diplomat said that she had not heard about the initiation of a criminal case in the United States regarding the murder of Lira.
As Regnum reported, Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg in March 2023. A criminal case was opened against him under the article on espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). A WSJ journalist collected secret information in Russia about one of the enterprises of the military-industrial complex. The information that the accused tried to find out was a state secret.
On March 26, 2024, the Lefortovo Court of Moscow extended Gershkovich’s arrest until June 30. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said on March 28 that there are contacts between Russia and the United States on the exchange of prisoners, but they must be carried out in silence.
President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, did not rule out the possibility of exchanging Gershkovich. The head of state said that Russia has already made so many goodwill gestures that it has exhausted all limits.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The two heroic Israeli brothers who were subjected to aggressive questioning from 'antisemitic' Border Force staff as they arrived in Britannia have returned home after saying they don't 'feel safe'.
UK Border Force were slammed for 'demeaning' the two Israeli survivors of the Nova Music Festival and detaining them for two hours at Manchester Airport after flying over to speak about their experience.
MailOnline previously revealed that the men are Daniel and Neria Sharabi who defended some 30 people during the carnage of the festival as they sheltered behind a tank, using unfamiliar weapons against the Death Eaters as a reserve commander relayed instructions over the phone.
They also treated the maimed who were hiding with them, while Daniel's former IDF commander advised them by telephone.
Speaking of how he feels following the incident, Neria told MailOnline: 'I don't feel safe. If this is how the cops treats civilians, I don't want to be here. People here are asking us to stay a little bit longer, but I don't feel safe to stay here. I want to go home, and we'll be taking our flight home today.
'This is my first time in the country and my last time in the country. I don't want to feel what I felt again.'
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[SUDANTRIBUNE] Sudanese army forces launched a multi-pronged offensive to retake control of al-Jazirah state, a military source revealed on Friday.
The source, a senior officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, said troops advanced from al-Khayari towards Rapid Support Forces (RSF) positions east of al-Jazirah. Limited operations are also underway on the western and southern fronts, near al-Manaqil and Sennar, respectively.
According to the source, army forces captured Wad Faqisha and Hafira villages on Thursday without encountering RSF resistance. Local sources reported intermittent festivities east of Wad Madani, near the road connecting al-Jazirah and Gedaref, on Friday. These festivities likely involved advanced reconnaissance units from both sides.
On the western al-Manaqil front, where a large army contingent is stationed, the army’s Special Action Forces released a video showcasing a raid targeting an RSF position in a village. Another video showed an army unit conducting a sweep operation in Doha village, west of Sennar. This village, along with others in the area, recently suffered civilian casualties during alleged looting raids by the RSF.
The army’s Air Force also bombed RSF positions in Shabarqa, east of Wad Madani. This forced the RSF to displace residents from their homes, using them as makeshift barracks and cover for vehicles from Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s.
These military movements come as part of a broader operation to regain control of al-Jazirah. Recent visits by army leadership to bordering states included pronouncements of an operation to "liberate" Wad Madani from RSF control.
The RSF seized Wad Madani in December 2023 and then expanded southward towards Sennar. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... they failed to capture the western al-Manaqil and al-Qurashi localities, where army forces remain entrenched.
[BLS.gov] Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 303,000 in March, and the unemployment rate little at 3.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, government, and construction.
In March, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 12 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $34.69 [just about keeping up with inflation].
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised up by 27,000, from +229,000 to +256,000, and the change for February was revised down by 5,000, from +275,000 to +270,000.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/06/2024
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#1
"Behind Today's Stellar Jobs Print: It Was Literally ALL Part-Time Jobs (And Illegals)"
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Despite the already available data on the transfer of funds to those accused of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, it is necessary to establish all stages of its financing, Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said on April 5.
The head of the department also instructed to continue to establish in detail the circumstances of the crime and take comprehensive measures to detain the perpetrators, accomplices and organizers involved in the terrorist attacks.
Bastrykin held an operational meeting and heard a report from the investigative team on the progress of the investigation into the criminal case of the terrorist attack at Crocus. The Chairman of the Investigative Committee was informed about the continuation of investigative actions with the persons involved in the criminal case. The testimony obtained during interrogations is verified.
As Regnum reported, terrorists attacked Crocus City Hall on the evening of March 22. They opened fire on visitors and set fire to the concert hall. As a result, 145 people died, including six children. In addition, about 550 people were injured. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under Art. 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Terrorist act”).
Ten people were arrested in connection with the terrorist attack at Crocus, including four direct perpetrators. On April 4, FSB officers detained three more people involved in the terrorist attack in the Moscow region in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and Omsk. They turned out to be a Russian citizen and two foreigners - all from the Central Asian region.
FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov said on March 27 that the testimony of those detained in the Crocus terrorist attack case confirms the Ukrainian trace. On April 5, the Investigative Committee reported that it had identified a connection between the terrorist attack at Crocus and a special operation in Ukraine. Investigators found photos of people with the Ukrainian flag on the phone of one of the Crocus terrorists. In addition, the terrorist sent the curator photographs of the entrances to the concert hall on February 24, 2024, the anniversary of the start of the SVO.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also spoke about the Ukrainian trace in the terrorist attack case.
President Vladimir Putin said on April 2 that Russia will reach all the beneficiaries and customers of the terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk. The head of state also said that those who ordered the terrorist attack at Crocus wanted to damage the unity of Russia.
“Dear colleagues, good afternoon. Our main issue today is to increase the efficiency of work with manifestations of organized crime, organized crime in general,” he said.
The head of state clarified that Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev will present a report on this topic.
As Regnum reported, on April 2, the president noted that criminal communities often have connections abroad, including with foreign intelligence services. In view of this, the head of state demanded that attention be paid to the protection of public order, the fight against extremism, the suppression of illegal migration, the work of local services and the actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to neutralize organized crime.
Later that day, Putin pointed to the increase in the use of the hardest and most dangerous synthetic drugs in Russia, calling on law enforcement agencies to more actively combat this phenomenon. The President also called strengthening close coordination of all law enforcement and intelligence agencies one of the main tasks.
Posted by: badanov ||
04/06/2024
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Article Linked To Is Available Only Via VPN
[EngMilRu] From 31 March to 5 April 2024, in response to the Kiev regime's attempts to damage Russia's oil and gas and power facilities, the Russian Armed Forces carried out 39 group strikes by ground-launched and air-launched high-precision weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles targeting Ukrainian energy industry facilities, military industrial enterprises, air defence systems, arsenals, fuel bases, temporary deployment areas of Ukrainian units and foreign mercenaries.
The goal of the strikes have been achieved. All the assigned targets have been engaged.
In Kupyansk direction, units of the Zapad Group of Forces in cooperation with aviation and artillery inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of four mechanised brigades of the AFU and two territorial defence brigades close to Yampolovka (Donetsk People's Republic), Stelmakhovka (Lugansk People's Republic) and Stroyevka (Kharkov region).
In addition, 10 counter-attacks launched by assault groups of the 95th Air Assault Brigade, 57th Motorised Infantry Brigade, and 60th Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were repelled close to Sinkovka (Kharkov region) and Terny (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 270 Ukrainian troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, 22 motor vehicles, and 13 field artillery guns.
Four ammunition depots were also destroyed.
In Donetsk direction, as a result of the actions of the Yug Group of Forces units, the tactical position along the front line has been improved.
Strikes were delivered at units of four assault, three airmobile, and eight mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Belogorovka (Lugansk People's Republic), Kurdyumovka, Novomikhailovka, Kleshcheyevka, Spornoye, Andreyevka, and Chasov Yars (Donetsk People's Republic).
Fifteen counterattacks of the AFU's 31st, 67th, 72nd Mechanised, 80th, and 92nd Air Assault brigades were also repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 2,110 Ukrainian troops, six tanks, 11 armoured fighting vehicles, 89 motor vehicles, and 40 field artillery guns.
In Avdeyevka direction, the Tsentr Group of Forces liberated Vodyanoye (Donetsk People's Republic) and continued to advance into the depths of the enemy's defence, as well as to occupy more advantageous lines.
In addition, air strikes, artillery fire, and heavy flamethrower systems hit the personnel and hardware of six brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and repelled 39 enemy counter-attacks close to Semyonovka, Novogorodskoye, Berdychi, Tonenkoye, Usmanskoye, and Pervomayskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
More than 1,695 Ukrainian troops, three tanks, 15 armoured fighting vehicles, 23 motor vehicles, and 19 field artillery guns of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been neutralised during the week.
In South Donetsk direction, units of the Vostok Group of Forces improved their tactical position along the front line and defeated the units of the seven brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, National Guard, and Territorial Defence close to Urozhaynoye, Ugledar (Donetsk People's Republic) and Malinovka (Zaporozhye region).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 760 Ukrainian troops, eight tanks, two armoured fighting vehicles, 24 motor vehicles, and 11 field artillery guns.
In Kherson direction, the Dnepr Group of Forces' actions defeated manpower and hardware of one mountain assault brigade, three mechanised brigades, one naval infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as three territorial defence brigades close to Vysshetarasovka (Dnepropetrovsk region), Rabotino, Nesteryanka, Novosyolovka, Pyatikhatki (Zaporozhye region), Ivanovka and Novotyaginka (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 240 Ukrainian troops, 19 motor vehicles, and 14 field artillery guns, to include one M109 Paladin self-propelled artillery system and two U.S.-made M777 artillery systems.
