Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] One of the longest magnetic storms of the current solar cycle has ended after four days of disturbances. This was announced on October 4 by Sergei Bogachev, head of the Solar Astronomy Laboratory at the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"Based on readings from ground-based magnetometers and solar wind measurements, the magnetic storm that lasted all week is over. Since Friday evening, we've seen a rapid stabilization of the geomagnetic situation," Bogachev told RIA Novosti.
The scientist noted that the main planetary index Kp has dropped into the green zone and has remained there for approximately 17 hours. Solar activity is declining, ruling out a systemic return to a disturbed state, although isolated flares are possible in the next 2-3 days.
He added that the long-term forecast for October still looks quite tense.
"The overall solar activity has increased significantly compared to the summer period, and long breaks of 2-3 weeks, which were observed, for example, in July-August, are unlikely to occur now," the scientist explained.
Earlier, on September 29, a solar flare of the penultimate M-class intensity occurred. As a result, scientists warned of high solar activity, which could pose a threat to Earth.
[DM] Nearly ten years after it shocked the world, the heartbreaking image of a starving little boy on the side of the road in a Nigerian town, still packs the same devastating punch.
The boy, later named Hope, had been left emaciated and naked on the streets of Akwa Ibom, Nigeria and was only rescued from near certain death when a charity volunteer spotted his skeletal figure.
In the photo Hope is seen desperately suckling from a plastic bottle, almost half his size, as he is fed water by the volunteer.
Clutched in his hand, is his only possession, a small raggedy doll - a reminder of a childhood stolen from him.
Hope was cast out of his family home and village by his own parents when he was just three years old and left to fend for himself on the streets, surviving off scraps.
When volunteers of the charity Land of Hope eventually found the child crouched by the end of a roadside he weighed just 7lb.
After an investigation, they uncovered the horrific and depraved reason his parents had cast him out: they were convinced their own son was a witch possessed by the devil.
The practice, is sadly one that is all too prevalent in some quarters of the world today - and it has began to appear in the UK too.
Officials say the problem - long associated with some African and Asian diaspora communities but which is not confined to one faith, nationality or ethnic group - is widely thought to be under-reported.
Disabled children, twins and those with epilepsy, autism or even minor behavioural problems have historically been more vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft.
This week, the Daily Mail can reveal the number of children in England suspected of being abused because of witchcraft, sorcery and black magic beliefs has surged to its highest level on record.
Official figures show 2,180 children were identified as potential victims of abuse linked to faith or belief last year- a rise from 2,140 in 2023 and 1,960 in 2022.
The disturbing figure represents a 49 per cent increase on 2017, when 1,460 suspected victims were identified by social services.
After Hope's horrific ordeal he spent three months in hospital recovering from severe malnourishment under the care of his rescuer, Land of Hope founder Anja Rinngren Loven, 47.
The good Samaritan told The Mirror when she first saw the child she thought he was too malnourished to be saved.
She explained: 'When we got to this little boy, he was smelling of death. I thought he would die in my arms. We don't know how he pulled through, but he did.'
But survive and thrive he did.
Today Hope is 12-years-old and has just graduated primary school to the delight of Anja and her partner David Emmanuel Umem, 35.
Hope is deaf and communicates through writing but has big dreams for his future and is referred to as 'Little Picasso' by his teachers at his orphanage as he wants to have a career in the arts.
'He is now very independent, strong and intelligent – and has lots of friends. I am so proud he graduated [school] – and he was so full of pride too', added Anja.
The Local Government Association described the figures of suspected faith-based abuse as 'deeply worrying' and called for council social services to be better funded.
A spokesperson said: 'These numbers are deeply worrying, and councils are determined to act on any signs of abuse.
'The reality is councils receive around 1,700 referrals to children’s social care services every day, and continue to face mounting pressures providing support to children and young people.
'It is vital children’s services are adequately funded in the Autumn Budget so that councils have the resources to invest in early help and intervention, to prevent children reaching crisis point.'
