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Iran-backed terror suspects plotted attack on US troops using vans packed with fuel, DOJ says
Today's Headlines
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
‘The China Problem': Stock Researchers Identified Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's Troubling Relationship 6 Months Ago
[Breitbart] Nvidia’s board of directors said Sunday it has opened an investigation into whether CEO Jensen Huang was a "target of a foreign intelligence effort," following reports questioning his relationship with a Singapore-based executive tied to China. This was not surprising news to Culper Research, a short-selling firm that identified Huang’s troubling relationship in a report it released back in May.

The New York Post reports that the Nvidia board’s inquiry comes six months after a May 2026 report from the New York short-seller firm Culper Research, titled "NVIDIA (NVDA): The China Problem," which examined ties between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, an executive at Singapore-based tech company Megaspeed. Culper Research, founded by Christian Lamarco in 2019, alleged that Megaspeed was secretly financed by Alibaba through what it called "apparent shell companies."

Megaspeed has been under scrutiny before over claims it diverted Nvidia chips to China in violation of US export controls. The Singapore-headquartered company has denied the allegations, and site inspections by Nvidia and US officials reportedly found no evidence of violations. Megaspeed has said there is "no evidence" behind the claims and described itself as "a compliant and legitimate company."

Jensen Huang: Hey John, thanks for taking my call. I think I'm being pitched by Alice Huang. What should I do ?

John Ratcliffe: Yes Jensen, we're fully aware. Just continue to meet and enjoy the braised Abalone. Keep us posted.



Posted by: Besoeker || 11/11/2026 05:18 || Comments || Link || [97 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  One aspect of the Nvidea incident that has not been discussed is the possibility of the 'unwitting' recruitment of Alice Huang and Megaspeed by US Intelligence.

The identification of an adversary's shortfalls and weaknesses can be revealed by the direction of their intelligence collection efforts. The clandestine vectoring of an opponent's engineering can also provide strategic opportunities.

I would offer the Wuhan Lab affair as such an intelligence collection or monitoring effort. Perhaps Jensen Huang and his legal team will also receive presidential pardons.

Just spitballing.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/11/2026 5:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Should I buy the dip ?

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/11/2026 6:18 Comments || Top||

#3 
and his lovely wife.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/11/2026 9:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Chinese university bought Nvidia H200 chips despite US blacklist
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/11/2026 11:03 Comments || Top||


Texas father, 45, who decapitated his three children will be executed on Thursday
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Texas man who stabbed and decapitated his three children because they were 'possessed by evil spirits' is scheduled for execution via lethal injection on Thursday.

John Allen Rubio was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in November 2003, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction in 2007. During a retrial in 2010, Rubio was once again found guilty of the murders and sentenced to death.

In October 2026, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Rubio's motion to stop his execution and scheduled it to take place at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit on November 12.

Angela Camacho, the mother of the children and Rubio's girlfriend at the time, is currently serving three life sentences for helping Rubio carry out the murders.

Camacho and Rubio shared three children: Julissa Quesada, 3; John Esteban Rubio, 1, and Mary Jane Rubio, who was only two months old.

Mary Jane was Rubio's only biological child – the other two were his stepchildren from Camacho's previous relationship, whom Rubio treated as his own, according to court filings.

In 2001, Rubio and Camacho started dating after Camacho left Julissa's father who was abusive, according to court documents.

They lived in an apartment in Brownsville, Texas, with Rubio's mother and brothers, but the arrangement fell through and they began living on the street while Camacho was pregnant with John, who was born in January 2002.

Eventually they moved into a house with no electricity or running water. Around this time, Rubio asked Camacho what she would do if he killed the children, which she dismissed because 'she thought that he was joking,' according to court filings.

Also around this time, Child Protective Services took John and Julissa into custody while Camacho was still pregnant with Mary Jane, court filings stated.

Rubio and Camacho had to take parenting classes and move into a more suitable residence before they could get the children back, court filings stated.

Rubio struggled to hold down a steady job – he washed cars and prostituted himself as his source of income.

