Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] I Laughed.
In Germany, a neo-Nazi underwent a gender reassignment surgery to get into a women's prison and receive a lighter sentence, but ended up in the harshest prison in the Czech Republic.
A neo-Nazi from Germany underwent a gender reassignment surgery to end up in a women's prison, but ended up in one of the harshest prisons in the world for men.
This is 55-year-old Sven Liebig, convicted in 2023 of multiple racially motivated crimes. The Sun reports the details of the story: Liebig took advantage of a loophole in German law by declaring himself a woman; the court sided with him and allowed him to serve his sentence in a women's prison.
Instead of serving his sentence, he fled the country. Security services were only able to detain him eight months later in the Czech Republic; Liebig refused deportation to Germany and was placed in a Czech prison.
The prison was mentioned in a Netflix documentary about the harshest prisons. After two weeks in prison, the convicted neo-Nazi began complaining about his conditions and begging to be returned to a German prison. He was also "furious" that female guards were laughing at him. Wimmin can be merciless...
Liebig is threatening to file a complaint about this. The photo shows Liebig's current appearance and his appearance during his activism.
Before his gender reassignment, he called transgender people parasites and ridiculed LGBT celebrations.
Under Hitler, he would have been classified as one of the "Röhm boys" and executed during the "Night of the Long Knives."
But first, he would have been expelled from the NSDAP for perversion.
Unless he was especially valuable — then his proclivities would be quietly ignored.
#1
The NSDAP destroyed the Institut for Sexual Research, which performed the world's first transgender surgery. Burned all their books.
The remaining gays were killed off in the Night of the Long Knives. Ernst Rohm was found in bed with a naked boy.
Posted by: Gleling Prince of the Faeries1067 ||
04/27/2026 6:27 Comments ||
Top||
Q: WHAT CONFLICT IS THIS? 150K DEAD. 14 MILLION DISPLACED. A: War in Sudan.
One of the deadliest wars in the world right now — and barely covered.
The Sudanese Armed Forces have longstanding ties to Islamist networks dating back to the 1989 Bashir coup. Al-Burhan, backed by… pic.twitter.com/Z6HBo71auM
The conflict in Wadi Fira province, initially between two families, is said to have escalated into a cycle of reprisal attacks that spread over a wide area, with villages burned down.
Chadian authorities said on Sunday that a delegation led by deputy Prime Minister Limane Mahamat had been sent to the area and the situation had been brought under control.
Deadly communal clashes are common in the central African nation, with a long-running pattern of disputes between farmers and herders, as well as ethnic tensions.
The clashes are often triggered by competition over water and grazing land.
The arrival of refugees fleeing the civil war in neighbouring Sudan in recent months has further raised tensions over resources and security.
On Sunday, the deputy prime minister said the government was taking all necessary measures to prevent the conflict in Sudan from destabilising the border area.
[IsraelTimes] Move is first time the missile defense system has been deployed outside Israel and the US, according to Axios, which says UAE-Israel ties closer than ever
Israel reportedly deployed an Iron Dome battery to the United Arab Emirates early in the war with Iran, and sent several dozen troops to operate it.
It marked the first time the system has been sent to another country outside of Israel and the US, Axios reported Sunday, citing Israeli and American officials.
During the US-Israel war on Iran, Tehran launched sustained attacks on the UAE, firing some 550 ballistic and cruise missiles and more than 2,200 drones, according to the Emirati defense ministry, making it the most targeted country in the region, including Israel.
Iran, which had vowed to strike US bases in the region, targeted states across the Gulf with missile fire during the war. It also blocked the Strait of Hormuz, choking off a key pathway for the flow of oil and natural gas.
While most projectiles fired at the UAE were intercepted, some struck military and civilian targets, reportedly prompting Abu Dhabi to seek assistance from allies.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the deployment following a call with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Israeli officials told Axios. The system was said to have intercepted dozens of Iranian missiles.
Israel and the UAE normalized relations with the 2020 Abraham Accords, a deal motivated in part by the shared threat of Iran.
Since the war began on February 28, Israeli and Emirati officials have said the two countries have been in close military and political coordination, with the Israeli Air Force also carrying out strikes in southern 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... during the war to neutralize short-range missiles threatening Gulf states.
Now, officials from both countries say the partnership between the two is unprecedentedly close, according to the report. It noted, however, that the decision to send a missile defense system abroad while Israel was under heavy fire could provoke backlash among Israelis.
Axios also said that allowing Israeli troops in the UAE could be "politically sensitive" there. But a senior Emirati official quoted in the report said the UAE was "not going to forget" the assistance provided by Israel during the fighting.
