News of the World
03-23-2024, 10:27 PM
EUROPE
Another article stated the Russians had arrested 11 suspects.
USA
CANADA
MIDDLE EAST
LATIN AMERICA
Awful News from Moscow
Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday vowed to punish those behind a “barbaric terrorist attack” on a Moscow concert hall that killed at least 133, saying Russia had arrested four gunmen who were trying to flee to Ukraine.
Kyiv has strongly denied any connection, and Putin made no reference to claims of responsibility by the Islamic State in his first public remarks on the attack.
At least 133 people were killed when camouflaged gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall, in Moscow’s northern suburb of Krasnogorsk, and then set fire to the building on Friday evening.
The jihadist group has claimed the attack, writing Saturday on a Telegram channel that it was “carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives and firebombs,” as part of “the raging war” with “countries fighting Islam”.
It is the deadliest attack on Russia in almost two decades and the deadliest in Europe to have been claimed by the Islamic State.
Russian officials expect the death toll to rise further, with more than 100 injured in hospital.
“Terrorists, murderers, non-humans … have only one unenviable fate: retribution and oblivion,” Putin said in a televised address to the nation on Saturday.
Calling the attack a “barbaric, terrorist act”, he said “all four direct perpetrators … all those who shot and killed people, have been found and detained”.
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The FSB said earlier Saturday that the assailants had “contacts” in Ukraine, without providing further details.
Kyiv, facing a Russian military offensive for the past two years, said it had “nothing to do” with the attack, presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in a statement.
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The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Friday, saying its fighters attacked “a large gathering” on Moscow’s outskirts and “retreated to their bases safely”.
Some witnesses filmed the gunmen from the upper floors as they walked through the stalls shooting people, footage shared on social media showed.
Then “the terrorists used a flammable liquid to set fire to the concert hall’s premises, where spectators were located, including wounded,” the Investigative Committee said.
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The head of the state-run RT media outlet, Margarita Simonyan on Saturday posted two videos claiming to be interrogations of two handcuffed suspects, who both admitted to the attack but did not say who organised it.
Russian Telegram channels, including Baza which is close to the security services, and a lawmaker said some of the suspects were from Tajikistan, a post-Soviet country in Central Asia.
Tajikistan’s foreign ministry told Russia’s TASS news agency that authorities were “in close contact” with Moscow about the “supposed participation of the country’s citizens in the terrorist attack”.
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Major events were cancelled across the country, including a friendly football match between Russia and Paraguay set to take place in Moscow on Monday.
Another article stated the Russians had arrested 11 suspects.
No Longer a Special Operation But a War
Quote:Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman Dmitry Peskov is the first senior Russian figure to acknowledge the country is at war, saying the conflict changed in nature after Western states began to arm Ukraine. Responding to internal comments about his comments on Friday, Peskov later clarified his position, saying that while the government acknowledged it is “de facto” at war, that did not change the state’s legal position that the invasion of Ukraine remains a “de jure” special military operation.
While the semantics of conflict — whether Moscow calls its invasion a war or not — will matter little to those fighting on the front lines, or those being bombed at home, such developments will seem important to intent Kremlin watchers attempting to infer attitudes and intentions from the Russians.
That the admission that Russia is in fact at war comes just days after Putin rubber-stamped another six years in power for himself in the nation’s ‘elections’ may be significant. Indeed, another first that quickly followed the vote was the Russian leader naming his deceased former critic and rival Alexi Navalny for the first time in many years, possibly signalling Putin is feeling comfortable in his position.
Peskov said:
“We are at war. Yes, it began as a special military operation, but as soon as this company formed there, when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, this became a war for us. I am convinced of this. And everyone should understand this.”
While Russia appears willing to face reality in this regard — that it is unmistakably at war — it continues to stick to its own ideological guns elsewhere. Indeed, Peskov accused Ukrainians living in Ukraine of occupying Russian territory, prompting him to remark that Moscow will seek to “liberate the territory”.
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While Russia is speaking of itself being at “war” for the first time, this is not by far the first time it has accused the West of going to war with Moscow. Even so, much of Russia’s energy in public-facing messaging for Western leaders is focused on dissuading NATO nations from continuing to provide aid, or from offering new levels of lethality.
