[ModernDiplomacy] A few days ago, an alleged audio of Tahreek Taliban ...Arabic for students... Pakistain (TTP) chief, Noor Wali Mehsud has caught the attention of those who keep a close eye on terrorist groups operating in Pakistain, especially Tahreek e Taliban Pakistain (TTP). Through this audio, Noor Wali has sent a message, to TTP fighters to pick up arms against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) after its search operation in provinces along the Pak-Afghan border. Since the takeover of Kabul, some security analysts had predicted the possible collaboration of IEA with TTP. Still, the evolution of TTP strategies and its ideological shift from being a branch of IEA to being an opponent of IEA was observed. Only those who have kept a sharp eye on TTP activities know that TTP is now a threat to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
While tanks and fighters tend to win public attention, the fighting in Ukraine has done a lot to remind us of the critical role played by the infantry. And to survive and thrive on the battlefield, the infantry in Ukraine rely on their armoured personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles to enable to enable movement and provide fire support.
Those vehicles, so critical to both sides have, however, been lost in extreme numbers - with no vehicle on the Russian side having suffered more visually confirmed losses than the BMP-2.
Now, it seems, the floodgates are opening on the supply of Western IFVs to Ukraine. In this video I look at these vehicles, their employment in Ukraine, and suggest that despite being lost in large numbers - that they will remain critical in the fighting to come.
[YouTube] American Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle M2A2 Bradleys are deploying to Ukraine. Will they be able to push Russian Armed Forces back across the border? Putin is making some limited advances in one town in Eastern Ukraine and the war is entering a pivotal moment. Could the M1 Abrams be next? Lets analyze the M2 Bradleys weapons and armor capabilities and it's logistics limitations.
The 25mm autocannon has armor piercing munitions that can rip through the Russian BMP. It's armor can stop incoming auto cannon rounds.
[VictoryGirls] Turkey really doesn’t like Enes Kanter Freedom. The Turkish government absolutely hates his outspoken ways and his continually calling out that dictatorial regime. Thus, last week the government put a $500 million bounty out on Enes. $500K or $500M? I bet it's K
No, this wasn’t rumor. Turkey actually published the details of the bounty.
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has put a bounty on the head of activist and NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, on a list that includes many journalists and other athletes.
Freedom, who has not had a team to play for since 2022, reportedly for speaking out against human rights abuses around the world, spoke to Turkish Minute about his inclusion on the Turkish Interior Ministry’s "Terrorist Wanted List," which offers a reward of up to TL 10 million for information that leads to the capture of the wanted person.
The Turkish government wants information that will lead to his capture. Which also presumably means he’d be smuggled back into Turkey and face trial. Or would he face trial? Given how the Turkish government operates, I’d venture it would depend upon what Erdogan wants.
As Deanna wrote here, Enes Kanter became a U.S. citizen in 2021.
The Swiss-born, Turkish-raised player became an American citizen in 2021, and he added Freedom to his name. He currently lives in Washington, D.C., where he is in "constant contact" with local authorities and the FBI as a result of being on Erdogan’s list.
"I’m being protected 24/7," Freedom said.
Enes Kanter Freedom has been an outspoken critic of Turkey and of China. Which has earned him the ire of the NBA who blatantly kowtows to China. Enes, not content to call out Erdogan, went after China and the NBA’s hypocrisy as well.
But he caused a rift in the league — which pulls in billions of dollars in revenue from China via nearly half a billion viewers — when he became an outspoken critic of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.
He’s also been critical of Nike — a major NBA advertiser and player sponsor — for its manufacturing deals in China.
What did the NBA do? Essentially sidelined him. He was too outspoken. It wasn’t good form to call out the ’China says jump and the NBA jumps all the time’ relationship between the two entities. Therefore he had to be sidelined. He was and is too good of a player to kick to the curb entirely, plus if the NBA HAD booted Freedom from the league, the blowback would’ve been brutal.
Keep in mind, this is a man who hasn’t seen his family in nine years. Is it any wonder that he’s considering suing the NBA for their passive aggressive actions?