He also had a male lover, Jose Luis Moreno, whom Camacho knew about but refused to intervene since Moreno provided them with money and groceries on occasion.

The day Rubio killed the children, he told Camacho he believed they were possessed by evil spirits, including the spirit of his deceased grandmother.

After Rubio stabbed and decapitated the two toddlers with the help of Camacho, they had sex and formed a 'pact,' which involved Rubio carving a small cut into each of their wrists to release some blood.

Immediately after, Rubio told Camacho he had to kill John as he was also 'possessed.' Camacho told him 'no' and picked the child up, but Rubio grabbed John from her hands, took him into the kitchen, and stabbed and decapitated him.

Camacho asked Rubio to kill her, too. Rubio attempted to do so by choking her, but was unable to do it, according to court records.

Afterwards, the couple went to the store to buy milk and discuss going to prison.

Rubio told Camacho they should call the police because 'everybody makes mistakes and we are not all perfect,' court filings stated.

Police arrived after Camacho's friend and Rubio's brother Jose Luis Lopez came into the residence for a visit and saw the children's bodies.

Rubio's family and friends testified in court that he had a lifelong history of hallucinations and delusions.

According to his immediate family's testimony, Rubio would tell them he was hearing voices and seeing things, 'that God and his deceased grandmother told him that he was "the chosen one" and she wanted him to finish what she had started.'

Rubio and his legal representatives made several attempts to plead insanity, but the evidence presented by several mental health experts and family testimonies was conflicting.

Jose Luis Moreno, Rubio's lover at the time, testified that Rubio mentioned to him that a person could get away with murder by claiming to be insane.

One of Rubio's cellmates in prison claimed to overhear Rubio say he was 'going to fake mental retardation and raise an insanity defense,' court documents noted.

Multiple mental health experts who reviewed Rubio's personal history and videotaped confessions found him to fit the profile of someone with paranoid schizophrenia, but the unpredictable nature of the illness makes it hard to solidify the diagnosis.

For an insanity plea to stand in court, evidence would have to show that Rubio had no idea that his actions were immoral, and/or that his actions were illegal at the time he committed the murders.

Although the delusions of evil spirits point to insanity, Rubio's conversations with Camacho immediately after the murder in which he tells her they must go to jail demonstrate that he knew his actions were at the very least punishable by law.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/11/2026 00:21 || Comments || Link || [100 views] Top|| File under: Nut Jobs

#1  Taking 23 years to put this POS down is not justice. The GF mother only getting Life is'nt justice either.
Posted by: NN2N1 || 11/11/2026 3:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Compare this with the Lindsay Clancy case of today.
Posted by: Rambler || 11/11/2026 10:09 Comments || Top||

#3  ...well, Massachusetts vs Texas. Nuff said.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/11/2026 11:25 Comments || Top||


North Carolina: Migrant Accused of Assaulting, Strangling 2-Year-Old Toddler
[Breitbart] A migrant is accused of assaulting and strangling a 2-year-old toddler in Greensboro, North Carolina, leaving the child with significant bruises, local police say.

The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office has arrested 26-year-old Emanuel Campos-Hernandez and charged him with felony assault by strangulation, felony assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, felony intentional child abuse inflicting serious injury, and misdemeanor child abuse.

According to police, Campos-Hernandez strangled a 2-year-old toddler on September 13, leaving the child with bruises on their neck. Police also said the child had bruising on their thighs, arms, face, and behind their ears.

Campos-Hernandez’s immigration status is unknown, though police confirmed he is a migrant with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer.

Campos-Hernandez remains in police custody on a $150,000 bond. His next court date is on January 12, 2027.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/11/2026 00:00 || Comments || Link || [61 views] Top|| File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants

#1  Whatever happened to "resisting arrest"?
Posted by: Grom the Reflective || 11/11/2026 16:34 Comments || Top||

#2  ^ He identified as a Mom of three
Posted by: Frank G || 11/11/2026 18:21 Comments || Top||


Twice-deported illegal immigrant accused of trying to storm United cockpit, threatening bomb: DHS
[FOX] A Honduran illegal alien accused of attempting to enter the cockpit of a United Airlines flight after allegedly claiming to have a bomb had previously been deported from the United States twice, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Fox News.

Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto was arrested by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office after United Airlines Flight 2174 landed at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport after a frightening midair disturbance Monday night.

The suspect allegedly claimed to have a bomb during the flight, prompting the pilots to issue a reported hijacking alert, according to the Daily Mail. DHS separately confirmed that Gomez-Alberto was accused of attempting to enter the cockpit.
...
ICE released Gomez-Alberto from custody in January 2020 after an immigration judge ordered his release pending removal proceedings, according to DHS.

Local reporting citing the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said Gomez-Alberto was booked on charges of communicating false information of planned arson and terrorizing. DHS separately listed bomb threat, terroristic threat and disorderly conduct offenses in its statement.

United Airlines also confirmed the disturbance in a separate statement to Fox News Digital.

"United flight 2174 from Newark to New Orleans landed safely following a disruptive incident involving a passenger onboard. Law enforcement met the aircraft upon arrival," United media relations said.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/11/2026 00:00 || Comments || Link || [96 views] Top|| File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants

#1  What ID did he present to board?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/11/2026 7:12 Comments || Top||

#2  ^ Only Citizens have to do that
Posted by: Frank G || 11/11/2026 7:56 Comments || Top||

#3  ^ In case you missed it: Disabled veteran fights ICE deportation of wife of 25 years [CBS 8, YT]

If you maintain sympathetic objectivity (and composure) beyond about 1:20, you're a better American than I am, Gunga Din.
Posted by: Ebbuger Lover of the French5971 || 11/11/2026 18:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Wow. Talk about not reading the room, Ebbuger Lover of the French5971. And that daughter of theirs has learnt all the wrong things.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/11/2026 19:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Deported twice, still kept sneaking in, and couldn't bother to become a citizen in 25 years? F*&k her
Posted by: Frank G || 11/11/2026 19:21 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Hegseth to Unveil 33 New Directives to Overhaul America's Military War Colleges
[RedState] On Monday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke at the United States Naval War College, a military academy that is, in essence, the school that trains Navy officers who are or are about to enter flag rank. It was an interesting and lengthy speech, made more so by the Secretary of War's announcement of a major overhaul of our nation's general officer training and promotion practices.

Here's what SECWAR said.

At my direction, I'm announcing 33 new directives. A complete overhaul to reform our Department of War senior service colleges. To forge leaders of unmatched competence, sound moral judgment, and resolute warrior ethos. That memo and those 33 directives will be arriving in your inbox today.

For example: Effective immediately, one important change, one of many. There will be no more 80-page theoretical written theses as the primary capstone of war college achievement. In its place, we are establishing competitive SI-assisted war gaming and high-stress decision forcing scenarios as the centerpiece of senior officer evaluation. Now, on that front, I want to give a hat tip to the Naval War College. Understand you've already done two of those SI-assisted war games this year alone. And in our discussions, that was a focal point of where they want this college to go.

We will create a permanent intercollege wargaming architecture across all senior service colleges. No longer will jointness be reduced to an Army colonel and a Navy captain sharing coffee in the same seminar room. True jointness is forged under competitive operational friction. Our service colleges will execute interconnected capstone war games, linking live, virtual, and constructive forces against domains, testing students against complex unscripted peer adversary maneuvers. Furthermore, these war games will feed directly into the newly established joint warfighter exercises and evaluations.

We haven't yet seen the 33 directives, but what we've seen so far looks like a solid upgrade. The modern face of warfare, especially in any possible near-peer conflict, will be one of combined arms operations, and that means the services working together, with common logistics and combined operations. When we go at an enemy, we go at them with the entire inventory, and this should be something the war colleges should be training these prospective general and flag officers to do.

