Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Igor Ivanenko
[REGNUM] Famous Hollywood actor Jean-Claude Van Damme has become a defendant in a criminal case in Romania, initiated on suspicion of trafficking minors.
Law enforcement officials in that country are investigating an accusation brought against him on behalf of a 26-year-old woman from the city of Iasi. She and four other Romanians were allegedly forced to provide sexual services to the actor in Cannes, France.
They were taken to France while still minors under the pretext of participating in the modeling business, but were subjected to “sexual exploitation using psychological coercion” there.
According to the victim, Van Damme knew about these circumstances of her involvement in prostitution. The organizer of the criminal scheme was a friend of the former movie star - Romanian businessman and owner of the modeling agency Morel Bolea.
This scandal has already caused a great stir and will probably be used by the US authorities in an information campaign to combat illegal migration of Romanians.
As opposed to the illegal migration of any other nationality?
Recently, the American conservative television channel Fox News reported that the main increase in illegal entry into the US from Canada is accounted for by citizens of the Danube-Carpathian Republic.
Seriously? That’s not good. Nothing against Romanians as such, but one never wants one’s countrymen to take the lead in illegality, right?
Romanians are taking advantage of the visa waivers available to them in Canada and are moving en masse to the US via the "Maple Leaf Country". The previous US administration may not have made a tragedy out of this circumstance, but Donald Trump's team has a different point of view.
What a point of 20/80 differentiation: the Democrats are strongly for white slave trafficking from Eastern Europe, the Republicans want to send those beautiful, bereft girls back home to their families. The campaign commercials write themselves.
The reason for this is that official Bucharest is ignoring the discontent of American conservatives over the de facto removal of Calin Georgescu from the second round of the presidential elections in December 2024. The refusal to register this candidate from the sovereign conservatives in the new elections for the leader of Romania has become a clear demarche against Washington.
Eh?
The visa-free travel program for Romanian citizens to the United States was supposed to start in early April 2025. It was sanctioned by the Joe Biden government. However, its entry into force has been postponed for two months "for technical reasons."
One of the looooong list of Biden orders the new administration is reviewing before allowing to be exercised. While not all will be revoked, it is understandably hard for the subjects to wait in limbo.
The US Department of Homeland Security recently announced that it was reviewing Romania's inclusion in the visa waiver program "in line with the Trump administration's national security priorities."
The ruling elites of Bucharest, accustomed to maneuvering between Brussels and Washington, feel uncomfortable in this situation. The future of the military-technical alliance with the United States is in question. In addition, the withdrawal of the Americans from Romanian politics makes Bucharest less independent in its relations with the EU bureaucratic structures.
This is intensifying the contradictions within the ruling coalition of Social Democrats and National Liberals.
The head of government and leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolacu blames the lack of dialogue with the Trump administration on Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu, nominated by the National Liberal Party (NLP).
As an option, Ciolacu is lobbying for the introduction of the post of high representative of Romania for relations with the United States.
How is that different from an ambassador? Why would we need both?
Meanwhile, American conservatives clearly understand that Bucharest's interest in the continued existence of the American-Romanian alliance is much stronger than Washington's.
For example, The American Conservative, a newspaper popular among Republicans, calls for the withdrawal of American troops from the Romanian Mihail Kogalniceanu air base and an end to support for this large-scale NATO infrastructure development project.
“Romania still seems to think America needs the base, which may explain why it… defied the Trump administration’s wishes for Georgescu… But from a foreign policy perspective that cares about national interests, America has little to gain from being there,” the newspaper believes.
He is echoed by another influential conservative publication, The National Interest, which believes that the implementation of Biden’s plans to expand the presence of American troops in Romania will not only increase tensions in relations with Moscow, but will also “tie Washington to an increasingly undemocratic government in Bucharest.”
Meanwhile, the prospects of this coalition government of the PSD and the PNL, which discredited itself with its actions against the extremely popular Georgescu, are becoming increasingly dim.
Recent sociological surveys show that it will be very difficult for the coalition candidate Crin Antonescu to make it even to the second round of elections, since he is inferior in popularity to the candidates from both the conservatives and the left-liberals.
Antonescu's failure in the presidential race will almost certainly lead to the fall of the current pro-European government in Bucharest.
This follows from the words of the leader of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (DUH) Hunor Kelemen. Two dozen votes from the elected representatives of Transylvanian Hungarians in the Chamber of Deputies are critically important for preventing a vote of no confidence in the Çolak cabinet. Acting with an eye on official Budapest, Kelemen makes it clear that he will not stand in the way of the pro-presidential majority.
But the formation of a new coalition does not promise to be easy. After all, the same Romanian sovereignists and Transylvanian Hungarians, who are ready to act in Trump's interests, are divided by sharp contradictions.