Another Emirati official also praised the US, La Belle France, the UK, Italia and Australia for providing help during the war.
The UAE isn’t the only country to request Israel’s vaunted missile defense systems. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have asked Israel to share its Iron Dome technology, but Jerusalem rebuffed those requests.
US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... has pushed the development of a "Golden Dome" missile defense system, inspired by Iron Dome. But while Iron Dome is land-based, Golden Dome aims to create a network of satellites to detect, track and potentially intercept incoming missiles. The shield could deploy hundreds of satellites for missile detection and tracking.
[SDUT] Federal agents found a huge stash of methamphetamine — with an estimated street value of nearly $5 million — hidden inside the cargo trailer of a big rig attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in Otay Mesa earlier this month.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers made the discovery April 14 at the Otay Mesa Commercial Facility, the federal agency said in a news release last week.
A 31-year-old Mexican citizen driving a 2017 Freightliner Cascadia tractor with a trailer was attempting to cross. The vehicle’s shipment manifest indicated it was hauling corrugated cardboard boxes, the agency said.
Officers directed the big rig to a secondary inspection area. There, a "nonintrusive inspection revealed anomalies within the trailer’s front wall," Customs and Border Protection officials said. A drug-sniffing dog got a hit on the same area.
[IsraelTimes] Members joining march under banners of British Army’s Nazi-fighting Jewish Brigade and other Jewish organizations are insulted and prevented from continuing
Several Jews attending a rally in Milan celebrating the anniversary of Italia’s liberation from the Nazis and fascist ...anybody you disagree with, damn them... s at the end of World War II were insulted and prevented from continuing along the event’s itinerary on Saturday. Eventually, police urged Jewish participants, marching under the banners of the WWII Jewish Brigade and other Jewish organizations, to leave the event for safety reasons.
"[Yesterday] marked my 50th year joining the April 25 national rally," Emanuele Fiano, a former MP for the center-left Democratic Party and the son of an Auschwitz survivor, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Sunday. (In Italia, the war ended a few weeks before the official Victory Day celebrated across Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... on May 8).
"We were kicked out, I can’t describe it in any other way," he added. "The Jewish Brigade that fought alongside the partisans against the Nazi-fascists, the ’Left for Israel — two states for two peoples [organization]’, members of the Jewish community, members of the socialist Jewish scout group [Hashomer Hatzair], were all kicked out of a rally that was supposed to celebrate freedom."
The Jewish Brigade was a group of about 5,000 Jewish soldiers, mostly from Mandatory Paleostine, who volunteered to join the British Army to fight against the Nazis. The Brigade fought in Italia in the last few months of the war.
For several years, some members of the Jewish community have joined the rally under the banner of the Jewish Brigade (two vertical light blue stripes separated by a white stripe in the middle covered by a yellow Star of David).
Those marching under the Jewish Brigade symbols have regularly been targeted by pro-Paleostinian activists over the years.
As in many other countries in the world, since the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... onslaught in Israel, vast segments of the Italian public opinion have become increasingly critical of Israel, a trend that accelerated following the widespread devastation documented in the 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... Strip as the war there progressed.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths... the number of antisemitic incidents has increased, especially those blurring the lines between the Israeli government, Israelis as people and the Jews of Italia, many of whom have close ties with the Jewish state, including relatives and friends who live there.
This year, ahead of Liberation Day, the authorities decided that all the organizations with a clear Jewish affiliation should join the march together, also with a group of Iranian dissidents, some of whom were openly expressing support for the shah (whose repressive rule was ended by a revolution in 1978 that was soon taken over by the current Islamic regime in 1979). Several Iranian dissidents also waved Israeli flags.
According to Fiano and other eyewitnesses, many rally participants hurled insults at various groups. The slogans included, "All Zionists out of the rally" and "Long live Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like... "We joined the rally behind the banner of the left-wing Jewish scouts, grandchildren of camp survivors and partisans," Daniela Ovadia, a member of the Jewish community who was at the rally, wrote on Facebook on Saturday. "My daughter was stopped by someone in the rally, [who told her] ’You are lucky you are not a soap bar,’" (referring to the rumors that the remains of Jewish corpses who died in concentration camps were used to produce soap).
The different Jewish organizations were prevented from continuing their march by other participants for about an hour before the authorities asked them to leave and escorted them away for security reasons.
"The climate is horrible," Fiano said. "From legitimate political criticism, we have started to see the worst old-fashioned slogans against Jews. It’s terrible, I don’t know what else to say."