Over the past week, the Groups' Missile Troops and Artillery and unmanned aerial vehicles have neutralised three Su-25 ground-attack aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force at the home airfield and five S-300 anti-aircraft missile launchers.
Russian air defence means and aviation have eliminated two Su-27 and one Mig-29 fighter jets of the Ukrainian Air Force, five Hammer and JDAM aerial guided bombs, 91 HIMARS, Vampire, and 220mm BM-27 Uragan MLRS projectiles, as well as 1,119 unmanned aerial vehicles.
Seven Ukrainian servicemen surrendered during the week.
In total, 583 airplanes, 270 helicopters, 18,892 unmanned aerial vehicles, 495 surface-to-air missile systems, 15,691 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,264 MLRS combat vehicles, 8,674 field artillery guns and mortars, and 20,627 special military vehicles have been neutralised since the beginning of the special military operation.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Fast food chain McDonald's will buy back all of its Israeli restaurants following a boycott of the brand after it was criticised for giving away thousands of free meals to Israeli soldiers.
The move to donate meals to troops was later renounced by McDonald's franchises in some Muslim countries, highlighting the polarized regional politics that global corporations navigate during war.
Some Western brands are feeling the impact of boycotts in Egypt and Jordan that have now caught on in some countries outside the Arab region including Muslim-majority Malaysia.
The popular chain said it had reached an agreement with franchisee Alonyal for 225 outlets across the country employing 5,000 people.
McDonald's decision comes after widespread protests at its decision to give out free meals affected sales in the Middle East, Indonesia and France.
McDonald's is a global chain but its franchises are often owned locally and operate autonomously, with Alonyal operated McDonald's restaurants in Israel for more than 30 years.
Jo Sempels, president of international developmental licensed markets at McDonald's Corporation, thanked Alonyal 'for building the McDonald's business and brand in Israel over the past 30 years'.
Mr Sempels added: 'McDonald's remains committed to the Israeli market and to ensuring a positive employee and customer experience in the market going forward.'
Allyson Stewart-Allen, CEO of International Marketing Partners, said that by buying back its restaurants, McDonald's was looking to send a message of reassurance to customers in Israel.
Speaking to iNews, she said: 'They are saying by implication, this won't happen again.
'I think they are telling customers by buying back the business that we are taking back control.'
Ms Stewart-Allen added that such a move by the company indicates McDonald's franchisees could be tightened globally as a result of the row, while suggesting that it posed a similar challenge for other large global brands with franchises.
'They too will now be thinking, we probably need to tighten up what they are allowed to do, because they don't want to suffer the same,' said the author of Working with Americans.
'McDonald's is a lesson for all global brands generally.'
It comes after McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski admitted in January that the company has seen 'meaningful impact' in several markets in the Middle East and some outside the region due to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
McDollar$, and handful of other once pro USA companies lost our business several years ago. When they started playing Racial / Social Agenda advocates, over sticking to being a business that sells products.
[SUDANTRIBUNE] Musa Hilal, a prominent tribal leader and head of the Revolutionary Awakening Council, narrowly escaped an liquidation attempt on Monday.
A gunman opened fire on Hilal while he was meeting with local dignitaries in the town of Umm Sant, North Darfur. Hilal’s private guards intervened, injuring and arresting the attacker.
Hilal is a controversial figure. In February, he publicly opposed the ongoing conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. He accused the RSF of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. abuses in Darfur.
According to Hilal’s son, Fathi Musa Hilal, the attacker’s motive remains unclear. "While my father was meeting with local leaders, an armed man approached and opened fire," Fathi told Sudan Tribune.
"He missed his target and was apprehended by the guards. We are still investigating his motives and any potential affiliations."
Fathi did not directly blame any group for the attack but hinted at involvement by forces aligned with the RSF. He also revealed that Hilal met with representatives of the attacker’s tribe, urging them to avoid conflict with the state.
Hilal’s relationship with the former Sudanese regime had been strained. Following that, the RSF arrested him in November 2017. In 2018, he faced charges of undermining the government, inciting war, and tribal conflict.
He was released in March 2021, but authorities have restricted his travel to Darfur, a region largely controlled by the RSF. Hilal defied returned to Darfur in April 2023, calling for an end to the ongoing violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
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#1
The reason is obvious Musa Hilal, age 63, is leader of the Mahamid element of the so-called Arab Rizaqat Confederation. The Rizaqat are historically the nomadic cattle herders who have fought with African tribals from North Darfur to the northern Bahr al-Ghazal area of South Sudan. If they are eliminated [which is unlikely but hoped for] a new Muslim state will be created in Darfur, one free of Arab influence.
[GEO.TV] The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has received the forensic report of the powder found in mysterious letters sent to the judges of the high courts and the Supreme Court ...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations... , sources told Geo News.
At least four judges of the SC, eight of the Islamabad High Court and six of the Lahore High Court received letters, creating fear in the judiciary. The latest judge to receive the threatening letter was LHC's Justice Ali Baqar Najafi.
The CTD lodged two FIRs against unknown people and launched an inquiry into the matter.
The sources disclosed that arsenic mixed in white powder was found in the letters. They further revealed that the powder contained 10% arsenic, adding that a higher ratio of the material can be "very poisonous" and harmful to the human body and can affect the nervous system upon inhalation.
So does that mean 10% is dangerous or not?
The Sherlocks have obtained the videos of the CCTV cameras installed near the letterboxes in the sub-divisional post office Satellite Town, Rawalpindi.
The sources shared that the suspects in the videos are being identified with the help of Nadra.
Earlier, the judges of the IHC including the chief justice received the letters containing the white powder which was believed to be anthrax.
Later, CJP Qazi Faez Isa and three other SC judges including Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Justice Aminuddin received similar letters.
After this, five LHC judges were sent letters while Justice Baqar Najvi received a similar letter today.
Amid calls to probe the matter mount, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has promised the government would probe the matter of threat letters received by judges with suspicious powder, with a sense of responsibility to uncover the reality.
Addressing the federal cabinet, the prime minister observed that the sensitive matter should not be given a political colour.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
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#1
Prob assuming the judges will just sniff the white powder.
[FoxNews] German software developer Andres Freund was running some detailed performance tests last month when he noticed odd behavior in a little known program. What he found when he investigated has sent shudders across the software world and drawn attention from tech executives and government officials.
Freund, who works for Microsoft out of San Francisco, discovered that the latest version of the open source software program XZ Utils had been deliberately sabotaged by one of its developers, a move that could have carved out a secret door to millions of servers across the internet.
Security experts say it’s only because Freund spotted the change before the latest version of XZ had been widely deployed that the world was spared a digital security crisis.
"We really dodged a bullet," said Satnam Narang, a security researcher with Tenable who has been tracking the fallout from the find. "It is one of those moments where we have to wipe our brow and say, ‘We were really lucky with this one.’"
The near-miss has refocused attention on the safety of open source software – free, often volunteer-maintained programs whose transparency and flexibility mean they serve as the foundation for the internet economy.
Many such projects depend on a tiny circle of unpaid volunteers fighting to get out from under a pile of demands for fixes and upgrades.
XZ, a suite of file compression tools packaged into distributions of the Linux operating system, was long maintained by a single author, Lasse Collin.
In recent years, he appeared to be under strain.
In a message posted to a public mailing list in June 2022, Collin said he was dealing with "longterm mental health issues" and hinted that he working privately with a new developer named Jia Tan and that "perhaps he will have a bigger role in the future."
Update logs available through the open source software site Github show that Tan’s role quickly expanded. By 2023 the logs show Tan was merging his code into XZ, a sign that he had won a trusted role in the project. But cybersecurity experts who’ve scoured the logs say that Tan was masquerading as a helpful volunteer. Over the next few months, they say, Tan introduced a nearly invisible backdoor into XZ.
Oh dear.
Collin didn’t return messages seeking comment and said on his website that he would not respond to reporters until he understood the situation well enough to do so.
Tan did not return messages sent to his Gmail account. Reuters has been unable to ascertain who Tan is, where he is, or who he was working for, but many of those who've examined his updates believe Tan is a pseudonym for an expert hacker or group of hackers -- likely one working on behalf of a powerful intelligence service.
Is it the Russians? Or perhaps China? Jia Tan doesn’t sound like a Russian name…
"This is not kindergarten stuff," said Omkhar Arasaratnam, the general manager of the Open Source Security Foundation, which works to defend projects like XZ. "This is incredibly sophisticated."
Tan could easily have gotten away with it had it not been for Freund, the Microsoft developer, whose curiosity was piqued when he noticed the latest version of XZ intermittently using an unexpected amount of processing power on the system he was testing.
Microsoft declined to make Freund available for an interview, but in publicly-available emails and posts to social media, Freund said a series of easy-to-miss clues prompted him to discover the backdoor. The find "really required a lot of coincidences," Freund said on the social network Mastodon.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella congratulated Freund over the weekend, saying in a post to the social network X that he loved seeing how the developer, "with his curiosity and craftsmanship, was able to help us all."
In the open source community, the discovery has been sobering. The volunteers who maintain the software that underpins the internet aren't strangers to the idea of little pay or recognition, but the realization that they were now being hunted by well-resourced spies pretending to be Good Samaritans was "incredibly intimidating," said Arasaratnam, of the Open Source Security Foundation.
Government officials are also weighing the implications of the near-miss, which has underlined concerns about how to protect open source software. Assistant National Cyber Director Anajana Rajan told Politico that "there’s a lot of conversations that we need to have about what we do next" to protect open source code."