Thus, the current US administration is quite capable of destabilizing the political system in Bucharest, but it has little opportunity to establish a regime that is absolutely loyal to itself.
At least as long as the globalist-minded EU leadership opposes this.
[IsraelTimes] Judge finds US Army veteran David Piegaro showed poor judgment but it did not amount to ‘criminal recklessness’
A Jewish Princeton senior and US Army veteran accused of assaulting the school’s head of campus security during an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protest last year has been found not guilty.
A New Jersey judge delivered the verdict Tuesday, the same day that Princeton’s president announced the school’s federal funding had been frozen by the Trump administration amid investigations into campus antisemitism during pro-Palestinian protests against Israel.
Last April, David Piegaro, who self-describes as a “pro-Israel ‘citizen journalist,” was attempting to film a pro-Palestinian sit-in on the campus when he had an altercation with Kenneth Strother Jr., the assistant vice president for public safety. Piegaro said he was not a part of the protests or counter-protests on Princeton’s campus, according to The New York Times.
Piegaro was attempting to follow Strother and two other people into a building adjacent to the sit-in when Strother blocked him from entry.
He proceeded to record the group and asked for Strother’s identity. In the recording of the incident, Piegaro says, “Don’t touch me” before the video cuts out, according to the Times.
Details over the ensuing altercation remain unclear. Strother asserted that Piegaro resisted arrest and Piegaro said he was the victim of assault, but the incident resulted in Piegaro falling down the steps of the building, where he was then arrested, according to the Times.
“The defendant, in my opinion, showed poor judgment in a tense moment, but it does not rise to the level of criminal recklessness,” said Judge John F. McCarthy III while issuing the verdict.
Following his arrest, Piegaro was barred from the campus for two weeks, a period during which he stayed with the director of Princeton’s Chabad House for a few days.
“In that environment, speaking specifically to the events of that day, when you have a whole host of public safety officers, administrators — I think doing their best — it’s not surprising that mistakes would get made,” Rabbi Eitan Webb told the Times.
Piegaro was arrested alongside 13 student protestors the day of the sit-in, making him one of 3,100 people arrested last spring surrounding anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the country, according to the Times. The trials for the other students on trespassing charges are set for June.
Most recently, a number of international students have been detained or threatened to be deported by the Trump administration over their alleged support for antisemitism and terror at pro-Palestinian protests, including students at Tufts and Columbia Universities.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Russia will help the Alliance of Sahel States (ASS) to increase its defense potential in the face of existing terrorist threats. This was announced on April 3 by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“I emphasized Moscow’s readiness to contribute in every way to building up the potential of the joint forces of the Sahel states, increasing their combat capability, the combat capability and national armed forces of each of the three countries, and training military personnel and law enforcement officers,” Lavrov noted following the talks with the heads of the foreign ministries of the ACS countries.
The diplomat also stressed that Russia is ready to assist states in the areas of security, economics, and international processes.
The Alliance will be supported in strengthening the position of the African continent and its inclusion in the emerging, more just multipolar world order, Lavrov added.
…island off the eastern coast of Russia, just north of Japan’s Hokkaido, with a population of about 500,000…
and must be stopped. This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mali Abdoulaye Diop on April 3.
“These terrorists are supported by external actors, regional actors who are in our region, who help these terrorists, who organize the rear for them, for example, Ukraine,” he said following negotiations between representatives of the Alliance of Sahel States (ASS) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The diplomat noted that Ukraine is literally sponsoring terrorism, which requires immediate attention.
In turn, Lavrov noted that the country provides support to terrorist groups with the connivance of Western countries. He emphasized that in addition to Ukraine, some former colonizers also contribute to the destabilization of the region.
Even more from regnum.ru Zakharova announced Lavrov's meetings with the ministers of the "Sahel Troika"
The meeting of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with the ministers of the "Sahel Troika", as well as separately with the foreign ministers of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso will take place in the "next few minutes". This was stated on April 3 by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
“In these, one might say, remaining minutes, in the remaining time, the first meeting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with the heads of the foreign ministries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in a new format – Russia and the Alliance of Sahel States – is being prepared and will begin in Moscow,” she said during a briefing.
It is noted that issues of developing Russia's relations with these states, including political and sectoral interaction, will be discussed. The Russian Foreign Ministry also confirmed Moscow's desire to effectively support the alliance in the area of building an independent policy, regional security based on its own forces and taking into account the national interests of the alliance.
#1
I believe that is Sahara and not Sakhalin (autocorrect is NOT your friend). I did a ML translate of the original article...
Moscow, April 3, 2025, 15:33 — IA Regnum. Ukraine sponsors terrorists in the Saharaand must be stopped. Mali Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop announced this on April 3.
[IsraelTimes] Senior Iranian official tells British newspaper that Tehran is scaling back its support for regional proxy groups to focus on direct threats emanating from Trump administration
Iran has reportedly ordered its military personnel to leave Yemen and is pulling back its support for the Houthis amid extensive US airstrikes on the rebel group.