While these threats can take on a lurid, alarming aspect — such as the constant talk of nuclear war from the Kremlin — the latest messaging relies on a hectoring history lesson and a warning of the humiliation of failure. Threatening to inflict a total, historic defeat on Europe if it continues to involve itself in Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian diplomat Vasily Nebenzia at the United Nations cited French leader Napoleon Bonaparte’s disastrous invasion of Russia in the 19th century.
Assault on Energy Infrastructure
Quote:Russia unleashed one of its most devastating attacks against Ukraine’s electric sector on Friday, an aerial assault it said was retaliation for recent strikes inside Russia and which could signal an escalation of the war just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a preordained election.
Many Ukrainians were plunged into darkness across several cities, at least five people were killed, and damage to the country´s largest hydroelectric plant briefly cut off power to a nuclear plant that has been a safety risk throughout the war.
Russia fired off more than 60 exploding drones and 90 missiles in what Ukrainian officials described as the most brutal attack against its energy infrastructure since the full-scale war began in early 2022.
Kharkiv, Ukraine´s second-largest city, sustained the most damage, officials said, and the attack came a day after Russia had fired 31 missiles into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been urging Western allies for weeks to provide it with additional air-defense systems and ammunition, a period in which $60 billion in U.S. aid has been held up by divisions in Congress.
“With Russian missiles, there are no delays, like with aid packages to our state,” Zelenskyy said. “It is important to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions.”
Russia’s defense ministry called Friday attacks “strikes of retribution.” Ukraine has increased shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region along its northeast border and has launched drone strikes targeting Russian oil refineries and other energy facilities.
Ukraine’s latest strike inside Russia on Friday killed one and injured at least three, according to local officials.
Putin has described Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other regions as an effort to frighten residents and derail the highly orchestrated election that ended Sunday. And he vowed to strike back.
Ukraine & China
Quote:Two sources told Reuters on Thursday that Ukraine could scrap the Sponsors of War list and its website within a matter of days.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers held a meeting on Wednesday at which it decided to remove public access to the International Sponsors of War website, following complaints from foreign embassies that there was no “regulatory framework” controlling the list. The ministers also felt the Sponsors of War list was redundant because the Ukrainian government also maintains a “state register of sanctions” that does have legal force.
Ukraine’s National Agency of Corruption Prevention (NAZK) created the list in the summer of 2022 in an effort to build public pressure against international corporations that have not terminated their business operations in Russia.
Part of the rationale for shaming the companies as “Sponsors of War” is that they are paying taxes to the Russian government, which is spending lavishly on the stalled invasion of Ukraine. Some of the companies also pay for advertising in Russian media, employ local services such as food delivery, and “cooperate with state and local law enforcement agencies of the aggressor country,” as NAZK put it.
Most of the 50 companies currently listed as Sponsors of War are relatively obscure, but there are a few heavyweight corporate entries, including Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Subway. Fourteen of the listed companies are Chinese, including massive energy companies like Sinopec and tech giants such as the Alibaba Group. China is Russia’s largest remaining international ally after the brutal Ukraine invasion.
NAZK claims there are roughly 1,600 foreign companies doing business in Russia after the invasion but only a tiny fraction of that number has been added to the International Sponsors of War list. The blacklist is purely a public relations operation, with no legal force inside Ukraine.
According to Reuters’ sources, China has been leaning most heavily on Ukraine to discontinue the list. China publicly demanded Ukraine remove all Chinese firms from the list in February, hinting that China’s massive purchases of Ukrainian grain could be at risk if Kyiv did not comply.
Princess of Wales
Quote:The future Queen of the United Kingdom shocked the world on Friday when she revealed her cancer diagnosis, but revealed she had delayed making the news public until she had been able to explain what was happening to her own children “in a way that is appropriate for them”.
It was revealed on Friday that Princess Catherine, the wife of the heir apparent and future King, has been diagnosed with cancer, the news coming just weeks after it was revealed the King, too, is undergoing cancer treatment.
While Catherine’s now three-month absence from public life and the speculation that has gone with it, and her packed schedule as a front-line working Royal before that has generally filled public perception, the importance of her role as a mother to three children came front-and-centre in the Princess’s statement on Friday. While not stating exactly how long she had known about her cancer diagnosis, Catherine made clear she had delayed the news going public before she and her husband were able to break the news in an “appropriate” way to their children, as well as reassuring them their mother is going to be “OK”.
The Princess said:
This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.