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says it has been leaning on U.S. companies that use open source software to plow resources back into the communities that build and maintain it. CISA adviser Jack Cable told Reuters the burden was on tech companies not just to vet open software but to "contribute back and help build the sustainable open source ecosystem that we get so much value from."
It’s not clear that software companies are properly incentivized to do so. Online open source mailing lists are teeming with complaints about tech giants demanding that volunteers troubleshoot issues with open source software those companies use to make billions of dollars.
Whatever the solution, almost everyone agrees the XZ episode shows something has to change.
"We got unreasonably lucky here," said Freund in another Mastodon post. "We can't just bank on that going forward."
#1
The USA alphabet agencies would never consider using the name Jia Tan to throw shade on the origin of a fresh back door /s. I’m getting pretty cynical these days …
[DefenseNews] The Danish government has fired the chief of defense after he reportedly failed to disclose several malfunctions aboard the frigate Iver Huitfeldt during its deployment to the Red Sea.
“With the challenges we are facing, a new chief of defense is needed,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said during a press briefing on April 3, according to local media.
The minister was referring to the emergence of claims, initially made by the Danish news website Olfi, regarding critical weapon and mission systems issues on the frigate, that appear to have been unreported and ignored for a significant period of time.
The minister added that with the dismissal of the Flemming Lentfer, Maj. Gen. Michael Wiggers Hyldgaard will take over the role for the time being. The officer currently leads the country’s special operations command.
Lund Poulsen said he was unaware of the ship’s defects until these reports were published.
The frigate was initially scheduled for deployment to the Red Sea as part of the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian until mid-April. However, Denmark’s Defence Ministry announced March 26 that the ship was already sailing back home.
Among the reported faulty equipment was the ship’s active phased array radar, which is manufactured by Thales Nederland.
“Thales has been informed about FMI’s [the Danish Ministry of Defence Acquisition and Logistics Organisation’s] preliminary investigation of available data from Iver Huitfeldt’s systems from the incident in question during a combat situation in the Red Sea,” the defense company said, according to Danish broadcaster DR. “[It] does not indicate a problem related to the APAR radar.”
Danish defense leaders also have another problem on their hands following an April 4 incident aboard the frigate Niels Juel, a sister ship of the Iver Huitfeldt.
Denmark currently has three Iver Huitfeldt-class and two Absalon-class frigates in service. Each is subject to docking every five years. The area around the Korsør naval base, where the Niels Juel was docked, was closed to air and marine traffic after the ship was unable to deactivate the booster of a Harpoon missile during what the ministry described as a “mandatory test.”
While the warhead was unaffected, officials feared a scenario in which the missile would accidently launch into a target area around 1,000 meters (3,281 feet) above the water level in a southern direction from the frigate’s location.
As of Thursday afternoon, authorities were still investigating the situation.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
The head of Denmark's defense has been dismissed from service for covering up a serious incident with a warship.
The Danish Navy frigate HDMS "Iver Huitfeldt" urgently returns to base from the Red Sea. There are rumors that the Houthis finally got into it. The official version is different, but not much better.
They write that the ship, which took part in the operation to ensure the safety of navigation in the Red Sea, was unable to repel the Houthi UAV attack, because the air defense system generated an error during the attack, and some of the ammunition turned out to be defective.
The ship was urgently recalled for maintenance, but the chief of staff decided to keep silent about the incident, for which he was fired. Here are the “guys in slippers”...
#1
History recalled: "During the German invasion of Denmark in 1940, the Danish resistance was limited due to the swift and overwhelming nature of the attack. ...
Surrender Diplomatically: Denmark’s government chose not to engage in prolonged military conflict. Instead, they surrendered to the German forces within hours of the invasion. This decision aimed to minimize casualties and protect civilians."
#2
In 2002 Adm Vernon Clark watched the Danish Navy do a modular deck gun replacement, wanted to copy their versatility, and started the ball rolling that led to the LCS program. Littoral Combat Ship (Aka Little Crappy Ship)
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-navy-spent-billions-littoral-combat-ship
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/06/2024 9:42
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Mikhail Zakharov
[REGNUM] On Wednesday, April 3, the German publication Tagesschau published a large article claiming that products from companies from Germany are actively used for the construction of buildings in Mariupol.
The German media writes that the city’s construction sites use products from at least two similar companies: Knauf, a world leader in the production of gypsum, and WKB Systems, a developer of equipment for cellular concrete and sand-lime brick factories.
After studying photos from Mariupol, German journalists reported: the logos of these companies are visible on construction equipment, house windows, packaging of concrete blocks and bags of building materials.
“In annual reports, on company websites, in photographs and videos, evidence and evidence can be seen everywhere that German companies are also playing an important role in the restoration of Mariupol,” the authors write.
Moreover, as Tagesschau reports, one of the official dealers of the Knauf company is allegedly publicly reporting on the construction project of a residential building in Mariupol on behalf of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The dealer's name is not disclosed.
"A BLATANT VIOLATION OF EU POLICY"
Of course, the authors of the publication claim that the companies named have close ties with Moscow. Thus, Knauf has more than 4 thousand employees in Russia, and the owner of the company, German businessman Nicholas Knauf, was the honorary consul of Russia in Nuremberg for more than 20 years, criticized anti-Russian sanctions and even met with Vladimir Putin.
As for WKB Systems, Russian businessman Viktor Budarin was named its main shareholder.
“Budarin used his German company as a supplier for the construction industry in Putin’s Russia,” the article’s authors are disappointed.
They believe that WKB Systems supplied entire plants for the production of such aerated concrete blocks to one of the businessman’s Russian companies for several years. At the same time, EU sanctions against Budarin have not yet been introduced, which outrages the publication.
German politicians have already condemned the alleged participation of German companies in construction work in Mariupol. According to the chairman of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee, Roderich Kiesewetter, there is a flagrant violation of EU policy.
“ This is very obvious in the case of Knauf, because they are actually consolidating Russian power in these territories, including Mariupol,” says Kiesewetter.
It is noteworthy that earlier in Ukraine Knauf was included in the list of “war sponsors” because the company refused to close enterprises in Russia after the start of the war.
“ANTI-RUSSIAN SANCTIONS ARE CIRCUMVENTED BY CUNNING”
Tagesschau journalists claim that Knauf representatives did not respond to the editor’s requests regarding the situation with the discovery of the company’s products in Mariupol. At the same time, the company states that it complies with all EU sanctions against the Russian Federation and emphasizes that Knauf produces products in Russia “exclusively for the Russian market.”
In general, German businessmen are not ready to give up working with Russia. Previously, even German Economics Minister Robert Habeck was forced to admit that companies from Germany are cunningly circumventing anti-Russian sanctions. Many companies operate successfully in the shadows.
At the same time, for Europeans, even proving the fact of violations is a big problem. In 2022, they tried to accuse the manufacturer of Claas combines of using a loophole in the sanctions rules to deliver components for assembling grain harvesting equipment to Russia.
It didn’t work out: Claas successfully fought off the charges.
At the same time, a system of parallel imports has been built and established in Russia, so Western companies may indeed not know that the products of their brands are used here.
BUSINESS IS WAITING FOR IT TO WORK NORMALLY
Now the political position of the German authorities and the interests of local entrepreneurs are very different, say experts interviewed by Regnum. And the farther, the stronger.
Many representatives of German business are waiting for the lifting of the sanctions regime, because it has a very negative impact on their work, explains senior researcher at IMEMO RAS, German specialist Alexander Kamkin.
“Back in 2015, when this whole sanctions corps de ballet was just beginning, representatives of large German companies said that this whole situation was extremely harmful to the interests of Germany,” the expert notes.
Today, most German companies are forced to minimize direct business relations with Russian partners, but are waiting for the normalization of relations, adds the interlocutor of IA Regnum.
According to Kamkin, it cannot be ruled out that the products of German companies come to Russia through third countries or a chain of intermediaries.
German business does not object to normal cooperation with Russia, since restrictions on the supply of German equipment and goods to our country affect the income of German companies and their position in the market. Economist, leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries Alexander Dudchak speaks about this.
“Especially in the current conditions, when industry in Germany is under serious stress, losing competitiveness at high energy prices,” says the economist.
Of course, Berlin could tighten regulations on German manufacturers, introduce new fines and begin to control exports more closely. But German politicians and regulatory structures may simply not have enough resources for this. And business, of course, will resist and look for new loopholes for work, Dudchak is sure.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Belarus and Turkey on the same day, April 5, announced the suspension of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko agreed to submit to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic a bill on the suspension of the CFE Treaty, in which Minsk ratified participation in 1992. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree suspending Turkey's obligations under the CFE Treaty from April 8.
BELARUS
The project agreed upon by Lukashenko provides for the suspension of the CFE Treaty, but does not mean the country’s withdrawal from the agreement and the termination of obligations under it. According to the agreement, Belarus, like its other participants, pledged to limit the total levels of conventional weapons and equipment in five main categories (tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, attack helicopters, combat aircraft) and to comply with mechanisms for verifying compliance with obligations.
According to the BelTA agency, the decision is due to the fact that the Czech Republic and Poland in August 2022 and March 2023, respectively, decided not to fulfill their contractual obligations in relation to Minsk.
TURKEY
Erdogan’s decree on the suspension of Turkey’s participation in the treaty was published in the official Turkish gazette Resmi Gazete. The document refers to a provision allowing the head of the republic to suspend the country's participation in international treaties without parliamentary approval.