The British Telegraph newspaper on Thursday cited a “senior Iranian official” saying that Tehran is scaling back its support of its regional proxies to focus on the direct threats emanating from the US administration.
“Every meeting is dominated by discussions about [US President Donald Trump],” the official was quoted as saying.
According to the official, Iran’s pullback from Yemen was designed to avoid the possibility of escalation if an Iranian soldier is killed in US airstrikes there.
Tehran is focusing its efforts instead on how to respond to Trump and his litany of threats, and “none of the regional groups we previously supported are being discussed,” the official said.
“The view here is that the Houthis will not be able to survive and are living their final months or even days, so there is no point in keeping them on our list.”
“They were part of a chain that relied on Nasrallah and Assad, and keeping only one part of that chain for the future makes no sense,” the official continued, referring respectively to the former leaders of the Hezbollah terror group and Syria.
The Telegraph report came amid a US aerial campaign agains the Houthis that has seen near-daily strikes in rebel-held areas of Yemen since beginning on March 15. The strikes are aimmed at stopping the Iran-backed group from attacking commercial shipping in solidarity with Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.
On Thursday, the Houthis said a strike they blamed on the United States killed a guard at a communications tower, among more than 30 strikes on rebel-held parts of Yemen.
“An American aggression targeted the communications network in… Ibb governorate, leading to the martyrdom of Abdulwasim Abdulwahab Zahir, the communications tower guard,” Houthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said on social media.
Earlier, the Houthis’ Al-Masirah television said more than 20 strikes had hit Saada province, the rebels’ stronghold in the northern mountains.
It said Washington had carried out two strikes on vehicles, one south of the rebel-held capital Sanaa and another in Saada province.
In a video statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the United States had launched “over the past few hours more than 36 air strikes” in different parts of the country.
Saree said the group had targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in response.
He also claimed the group had shot down an “American MQ-9 drone” as it was “carrying out hostile missions” in Hodeida province on the Red Sea coast.
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[Breitbart] Thousands of Haitian citizens marched through the streets of Port-Au-Prince on Wednesday to protest escalating gang violence and their government’s failure to control it.
Some of the protesters told Reuters they wanted to demonstrate their defiance of the gangs and their refusal to live in fear. Many of the protesters were armed with clubs and machetes, and some carried guns.
Others said there was plenty to be afraid of and they faulted their government for not doing enough to defeat the gangsters. Some wondered if government officials were actively colluding with the gang lords, who seem to have a great deal of money to spend despite Haiti’s general poverty.
“Do you see what is happening? Today, Haitian people will fight to be free already. We are free. Those men today cannot frighten me,” one Port-au-Prince resident told Reuters.
And fight they did, as police attempted to break up the demonstrations and gunfire rang out. At least a dozen of the protesters fired their guns at police near the offices of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime and his transitional government in Port-au-Prince. The crowd panicked at the sound of gunshots.
Other demonstrators blocked roads with stacks of flaming tires and chanted “Let’s go and get them out!”
A protest organizer explained to the Associated Press (AP) that they wanted to “take over the prime minister’s office and burn down the CPT.” CPT stands for Conseil Presidentiel de Transition, the transitional governing council.
Gregoire Goodstein, chief representative for the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Haiti, said the surge of gang violence over the past month has displaced over 60,000 people.
“We have never observed such a large number of people moving in this short time,” Goodstein said.
Monday’s gang attack on the central Haitian town of Mirebalais seems to have galvanized the public to greater heights of both anger and despair. The attack included a raid on the local jail that freed about 500 prisoners. The IOM said over 5,900 people from Mirebalais and the neighboring town of Saut d’Eau were left homeless by the attack.
The Miami Herald spotted red-and-black flags in the crowd, traditionally the symbol of the Duvalier dictatorship, which ruled Haiti from the 1950s to the 1980s. The protesters have apparently embraced the flag as a means of expressing severe discontent with the current government, a grievance they also expressed by spray-painting “Down with the prime minister’s office” on the walls of buildings.
The Miami Herald noted that, awkwardly, one of the protest organizers is himself a police officer who works for the presidential palace unit, and also manages a “citizens’ self-defense brigade.”
Thursday was the one-year anniversary of the agreement that established the transitional government, which is currently mired in corruption allegations and has lost a great deal of public confidence by failing to schedule new elections.
The last election in Haiti was the one that sent Jovenel Moise on his ill-fated journey to the presidential office. The 2016 election was a do-over, after Moise won the 2015 election, but his victory was annulled by accusations of cheating.
Other demonstrators blocked roads with stacks of flaming tires and chanted “Let’s go and get them out!”