As you can imagine, this has taken time. It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment. But, most importantly, it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be OK. As I have said to them; I am well and getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal; in my mind, body and spirits.
Having William by my side is a great source of comfort and reassurance too. As is the love, support and kindness that has been shown by so many of you. It means so much to us both.
The timing of the announcement was reportedly linked to the fact that Princess Catherine and the Prince of Wales’ children finished their school term today for the Easter Holidays, breaking up for three-and-a-half weeks until mid-April.
Le Pen & Meloni
Quote:Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was called out by French populist Marine Le Pen on Saturday during a video address to the ‘Winds of Change’ convention for not coming out against the second term of European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
Failing to live up to her reputation as a populist firebrand, Giorgia Meloni has governed from the centre since coming into power in 2022 and has sought to deepen Rome’s ties with Brussels rather than opposing the globalist agenda of the likes of Von der Leyen.
Specifically calling her out for this, former presidential candidate and the leader of the National Rally in France, Marine Le Pen said in a video address to a convention of the Identity and Democracy (ID) party in Rome on Saturday: “A message for Giorgia: will you support a second mandate for Von der Leyen or not? I believe so. You must the truth to the Italians, you must tell what you will do.”
Le Pen said that her party in France, which is a member of the ID group in the European Parliament, will “fight with all possible forces to prevent a second mandate for Von der Leyen.”
The French populist went on to say that she believes only Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and his League party will actually stand up to Von der Leyen’s attempts at a second term following the European Parliament elections in June.
While delivering some wins for conservatives like banning lab-grown meat and introducing further crackdowns on surrogacy births, the central issue that saw her come to power, reducing illegal migration, has only continued to grow worse under her leadership.
Indeed, in 2023, according to information from the Interior Ministry, 155,754 migrants arrived in Italy in 2023, a fifty per cent increase over the previous year when 103,846 illegals were recorded reaching Italy.
Meloni had promised a hardline approach towards illegal migration, particularly the people smuggler-operated boats which dump hundreds of thousands of illegals on Italy’s shores every year. Prompting hysterical reactions, Meloni had suggested instituting a naval blockade in the Mediterranean to stop the migrant boats from crossing the sea from North Africa.
USA
Maryland Town Has No Cops!?
Quote:A Maryland town’s entire police force has been mysteriously suspended, leaving residents completely “blindsided” without much explanation.
The commissioners of Ridgley, a small town of just under 1,900 people, placed every member of the police department on leave with pay on March 13, “pending investigation by the Office of the Maryland State Prosecutor.”
According to an announcement from Commissioners Anthony Casey, John Hurley, and Leonard Buckle, the local government is “currently developing a temporary agreement with the Caroline County Sheriff’s Department to guarantee uninterrupted public safety services for the citizens.”
They added that Ridgley residents can still call 911 for emergencies.
Caroline County Sheriff Donald Baker added that the Maryland State Police would help out as well, Fox News reports.
The state prosecutor’s office has not made any statement regarding the nature of the investigation or when it is expected to end.
A law enforcement source who spoke with WBOC claimed that a whistleblower accused Ridgley officers of not “properly disposing of surplus equipment, including guns and cars,” the outlet reported.
The insider also claimed that the investigation is looking into members of the department who were not properly submitting administrative reports and failing to complete background checks on new officers.
No official bodies have confirmed these reports, however.
Locals are quite skeptical of the entire situation.
Experts Denounce China's Builds the Largest DNA DB
Quote:Experts have been documenting evidence for decades that points to China making prodigious profits from killing political prisoners, most prominently Falun Gong practitioners and Turkic Muslims imprisoned in East Turkistan’s concentration camps. That evidence ranges from leaked government documents to eyewitness testimonies and unexplained inconsistencies in China’s official organ transplant data. The evidence has led to little condemnation for the Communist Party, however, which simultaneously denies committing the human rights atrocity and boasts of record-setting numbers of organ transplants that stretch the limits of what is mathematically possible in a system using only voluntary organ donors. Top surgeons with ties to the Communist Party are still welcome members of the global medical elite. Research by Chinese scientists suspected of being tied to the forced organ harvesting trade is still published in international journals.