Again, SECWAR said:

The senior service colleges will serve as the modern proving ground. Through intensive wargaming, combined with vigorous, adversarial, oral defense boards, that eliminate the ability to hide behind academic ghost writers or generative SI. We will stress test every prospective general and flag officer. Promotion to senior rank will not be an administrative reward for longevity. It will be earned by demonstrating the intellectual agility, lethal operational competence, and moral resolve required to win in combat.

Leveraging technology is great, but there's nothing like a real-time stress test with no technological backups. If that's good enough for privates in basic training, it's good enough for prospective general officers. On the battlefield, be the commander under canvas or on a ship, there's no substitute for being put on the spot, standing there shaking in your boots while being grilled: "You have to make a decision. You have to make a decision NOW. What are you going to do?" I had to do that as an officer candidate. These senior officers should have to do the same.
This bit of his speech is of special interest to us here (read/watch the rest at the link):
Worst of all, nearly all of our senior colleges have been bottlenecked by a severe lack of authorized, modernized Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities or (SCIFs). You cannot study real world pacing threats using open source journalism. You cannot conduce realistic war games against an adversary's operational plans on unclassified networks. That is why today, at my direction, this Department is acting decisively to fix these structural failures:

Posted by: NoMoreBS || 11/11/2026 00:00 || Comments || Link || [70 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Nearly 180 Girls Join Reading and Painting Competitions in Ghazni, nearly half of Afghan primary kids not in school
[ToloNews] Reading and painting competitions involving nearly 180 girls were organized by a young woman in Ghazni province to promote reading and develop girls' artistic skills.

Participants welcomed such initiatives, saying they provide opportunities for girls to showcase their talents. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
they expressed concern over the lack of a suitable market for their artwork and the difficulties they face in selling their products.

Nazanin Nowruzi, the organizer, said the event brought together talented girls from different parts of Ghazni.

"Talented girls from different areas of Ghazni participated in today's event to showcase their artwork. Some of them have created remarkable pieces without any teachers, and their work is far more valuable than we might imagine," Nowruzi said.

Nargis, a participant, said artists face difficulties finding buyers for their work.

"Sales are very low, and art does not receive the attention it deserves. Some people order paintings, but when we complete them, they do not return to collect or purchase them," she said.

Another participant, Shah Gul Rezaei, expressed happiness after securing second place in the reading competition.

"Anyone who studies will eventually achieve something. I studied and won second place in this competition, and I am very happy," she said.

Zahra Alizadeh, who recently returned to Afghanistan after eight years as a refugee in Iran, also participated in the event.

She said she began learning painting after returning to her homeland, hoping to earn an income and help support her family.

"If I can become financially independent, I will be able to reduce the financial burden on my family. It would be wonderful if my artwork could find buyers and people appreciated its value," Alizadeh told TOLOnews.

Calligraphy, drawing and painting have gained popularity in Ghazni in recent years, with hundreds of girls currently learning these skills.

Despite this progress, the lack of a reliable domestic market for their artwork remains a major challenge for young female artists in the province.

More Than Half of Afghanistan’s Primary School-Age Children Out of School, UN Report Finds

[KhaamaPress] More than half of Afghanistan’s primary school-age children remain outside formal education, while millions of girls continue to be barred from secondary schools, according to a new report by UNESCO and UNICEF.

UN News reported on Wednesday, November 4, that Afghanistan’s education system is facing a widening gap between growing demand for schooling and its capacity to provide it, as population growth, insufficient investment, restrictions on girls’ education and the return of millions of Afghans place additional pressure on schools.

The joint Afghanistan Education Situation Report 2026, published on November 4, found that 53 percent of primary school-age children are not enrolled in formal general education. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally prohibited from accessing education beyond the primary level.

More than 2.6 million adolescent girls have been denied secondary education since 2021, when the Taliban returned to power and imposed restrictions on girls attending school beyond Grade 6. Women have also been barred from universities since December 2022.

Although alternative learning programmes offer limited opportunities, they remain insufficient to address the scale of the crisis. By October 2026, around 5,300 community-based classes were operating across the country, serving approximately 162,000 learners, 64 percent of whom were girls.