A protest organizer explained to the Associated Press (AP) that they wanted to “take over the prime minister’s office and burn down the CPT.” CPT stands for Conseil Presidentiel de Transition, the transitional governing council.
Gregoire Goodstein, chief representative for the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Haiti, said the surge of gang violence over the past month has displaced over 60,000 people.
“We have never observed such a large number of people moving in this short time,” Goodstein said.
Monday’s gang attack on the central Haitian town of Mirebalais seems to have galvanized the public to greater heights of both anger and despair. The attack included a raid on the local jail that freed about 500 prisoners. The IOM said over 5,900 people from Mirebalais and the neighboring town of Saut d’Eau were left homeless by the attack.
The Miami Herald spotted red-and-black flags in the crowd, traditionally the symbol of the Duvalier dictatorship, which ruled Haiti from the 1950s to the 1980s. The protesters have apparently embraced the flag as a means of expressing severe discontent with the current government, a grievance they also expressed by spray-painting “Down with the prime minister’s office” on the walls of buildings.
The Miami Herald noted that, awkwardly, one of the protest organizers is himself a police officer who works for the presidential palace unit, and also manages a “citizens’ self-defense brigade.”
Thursday was the one-year anniversary of the agreement that established the transitional government, which is currently mired in corruption allegations and has lost a great deal of public confidence by failing to schedule new elections.
The last election in Haiti was the one that sent Jovenel Moise on his ill-fated journey to the presidential office. The 2016 election was a do-over, after Moise won the 2015 election, but his victory was annulled by accusations of cheating.
[IsraelTimes] The Trump administration is planning to halt more than half a billion dollars in contracts and grants awarded to Brown University, adding to a list of Ivy League colleges that have had their federal money threatened as a result of their responses to antisemitism, a White House official said Thursday.
Nearly $510 million in federal contracts and grants are on the line, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the plan and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Separately, the US government set conditions that Harvard University must meet — including a mask ban and removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programs — to receive federal money. The conditions to Harvard were revealed in a letter seen by Reuters and the university confirmed receiving the letter.
In an email Thursday to campus leaders, Brown Provost Frank Doyle said the university was aware of “troubling rumors” about government action on its research money. “At this moment, we have no information to substantiate any of these rumors,” Doyle said.
Brown would be the fifth Ivy League college targeted by President Donald Trump’s administration, which is using federal money to enforce its agenda at colleges. Dozens of universities — including every Ivy League school except Penn and Dartmouth — are facing federal investigations into antisemitism following a wave of pro-Palestinian protests against Israel last year.
During last school year’s campus protests against Israel over the Gaza war, which was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 terror onslaught, Brown stood out for a deal it struck with student activists. In exchange for the students’ dismantling an encampment, the university committed to having its governing board vote on whether to divest from companies that protesters said were facilitating Israeli military control of Palestinian territories.
The Corporation of Brown rejected the divestment proposal.
#3
^ Some money to the University [wash] gets channeled to research grants [wash] which are run by donors [wash], institutions [wash] and political friends [wash] who feed it back in party donations and affiliated NGOs below the audit cap.
I ran afoul of a unregulated, unaudited University 'lending bank' which 'loaned' money for tuition, books and rent to foreign students with no local assets or domestic address who were thereby unable to get classic college loans.
#4
So then if one wanted to influence the moronic children of rich people, that money could be used to pay an agent's expenses while that agent, under the guise of a student, sets up cells.
Then those tainted automatons get placed in key positions because family name and college pedigree.
[CampusReform] President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... ’s administration has suspended $210 million in funds to Princeton University in New Jersey after Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief Dr. Zachary Marschall filed a civil rights complaint against the school over anti-Semitism.
Marschall’s complaint, filed in January 2024, claimed that the school took no serious steps to combat anti-Semitism after the Oct. 7 Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... massacre of Jewish civilians. He stated, for example, that students protested against the Jewish state only weeks after the massacre, chanting messages like "Brick by brick, wall by wall, apartheid has got to fall," and calling for an "Intifada."
Marschall’s complaint led the Department of Education—then under former President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass.... —to start investigating the Ivy League university in April 2024. The investigation was one of 16 that were started as a result of Marschall’s Title VI complaints, with other colleges such as Brown University and Tufts University also finding themselves under federal scrutiny.
A news hound for The Daily Caller News Foundation announced the $210 million funding freeze on Monday, stating that it resulted from the investigation that started under Biden’s Department of Education, which is now continuing under President Trump.
The $210 million makes up almost 50 percent of federal funds that the Ivy League school receives, The Daily Princetonian reported.
On March 19, Princeton leaders called for "holistic spending restraint" due to negative attention from the White House—among other reasons—and announced that Princeton will cut down on hiring and raises, as well as potentially eliminate funding for certain projects, the Princetonian wrote.