According to Bloomberg, the decision is a signal to the United States, which previously took a similar step, ahead of the planned meeting between Erdogan and Joe Biden. The US and Turkey also held talks on improving security and energy ties and the supply of explosives for munitions production. In general, as the agency noted, US-Turkish relations have improved after Ankara approved Sweden's entry into NATO.
PURPOSE OF THE CFE TREATY
The CFE Treaty was signed in Paris in 1990 by 16 NATO countries and six Warsaw Pact countries, including the USSR. The document introduced restrictions for each country on the presence of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery pieces with a caliber of more than 100 mm, combat aircraft and helicopters on European territory. None of the alliance countries have ratified the treaty.
In May 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order to introduce a bill on the denunciation of the CFE Treaty to the State Duma and soon signed the law on denunciation. On November 7, Russia completed the procedure for withdrawing from the CFE Treaty. Then the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that by suspending the agreement, the country left the opportunity for dialogue on ways to restore control over conventional arms in Europe, but opponents did not take advantage of this.
On March 6, the Moldovan authorities suspended the CFE Treaty. This was stated by the Secretary of State of the Moldovan Ministry of Defense Valery Mija. On March 9, the press service of the Polish Sejm reported that 435 out of 440 deputies voted for the country to withdraw from the agreement, and later President Andrzej Duda signed a corresponding resolution.
The suspension of the treaty by NATO states and allies effectively means the termination of its functioning.
Posted by: badanov ||
04/06/2024
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[REDSTATE] Mandates, mandates, mandates; subsidy after subsidy. All of these cost money, and we're occasionally reminded of just how much. The Biden administration, the guys that caused the debacle in Afghanistan ...the pack of self-imagined masterminds of strategy and intrigue at the service of the Biden Crime Family and a grateful nation... seems determined to shatter all the norms when it comes to unilaterally deciding that they know best what's good for us Americans and are willing to spend our money to those ends. Now we see the cost; the environmental rules alone implemented by this administration (without input from Congress) are projected to cost Americans more than $845 billion.
As if the fiat-currency dump fueling inflation wasn't enough already.
The projected costs to implement only a handful of President Joe Biden ...... 46th president of the U.S. The very model of probity, except maybe for abandoning Afghanistan...... ’s most sweeping environmental regulations have an eye-popping price tag: more than $845 billion.
That’s according to an analysis of new Environmental Protection Agency policies, such as electric vehicle mandates, from Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The analysis concluded that the EPA rules to enforce Mr. Biden’s climate change agenda present "devastating" financial costs for U.S. consumers and businesses that outweigh the benefits.
Here's the thing: Most of the people supporting these policies, this agenda, are the ones who will be least affected by them. The politicians who mysteriously grow monstrously rich while earning rather modest salaries, the coastal urban liberal elites, are sheltered from most, if not all, of the worst effects of these policies. They can afford the extra cost.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/06/2024
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#4
Taiwan Geographic coordinates
"Taiwan is located at latitude 23.69781 and longitude 120.960515. It is part of Asia and the northern hemisphere."
New York City Geographic coordinates
"New York City is located at latitude 40.71427 and longitude -74.00597. It is part of America and the northern hemisphere."
#8
The 2010 Baja California earthquake (also known as 2010 Easter earthquake, 2010 Sierra El Mayor earthquake, or 2010 El Mayor – Cucapah earthquake) occurred on April 4 (Easter Sunday) with a moment magnitude of 7.2 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). The shock originated at 15:40:41 local time (3:40:41 PM PDT) south of Guadalupe Victoria, Baja California, Mexico.
Son and I were driving thru Calexico on our way to New Mexico in a Corolla...never knew about the quake till much later.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22:24 Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishina confirmed that the United States and Germany oppose inviting Ukraine to NATO: “Absolutely all allies support this decision, except two. Since this information has become public, now the United States and Germany are trying "pay attention to other skeptical allies such as Hungary and Slovakia. But the key position is precisely these two countries."
21:33 The delay in providing American assistance to Ukraine has received a new explanation. The head of the US House Foreign Committee, Michael McCaul, said that President Joe Biden and his national security adviser Jake Sullivan “bought” the idea that the Russian Federation could use nuclear weapons if the United States provided Ukraine with “too many” weapons. Read more in the article Russian Nuclear Intimidation.
21:25 Umerov said that, together with Syrsky, he had a telephone conversation with Pentagon head Lloyd Austin. We briefed the US Secretary of Defense on the current situation and recent Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure. “I emphasized once again: Ukraine needs more air defense systems and missiles. We must together stop the enemy of the free world - and do it here in Ukraine,” Umerov noted.
20:48 In Zaporozhye, the number of deaths as a result of the Russian attack has increased to four, more than 20 people were injured, said the head of the OBA Ivan Fedorov.
20:11 In two territorial communities of the Sumy region, a decision was made on the mandatory evacuation of children by force, the Ministry of Reintegration reported. In total, it is planned to remove 297 children from 52 settlements in the region.
19:52 Journalists from Mediazone and the Russian Air Force Service confirmed, based on open data, the death of 50,016 Russian military personnel since the beginning of a full-scale war against Ukraine.
19:00 Ukrenergo reported that this evening it will again limit electricity consumption in the Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Kirovograd, Poltava and Sumy regions. The reason is the lack of sufficient generating capacity due to recent Russian attacks on power plants.
18:51 Russia has switched to “two waves” of shelling tactics, in which rescuers and police officers are killed, said the head of the Kharkov OVA Oleg Sinegubov. He explained that first the enemy strikes, and later, when rescue services and police arrive at the scene, he strikes a second time.
18:43 South Korea will provide Ukraine with a medium- and long-term assistance package worth $2.3 billion, and will also contribute $12 million for the rehabilitation of the military through the NATO Trust Fund, said the country's Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol.
18:38 In Zaporozhye, the number of deaths as a result of the Russian strike has increased to three, 13 people were injured, said the head of the OVA Ivan Fedorov. Among the wounded, four are in serious condition. According to Fedorov, two missile strikes were first carried out on Zaporozhye, and 40 minutes later, when rescuers, police and reporters were already working on the site, there were three more - in the same place. Two journalists were among the wounded.
18:32 The “authorities” of the unrecognized Transnistria stated that a kamikaze drone attacked a military unit in the Rybnitsa region. Allegedly, “minor damage” was caused to the radar station, but there were no casualties.
18:23 Zelensky said that today he was on a working visit to Chernihiv and the Chernihiv region. In particular, he checked the progress of the construction of fortifications and listened to reports from the military leadership of the region. “In all border areas, the problems are the same. Constant Russian bullying - shelling, terror. For the 15 thousand residents of the border communities of the Chernihiv region, who are subject to constant such attacks from Russia, terrorists fired 15 thousand shells over the past year,” the president noted.
18:06 Blinken told European allies that China is increasing its support for Russia, the Financial Times writes, citing sources. According to them, the US Secretary of State said, in particular, that Beijing is providing assistance to Moscow’s military-industrial complex “on a worrying scale” and providing “tools, materials and technical expertise.”
Blinken said Chinese assistance was particularly focused on Russia's manufacturing of optical equipment and fuel, as well as its space sector, which "not only facilitates Russian aggression in Ukraine, but also threatens other countries."
17:34 As a result of the attack on Zaporozhye, two people were killed and six were injured, said the head of the OVA Ivan Fedorov. Among the wounded is a nine-year-old child.
17:13 The Main Intelligence Directorate and the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked airfields in Engels, Yeysk and Kursk, Ukrainian media report citing sources in the special services. As a result of the drone attack, at least three Tu-95MS strategic bombers at the Engels-2 military airfield were seriously damaged. At the same airfield, explosions killed seven Russians, among whom, according to preliminary information, there could have been bomber pilots.
In Yeisk, two Su-25s completely burned out, killing at least four Russians. The consequences of the attack on the airfield in Kursk are being clarified.
16:51 In Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, the Russians bombed the office of Doctors Without Borders tonight, the organization reported. Mission representatives were not injured, but five local residents who were near the office were injured.
16:45 Russian troops attacked Zaporozhye - according to preliminary data, six people were injured, said City Council Secretary Anatoly Kurtev. Three high-rise buildings, one private house, a hostel and a retail establishment were damaged.
16:12 The Russians struck Kharkov and the populated area of the Kharkov region, preliminarily with KABs. Details are being established, at the moment there is no information about casualties, said Oleg Sinegubov, head of the OVA.
15:58 Russian cities where military airfields are located were attacked by several dozen drones on the night of April 5. In particular, explosions occurred at the Morozovsk airbase in the Rostov region. Su-34 and Su-35 are stationed there and carry out daily strikes on Ukraine. It was also loud at the military airfield in Engels. For more details, see the article Attack on large Russian air bases: what is known.
15:21 The tribunal against Putin will probably be created before the end of this year, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders told DW. According to him, two main options are being considered - an international tribunal based on a multilateral agreement or a simplified solution based on a bilateral agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe. The Netherlands proposed holding a special tribunal in The Hague. Since July 2023, an international team of prosecutors has been analyzing evidence submitted by different countries to a database created specifically for this purpose by Eurojust.
14:55 Germany is modernizing its army to be ready for war, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said: "With Russia challenging the European peace order, a special threat situation has arisen for Germany and its allies. The analysis has focused on military capability and operational readiness." Pistorius noted that Germany faces the task of reforming the Bundeswehr in order to make it “optimally positioned, especially in a defense situation.”