I can’t believe it came down to KILLING ME!
If I get killed in the near future, @RTErdogan regime is responsible for it.
Why is the Biden Administration, #NATO, and Western Leaders silent and still trying to have diplomacy with these dictatorships ?https://t.co/V3Ijvsw3iB
Enes Kanter Freedom will continue to speak out because others in Turkey who do end up with everything they own being confiscated and being labeled a terrorist. Yes, Enes is now considered a terrorist by the Turkish government. Furthermore, if ANYONE in Turkey says his name as one announcer did by using soccer player Hazan Sukor’s name (he’s on the list as well). That announcer was yanked off the air. Not only that, but both of their fathers are in jail as Turkey is attempting to use them as leverage to silence both athletes.
For Freedom, this is the price he must pay for speaking out against human rights abuses.
"I hope the world will open its eyes and put an end to Erdogan’s human rights violations," he says
Enes Kanter Freedom has been a warrior for free speech. He’s not letting the NBA’s attempt to sideline him stop him from speaking out. Nor will he stop calling out Lebron Jame’s hypocrisy whether it involves his complicit silence on China or Jame’s commentary regarding Brittany Griner.
Who would you want to stand up for you and your rights to freedom? Who would you want to speak out on your behalf regarding human rights abuses? LeBron James? The NBA? Or Enes Kanter Freedom?
With Turkey placing a half million dollar bounty on Enes’s head, one thing is abundantly clear, his championing for freedom and free speech has made that country angry and they’ll do anything they can to shut him up.
[Nebraska Medicine] Vaccines generally work by introducing a piece of a virus or bacteria into your body so you can develop long-lasting immunity to the pathogen. While the piece introduced by the vaccine rapidly fades away, your body's immune system remembers what it saw. When it encounters the virus or bacteria in the real world it mounts a strong immune response preventing or decreasing the severity of infection.
Some have expressed concern that the spike protein or other parts of the mRNA vaccines build up in the body, particularly in the ovaries or the brain. Here we break down the data to show where mRNA vaccines (and spike proteins) travel in the body. There is no evidence that any mRNA or protein accumulates in any organ.
Why do they use spike proteins?
For COVID-19 vaccines, all of the approved vaccines so far used the spike protein. The spike protein is located on the outside of a coronavirus and is how SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus) enters human cells. Its location on the outside of the virus makes it so the immune system can recognize it easily.
The spike protein is unique to SARS-CoV-2 — it doesn't look like other proteins your body makes. So antibodies created against the spike protein won't harm your body, they will only target coronavirus.
How long mRNA lasts in the body
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines work by introducing mRNA (messenger RNA) into your muscle cells. The cells make copies of the spike protein and the mRNA is quickly degraded (within a few days). The cell breaks the mRNA up into small harmless pieces. mRNA is very fragile; that's one reason why mRNA vaccines must be so carefully preserved at very low temperatures.
How long do spike proteins last in the body?
The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) estimates that the spike proteins that were generated by COVID-19 vaccines last up to a few weeks, like other proteins made by the body. The immune system quickly identifies, attacks and destroys the spike proteins because it recognizes them as not part of you. This "learning the enemy" process is how the immune system figures out how to defeat the real coronavirus. It remembers what it saw and when you are exposed to coronavirus in the future it can rapidly mount an effective immune response.
The Novavax vaccine introduces the actual protein into your body to produce an immune response similar to many other vaccines currently in use.
Where does the vaccine go?
Here's a peer-reviewed study that shows where intramuscular vaccines (which all three of the COVID-19 vaccines are) travel in macaques (a type of monkey). Vaccines mostly remain near the site of injection (the arm muscle) and local lymph nodes.
This makes sense: Lymph nodes produce white blood cells and antibodies to protect us from disease. A key part of the lymphatic system, lymph nodes also clean up fluids and remove waste materials. Finding pieces of spike protein in the lymph nodes is completely normal, because lymph nodes act as the trash removal service for the body. That means the vaccine did its job (made spike proteins, which caused the creation of antibodies) and will be cleared from the body.