On Wednesday, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing to address China’s forced organ harvesting, seeking updates on the harrowing evidence presented by researchers in past hearings on the subject. Among those present were researchers Ethan Gutmann and Matthew Robertson, responsible for some of the most thorough research exposing the abuses, and MIT professor Maya Mitalipova, who warned that China’s voracious appetite for DNA sequencing data could grant it a database of civilians nationwide that it could scan whenever it needed to find an unwilling organ donor to kill.
“The Chinese Government is building the world’s largest DNA database by acquiring DNA sequencing data from companies within China and across the globe including the USA,” Mitalipova explained in her written testimony to Congress.
“Numerous biotechnology companies are assisting the Chinese police in building this database and may find themselves complicit in these violations,” Mitalipova elaborated. “They include multinational companies such as US-based Thermo Fisher Scientific and major Chinese companies like BGI (Beijing Genome Institute) … BGI in particular is dangerous because it collects genetic data of Americans and uses it for research with the Chinese military.”
Reuters revealed in 2021 that BGI launched an initiative to seek out partnerships with American biotech companies – after sharing DNA data with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) coming from non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), which doctors use to predict the viability of children in the womb.
Mitalipova suggested that the database could be used to streamline the killing of not just political prisoners, but anyone in China to harvest their organs.
CNN on Moscow Terrorist Attack
Quote:On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen stated that if ISIS-K’s claim of responsibility for the attack on a Russian concert hall is accurate, “that would be very embarrassing for the Biden administration if it turned out that ISIS-K has sort of re-grouped to the extent that they can reach out to other countries [and] carry out major attacks” when the Biden administration is “responsible” for pulling troops from Afghanistan.
Bergen said that if ISIS-K was responsible, it suggests that their capabilities are “back.”
He added, “[I]nitially, when I saw this, I was a little skeptical, because, typically, if you’re an ISIS fighter, you don’t care about getting killed at the scene of the crime. You don’t — you’re not looking for a getaway, you’re looking to martyr yourself. So, in this case, it looks like the people did get away, according to the Russians. And that isn’t sort of typical for an ISIS-type attack. So, — however, the fact that it’s not just the Americans who had intelligence in their system about ISIS presence in Moscow, it turns out that the Russians did, too. Otherwise, why would Russian state television report on March 7 about a plan to attack a Moscow synagogue by ISIS? So, I don’t know. It isn’t absolutely typical of their M.O. But, certainly, ISIS has attacked concert venues in the past. In, Paris, you recall in 2015, they killed 130 people, most — many of them were attending a concert. And, obviously, this work could well be — it could be just what it — as this group says. I’m still looking for evidence, and, hopefully, we’ll identify who these people are relatively quickly. Are they Tajiks? Are they Chechens? If they’re part of ISIS. Did they train in Afghanistan? That’s a very big question here. Obviously, that would be very embarrassing for the Biden administration if it turned out that ISIS-K has sort of re-grouped to the extent that they can reach out to other countries [and] carry out major attacks at a time when they’re responsible for the withdrawal from — of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.”
Immigration
Quote:President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has extended and redesignated a temporary amnesty program to nearly 10,000 Burmese nationals living in the United States, ensuring they are not eligible for deportation and can hold American jobs.
On Friday, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for about 9,600 Burmese nationals in the United States who would otherwise be eligible for deportation.
Burmese nationals with TPS will be able to remain in the United States and hold American jobs through November 2025 as long as they claim that they were in the country as of March 21, 2024.
In addition, Mayorkas announced so-called “Special Student Relief” for Burmese nationals who are in the United States on F-1 student visas, which will allow them to “request employment authorization, work an increased number of hours while school is in session, and reduce their course load while continuing to maintain F-1 status through the TPS designation period.”
TPS was first created under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990 (INA) and prevents federal immigration officials from deporting people from countries that are designated as experiencing famine, war, or natural disasters.
Since the Clinton administration, TPS has been transformed into a de facto amnesty program as the Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and now Biden administrations have continuously renewed the program for a variety of countries.
NYC Firemen Can't Stand it Anymore
Quote:Drug addicts near a firehouse in East Harlem have been seen pooping and shooting up outside the facility, the New York Post reported Saturday.
The disturbing news comes as Democrat-controlled New York City grapples with a drug crisis and rampant crime.
Battalion Chief Burgess shared his thoughts on the scene outside the Engine 35, Ladder 14 firehouse, where photos show people sitting on the ground.
Burgess said the druggies break into vehicles, poop on them, and leave trash and needles everywhere.