The report also warns that Afghanistan’s rapidly growing school-age population is placing additional pressure on an already overstretched education system. The number of school-age children and young people increased from approximately 10.4 million in 2019 to 11.5 million in 2024.

Despite these challenges, around 6.6 million children were enrolled in public primary schools in 2025, an increase of approximately 560,000 compared with 2022. However, enrolment growth has failed to keep pace with population growth, leaving millions without access to formal schooling.

The crisis extends beyond school enrolment to the quality of education. A nationwide assessment of more than 55,000 pupils across all 34 provinces found that fewer than half of Grade 4 students achieved minimum Grade 3 language proficiency, while only one in four met the minimum standard in mathematics.

Early childhood education is also severely limited, with fewer than one in 100 children aged three to four participating in early learning programmes.

The pressure has intensified with the return of Afghans from neighbouring countries. By September 2026, approximately 1.23 million Afghans had returned, including more than 245,000 children requiring educational support.

Afghanistan’s higher education sector has also contracted sharply since 2021. Although university enrolment increased to around 208,000 students in 2026, from 189,000 in 2024, it remains far below the approximately 430,000 recorded in 2020. Women remain excluded from university education.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/11/2026 2026-11-11 01:59 || Comments || Link || [58 views] Top|| File under: Taliban/IEA

#1  Teach them to shoot.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/11/2026 9:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, boo hoo. If that's the way those people want to live there isn't anything I can do about it. My country is $40 trillion in debt and the kids in my country are getting piss poor educations too. So don't come crying to me about Afghanistan.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/11/2026 13:19 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
COP31: Nigeria Still Rebuilding Broken Alau Dam Two Years After Disastrous Floods in Borno
[HumAngleMedia] As Nigeria participates in the ongoing COP31, the money and promises that followed the failure of Alau Dam and the resulting 2024 Maiduguri floods raise a harder question: what has changed, and are people any better protected?

By Al'amin Umar

9 Nov 2026
COP31 is this year’s UN climate change conference, where poor countries demand money from rich countries for things they won’t do, so that the rich countries can pretend they’re making a difference in something that apparently would have been counterproductive had it actually been done — the latest data appearing to indicate that were it not for the small amount of warming humanity has contributed to the system, Earth would have already tipped into the next ice age.
Every morning, Ibrahim Muhammed paddles his canoe onto Lake Alau to fish off the shore of Laujeri, a rural community in the Jere Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State in North East Nigeria. Now 42, Ibrahim began fishing at 15, and that is the only trade he has ever known. After floodwaters swept through Maiduguri, Borno’s capital city, in 2024, falling water levels and shrinking catches made the lake less dependable for fishermen like him.

“The fish have reduced. It has reduced with the water,” he told me on the bank of the lake on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Some days, he said, the catch is good; on others, it is not. He considers himself fortunate, as what he earns from the smaller catch is enough to provide for his four children.

The shore has grown into its own settlement in Laujeri, with makeshift thatch and zinc shelters lining the water. Traders arrive to buy the fresh catch, and children move between the fishermen and traders. Some hawk sachet water; others pick fingerlings from fishing nets. Further inland, mud houses stand behind fences made from dried maize, millet, and sorghum stalks.

Alau Dam, which sustains these rural livelihoods, was completed in 1988 and covers about 16 kilometres south of Maiduguri, according to the Chad Basin Development Authority (CBDA). The reservoir was designed to irrigate 8,000 hectares in the Jere Bowl and supply drinking water to Maiduguri. A 2019 water market assessment identified the dam as a major source of the city’s water supply, with a maximum daily supply capacity of 67,000 cubic metres.

After heavy rainfall and excessive inflows into the reservoir in September 2024, part of the Alau Dam structure collapsed, and floodwaters swept into Maiduguri and nearby communities. The federal government later disputed descriptions of the event as a collapse of the whole dam, saying an embankment failed to hold back water from smaller rivers and streams. The flooding destroyed homes and infrastructure, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and disrupted livelihoods.