14:49 Over the past few weeks, Russia has disabled 6 gigawatts of Ukraine’s energy capacity, 80% of thermal power plants have been destroyed, Shmygal said in an interview with the Estonian National Broadcasting. He clarified that the destroyed capacities also included hydropower and coal power.
14:36 At night, the Russians fired five missiles at an idle airfield in the village. Korotich, Kharkov district, said the head of the investigative department of the regional police, Sergei Bolvinov. The hangars were damaged and there was a fire at the site. According to preliminary data, the shelling was carried out from the S-300 complex; no people were injured.
14:02 Governor of the Rostov region Vasily Golubev said that in the Morozovsky district, where, according to him, “an explosive device from a fallen drone detonated not far from the airfield,” eight people were injured - they carried out “investigative actions” with the drone.
13:57 Japan has expanded sanctions against Russia, banning the export of another 164 types of goods to the Russian Federation. The new restrictions apply to lithium-ion batteries, gas pipes, motor oil for automobiles, thermostats, nitrocellulose products and woodworking machines. In addition, the export of photographic equipment, hand-held power tools, tungsten powder, molybdenum, cobalt, zirconium and rhenium is prohibited. The sanctions will come into force on April 17. Also, Japan will ban the import of Russian non-industrial diamonds from May 10 - the G7 countries made a corresponding decision in December last year.
13:45 Lithuania will allocate another 5 million euros for education and 12 million euros to help veterans, restore schools and kindergartens, and arrange shelters, Shmygal said.
13:34 The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation stated that in the phone of the person accused of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall, “photo images of people in camouflage uniforms with a Ukrainian flag against the background of destroyed houses and a Ukrainian postage stamp with an obscene gesture were allegedly found.” The Russian Investigative Committee claims that “the data may indicate a connection between the terrorist act committed and the conduct of a special military operation.”
12:48 Russian public pages write that a drone was discovered in the Moscow region on the afternoon of April 4, 150 meters from the Novoselki oil loading base, owned by Lukoil. The wing of the drone was torn off, it did not detonate - perhaps the device caught its wing in the trees and did not reach the target.
12:43 Lithuania will allocate 2 million euros for the purchase of 3,000 FPV drones for Ukraine, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said during a joint press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart Denis Shmygal. She added that drones should arrive at the front this year. Simonyte also reported that Lithuania has allocated 35 million euros for the Czech initiative to purchase artillery ammunition for Ukraine.
12:37 Russian troops attacked Berislav, Kherson region, from a drone, three people were injured, OVA reported.
12:16 Public accounts write that Russian troops allegedly entered the suburb of Chasova Yar, Donetsk region, but the representative of the eastern group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andrei Zadubinny, in a comment to Reuters, denied these rumors and urged “not to believe Russian reports.” According to him, the situation there is very difficult, fighting continues, but there are no Russian troops in the city.
12:09 Ukraine will not be invited to NATO at the July summit in Washington, writes The New York Times, citing sources among diplomats. According to them, this is opposed, in particular, by the United States and Germany, who fear that the Alliance will be drawn into war. At the same time, NATO partners are looking for a middle ground to demonstrate that they intend to support Ukraine in the long term.
11:43 In the morning, Russian troops shelled the Dnieper district of Kherson, three people were injured, the OVA reported.
11:20 The attack on the Morozovsk airfield was a joint operation of the SBU with the military and Defense Forces. As a result of the attack, at least six aircraft were destroyed and eight were significantly damaged, Ukrainian media reported, citing sources. At the same time, about 20 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded. Front-line bombers Su-24, Su-24M, Su-34 were based at the airfield. It is them that Russia uses to drop KABs on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Ukrainian front-line cities.
11:07 At night, the Russians attacked energy infrastructure facilities in the Odessa region, part of the equipment was damaged, Ukrenergo reported. There was no loss of power to consumers. In the Kharkov region, hourly shutdown schedules apply; in Kharkov, emergency shutdowns are used.
10:59 Bild writes, citing sources, that Ukraine will soon use long-range UAVs that can attack the Urals and the Arctic. According to the publication, already this year Ukraine will be able to use UAVs with a range of up to 2000 km or more - they should make up for the shortage of medium- and long-range missiles. In particular, by the end of the year, ten manufacturers will supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces with drones with a range of up to 2,500 km, and the Kiev design bureau Luch has developed the Sokol-3000 UAV, which can fly up to 3,300 km, the newspaper’s source claims.
10:34 One of the Chinese companies with headquarters in Hong Kong controls a key part of the Polish port of Gdynia. It turns out that the Chinese have access to a dock that is used to offload American and NATO military aid for Ukraine. Read more in the article How China monitors aid for Ukraine.
10:12 The head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, said in an interview with Politico that the attacks that Ukraine has been subjected to in the last three weeks are part of the Russians’ preparation for a major offensive. In particular, he noted that Kharkov suffered particularly severe attacks, and large-scale Russian attacks knocked out its power plants. In this regard, Ermak called on the United States to unblock military assistance as soon as possible: “The problem for us is time. I want to emphasize that now is a critical moment. It is very important that the package is approved this month.”
09:18 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of April 5:
personnel - about 445,900 (+860) people,
tanks - 7033 (+15),
armored combat vehicles - 13,459 (+73),
artillery systems - 11 221 (+50),
MLRS - 1029 (+3),
air defense systems - 747 (+1),
aircraft - 347 (+0),
helicopters - 325 (+0),
UAV of operational-tactical level - 8847 (+30),
cruise missiles - 2059 (+0),
ships/boats - 26 (+0),
submarines - 1 (+0),
automotive equipment and tank trucks - 14,922 (+61),
special equipment - 1849 (+4).
09:10 Over the past 24 hours, 65 military clashes took place at the front, the General Staff reported in its morning report. In particular, in the Bakhmut direction, the Defense Forces repelled 30 attacks in the areas of the settlements of Belogorivka, Verkhnekamenka in the Luhansk region, as well as Spornoe, Chasov Yar, Ivanovskoye, Stupochki, Kleshcheevka, Andreevka in the Donetsk region. Also, the enemy tried more than 20 times to break through the defenses of Ukrainian troops in the Novopavlovsk direction - in the areas of Krasnohorivka, Georgievka, Konstantinovka, Novomikhailovka, Velyka Novoselka and Urozhayny, Donetsk region.
In the Kupyansk direction over the past 24 hours, the enemy has not carried out offensive actions. In the Liman direction, four enemy attacks were repelled in the area of Ternov and Yampolevka, Donetsk region; in Avdeevsky - two attacks in the Pervomaisky and Nevelsky districts of the Donetsk region; on Orekhovsky - four attacks in the areas of Staromayorskoye, Donetsk region and north-west of Verbovoye, Zaporozhye region; on Kherson - five attacks on the left bank of the Dnieper.
08:49 At night, the Russians fired at the private sector in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region - five people were wounded, including a 14-year-old child, the prosecutor's office reported.
08:35 On the evening of April 4, the Russians shelled Kharkov, hitting the ground near a civilian service station was recorded. Four cars and the glazing of the windows of a five-story building were damaged, but no people were injured, said Oleg Sinegubov, head of the OVA. Meanwhile, the Kharkov Metro reported that in the morning the work of the metro was suspended due to the situation in the energy system.
07:43 The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the “destruction and interception” of 44 drones over the Rostov region by air defense systems overnight, one each over the Saratov, Kursk and Belgorod regions, and six over the Krasnodar Territory. Governor of the Rostov region Vasily Golubev said that air defense forces allegedly destroyed more than 40 air targets near the military airfield in Morozovsk. According to him, as a result of the attack, an electrical substation was damaged and dozens of residential buildings were left without electricity.
Meanwhile, Russian public pages write about a series of explosions and a fire in the area of the airfield in Morozovsk. In addition, explosions were reported by residents of Engels, Saratov region, where there is also a military airfield from which the Russians launch their strategic aircraft to bombard Ukrainian cities. Governor Roman Busargin said that in Engels “the UAV was allegedly destroyed, there were no casualties or destruction of infrastructure.”
07:14 Air defense at night destroyed all 13 attack UAVs of the Shahed-131/136 type, which Russia attacked from the Crimean Cape Chauda, the Air Force reported. Drones were destroyed in Zaporozhye, Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk regions. In addition, at night the enemy attacked with two S-300/S-400 anti-aircraft guided missiles and three Iskander-M ballistic missiles (launch areas - Belgorod region).
05:32 NATO member countries intend to redouble their efforts to find air defense systems, artillery and ammunition for Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. According to him, NATO partners will strengthen the defense potential of the Ukrainian armed forces.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Dominic O'Brien, 66, from London, appeared on This Morning today to share the handy tips he used to win the World Memory Championships a record eight times.
So spectacular is Dominic's memory that he was entered into the Guinness Book of Records in 2002 for memorising 54 packs of cards after peering at each card just once.
Speaking to hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary, the mnemonist - a person with the ability to remember and recall unusually long lists of data - advised people to ward off dementia by playing digital games, instruments and committing to regular exercise.
He also explained how he keeps his memory 'sharp' in his sixties: 'I play games every day. I do Sudoku, I do WordAll, I do connections - you know the grid with a four by four on TV.
'I also do spelling bees, crosswords... I try and do them as quickly as possible. Occasionally I'll try to memorise a deck of cards if it's possible. It's to keep the wheels turning sort of thing.
'Physical exercise as well. I do a lot of walking and playing physical instruments. The piano is very good for memory and so are brass instruments.