“These people are so far gone in their addiction that it’s hard not to feel bad for them, but you feel that rage when they’ve defecated on your car, like what happened to mine last week,” he continued, noting that such instances happen on a daily basis.
One firefighter told the outlet that some of the individuals become aggressive when they are asked to move, while others simply grant the request.
“The firehouse is only a few blocks from OnPoint NYC, a so-called safe injection site that critics say enables addicts and lures them to the neighborhood,” the Post article added.
Social media users shared their thoughts on the report, one person writing, “Elections have consequences.”
“With democrats in office nobody is safe!” another user said, while someone else commented, “But this is exactly what Democrats created, what they want.”
A man in New York City recently sued Burger King for a whopping $15 million for allowing one of its restaurants to become an “open-air drug bazaar,” Breitbart News reported Sunday:
The restaurant in question is located on Fulton Street, just blocks away from City Hall. Despite its proximity to the office of Mayor Eric Adams (D), local resident Kevin Kaufman says a group of eight to ten “professional drug dealers” have all but completely taken over the spot.
Fetterman
Fetterman: 30,000 Dead Palestinians Number Cited by Biden Is Dishonest
Hamas Could End War Right Now
Hamas Could End War Right Now
Quote:During an interview with the Fox News Channel aired on Friday’s broadcast of “Special Report,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) reacted to claims that 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war — a claim that has been repeated by President Joe Biden — by stating that number includes a huge number of Hamas terrorists and also said that the war could end immediately if Hamas would surrender and release the hostages.
Fetterman said, [relevant remarks begin around 1:55] “I was very disappointed that our caucus wasn’t — we didn’t have the opportunity to do that. I really wanted to hear from Netanyahu. In fact, I even asked the Republicans — back channels, just like, hey, can I just sit there? And I don’t even have to [ask] any questions. And I’ve always been incredibly surprised why we’re not talking about where this was because of Hamas and the things that they’ve done and that why [isn’t there] a protest kind of a surge to demand that Hamas [surrender] on this. If you really want to end all the — just the misery and the death and the destruction, if they would just surrender, and it would end tomorrow, release everybody, send them home. And that’s been very frustrating.”
He continued, “And then we’re talking about now there [are] 31,000 Palestinians that were killed, and, well, you’re not talking about, well, 13,000 or more are actually Hamas fighters on that. So, why aren’t you breaking that out as well, too? And then, if you do, and talk about the casualty ratio, it’s actually very clear that this isn’t a genocide or that the Israelis are targeting civilians. In fact, the only ones that [target] civilians, that’s Hamas.”
Democratic Rep. on UNRWA
Dem Rep. Meeks: I’ve Talked About Getting Money to UNRWA by Proxy, ‘Very Upset’ Congress Defunded It
Quote:On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said he is “very upset” about the government funding bill stripping funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) over accusations that multiple UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 attack because they’re the only group that can get aid in and that he’s talked with people “on how we can get resources to them and they may be able to get resources to UNRWA or whoever else” can get aid in.
Co-host Alicia Menendez asked, “Very quickly, though, another complication here is the restrictions on funding to UNRWA. You have a lot of progressives very upset about it. Your thoughts?”
Meeks responded, “I’m very upset about it. We had to strike this deal in order to keep the government open. But we know that UNRWA is the only one that has the ability to get the aid to the people there. So, [that’s] something that was a problem for me, also. But I had to make some decisions, because you give and take when you do these budgets. So, we still — and I’ve been talking to a number of individuals…from other humanitarian organizations on how we can get resources to them and they may be able to get resources to UNRWA or whoever else can get food and aid into the region, absolutely key and essential.”
CANADA
Immigration & Poverty
Quote:A government report in Canada forecasted a deep civic breakdown in the once-stable society that now suffers from unprecedented levels of elite-imposed migration.
The secret and heavily redacted report was prepared by the country’s version of the FBI — the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The partial copy was extracted from the agency by an academic lawyer and was published in Canada’s National Post newspaper.
The report is titled “Whole-of-Government Five-Year Trends for Canada,” and features many progressive-approved concerns about claimed global warming in cold-weather Canada.