[FoxNews] "Always, we’re going to let go of people we don’t like, or people we don’t think can do the job, or people who may have loyalties to somebody else"
President Donald Trump confirmed that multiple employees within the National Security Council were fired Thursday, adding to National Security Advisor Mike Waltz's recent political woes that have snowballed since Democrats first slammed him over March's Signal chat leak.
"Always, we’re going to let go of people we don’t like, or people we don’t think can do the job, or people who may have loyalties to somebody else," Trump said from Air Force One when asked about reports on the NSC firings.
Trump confirmed that NSC members had been fired, but remarked it was not many individuals.
Trump added that he continues to trust his NSC team, remarking that they've "done very well" and "had big success with the Houthis."
Waltz, who previously served as a Florida congressman and as a decorated combat Green Beret, has come under fire from Democrats and critics since March, when the Atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a firsthand account of getting added to a Signal group chat with top national security leaders, including Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, while they discussed strikes against Yemen terrorists. Trump and his administration have repeatedly defended the national security leader amid criticisms over the chat leak.
Signal is an encrypted messaging app that operates similarly to texting or making phone calls, but with additional security measures that help ensure communications are kept private to those included in the correspondence.
#3
The Signal story is dead, but Fox needs something to be shocked about.
These firings may or may not be related to this, but President Trump has made it quite clear that he is not going to tolerate incompetence or dishonesty.
#5
More like a snowballs chance in hell. Great work by Laura Loomer to ferret out the disloyal cucks and if she also was able to get some personal satisfaction then good for her. Funny how the Democrats don't like it when someone plays the game the same way the Democrats do.
#6
signal should have been customized for govt use in a way that would prevent unauthorized attendees on chat
Signal was approved for govt use during the Biden admin that didn't do that but now this customizing should be done pronto
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
04/04/2025 11:05 Comments ||
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#7
Why do I think this reflects a pre-planned entrapment of planted deep-state assets to better purge the IC resistance. Counter-intelligence requires active misbehavior to trigger the plan.
I don't think they got the memo that their Wedge Play was exposed to a reasonable amount and the story needs to be dropped as the full scope will become exposed. Or they did, and it is so frogged all they can do now is throw slurs.
[IsraelTimes] Hungarian PM invited Netanyahu day after court issued warrant for his arrest; Budapest says while it ratified statute that formed body, it ‘was never made part of Hungarian law’
Minutes before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was received by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban Thursday, Budapest announced that it was withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, which in November issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli premier.
"The withdrawal process will begin on Thursday, in line with Hungary’s constitutional and international legal obligations," Orban’s front man Zoltan Kovacs said.
Orban invited his Israeli counterpart to Budapest in November, a day after the ICC issued its arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , where Israel launched its offensive following a brutal massacre by Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... -led bully boyz in southern Israel.
Israel has rejected the accusations, which it says are politically motivated and fuelled by antisemitism. It says the International Criminal Court has lost all legitimacy by issuing warrants against a democratically elected leader of a country exercising the right of self-defense.
As a founding member of the ICC, Hungary is theoretically obliged to arrest and hand over anyone subject to a warrant from the court but Orban made clear that Hungary would not respect the ruling which he called "brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable."
Hungary signed the ICC’s founding document in 1999 and ratified it in 2001, but the law has not been promulgated.
Gergely Gulyas, Orban’s chief of staff, said in November that although Hungary ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC, it "was never made part of Hungarian law," meaning that no measure of the court can be carried out within Hungary.
On Thursday, Gulyas told state news agency MTI that the government would launch the withdrawal process later in the day.
Orban had raised the prospect of Hungary’s exit from the ICC after US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... imposed sanctions on the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, in February.
"It’s time for Hungary to review what we’re doing in an international organization that is under US sanctions," Orban said on X in February.
The bill on starting the year-long process of withdrawing from the ICC is likely to be approved by Hungary’s parliament, which is dominated by Orban’s Fidesz party.
Netanyahu has enjoyed strong support over the years from Hungary’s Orban, an important ally who has been ready to block EU statements or actions critical of Israel in the past.
[Rudaw] Iraq’s justice ministry said on Thursday that hundreds of people are being released across the country daily after a recently approved general amnesty law entered implementation.
"The implementation of the general amnesty law continues. Just yesterday, more than 800 beneficiaries of the law were released," ministry spokesperson Ahmed al-Luaibi told Rudaw.
According to the ministry’s statistics, there are 30 prisons in Iraq with some 67,000 inmates, 1,600 of which are foreigners.
The number excludes the Kurdistan Region’s prisons and those held by security forces and different gangs across the country.
"The process continues even during the [Eid al-Fitr] holidays," Luaibi added, explaining that the release of prisoners is not under their jurisdiction but rather the Supreme Judicial Council’s.