'For executive functions and general skills - it's more singing and woodwind instruments. It's better if you start early with an instrument but never too late to start'.
The former memory champion added that when competing he trained his mind for three hours a day. However he claimed that regular citizens needed just '10 to 15 minutes' of practice per day.
Dominic, who has also authored various memory-related books, warned viewers to do these activities in order to fend off dementia, which he labelled as the 'biggest killer now in the UK'.
He said: 'There's research coming out of York university - they talk about playing digital games and you know exercising your memory.
'Keeping the wheels turning here [in the mind] and playing digital games is very good for senior citizens as well'... keep an active mind. Use it or lose it'.
Dominic also shared that he began training his memory at age 30 after becoming interested in classic card game Bridge.
Coming from a long line of Bridge players, he developed his interest into memorising whole packs of cards.
He would later go on to acquire a place in the Guinness Book of Records for memorising a random sequence of 2808 playing cards (54 packs).
[GEO.TV] s the government looks for another bailout programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global lender has stated that it is ready to “engage” with Pakistan in the “coming months” to help the country resolve “fiscal and external stability challenges”.
“The authorities have expressed interest in a successor IMF supported programme with the aim of resolving Pakistan's fiscal and external stability challenges and laying the foundation for inclusive growth. And, of course, we stand ready to engage in programme discussions in the coming months,” said IMF’s Communications Director Julie Kozack in a press briefing on Tuesday.
Kozack spoke about the fresh bailout programme in response to a question asked about the Standby Arrangement (SBA) and whether Pakistan was out of the woods economically.
The IMF communications director shared that the Executive Board meeting of the lender will take place at the end of this month to approve the disbursement of the remaining $1.1 billion of the SBA following the staff level agreement between Pakistan and IMF.
“The staff level agreement recognises the strong programme implementation by the State Bank of Pakistan and the caretaker government in recent months, as well as the new government's intentions for ongoing policy and reform efforts to move Pakistan from stabilisation to a strong and sustainable recovery,” said Kozack.
The IMF official noted that there was an improvement in Pakistan’s “economic and financial” situation since the completion of the first review of the SBA.
“Growth and confidence are continuing to recover,” said Kozack. She added that the IMF will release growth forecasts in the coming months as part of the World Economic Outlook.
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#2
...We practice this too - have since the mid-50s, when airlifters started getting big enough to make it practical. It's pretty damned cool to watch.
A few very minor drawbacks, however:
*Dumping a tank from altitude is...probably not practical. LAPES = where they motor along about 30 feet off the ground and boot it out the back - work a LOT better, but at that altitude the guys on the ground with AKs have a chance of bringing you down.
*Whatever they're dropping, they have to do it (relatively) slowly and in a straight line, so the air defense guys on the ground and anybody in the air will appreciate it.
*We practice it regularly, and we still drop sh!t straight down.
*No, you can't drop it with the crew in it, because it will give them a severe case of the dead.
*Which means you have to drop the crew before/after the vehicle, and they now have to form up and find it.
*Oh, and unpack it.
*And even the United States By-God Air Force has yet to do any of this under combat conditions.
Past performance would seem to indicate that the Russians aren't going to get this quite right.
#4
An air dropped armored force (no tanks, but the Russian do have an armored light 125mm gun carrier: the Sprut) will likely be dropped (as in US doctrine) in an area known to be absent of MANPADs and other AA weapons.
Previously, in order to land their airborne forces, the Russians/Soviets needed to capture an airfield intact, as in Gostomel in the war's early going. This necessarily included a paradrop/heliborne assault by light infantry, to expand their perimeter to allow aircraft in to land the armor vehicles.
The initial air assault to capture an airfield is apparently baked into the Russians airborne doctrine with the twist being the landing by parachute of light armor vehicles instead of aircraft landing on the airfield.
I agree this has never been done in combat conditions, but it now appears we may get free tickets to the show, as long as NATO continues to move troops to eastern Europe.
#5
Add to Mike's list: *Charge the EV Tank's batteries at the convenient charging station they also dropped
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/06/2024 9:54
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#6
I recall when I went to eldest son's graduation from jump school at Benning. The AF had been practicing 'slick drops' with an M1A at the air field there. They had to stop, because they broke the Abrams, and the C17.
Meanwhile, the 'black hats' borrowed a North Carolina Air Nat Guard C130 for their drop week runs.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/06/2024 10:06
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#7
Wiki cite: "The M551 "Sheridan" AR/AAV (Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle) was a light tank developed by the United States and named after General Philip Sheridan, of American Civil War fame. It was designed to be landed by parachute and to swim across rivers."
The SUV was WHITE!
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A furious man drove his SUV toward a crowd of anti-Israel protestors as they blocked a road outside of a Lockheed Martin office building.
Demonstrators from the Bay Area Palestine Solidarity coalition arrived outside of the aerospace facility in Sunnyvale, California, around 6am Thursday.
They protested against the US sending weapons to Israel as the violent war between Israel and Palestine rages on.
As they blocked the road to the facility, an unidentified white man sped his car toward the crowd, nearly hitting them, before he stepped out and yelled at them while brandishing a knife.
'Get out of the way or somebody's gonna die,' the enraged man said as he wiped out a knife and pointed it at the crowd of people.
Video of the incident starts as the man drives his white SUV toward the protestors as they scream, begging him to stop.
He then stops his vehicle as a male protestor comes up to his driver's side window and says: 'Do you wanna go to prison?'
He asks the question again before the angry man, dressed in blue jeans, a dark zip up hoodie, baseball hat and glasses steps out of his car.
As he pulls a knife from his pocket, another protestor steps in front of him as the man says: 'Get out of the way or somebody's gonna die. I'm telling you right now!'
As the demonstrators scream in terror, the man says: 'Somebody's gonna die! Get out of my way!'
A protestor with a neon yellow vest then steps toward his open car door and reaches in his car as the man slaps him away.
'You're on video, put the weapon down,' a protestor tells him.
'If you wanna go to prison, think about--,' another says to him just before the driver interrupts them.
'If you wanna go to prison, you f******, get out of the way! I gotta get to my job,' the angry driver says.
'Think about your future,' someone says to him.
'I gotta get to my job. Get out of the f****** road,' he yells before getting back in the driver's seat.
Engineers. When they’re ready to work, the smart thing is to get out of their way and let them.The alternative, should they turn their creativity toward fixing their frustration, does not bear thinking about.
As he sits down, the same protestor in the neon vest reaches in to grab something before the driver backs up.
'Don't you dare,' the driver says as he stands up and points at the protestor.
'Are you gonna hurt people? We have eyes on you sir,' a female protestor screams at him as he slams his door shut.
A group of them then place their hands on the hood of his car as he slowly drives in an attempt to get past them.
'People are lying down,' a protestor says just before the video ends. It is unknown what happened after that.
It is unclear if the driver is a Lockheed Martin employee and whether the road in the incident happened is public property.
DailyMail.com contacted Lockheed Martin and the Sunnyvale Police Department for more information.
Around 135 protestors blocked the entrance to the facility as they protested Lockheed's alleged supply of missiles, surveillance technology and fighter jets being sent to Israel.
'We have gathered here to disrupt Lockheed Martin's operations and demand that the U.S. stop all arms sales to Israel,' protester Maramiya Yensoon said in a statement.
The group handcuffed themselves to each other and lay in the rain. KTVU reported that teachers, students and tech workers were among those in attendance.
Idiots, all. (Hey, Lockheed guys, have you heard about Israel’s skunk water for spraying unruly protesters?)
Carlos Rameriz, another protestor, said: 'I think this is a beautiful act of solidarity where we see people from all different diaspora communities all different countries here together trying to fight for what they believe in.'
In a statement, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson told KTVU: 'Lockheed Martin's core values are to do what's right, respect others and perform with excellence.'
'These values provide clear, unambiguous and uncompromising standards for how we treat each other with understanding and compassion.'
'We respect the right to peaceful protest and we are honored to partner with the U.S. military and our international partners to deliver strategic deterrence and security solutions.'
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Worth it!
Researchers say that jeans sold in fast fashion produce 2.5kg of CO2 per wear
Buying second-hand or recycling old clothes can cut emissions by 90 per cent Sure, but buying used means the items won’t last as long, then will need to be replaced. It’s a wash.
#5
'Fast Fashion' jeans worn just seven times versus 'traditional' jeans are worn 120 times.
Fast fashion is a business model that focuses on the production of garments in bulk, and as quickly as possible, in response to current trends, according to Dr. Preeti Arya CNN
Study debunked!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/06/2024 7:52
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#6
"Life'll kill ya."
- Warren Zevon
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/06/2024 8:06
Comments ||
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#7
Average people say listening to QUACK Scientists
playing the $$$$ game is deadly.
#9
First, its Daily Mail, which is as retarded as a Panda on a heavy metals diet.
Well thats it really. No need to keep reading after the first Covid article.
So jeans, or any product, certain energy goes into getting those pants on you. Each wear then makes the energy per product less. 10 energy, 5 wears, 2 energy per wear. 10 energy, 20 wears, 0.5 energy per wear.
So what we are looking for here is durability, something The West used to do before getting hooked on chinesium and The Beatles.
I am sure though, Daily Mail will retort that a dashiki is good for the environment.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 22:45 The Ukrainian Armed Forces fired at the towns of Shebekino and the village of Krasnoye in the Belgorod region. About this in my Telegram channel said the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
According to him, in Shebekino, near the bypass road, a tractor was attacked in a field by an FPV drone. As a result of the explosion, the machine was completely burned out and the operator was injured. The man received abrasions in the area of his left hand. At the hospital he was provided with all the necessary medical care.