But the visible sections of the text spotlight several obvious costs of migration — expensive housing, wider wealth gaps, and reduced civic trust caused by the government’s policy of forced diversity:
Popular Resentment
The coming period of recession will also accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations. For example, many Canadians under 35 are unlikely ever to be able to buy a place to live. The fallout from this decline in living standards will be exacerbated by the fact that the difference between the extremes of wealth is greater now in developed countries than it has been in any time in several generations.
Erosion of Trust
The past seven years have seen more social and political polarization in the Western World …
Paranoid Populism
Capitalizing on the rise of political polarization and conspiracy theories have been populists willing to tailor their messages to appeal to extremist movements. Authoritarian movements have been on the rise in many liberal-democratic nations …
“The situation will probably deteriorate further in the next five years,” the report begins.
MIDDLE EAST
Oman, Houthis, Russia & China
Quote:Representatives from China and Russia reportedly met with a top Houthi official named Mohammed Abdel Salam in Oman this week to hammer out a safe-passage agreement that will protect Chinese and Russian vessels in the Red Sea.
The Houthis said in January they would not attack Russian or Chinese vessels, but a lower-ranking Houthi official informally made the promise.
The Houthi terror campaign was supposedly focused on ships registered to Israel or its close allies — such as the United States and the United Kingdom — but the Yemeni insurgents have attacked numerous vessels that did not meet those conditions. At least one Houthi missile attack is known to have imperiled a shipment of Russian oil.
“Several people with knowledge of the militant group’s discussions” told Bloomberg News on Thursday that Chinese and Russian diplomats in Oman worked out a formal agreement for safe passage with Salam.
In exchange for guaranteed safe passage, the Chinese and Russians evidently promised “political support for the Houthis in bodies such as the United Nations Security Council.” The most obvious support Beijing and Moscow could offer would be using their veto powers to block U.N. resolutions against the Houthis, a service their primary patrons in Iran cannot provide.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Chief Gen. Michael Kurilla told the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday that China and Russia are already supporting the Houthis and receiving safe passage in exchange.
“Russia and China have a bye on any movement through the Red Sea. So what you’re seeing is Iran is using its proxy to allow access for Russia and China to go through the Red Sea while blocking access to others,” he said.
Netanyahu & Blinken
Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that there was no alternative to an attack in Rafah, and that Israel was prepared to do so without U.S. support.
While thanking Blinken for American help thus far, and while sharing his concern for civilians in Gaza, Netanyahu said that “we have no way to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah and eliminating the rest of the battalions there. And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the U.S., but if we need to, we will do it alone.”
Netanyahu and Blinken met in the “Kirya,” the main Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Blinken has been on a week-long visit to several countries in the Middle East, trying to secure a hostage deal and temporary ceasefire.
For weeks, the U.S. and Israel have disagreed publicly over Rafah, which is the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza. It is also next to the Egyptian border, making it a strategically important point — for aid, and for smuggling.
President Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu on Monday and said that the U.S. believed Hamas could be defeated without an Israeli military operation in Rafah, though the White House did not explain how that could be done.
Netanyahu publicly disagreed. Blinken said in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday that an Israel attack on Hamas in Rafah would be a “mistake” and “unnecessary.”
Israel depends on the U.S. heavily for resupply of arms and ammunition.
US Aid & Gaza
Quote:Another U.S. military asset left for Gaza on Thursday to help fulfill President Joe Biden’s promise to build a pier linking the war-torn territory to the rest of the world.
The MV Roy P. Benavidez left its berth in Newport News, Va., loaded with heavy equipment and materials needed for the U.S. Army-led project.
About 500 of U.S. soldiers will participate in the mission to aid Gaza. All together, Pentagon officials have said about 1,000 U.S. troops will be involved.
The ship will deliver the components to the Army’s 7th Transportation Brigade, which will construct the pier in the Mediterranean Sea.
UPI reports Army officials call this capability Joint Logistics-Over-the-Shore (JLOTS). Lt. Gen. John Sullivan, deputy commander, U.S. Transportation Command said in a statement:
JLOTS is a critical capability that allows ship-to-shore cargo distribution in the absence of a usable pier.
It can be used to augment an established port or to create a pier where one is needed and allows us to support areas where large populations are isolated from food, water and other forms of humanitarian aid.
The Benavidez is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration’s Ready Reserve Fleet.
It will support four Army vessels with the 7th Transportation Brigade, which departed the U.S. in support of the mission earlier this month, as Breitbart News reported.
Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder has said the pier will be fully operational within 60 days of when Biden ordered the project during his State of the Union address.