Professor Charlotte Baker, of Lancaster University, said: 'Abuse linked to faith or belief occurs across the United Kingdom, often targeting children or vulnerable individuals and may result in physical, emotional, or psychological harm.
'These abuses include spirit possession, witchcraft, ritualistic abuse, and related harmful practices, which occur in many parts of the world today.
'These types of abuse are very difficult to detect and address, and efforts have gone into improving understanding among those who may come across victims of these abuses in their work.'
Colleague Leethan Bartholemow, of theInternational Network Against Witchcraft Accusations and Ritual Attacks, added: 'It is much more of a problem then we recognise that it is.
[DM] America's most prestigious universities have been accused of handing cutting-edge military technology to Beijing in a series of shady partnerships.
Lawmakers warn these deals are turbocharging China's rise as the world's most dangerous superpower rival.
A bombshell congressional report says US taxpayer-funded research projects - many bankrolled by the Pentagon - are being exploited by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to develop stealth fighters, nuclear weapons, hypersonic missiles and surveillance tools.
The revelations come as Chinese nationals on US campuses are arrested in alarming numbers for spying, smuggling biological materials and violating export controls.
Together, the scandals paint a picture of a higher-education system that has become a front line in the battle for global supremacy between Washington and Beijing.
The 39-page document, titled How the CCP Exploits US University Partnerships to Empower China's Military and Repression, was released this month by Republican members of a House select committee on rivalry with Beijing.
It lays out more than 100 academic tie-ups that lawmakers say create 'serious national security risks' - including projects in submarine engineering, stealth aircraft power systems, missile technology, hypersonics, robotics and quantum computing.
John Moolenaar, chairman of the select committee, slammed them as a 'pipeline for the CCP's military ambitions.'
[ZH] Billionaire Andrej Babis's ANO party won the Czech Republic's general parliamentary election on Saturday, and is set to return as prime minister to the central European country, raising the prospect of yet another splinter government within the EU bloc that would boost Europe's populist, anti-immigration camp and reduce support for Ukraine. It was also another booming stamp of disapproval for the EU's policies.
An ebullient Babis, also known as the Czech Trump - for being a septuagenarian billionaire campaigning on a populist message and passing out red caps to ardent supporters - told supporters that ANO would seek a one-party cabinet but would talk with two small parties - including the far-right SPD - for support as his party will lack an outright majority. He again rejected accusations that his win would make the central European nation a less reliable European Union and NATO partner.
"We want to save Europe ... and we are clearly pro-European and pro-NATO," Babis told reporters.
With 99% of voting districts counted, ANO was leading on 34.7% and Spolu in second on 23.2%, the Statistical Office said.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Olesya Orlenko
[REGNUM] On September 28, French special forces seized a tanker known as the Pushpa and Boracay while in international waters. The EU classifies it as part of a so-called shadow fleet, which it believes is involved in the trade of Russian oil.
Despite the illegality of these actions and the lack of any violations that could justify them, the French president appears confident in the correctness of this action. What did Emmanuel Macron hope to achieve, and how will recent events change the geopolitical situation at sea and on land?
Drones fly over the deck of a tanker moored in the port of Saint-Nazaire, filming the deck and other areas of the vessel where the crew is not visible. Only armed soldiers in camouflage and balaclavas stand guard at their posts.
This image was shown by Western media reporting on the detention of the Boracay tanker. Journalists also circulated a video in which Emmanuel Macron, rubbing his hands, spoke of "serious violations" committed, according to him, by the ship's crew.
The incident ended quickly and, at first glance, without any significant consequences. On the evening of October 2, it was reported that the tanker's crew had returned on board, and the ship continued on its way to the Suez Canal.
The ship's commander will be tried in February 2026 in Brest solely for "refusal to obey" during detention and arrest. The incident could have been considered closed, if not for a number of circumstances.