21:34 More than 2,800 requests from citizens,received to the governor’s mobile reception, was considered from December 2023, said Vladimir Saldo
21:00 Army aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces struck stronghold with militants in the Kupyansk direction
The VKS strike group, consisting of Ka-52 Alligator, Mi-35M and Mi-8 helicopters, hit a strong point and a concentration of enemy manpower, and then successfully returned to the departure airfield.
19:20 Local Telegram channels report about explosions in Kharkov
19:10 To the southwest of Avdievka, Russian troops break through the defenses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Most of the work on the battlefield in this area is done by the Terminator BMPT. On frames: The crew of a tank support combat vehicle destroys a machine gun crew of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which was hindering the advance of Russian motorized rifles north of Netailovo.
19:01 Consequences of artillery attack of the Kyiv region of Donetsk by Ukrainian militants -photo.
18:34 Chasov Yar - military expert Yuri Podolyaka reports the situation in the middle of the day on 04/05/24:
The enemy, after several unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the Russian Armed Forces from the positions occupied yesterday, withdrew reserves beyond the canal line and concentrated on defending the high-rise area of the Canal microdistrict.
In the morning, our assault units continued the assault on Chasov Yar. Some groups have entered high-rise buildings and are trying to gain a foothold in them. The latter went a little to the right and, having cleared the forest to the north, entered a holiday village and are trying to gain a foothold in it.
The liberation of the dacha area will not only provide the right flank of the offensive, but also force the enemy to retreat from the remaining part of Bogdanovka, which will be in full view and below, which will make its defense pointless.
This will also make it easier for our units north of Bogdanovka to develop an offensive up the hill towards Kalinovka, which will finally secure our flank and significantly complicate the situation of the front line of defense of Chasov Yar, located along the canal line.
To the south, from Ivanovsky, the assault continued along two beams with the aim of reaching the canal line and securing the left flank of the attack aircraft fighting for the microdistrict. "Channel".
18:23 Situation in the Seversky direction:
Our army continues the operation to encircle the village. Belogorovka (LPR). It is reported that the movement is coming from two flanks: north and south.
17:27 Another explosion in Zaporozhye.
17:04 Explosions occurred in Khar'kov for the fourth time in two hours, the Suspilne publication reported.
16:54 In Kharkov "arrival" FABs in the area of the Khartron plant. The company specializes in the production of automatic control systems for aviation and rocket and space technology.
16:29 The Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the Zaporizhia NPP with drones in the area of the cargo port and nitrogen-oxygen station, the press service of the nuclear power plant reports.
No damage to critical infrastructure or disruption to plant operation was recorded.
15:44 98th Airborne Division continues assault on the eastern outskirts of Clock Yar. The enemy concentrated the bulk of the fortifications not in the part of the city beyond the canal, but directly along the canal line.
15:40 Situation in the Krasnolimansky direction:
After yesterday’s breakthrough of our army into Terny, Russian army soldiers managed to take part of Mira Street and gain a foothold. At these moments the advance continues.
It is reported that the enemy has begun to withdraw its units to the other bank of the Zherebets River.
15:36 Third explosion in Zaporozhye.
15:34 Repeated explosions in Khar'kov. Gauleiter Terekhov confirmed this information.
15:22 Russian military in the Avdeevsky direction liberated the village of Vodyanoye in the DPR, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported
Over the course of a week, the Russian Armed Forces carried out 39 group strikes against Ukrainian energy facilities, the military-industrial complex, military installations, and mercenary deployment sites. Goals achieved, objects hit;
Three Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft, two Su-27 fighters, one MiG-29, and five S-300 launchers were destroyed.
15:20 Explosions are heard in Zaporozhye and Kharkov.
15:07 Russian fighters have taken the position of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the foot of the White Mountain (Belogorovka, LPR).
The Akhmat special forces Chechens
and the 7th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade took part in the operation. The commander of the Akhmata reconnaissance group, Aid, told RT military correspondent Vlad Andritsa that the assault lasted three days.
The military quietly walked along the mountainside to the enemy’s positions and destroyed six VSE troops in close combat, after which they gained a foothold and waited for reinforcements.
Hades recalled that the White Mountain was stormed by Red Army soldiers in a similar way in 1943. Then they surrounded it and took the dug-in Germans into the cauldron.
Belogorovka is the key to Seversk, which opens the route to Krasny Liman and Torskoye, therefore it is of strategic importance for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The enemy brought four battalions here, and holds two more in reserve.
14:45 Situation according to Chasov Yar at 14:00, April 5:
Airborne units with the heaviest fighting are biting into urban development from the east of the city in the Kanal microdistrict from the side of the street. Gorbatova.
The watershed - the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal is about 1.2 kilometers along the road, which is shot right through.
The units adjacent to the Airborne Forces maintain the general pace of the offensive, but the situation remains difficult, artillery on both sides works without interruption.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces, as expected, have not yet retreated to the right bank of the canal and are actively bringing up reserves from the west and southwest, but problems with command and control of troops (and in particular artillery fire) are beginning to accumulate.
At night, Ukrainian artillery, despite the large number of drones for correction, often makes mistakes and hits its own (at least three attacks on Ukrainian units were recorded in the area of Borisoglebska Street over the past 24 hours).
Reports that the Russian Armed Forces allegedly reached the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal and crossed it are not true. Also untrue are the reports that the Russian Armed Forces are already working inside the city blocks of Chasov Yar from the side of the street. Borisoglebskaya, Vishneva and Koshevoy.
Despite the difficult conditions, the assault on the city continues, and the Russian troops are making progress.
14:20 Cleaning out the basements of the Belogorovka mill -video.
13:34 News from Zaporozhye direction, Rabotino/Verbovoe:
It is reported that direct fighting has intensified following the recent advance of our troops, writes Front Bird.
Our frontline aviation is also working.
12:32 Consequences of the artillery attack of the Kuybyshevsky district of Donetsk -photo.
12:10 A new series of attacks was carried out on enemy military infrastructure facilities in the Kharkov region. Last night explosions were heard in the area of the village Korotich, west of Khar'kov.
In Korotich there is a small sports airfield, which serves as a training base for UAV operators and a launch site for Ukrainian drones. Also, enemy helicopters departed from the territory of this airbase towards the border with the Belgorod region.
Several objects were also hit in Izyum: here the enemy’s airborne troops, with the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine preparing to be sent to the Kupyansky direction and to the Chasov Yar area, became probable targets.
11:57 The next morning the enemy confirms the advance of our troops on the Seversky ledge in the Vesely area, as well as the exit of our troops to the outskirts of Chasov Yar.
11:29 Nine people got wounds of varying severity as a result of artillery attack of Gorlovka.
Since yesterday evening, Nikitovsky and Central City districts have been under heavy fire from Ukrainian militants.
11:05 The Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled several settlements in the Kherson region - as a result of the attack, six people were injured, two are in serious condition.
Since the very morning, the enemy has been attacking administrative and residential buildings in the Kherson region. In the town of Velikaya Lepetikha, an Ukrainian Armed Forces shell hit the administration building - five people were injured, two of them are in serious condition, Governor Saldo said. The village administration building in Dnepryany also came under fire.
Ukrainian militants also struck the residential sector in the village of Cossack camp in the Kakhovka district - as a result, one person was injured, who was quickly taken to the hospital.
10:34 The first groups of our paratroopers entered the street. Green microdistrict Kanal in Chasovoy Yar.
10:28 The Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled the city of Kremennaya in the LPR, which resulted in a fire in an apartment building, injuring two people - Ministry of Emergency Situations for the region
10:24 Russian troops came close to Chasov Yar in the Artemovsk direction.
According to the Ukrainian military channel Deep State, our troops approached Chasov Yar from the east south of Bogdanovka and entered houses on the outskirts of the city.
“Given the situation with the enemy occupying positions in the surrounding area, street battles may begin in Chasov Yar in the near future,” the channel comments.
And the American Institute for the Study of War reports that on April 4, Russian troops carried out a “reinforced mechanized assault” in the direction of Chasy Yar and advanced to the eastern outskirts of the settlement along the road from Khromovo.
During the attack, the troops approached the outskirts of the Kanal microdistrict, which takes its name because of the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal running there. Moreover, it lies underground in this area, so it is not an obstacle to a further assault on the city.
10:17 The situation in the Chasov Yar area is “very difficult,” said the head of the city’s military administration, Sergei Chaus.
10:10 In the Kherson direction, units of the Dnepr group of troops during the past 24 hours occupied defense on the left bank of the Dnieper.
They carried out the destruction of enemy watercraft on the river. Dnepr, as well as the fight against enemy UAVs. The enemy lost 31 UAVs, up to 35 personnel, and the Grad MLRS combat vehicle.
09:48 Over the past 24 hours, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired 93 units of ammunition into the territory of the DPR, reports the JCCC. As a result, two civilians were killed and ten, including a child, were injured.
09:22 T-80 crews defeated armored vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and positions of anti-tank weapons in the Rabotino area in the Zaporozhye region. Tankers of the 42nd Motorized Rifle Division of the Dnepr group of forces moved to the front line of the enemy’s defense and worked against the enemy on the move. This method increases the survivability of the vehicle on the battlefield.
09:15 RF Armed Forces lead attack on Chasov Yar, fighting is taking place in the center of Berdychi and on the outskirts of Tonenkoye.