More at the link
Posted by: badanov || 11/11/2026 00:00 || Comments || Link || [51 views] Top|| File under:

#1  COP31 is being hosted by Turkey this year. Israel was not allowed to come – because of Gaza donchaknow. Article in the Jerusalem Post, but I’m on the road so I’ll get the link later.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/11/2026 12:02 Comments || Top||


Europe
Hegseth declared the end of the era of US funding for European defense
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The United States will no longer pay for Europe's defense. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this on November 10.

The head of the Pentagon emphasized that the United States is changing the principles that have guided it for 80 years.

"For example, we are changing the nature of our relationship with Europe: the era of subsidized defense is coming to an end," Hegseth said at the Naval War College in Newport.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly raised the issue of European countries' defense contributions. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called European allies "freeloaders" who were freeloading on American military might.

In January 2025, Trump claimed that the United States had spent $200 billion more on funding Ukraine than other NATO member countries. He called this situation ridiculous, given that the United States, unlike European countries, is far from Ukraine.

At the NATO summit in The Hague last June, all countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, except Spain, agreed to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.

In June 2026, Bloomberg reported that Europe had no replacement for the military resources previously allocated by the United States.

Posted by: badanov || 11/11/2026 00:00 || Comments || Link || [69 views] Top|| File under:

#1  From the Powerline blog today -

In December 1991, Mr. Gordon read that the mayor of Eindhoven, Netherlands had refused to meet with General Schwarzkopf because, as general of the forces that served in the Gulf War, General Schwarzkopf “had too much blood on his hands.” Ambrose recounts that Gordon wrote to the mayor of Eindhoven:

On September 17, 1944 I participated in the large airborne operation which was conducted to liberate your country. As a member of company E, 506th PIR [parachute infantry regiment], I landed near the small town of Son. The following day we moved south and liberated Eindhoven. While carrying out our assignment, we suffered casualties. That is war talk for bleeding. We occupied various defense positions for over two months. Like animals, we lived in holes, barns, and as best we could. The weather was cold and wet. In spite of the adverse conditions, we held the ground we had fought so hard to capture.

The citizens of Holland at that time did not share your aversion to bloodshed when the blood being shed was that of the German occupiers of your city. How soon we forget. History has proven more than once that Holland could again be conquered if your neighbor, the Germans, are having a dull weekend and the golf links are crowded.

Please don’t allow your country to be swallowed up by Liechtenstein or the Vatican as I don’t plan to return. As of now, you are on your own.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/11/2026 9:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Victor Davis Hanson: The Midterm Is Not the Endterm
[Daily Signal] Jack Fowler: Very briefly here, let me just say that Victor has written a significant post on X. You’ll find it there. His handle is @VDHanson. It may also now be up on The Blade of Perseus, Victor’s website.

By the way, that’s victorhanson.com. Check that out. Go there. Do subscribe. Here’s what Victor wrote. I’ll just read a little bit.

The midterm is not the end term. It is too soon to calibrate the direction of the post-midterm Democratic and Republican parties, but if the first 72 hours are any indication, and despite the soon-to-be speaker’s denials, the Left is already bragging about subpoenas and is intoxicated by the notion of investigations and impeachments.

And Victor says a lot more, and he’s gonna tell us what more he said and why he wrote this piece. Victor?

Victor Davis Hanson: I was a little upset. My point is, if you had criticisms of the administration and you supported it and you were constructive, why didn’t you voice it? And then after the election, all these people—it’s what John F. Kennedy said after the Bay of Pigs. He said success has a thousand mothers or parents, and failure is an orphan.

So, what I’m getting at is, all these people are coming out now, especially in The Wall Street Journal, but everywhere, saying that they should—not that they should have done this, but these people, it’s over, it’s done, it’s nothing.

And what I wanted to do in this tweet—and I have a longer version of it that’s coming out Monday at American Greatness or Tuesday—is say that a lot of it was the messaging, and I had been saying that for a long time.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/11/2026 08:34 || Comments || Link || [34 views] Top|| File under:


Olde Tyme Religion
Siblings acquitted in blasphemy case after 20 years
[Dawn] • SC sets aside death sentences upheld by LHC
• Observes findings on mental illness raise doubts about culpability


The Supreme Court on Saturday acquitted two brothers in a blasphemy
...the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. Some religions consider it to be a crime. In Pakistain you can commit blasphemy by looking cross-eyed at a Koran...
case under Section 295-C of the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC), setting aside their death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
s earlier upheld by the Lahore High Court (LHC) over a decade ago.