Another peer-reviewed study tested exactly where an mRNA vaccine went in mice. Most of the mRNA vaccine stayed in the injection site muscle — where you get the shot. Look at Table 1. A lot of mRNA vaccine was found in local lymph nodes, which peaked about eight hours after the shot was given. A much smaller amount of mRNA vaccine went to farther away lymph nodes.
Can the COVID-19 vaccines change your DNA?
No. COVID-19 vaccines cannot change your DNA.
DNA is stored in the nucleus of your cells. mRNA vaccines do their work outside of the nucleus (in a space called the cytoplasm) and have not been observed to interact with the nucleus. The cell breaks down and gets rid of the mRNA soon after it's finished using the instructions.
#1
How about the question, “Why are all the people who get the vaccine dropping dead?”
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/15/2023 9:04 Comments ||
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#2
SH, I certainly don't know why some people where were vaccinated are dying, but I wonder if the body's response to the vaccine in some susceptible people leads to clot formation. Some people's inflammatory response to infection or a vaccine can be worse than the infection itself.
Posted by: Jans Shugum7166 ||
01/15/2023 9:18 Comments ||
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#3
Please replace "where" with "who. Thank you.
Posted by: Jans Shugum7166 ||
01/15/2023 9:19 Comments ||
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#4
I nearly "Dropped Dead" this morning at Publix. $8.79 a dozen.
#5
Wow...at Costco yesterday near Boise we got 2 dozen for about $6.50. Might check to see if they were locally sourced. Not sure how CostCo handles this.
#7
"The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) estimates that the spike proteins that were generated by COVID-19 vaccines last up to a few weeks"
#8
I wonder who funded this study. When a doctor tries to prove otherwise he is immediately defunded, slandered and sued. This may be true, probably not, but the facts are in. The shot killed people, it is not killing more people than COVID kills. People are just falling over dead months and years after the shot. Athletes and kids are the only groups being tracked right now and the numbers are crazy. In the last 30 years we have had approx 38 athletes die each year die on the field. In the last two years we are averaging 550 per year. ALL of the athletes have had the shot. So my question is why are these scientists spouting this propaganda and not working to find out the why of all these deaths? Why is it DARPA knew about the positive effects of Ivermectin and why was their a disinformation campaign calling it horse paste. And lastly, They are hiding some truths there in plain sight. They claim all approved vaccines have spike proteins. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine did not.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/15/2023 11:14 Comments ||
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#9
OOPS, mis-word. The COVID shot IS killing more people than the disease.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/15/2023 11:15 Comments ||
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#12
I think G(r)om lived - and died - his convictions.
No, I can't document that. Just a SWAG - Silly wild ass guess.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/15/2023 12:38 Comments ||
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#13
We asked g(r)omgoru to take a time out once too many on both sides hardened their positions, repeating the usual with additional insults instead of thoughtfully addressing new information. Lex is another. I miss the thoughtful comments they used to share before all this.
#16
Anyone remember that comet cult back in the 90's? You'd think that after the comet came and went they'd have reevaluated their convictions. Instead the opposite happened. They became move devout. I find many like (g)rom have similarly doubled down on their COVID fantasies. And it's a real shame. Proves being smart is no guarantee against falling for a fraud.
Key highlights for countries of interest to us here at Rantburg. Go to the link to read the whole thing, and as always poke around the site to see what else they’ve been looking at.
This is our annual summary of current war zones and an overview of where it is all heading. After this overview there is the alphabetical list of the war zones and a quick summary of how the local mayhem has been proceeding. Since we have been covering this sort of thing for over twenty years now there are many war zones that have gone quiet, we left most of those in summary, with a note that those wars had gone dormant, and maybe extinct.
Afghanistan: after the Taliban took over, foreign aid ceased. Neighbours expect it to collapse within a few years, leaving a narco-state controlled by Pashtuns and the Pakistan military surrounded by a collection of tribes.
Pakistan: The combination of pet jihadi groups, corruption, and military control continues to generate lots of problems, compounded by economic problems.