The Russian army has pushed the Ukrainian Armed Forces back 20-25 km from Donetsk, reducing the threat of artillery shelling.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to launch a counter-offensive in the western part of Tonenky, but the Russian Armed Forces have gained a foothold in the city - the enemy has to retreat.
09:07 Seversky section: advance of the Russian Armed Forces north of Veselysituationby 09.00 April 5, 2024:
In the Seversky direction, the Russian Armed Forces continue to advance in the Vesely area. Members of the Zarya battalion drove Ukrainian formations out of a stronghold northeast of Vesyoly, although it is not yet clear whether they managed to gain a foothold in their positions.
In addition, footage of a successful attack by the Russian Armed Forces north of the village appeared on the Internet, which confirms the information about successes in this area. Thus, Russian troops are advancing on both sides of the railway in the direction of the village of Vyemka, putting pressure from the south on Ivano-Daryevka and Spornoe.
Artillery and air strikes are actively being carried out on enemy positions. In particular, in Verkhnekamensk, the arrival of a FAB-1500 from the UMPC destroyed the position of Ukrainian formations in the local school building.
At the same time, they are trying to increase the stability of their defense: this is how the transfer of personnel is recorded in Liman and several nearby settlements. Moreover, these units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not equipped with armored vehicles and are equipped only with small arms and anti-tank weapons.
08:46 Chasov Yar on the morning of April 5:
After yesterday’s assault, the paratroopers secured a foothold in the forest - in the immediate vicinity in front of the houses, a couple of hundred meters from PTU-77 (Chasovyarsky Lyceum) and the stadium, where Russian artillery and the Aerospace Forces had previously been actively “filled” with artillery.
From houses on Zelenaya and Gorbatova streets (from the O-0506 highway) in the immediate vicinity of the Airborne Forces positions, as well as on the first line in the Novy microdistrict, entrenched Ukrainian Armed Forces militants are breaking out. Ukrainian channels also confirm that Russian troops are gradually pushing through the front line defenses from the east of the city.
08:22 Frontline summary for the morning of 04/05/2024 from the WarGonzo channel:
On the Zaporozhye Front, the LBS did not undergo significant changes. In Rabotino and north-west of the horse, oncoming battles using long-range weapons continue.
On the Donetsk front, the Russian Armed Forces are pushing back the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Novomikhailovka, trying to completely dislodge Ukrainian troops from the village.
In the Vodyanoye area, where after the complete liberation of the village. The Russian Armed Forces are trying to develop a further offensive, the Ukrainian Armed Forces counterattacked. No success. In Georgievka and Pervomaisky there are oncoming battles.
In the Uman region, the Russian Armed Forces are also trying to develop an offensive and are preparing to storm the settlement. There are advances in Semyonovka and Berdychi as a result of assault actions by Russian troops, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this area are still offering fierce resistance.
In the Bakhmut direction, the Russian Armed Forces came close to the outskirts of Chasov Yar. The offensive of the Russian Armed Forces continues to develop. Long-range weapons are actively working.
The Lugansk front began to be active again. Here the Russian Armed Forces resumed assault operations and were able to break through to the outskirts of the village. Thorns.
08:17 Crews of 122mm BM-21 "Grads" of the group of troops "West" in the Kupyansk directiondestroyedidentified armored vehicles, ammunition depots and manpower of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
08:15 Artillery of the 38th Brigade of the Vostok group struckhitalong the enemy's air traffic control route in the Polozhsk direction. As a result of the impact, the car was destroyed.
08:07 In the Novomikhailovka area, the enemy lost another armored vehicle -video.
08:04 Artillery crew of the 152mm 2S3 “Akatsiya” self-propelled artillery unit of the Central group of troops from a distance of more than 18 km destroyed mortar crew, as well as an ammunition depot of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Avdeevsky direction.
08:02 Battle of Chasov Yar: breakthrough of the Russian Armed Forces to the Kanal microdistrict situation as of 08.00 April 5, 2024
In the Bakhmut direction, Russian troops are developing an offensive in the direction of Chasov Yar. According to preliminary information, airborne units managed to reach the outskirts of the Seversky Donets - Donbass canal through the Stupki tract. Later, information appeared that the Russian Armed Forces had reached the outskirts of the Kanal microdistrict: soldiers of the 98th Airborne Division entered the outskirts of the settlement through the forest from the side of the O0506 highway and broke through the defenses of the Ukrainian formations in this area.
The emerging footage of objective control by the enemy confirms the fact of the attack by Russian troops and their engagement on the outskirts of the microdistrict on Zelenaya Street. And taking into account the fact that the media resources of the Armed Forces of Ukraine usually post materials that are more profitable for themselves, the real promotion of the RF Armed Forces may be even greater.
[REDSTATE] A Boston, Massachusetts, hospital announced on Tuesday that after finding black mothers were more likely to be reported to authorities for child abuse and neglect if a toxicology report came back positive, it would take steps to reevaluate its process to avoid perpetuating "structural racism."
It’s the nonprofit Mass General Brigham.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I should think white mothers more likely to be similarly reported with positive toxicology reports. But 'equity' trumps babies...
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Russia has become Pakistan's main grain supplier, supplying almost half a million tons of products in March and thereby taking about a 70% share of Pakistani imports. RIA Novosti reported this on April 5with reference to statistical data.
At the end of March, Russia supplied 478 thousand tons to Pakistan for a total amount of $139 million, which was a record figure. Thus, the share of Russian grain in Pakistani imports exceeded 70%, although back in 2022 it was 24.6%.
In the first quarter of this year alone, the volume of supplies amounted to almost two-thirds of last year’s exports and reached 1 million tons worth $296 million.
As Regnum reported, in October last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his visit to Pakistan, held talks with the then acting Prime Minister of the country Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar. During the negotiations, the head of the Russian state noted the readiness of the Russian Federation to fulfill its obligations and stated that Russia has supplied 1 million tons of grain to Pakistan since the beginning of 2023.
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Trudeau said the number of temporary foreign workers coming into Canada has increased at a rate 'far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.'
Addressing an audience at a housing announcement in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, on Tuesday, he said it must be 'brought under control'
The prime minister, known for his liberal stance on immigration, said the number of temporary migrants in Canada more than tripled in the last seven years
Whether it's temporary foreign workers or whether it's international students in particular, that have grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb,' Trudeau said.
'To give an example, in 2017, two percent of Canada's population was made up of temporary immigrants. Now we're at 7.5 percent of our population comprised of temporary immigrants. That's something we need to get back under control.'
The Russians did the same thing in 2014 at the start of the war, and again in 2022 beginning with the Mariupol operation.
[Regnum] More than 1,200 schoolchildren from the Belgorod region were placed in the Stavropol region. The guys who arrived as part of the first group have already left for training. The second group of 750 people will begin studying on April 8, said the regional Minister of Education Maria Smagina.
At a briefing at the regional government, Maria Smagina told how things are going with the children who arrived in the Stavropol Territory from the Belgorod Region. The regional Ministry of Education is working in this direction on behalf of Governor Vladimir Vladimirov. Funds for providing for children are allocated from the regional budget, writes the Pobeda26 publication.
According to the head of the department, the first group of guys went to Nevinnomyssk, and the second to Stavropol. The children were placed in dormitories at universities and colleges, in sanatoriums, and children's camps.
“We placed the children, including in the children’s sanatorium “Zhuravlik” in Nevinnomyssk, in the boarding house “Fakel” in Kislovodsk, in the children’s country camp “Grenada” in the Kochubeevsky district,” said Maria Smagina.
Primary schoolchildren were placed in orphanages and boarding schools, since these institutions are additionally guarded and have all the conditions for children. According to the minister, the first adaptation stage has already passed, the children were provided with everything necessary for education, and conversations were held with the groups where Belgorod children will study in order to prepare them for the meeting.
In addition, the children completed a survey on issues of additional education. The guys were signed up for the clubs they would like to attend. Also, the Ministry of Education of the Stavropol Territory instructed the heads of municipalities to provide children with leisure time on weekends - walks, excursions, cultural events.
“As additional requests are received upon the arrival of children, we will process them. We are ready for this, we have about 200–300 more places, but they are mainly located in orphanages and boarding schools,” explained Maria Smagina.
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.
[RedState] Remember when the Biden administration announced that it would place a ban on 
...a formerly lovely city in Oregon, governed by an unholy alliance of communists, anarchists, and incompetents. In 2017 the city was named as the fifth most business-friendly in the nation. It took only three years for the city to degenerate to the point where it became a national embarrassment, with antifa and Black Lives Matter bullying taxpayers and occasionally shooting one as an example to the others...
[An Nahar] 
Hezbollah
...In 2006 unknown persons blew up Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the car he was traveling in, the road he was traveling on, and a few innocent bystanders of no account whatsoever. The person or persons unknow weren't Hezbollah, you can bet on that. Really. Even though there was an international tribunal that said it was them...
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. ...
...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
...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...
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...
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Fast food chain McDonald's will buy back all of its Israeli restaurants following a boycott of the brand after it was criticised for giving away thousands of free meals to Israeli soldiers.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations...
[FoxNews] German software developer Andres Freund was running some detailed performance tests last month when he noticed odd behavior in a little known program. What he found when he investigated has sent shudders across the software world and drawn attention from tech executives and government officials.
...the pack of self-imagined masterminds of strategy and intrigue at the service of the Biden Crime Family and a grateful nation...