The general amnesty, submitted by Sunni politicians, amended the 2016 law’s definition of affiliation with terrorist organizations. This change was a key prerequisite for Sunni blocs to agree to join the ruling State Administration Coalition. Sunnis argue that thousands from their community have been unjustly imprisoned in Shiite-dominated Iraq since 2003 over alleged terrorism links.
In mid February, the controversial law went into effect after being published in the Official Gazette of Iraq, along with two other controversial laws demanded by Shiite and Kurdish politicians - the personal status and land restitution laws, respectively.
The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) seized control of vast swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014. During the liberation process, thousands of people were arrested for alleged links to the jihadist group, especially in Sunni areas like Nineveh province.
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[IsraelTimes] Foreign Minister Saaralso says both Jerusalem and Paris interested in stable Lebanon, preventing Iran from acquiring nukes, after meeting French counterpart in Paris
Israel is ready to end the war in Gaza “tomorrow” in exchange for the release of hostages and an end to Hamas’s presence in Gaza, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Thursday after meeting his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot in Paris.
“The way is very simple,” Sa’ar said, “hostages back, Hamas out.”
“We are still giving a chance to negotiations to extend the ceasefire and release our hostages on the basis of [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff’s proposal, but it is not open-ended,” he warned, referencing a proposal that would secure the release of five Israeli hostages.
Also Thursday, Sa’ar said both Israel and France are “interested in the stability of Lebanon, the continuation of the ceasefire, and the release of Lebanon from Iranian occupation,” referring to Iran’s hold over Hezbollah.
France is a “friendly country,” Sa’ar stressed, adding that he invited Barrot to visit Israel.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron last week said Israeli strikes on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon were unjustified after the IDF struck targets belonging to the terror group in response to rocket fire at Israel.
Under the November ceasefire which ended over a year of Hezbollah-instigated fighting, the terror group was obligated to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south, while the Lebanese army deployed to control the area.
Israel, meanwhile, was obligated to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon within 60 days. The withdrawal deadline was pushed off, with Lebanese and US approval, to February 18. Israel eventually withdrew from all of Lebanon except for five strategic posts along the border.
Touching on Iran’s uranium enrichment, Sa’ar said Thursday that Israel and France share a “common” goal of preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Western countries, including the United States, have long accused Iran — which is sworn to Israel’s destruction — of pursuing a nuclear weapon, which Tehran has denied, insisting its enrichment activities were solely for peaceful purposes.
Iran has ramped up its enrichment of uranium up to 60 percent purity, the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so, and has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities.
“The most extremist regime in the world shouldn’t possess the most dangerous weapon in the world,” Sa’ar told reporters.
Israel is the region’s sole, if undeclared, nuclear-armed state. It has long made preventing any rival from matching this capability its top defense priority.
Iran has twice in the past year fired large barrages of missiles and drones at Israel in support of its terror proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen.
In response, Israel struck Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defenses. That reduced Tehran’s conventional military capabilities, according to analysts and US officials, an assessment disputed by Tehran.
Sa’ar stressed that Iran was a threat to the entire region and not just to Israel, adding Israel was in talks with France, Britain, and the United States.
“We don’t exclude a diplomatic path with Iran,” he added.
Concern is mounting as talks with Iran appear to have reached an impasse, while the window for negotiating a new treaty with Tehran is set to close in the fall. Key aspects of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal that Iran signed with world powers in 2015, are due to expire in October. US President Donald Trump already took the US out of the deal during his last mandate.
On Wednesday, Barrot warned that a military confrontation with Iran would be “almost inevitable” if talks over Tehran’s nuclear program failed.
Trump said in early March he had written to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to call for nuclear negotiations and warn of possible military action if Tehran refused. He has threatened that Iran will be bombed if it persists in developing nuclear weapons. Khamenei has promised to hit back.
Reflecting Israeli concerns about Turkish influence in Syria, Sa’ar accused Ankara of playing a “negative role” there, in Lebanon, and other regions.
“They are doing their utmost to have Syria as a Turkish protectorate. It’s clear that is their intention,” he said.
Turkey was a strong backer of groups opposed to Bashar al-Assad during the country’s 13-year civil war and is considered to be one of the new administration’s key allies.
[IsraelTimes] Turkey demands Israel withdraw from Syria and says it must stop harming stabilization efforts there, after Israel stepped up airstrikes in the neighboring country and accused Turkey of trying to turn Syria into a Turkish protectorate.
“Israel has become the greatest threat to regional security” and is a “strategic destabilizer, causing chaos and feeding terrorism,” the foreign ministry in Ankara says.
“Therefore, in order to establish security throughout the region, Israel must first abandon its expansionist policies, withdraw from the territories it occupies, and stop undermining efforts to establish stability in Syria,” it adds.
[AnNahar] France has proposed a mediation aimed at replacing Israeli forces with peacekeepers from the French UNIFIL contingent on the five strategic hills Israel is still occupying in south Lebanon, sources told Al-Arabiya’s Al-Hadath television.