Iran: Mullahcracy under serious threat between protests, ethnic unrest, and failing economy. Yet Mullahs spend freely meddling in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon, and working toward nuclear bomb.
Iraq: ISIS still a problem in north and west of country. Iran controls 100,000 PMF militiamen, but 2021 election reduced Irqn’s influence.
Israel: Good: Arab allies against Iran. Bad: Iran cyber war. Palestinians have annoyed everyone, but still rewarded for pretending to negotiate for peace.
Kurds: Strife continues with Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, as well as internal feuds.
Nigeria: Tribal violence (esp. Fulani vs Christian farmers) now responsible for more deaths than jihadis, who have become mostly bandits. Corrupt politicians and in the army being reduced, but still problematic.
Somalia: Al Shabaab still the major criminal organization in parts of the country, but with less foreign aid, it’s less profitable, and the Somalis are becoming more serious about actually governing themselves.
Turkey: President the neo-Ottoman Sultan Recep Tayip Erdogan I “the much beloved” is increasingly causing mischief beyond Turkey’s borders, resulting in economic and diplomatic damage at home. Next elections this year, for what that’ll be worth.
Yemen: Houthis are losing, but even with reduced Iranian support refuse to admit it. Among the 2/3rds of the population that is Sunni, some tribes still support Al Qaeda and ISIS, others would like to split up the country again.
POTENTIAL HOT SPOTS: Various places where the local situation is warming up and might turn into a war. Like Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Central Asia or Mexico. Previous items are still available in our archives.
[RELATIVELY] QUIET: Algeria: Islamic terrorism has declined sharply. Balkans: Some Islamic terrorist activity, but concern is increasing number of Saudi-built mosques and schools Central Asia: Quiet at home — wannabe jihadis travel to interesting hotspots, where they either died or got over it and moved elsewhere. Chad: Quiet versus 2010, sending peacekeepers to help against Boko Haram/ISWAP in Nigeria. Congo: The eastern border continues to be problematic — tribal and political militias and bandits. In the Central African Republic years of chaos have evolved into Moslems vs Christians and others until the Wagner Group fixed it, Ethiopia: Civil war quieted. India: Largely at peace. Indonesia: Government counterterrorism efforts containing jihadis. Libya: The GNA supported by Turkey with Syrian troops in Tripoli and Misrata vs the LNA in the rest of the country supported by Russia, Egypt, the UAE, etc. Mali: Wagner Group seems to be bringing the situation under control. Philippines: Jihadis and Communist threats reduced, with Marcos, Jr. continuing Duerte’s policies. Sudan: Both Sudan and South Sudan have calmed down. Syria: Assad chose Russia, the Arab League, and even Israel over Iran, though Turkey is still hunting Kurds. Iran is constrained due problems at home. Thailand: Moslem separatists in the south have lost popular support.
Aside from the Russian war in Ukraine, the rest of the world is a lot more peaceful than the headlines or Internet chatter would have you believe. Like most major trends, world peace just kind of sneaked up on everyone and a lot of people have not noticed.
Global Islamic terrorism-related deaths have fallen by over 70 percent since 2014, when there were 35,000. Global terrorist deaths hit 19,000 in 2017, under 16,000 for 2018 and that downward trend continued into 2022 but the headline news does not cover trends like that.
#2
I usually consider "zero tolerance" an unrealistic goal. But when it comes to stomping out terrorism and neocon fever dreams, it's still a nice ideal.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/15/2023 13:53 Comments ||
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#3
Brazil, Holland and Canada might make the next summary.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/15/2023 16:10 Comments ||
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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.
...Arabic for 
[YouTube] American Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle M2A2 Bradleys are deploying to Ukraine. Will they be able to push Russian Armed Forces back across the border? Putin is making some limited advances in one town in Eastern Ukraine and the war is entering a pivotal moment. Could the M1 Abrams be next? Lets analyze the M2 Bradleys weapons and armor capabilities and it's logistics limitations.
I nearly "Dropped Dead" this morning at Publix. $8.79 a dozen. 