The structure is expected to be as much as 1,800 feet long, with two lanes, and the Pentagon has said it could accommodate the delivery of more than two million meals a day for Gaza residents.
UN, a Ceasefire & a Veto
Quote:The Biden Administration attempted to pass a resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Friday that tried to pressure Israel into accepting a temporary ceasefire in Gaza — and Russia and China vetoed it anyway.
The Times of Israel reported:
The United Nations Security Council on Friday failed to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as part of a hostage deal after Russia and China vetoed the measure proposed by the United States.
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It marked a further toughening of Washington’s stance toward Israel. Earlier in the five-month-long war, the US was averse to the word ceasefire and vetoed measures that included calls for an immediate ceasefire.
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The draft had stopped short of explicitly demanding that Israel immediately end its campaign in Gaza. In the delicate language of Security Council resolutions, the draft “determines” the “imperative” of an “immediate and sustained” ceasefire.
LATIN AMERICA
Cubans Are Now... Palestinians!?
Quote:The figurehead “president” of the communist state of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, participated in a “virtual reality” Gaza experience this week presented by the pro-Hezbollah Lebanese outlet al-Mayadeen in Havana.
Díaz-Canel, who serves as the face of the 65-year-old dictatorship led by 92-year-old Raúl Castro, told al-Mayadeen that “everyone in Cuba is a child of Palestine” and claimed that the way to end Israel’s self-defense operations against the genocidal jihadist organization Hamas is to “put an end to capitalism” and destroy the American “empire.”
The Castro regime is an enthusiastic supporter of jihadist causes and a close ally of fellow U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism Iran. Following the October 7 massacre of about 1,200 people by Hamas in Israel, the Cuban Communist Party raised its voice to support Hamas and the “Palestinian cause,” condemning Israel for declaring war and launching self-defense operations in the Hamas stronghold of Gaza, intended to prevent a repeat of the worst terrorist attack in its history. The Castro regime lit up Havana in the colors of the “Palestinian” flag after October 7 and Díaz-Canel traveled to Iran shortly thereafter to denounce Israel and express solidarity with the region’s jihadist operatives.
While enthusiastically embracing jihad abroad, Cuba is one of the world’s most repressive states against people of all faiths, including the small population of Cuban Muslims. The Castro regime has for years banned the construction of mosques and other Muslim community centers and censors nearly all public expressions related to religion.
Díaz-Canel’s encounter with al-Mayadeen occurred during the “Patria International Colloquium” in Havana, a convention for regime sympathizers from all backgrounds. The event featured a stand dedicated to pro-Hamas propaganda, the independent outlet Cubanet reported, which featured a virtual reality headset playing Hamas propaganda videos accusing Israel of “genocide.” Díaz-Canel wore the headset and claimed to experience something “very tough” and live the experience of people in Gaza.
Lula Against Israel... Again
Quote:Brazilian radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva resumed his condemnation of Israel on Wednesday by once again accusing it of committing “genocide” in Gaza over its self-defense actions against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas.
Lula, whose previous condemnations and antisemitic remarks against Israel have single-handedly strained the historically friendly relationship between both countries in recent weeks, once again accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza during an event held in Brasília that commemorated the 44th anniversary of the ruling Worker’s Party (PT), which Lula founded.
The Brazilian president, right before singing a “happy birthday” to his PT party alongside Brazilian first lady Rosângela Lula da Silva and PT’s president Gleisi Hoffmann, called for Hamas to release the hostages that it still maintains in captivity since the October 7 terrorist attack — but demanded that Israel stop what he described as a “genocide” in Gaza.
“People who advocate peace in the world don’t have the courage to defend women and children in the Gaza Strip, who are being murdered every day, because that’s not a war, that’s genocide,” Lula said. “We have to have the courage to say these things, otherwise it’s not worth our time on planet Earth and it’s not even worth doing politics.”
Lula has repeatedly accused Israel of “murdering women and children” in its self-defense actions against Hamas.
“In the same way that we in the PT condemn the terrorist act of Hamas, in the same way that we defend that Hamas has to release the Israeli hostages, and that Israel has to release the Palestinian hostages, we have to say, no more killing women and children who have nothing to do with this war,” Lula said this week.
“Where is the UN, which should exist to prevent these things from happening?” he continued.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
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My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