“France backs Lebanon’s inclination to devise a timeframe for the handover of Hezbollah’s weapons,” the sources added.
“France wants the ceasefire supervision committee in Lebanon to oversee the negotiations over the land border and the captives,” the sources went on to say.
The sources also revealed that the committee’s work is still ongoing despite the suspension of its meetings for two weeks now, adding that “France is communicating with Israel and the U.S. to adopt the diplomatic choice in Lebanon rather than the military.”
[IsraelTimes] CENTCOM chief US Gen. Michael Kurilla meets with IDF chief Zamir for talks that IDF says focused on ‘strategic security issues across the region’
United States Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, head of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), who arrived in Israel earlier this week for an official visit, held an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military said Thursday.
The IDF says the meeting focused on "strategic security issues across the region."
The visit takes place against the backdrop of recent US military Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on the Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , along with the US’s bolstering of military forces in the region.
Suspected US airstrikes pounded rebel-held areas of Yemen into Wednesday, with the Houthis claiming that one strike near the Red Sea port city of Hodeida killed at least four people.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... satellite images indicated at least six stealth B-2 Spirit bombers now stationed at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — a highly unusual deployment amid the Yemen campaign and tensions with Iran.
Furthermore, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday that the US is increasing its naval presence in the Middle East by deploying a second aircraft carrier. One carrier already stationed there, the Harry S. Truman, will remain, while another, Carl Vinson, is being redirected from the Indo-Pacific.
US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... has given Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... an ultimatum to reach a deal to curb its nuclear program or face military action.
La Belle France’s foreign minister warned on Wednesday that if world powers were unable to quickly reach a new agreement with Iran over its contested nuclear program, then a military confrontation seemed "almost inevitable."
Kurilla’s visit underscores the strengthening military cooperation between the IDF and the US armed forces, particularly following Israel’s transition under CENTCOM’s area of responsibility in 2021. This shift has allowed for deeper coordination between Israel and its regional partners under the US security umbrella through the improvement of direct communications.
Kurilla last visited Israel in January and held an assessment with then-chief of staff Herzi Halevi.
Kurilla also visited Israel on October 5, 2024, to meet with Israeli defense and military officials, amid preparations in the IDF for a response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on October 1.
The Iranian attack consisted of some 181 missiles, sending nearly 10 million people in Israel into bomb shelters.
With US support, Israel responded to the attack in a series of airstrikes on Iranian territory later that month, targeting strategic military sites across Iran — specifically drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries — with explosions reported in the areas of Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan and Shiraz.
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Israel continues to be rocked by the scandal surrounding the leaks of confidential information from the Prime Minister's Office to Qatar (the so-called "Qatargate").
The prosecution argues that the leaks not only exposed Doha to some sensitive Israeli secrets, but also strengthened the position of the Palestinian Hamas, leading to a protracted operation in the Gaza Strip.
It is worth noting that the events surrounding Qatargate have accelerated exponentially.
Over the past few days, there have been "fan" interrogations of all currently known participants in the scandal (including the country's current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ). Several face-to-face confrontations and closed operational activities have also taken place - however, without any clear result.
It is noticeable that all parties to the scandal are tired of litigation and are looking for a way to quickly put an end to the case. However, while some are pressing for legal measures and looking for new defendants, others are trying to get out of the crisis literally "with a fight."
QUEUES FOR INTERROGATION
At first glance, little has changed in the Qatargate investigation. The main defendants remain former employees of the Prime Minister's Office - Eli Feldstein and Yonatan Urich. Law enforcement officials place the main responsibility for leaking classified information to Qatar on them, and they are the only ones in custody.
American lobbyist Jay Futlik, whose firm acted as an intermediary between Doha and the participants of "Qatargate", and Israeli businessman Gil Birger, who acted as an "accountant", are currently being used as witnesses in the case. Although Birger has been placed under house arrest, just in case.
However, this impression is wrong. In fact, the scandal has reached a new level.
There are already more than a dozen defendants in the case waiting to be questioned – politicians, businessmen, journalists and public figures – but the investigation does not yet have the authority to deal with them.
In addition, key figures in "Qatargate" give different testimonies, which further confuses the prosecution. Investigators admit that some participants in the scandal could have been used in the dark and, when transmitting classified information, believed that they were following orders "from above."
As for Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is considered to be almost the key link in this scheme, he is currently separated from the main group of defendants - they are working with him carefully and individually. They are in no hurry to bring forward direct accusations.
However, given that the prime minister's interlocutor is police colonel Momi Meshulam, who previously investigated at least two corruption scandals involving him, the prosecution's hint is quite clear. Netanyahu is being taken seriously again.