A three-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistain Yahya Afridi and comprising Justices Shakeel Ahmad and Ishtiaq Ibrahim, took up criminal appeals against the Sept 17, 2015 decision of the LHC.

The brothers, Liaqat Ali and Umar Draz, have spent around 20 years behind bars. They were convicted by a sessions judge in Jhang on March 27, 2006. The trial court sentenced both brothers to death and imposed a fine of Rs500,000 each, with five years’ rigorous imprisonment in default. The high court dismissed their appeals and upheld the convictions.

The main SC judgement was authored by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim. Justice Shakeel Ahmad concurred with the order but also annexed an additional note.

According to the complaint, Umar Draz had begun making explicit blasphemous statements, leading to a marital dispute between him and his wife that culminated in divorce on March 13, 2006. Draz explicitly affirmed in writing his conversion from Islam in the divorce papers.

During the return of his former wife’s dowry articles, a written document auth­ored by co-appellant Liaqat Ali was recovered. It also contained blasphemous assertions.

On March 18, 2006, when the complainant and witnesses confronted the brothers over the alleged blasphemous material, both appellants acknowledged and verified the contents of the documents and unequivocally declared their willingness to reiterate their assertions before any forum.

Before the SC, their counsel confined his submissions to the plea of mental unsoundness, arguing that the appellants lacked the requisite mens rea (guilty mind) at the time of the alleged offence.

The SC examined three psychiatric assessments. An initial three-member medical board at DHQ Hospital, Faisalabad
...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after...
, found both appellants mentally sound in 2007. However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
an eight-member Board of Certification diagnosed them with "bipolar affective disorder with psychotic symptoms" in 2023.

A nine-member Board of Certification in September 2025 concluded that both brothers were suffering from "bipolar disorder current episode manic". It described the condition as a chronic illness that was most likely permanent in acute cases, with absent insight and an inability to understand their acts at the time.

The SC observed that the unanimous opinions of specialised boards comprising senior professors of psychiatry carried greater weight than the earlier assessm­ent by a board with only one psychiatrist.

It also noted that bipolar disorder was episodic and had a genetic component, and that both brothers had been independently diagnosed with the same condition.

"The appellants have spent around 20 years behind bars. In the light of the opinion of medical board which raises doubts regarding the culpability of the appellants, the benefit of doubt cannot be withheld from the appellants," the judgement said.

While acquitting the appellants, the SC also expected the executive director of the Punjab
...1. Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2. A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3. A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots
...
.
Institute of Mental Health, Lahore, to ensure that their medical treatment was not discontinued.

ADDITIONAL NOTE
In his concurring note, Justice Ahmad agreed with the acquittal but cautioned that a psychiatric diagnosis alone did not satisfy the requirements of Section 84 of the PPC.

The judge distinguished medical insanity from legal insanity, noting that the key question was whether, at the time of the offence, the accused was incapable of knowing the nature of the act or that it was wrong or contrary to law.

He argued that legal accountability had to be balanced with humanity, explaining that true justice also included mercy when the law recognised a person’s lack of mental capacity.

The note said the medical reports, along with the surrounding circumstances, created reasonable doubt. It also referred to Islamic principles of legal capacity and responsibility.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/11/2026 2026-11-11 01:58 || Comments || Link || [36 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Science & Technology
Robot vs. ultramarathoners in the coldest place on Earth
[FOX] A humanoid robot lined up with human runners for the Antarctic Ice Ultra at Ultima Basecamp, but the frozen continent proved a tough course for a machine. Cameras caught it at the starting line as athletes cheered it on. See how far it got in one of the coldest places on Earth.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/11/2026 04:14 || Comments || Link || [22 views] Top|| File under:


Robot builds structure in space for the first time in technological breakthrough
[NYPost] A robot has built a structure in space for the first time, a milestone that could lead to constructing large-scale space systems.