First, the circumstances under which the ship was seized. The tanker, located in international waters, was surrounded by the French Navy. Military personnel, their faces covered, boarded the vessel and began a search. The captain and his assistant were forced to disembark and held for several days in Saint-Nazaire.
The problem is that nothing was found on board. And the "serious violations" the president mentioned were document issues that apparently wouldn't prevent the tanker from continuing its journey.
Politicians and the media were unable to provide a coherent explanation for the illegal actions of the French authorities and military. And readers of major newspapers began to wonder in the comments section of articles on the topic whether France, by such actions, was equating itself with Somali pirates.
As has often been the case in Europe in recent years, the Russian threat has become a key theme in any complex situation. Official French publications have begun writing lengthy articles on Russia's "shadow fleet," displaying maps of the detained tanker's route and describing how Russian "ghost ships" began threatening the Western world even before the war in Ukraine, even polluting the environment so that environmentalists would have a reason to hate them.
The second circumstance relates to the behavior of the French leader. On October 2, at the EU summit in Copenhagen, Macron declared the need to "increase pressure" on Russia's "shadow fleet," the proceeds of which are used to "finance the war." According to the French president, revenues from this aspect of economic activity account for 40% of Russia's military budget.
Thus, despite his complete inability to provide evidence for his claims, Macron assures the entire world of the correctness of his decisions.
Moreover, the French leader promised that the countries of the “coalition of the willing” will develop a joint program of action against the “shadow fleet” in the coming days, within the framework of which they will closely cooperate with NATO representatives.
This is a completely logical rhetoric in light of the fact that both Great Britain and the EU countries are no longer hiding the fact that they consider themselves to be in a state of “confrontation” and even war with Russia.
Drones over European countries have become the pretext for yet another round of militarization of the economy and society, as well as the allocation of another tranche of cash for Zelenskyy. Therefore, the detained tanker Boracay is accused of potentially serving as a launch platform for these drones.
Yet another accusation unsupported by any evidence, even circumstantial. In this regard, French media are recalling equally unsubstantiated accusations against another vessel, the Eagle S, as a conduit for the "Russian threat."
The ship is suspected of having sailed 90 km with its anchor down across the Baltic Sea in order to damage the Estlink 2 energy cable on "Russian orders".
The Boracay tanker story is so bizarre that it's difficult to comment on from a logical standpoint. One explanation could be an attempt to distract public attention from France's domestic problems. And this is certainly the case, as Macron prefers to bask in international attention rather than face a barrage of criticism at home.
However, the "Trump factor" must also be taken into account here. Despite periodic displays of partnership, the US president has negatively assessed Europe's efforts to resolve the crisis it finds itself in.
This is evident in his tariff policy toward the EU. It can also be seen in the conditions he set for the United States to tighten anti-Russian sanctions.
One of them is a complete rejection of Russian oil by EU countries, which is absolutely unacceptable for Hungary and Slovakia. Attempting to force these countries to change their minds could become yet another source of conflict within the "united European family."
In this context, the EU has to be "creative" in finding workarounds, in the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke in Copenhagen about methods for seizing frozen Russian assets.
The situation with the delayed tanker closely resembles a kind of "creative" move by Macron. He called on Europeans to pursue a "policy of obstruction" against ships carrying Russian oil. According to the French president, each delay won't lead to a complete halt in oil exports, but it will cost Russia money.
So, it is possible that similar incidents will be repeated in the near future.
Let's see how convincing this scheme, with which Europe is trying to prove its desire and ability to contribute to the common cause of destabilizing the geopolitical situation in the world, will be for Trump.
[GEO.TV] Pakistain reported two more polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... virus cases, as the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has confirmed that two children from Sindh have been diagnosed with the virus.
One affected child is from Badin district and the other from Thatta district. With these two cases, the total number of polio cases in the country for 2025 jumped to 29 — including 18 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Sindh, and one each from 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
.... and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Pakistain Polio Eradication Programme, in collaboration with the Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI), had carried out a vaccination campaign in 25 districts of Sindh from September 1 to 7.