At the same time, they are shaking up the journalist pool in search of those through whom additional leaks could have occurred. Over the past few days, the security services have interrogated (and then placed under house arrest) the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, Tzvika Klein, and the diplomatic correspondent of Israel Hayom, Shirit Avitan Cohen.
The journalist and columnist Yossi Yehoshua (Yediot Ahronot), who wrote columns based on leaks from the chancellery, was under surveillance. However, his informant Ari Rosenfeld (who is also formally involved in Qatargate), as it turned out later, transmitted information in a distorted form, which made it difficult to bring charges against Yehoshua.
The interrogations are being conducted in a rush and with obvious procedural violations, which is causing criticism not only from Netanyahu's camp, but also from the opposition. The prime minister's parliamentary opponents are asking the intelligence services not to overdo it and to act within the law.
THE MAIN WINNER
Maintaining the constant hype around "Qatargate" are Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Knesset attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara. Both have fallen out of favor with Netanyahu and are about to leave their posts, and are using their remaining leverage to make the prime minister's office more difficult to operate.
Moreover, the main beneficiary of "Qatargate" is rather Bar. The existence of a scandal of such scale (which he was also previously authorized to investigate) will allow him to nullify the government's decision to resign and remain at the helm of the Shin Bet. And in a more optimistic scenario - to also retain his post after the early elections, in which the triumph of the opposition is increasingly predicted.
Netanyahu pays his opponents back in kind, bringing to light inconvenient facts from their biographies.
For example, he recalled to Bar a series of informal visits to Qatar in 2018, when the head of the Shin Bet visited the country (which he has recently publicly called “hostile”) to provide “some services” and conduct informal negotiations.
Netanyahu also hints that Bar's model of informal negotiations was little different from the one around which today's "Qatargate" is built.
This means that the attempt to blow up a scandal out of Israel's behind-the-scenes work with a potential Arab ally is nothing more than a political witch hunt. Feldstein and Urich's lawyers hold the same position, which significantly strengthens the line of defense. Colleagues in the industry, although they do not voice this publicly, are waiting for an explanation from Bar.
THE WAR DOES NOT STOP
While Netanyahu's opponents wage battles in courtrooms, the prime minister prefers to act "on the ground."
The new Israeli operation in Gaza is gaining momentum and in the south of the enclave has already covered not only the outskirts of the border Rafah, but also the neighboring areas. The prime minister is "directing" the military actions - sometimes personally, and sometimes through the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff.
Netanyahu does not hide the task facing the troops: to create a new separation corridor in the south of the Gaza Strip, which the authorities have already named the “Morag corridor.”
It will run north of the existing Philadelphi Corridor on the strip's border with Egypt and will separate Rafah from Khan Yunis, creating an expanded security zone in the area.
This, in turn, should weaken Hamas' fighting ability, forcing them to accept all Israeli conditions.
The operation is quite daring and does not guarantee immediate success.
However, while the investigation into Qatargate has reached a dead end, the prime minister is seeking to inflict maximum defeat on Hamas, both militarily and politically, in order to remove from the agenda the thesis about strengthening the position of this movement.
Netanyahu remembers the old folk wisdom well: winners are not judged. Even if the triumphant leader is followed by a trail of controversial decisions and scandals with a spy flair.
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Damascus-affiliated forces on Thursday began the process of swapping nearly 250 prisoners as part of a recent agreement between both sides, state media reported.
“The process of releasing prisoners has begun between the internal security directorate in Aleppo and the Syrian Democratic Forces, with the number of prisoners reaching approximately 250 individuals,” Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said, citing its Aleppo correspondent.
The SDF and the the new leadership in Damascus on Tuesday struck an agreement to exchange all prisoners and keep the SDF-affiliated internal security forces (Asayish) in Aleppo's predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsood, said Bedran Ciya Kurd, advisor to the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), on X.
“This will be done in coordination with the relevant service and security institutions in Aleppo, and special mechanisms will be established to achieve this,” said Kurd, also a former co-president of the Kurdish-led administration’s foreign affairs department.
“The Syrian authorities in Aleppo bear responsibility for any threats the two neighborhoods may face, while ensuring joint efforts to mitigate these risks,” he emphasized.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor that relies on a network of sources within Syria, said on Tuesday that 170 SDF prisoners and a number of the bodies of its members who had died during armed clashes in the past will be released. In return, the Kurdish forces will release around 400 detainees and bodies of security forces affiliated with Damascus.
A coalition of opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, in early December toppled the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In late January, Sharaa was appointed as Syria’s interim president.
The SDF maintained hold over Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh as HTS-led forces were marched on Aleppo. No clashes have occurred between them.
Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed a landmark agreement on March 10 to integrate the SDF into the Syrian state apparatus. The agreement recognizes the Kurds as an integral part of Syria, includes a countrywide ceasefire, and stipulates the return of displaced Syrians to their hometowns.
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.
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