The robotic truss builder worked to construct a 1.4-meters-diameter reflector antenna without the help of astronauts.

It could enable large-scale structures, such as huge reflector surfaces, to be built in space, able to harvest solar power and wirelessly transmit it to Earth’s surface.

The robot was conceived, designed, and built by Caltech researchers and funded by the US Department of War’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The truss builder, part of DARPA’s Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program, consists of an autonomous manipulator that picks up struts and joints held in nearby dispensers to repeatedly assemble identical sections, or bays, of a perimeter truss.

“This is the first time that a structure has been autonomously constructed in space,” says Sergio Pellegrino, team leader of Caltech’s Autonomous In-Space Tensioned Reflector Assembly (ASTRA) demonstration.

ASTRA is a robotic builder that has spent the last six months in space, working to construct the reflector antenna from composite fibre tubes, aluminium joints, and a Kapton reflective surface.

Caltech said: “According to DARPA, the autonomous robotic assembly is akin to piecing together a high-tech K’Nex or Tinkertoy structure. But the process of automating the build in space is nothing like child’s play.”
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/11/2026 00:52 || Comments || Link || [56 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LUCAS Drones To Be Built In Containerized Robotic Micro Factories Designed To Be Forward Deployed

A California robotics company called Machina has been issued a $9 million award for a containerized system to robotically mass-produce Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) airframes close to the point of need. As TWZ has frequently noted, LUCAS drones, and one-way attack weapons like them, are playing an increasing role in U.S. combat operations and military planning.

The award to Machina is the latest example of the Pentagon’s push to use containerized 3D printing and other advanced fabricating systems closer to the front lines to shorten supply chains that could get severely degraded in a major conflict. Decentralizing production of drones also allows units to be more flexible and tailor their own production to their specific needs at any given moment. For instance, a unit can produce variations of multiple designs that are best suited to an upcoming mission instead of having to use whatever they are shipped.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/11/2026 3:41 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2026-11-11
  Iran-backed terror suspects plotted attack on US troops using vans packed with fuel, DOJ says
Tue 2026-11-10
  European Union says Iran hacked cooling systems in 700 supermarkets in France, raising freezers and fridges as high as 80°C
Mon 2026-11-09
  Iranian Houthi militia is losing nearly a thousand of its fighters every day
Sun 2026-11-08
  CENTCOM launches Task Force Iron Gate to block Iranian weapons and illicit shipments
Sat 2026-11-07
  Iran-linked ships spotted over critical undersea internet cables
Fri 2026-11-06
  Defiant Iran claims fresh tanker attacks as Tehran celebrates Republican election defeat
Thu 2026-11-05
  Bomb threat targets Haifa-bound Israeli cruise ship docked at Greek island
Wed 2026-11-04
  Brace for Impact: 2026 House Results: Democrats Win Control
Tue 2026-11-03
  In several strikes in northern Gaza Strip: IDF eliminates four Hamas terrorists who advanced terror plots
Mon 2026-11-02
  Nearly 1,200 migrants cross English Channel in four days after weeks-long pause
Sun 2026-11-01
  Insurrection: Violent Paris protests draw 70K people as Molotov cocktails hurled at cops, US and Israeli flags burned
Sat 2026-10-31
  Coup rumors in Poland: Polish president turns back mid-flight amid court 'coup d'état' claims
Fri 2026-10-30
  Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down several US MQ-9 / MQ-1 drones over the Strait of Hormuz
Thu 2026-10-29
  IDF forces continue their operations to thwart terrorism in the Judea Brigade area
Wed 2026-10-28
  l-Shabaab (part of Al-Qaeda) ambushed a Somali National Army unit in Lower Shabelle
Wed 2026-10-28
  Al-Shabaab (part of Al-Qaeda) ambushed a Somali National Army unit in Lower Shabelle, ‘dozens’ said toes up


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