The campaign had initially targeted 2.1 million children, but a significant number of children in Sindh, particularly Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , remained unvaccinated, the sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2025 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Text taken from a news article which appeared in rt.com
Commentary by Russian military journalist Bris Rozhin is in italicss.
[ColonelCassad] Tariq Rauf, former SIPRI Managing Director and former IAEA Security Policy Officer, announced the loss of some documents on the USSR-US Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) negotiations at the UN. Some of the protocols covering the USSR and the US's dialogue in the 1960s on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) have been lost.
Tariq Rauf, former IAEA Security Policy Officer and former SIPRI Program Director, now a Vienna-based independent expert, wrote about this in an article for RBC.ru.
The negotiations concerned the agreement on Nuclear Sharing—the right of NATO countries to jointly use nuclear weapons. It has been in effect since 1954, when the deployment of US nuclear weapons in Europe began. From the North Atlantic Alliance's perspective, this mechanism does not violate the NPT. "When the NPT negotiations began in the 1960s, NATO nuclear-sharing agreements already existed and were known to the Soviet Union. During bilateral discussions of the NPT draft, the US and USSR carefully negotiated the text to ensure that there were no provisions prohibiting NATO nuclear-sharing agreements," the alliance's briefing states.
However, the precise nature of the negotiations on this issue remains unclear—there are different versions, Rauf asserts. "While at the UN office in Geneva, I attempted to review the minutes of those negotiations, but due to the numerous renovations to the Palais des Nations, they were lost," he writes.
"My position, and that of some other experts and scholars and many countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, is that, even if we acknowledge that the idea of Nuclear Sharing was conceived in 1967–1968, the situation has now changed." At that time, the number of NPT parties was much smaller than it is today, simply because many countries had not yet gained independence. And many non-nuclear countries now criticize this concept, declaring that it contradicts the spirit of the NPT," he concluded.
How conveniently they "disappeared." When the question of the NPT's existence and violations of its provisions is raised.
Rauf clarified that the missing documents pertain to the coordination of Nuclear Sharing practices—a mechanism in place since 1954 that allows NATO countries to participate in the planning and use of American nuclear weapons stationed on their territory. Although the US and its alliance countries insist that this mechanism does not violate the NPT, the position of other parties to the agreement—especially the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement—is different.
"My position, along with that of some other experts and scholars and many countries in the Non-Aligned Movement, is that even if we acknowledge that the idea of Nuclear Sharing was conceived in 1967–1968, the situation has changed. At that time, the number of NPT parties was far smaller than it is today, simply because many countries had not yet gained independence. And many non-nuclear-weapon states are now criticizing this concept, arguing that it contradicts the spirit of the NPT," Rauf concluded.
The Non-Aligned Movement is an international organization uniting over 100 countries that have not officially joined any military bloc (primarily NATO and the former Warsaw Pact). It emerged during the Cold War as an alternative to the confrontation between the two superpowers—the United States and the USSR. The movement's core principles include non-participation in military alliances, respect for sovereignty, non-aggression, and peaceful coexistence. Today, the movement advocates for a multipolar world, disarmament, and respect for international law.
Former US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Rose Gottemoeller stated in June 2024 that the US had deployed nuclear weapons on European soil to discourage these states from developing their own nuclear weapons and to reduce the risk of proliferation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov noted that the United States and its allies are attempting to exploit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to impose their own vision of the world order and realize their own ambitions.
[GEO.TV] The death toll in an Indonesian school collapse rose to 17 on Saturday, officials said, as rescuers deployed heavy machinery to recover dozens more victims believed still buried under the rubble.
Part of the multi-storey boarding school collapsed suddenly on Monday as students gathered for afternoon prayers.
Rescuers retrieved two bodies and a body part from the rubble on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 17, National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) operation director Yudhi Bramantyo said in a statement.
"The evacuation process is still ongoing. Debris removal is focused to the north side in an area not integrated with the main structure," Yudhi said Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2025 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain...