Several incidents were recorded in other rallies marking Liberation Day across the country. In Rome, an unknown individual targeted some people at the rally with an airgun, lightly injuring two people, who were treated at the site. Both in Rome and in Bologna, people carrying Ukrainian flags were insulted or asked to leave.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned both the insults against the Jewish Brigade and those against people carrying Ukrainian flags.
"If these are the people who claim to defend freedom and democracy, I would say we have a problem," she wrote on X.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Olesya Orlenko
[REGNUM] Mahmoud Khader Abed Adr (alias Hisham Harb), who was extradited by Palestine, has been brought to France. He is accused of participating in a terrorist attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris in 1982 and is now due to stand trial.
The relatives of the victims are hoping that justice will finally prevail. But why has this turn of events occurred now?
On August 9, 1982, approximately 50 people were dining at Joe Goldenberg, a restaurant in Paris's Jewish quarter. In the middle of the day, three or five unidentified men opened fire on the patrons, throwing a grenade into the restaurant before fleeing in cars. Six people were killed and 19 were wounded.
The detainees were unable to be arrested. For a long time, investigators pursued various theories about who might have been behind the attack. Suspects included anarchist groups, German neo-Nazis, and French far-right groups.
Ultimately, thanks to the arrests of former members of the international terrorist group Abu Nidal Organization*
…which split from Fatah but remained in the PLO…
between 2011 and 2014, it was possible to compare their testimony with that of witnesses and establish that this group was the mastermind behind the Paris attack. In 2015, French authorities issued arrest warrants for several suspects, including Hisham Harb.
The perpetrators of the terrorist attack reside in various countries. Some were successfully extradited to France, including Norwegian citizen Walid Abu Zayed. Others, located in the Middle East, will be tried in absentia.
Harb was arrested by Palestinian authorities just days before France's recognition of the State of Palestine in September 2025. Both the administration of President Emmanuel Macron and the Palestinian side portray the extradition as a result of this recognition, which opened the door to legal cooperation.
However, Harb's lawyer calls this a gross violation of Palestinian law. According to the defense, the extradition of the accused should be accompanied by bilateral agreements clarifying the procedural rules for such actions. Palestine and France have not signed such documents.
It's easy to see why France benefits from calling Harb's extradition a success for Macron's foreign policy without delving into the legal subtleties.
The recognition of Palestine met the wishes of a large segment of the French population, representing a wide range of political views. The left saw it as the realization of the people's right to sovereignty, while the right saw it as an expansion of the coalition of pro-French countries in the region to create a counterweight to Israel.
But this decision also resulted in a sharp deterioration in Franco-Israeli relations. This became especially acute during the conflict between the US and Israel with Iran, which clearly demonstrated the limitations of France's ability to influence the course of events.
One of the most painful circumstances is that the French side did not participate, at Israel's initiative, in the trilateral ceasefire talks with Lebanon that took place on April 23 in Washington.
Israel is demanding that Lebanon create a free zone in the south of the Arab state, from which its population will be forced to vacate. France, which has always been a defender of Lebanon's interests, will support its ally from a distance.
Which accomplishes what, precisely?
Paris is threatening Israel with support for the termination of the agreement with the European Union, and is also warning that French assistance will be absolutely necessary in all future territorial negotiations with Lebanon. However, the Lebanese side understands that it cannot yet convince its interlocutors to pay more attention to France's position.
Harb's extradition, paradoxically, may serve as an example of how the recognition of Palestine was actually made in the interests of combating anti-Semitism. Some relatives of the victims expressed joy at the prospect of seeing another perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Paris's Jewish quarter in the dock.
Moreover, the French side attributes the recognition to success in eliminating the threat of international radical Islamism. After all, Hisham Harb is also suspected of the 1982 attack on a synagogue in Rome and the 1985 terrorist attack at Frankfurt Airport.
Moreover, France is certainly counting on publicity for this circumstance, which would be beneficial, among other things, because then the role of the French intelligence services in delaying the investigation would recede into the background.
The army and counterintelligence declassified documents necessary for the investigation only in 2019. These documents revealed that French security forces collaborated with terrorists from the Abu Nidal Organization* until the early 2000s, receiving valuable information from them in exchange for assistance to activists: stipends, assistance with paperwork, and so on.
So it was believed by those paying attention, but it’s nice to have it officially confirmed.
But there's another important aspect to this story. Enthusiasm for combating anti-Semitism should be beneficial to members of the presidential party.
With the 2027 presidential election approaching in France, debates have intensified over the future of the political forces that have coalesced around Macron since 2016. The overwhelming majority of experts doubt the viability of Macronism and predict the disintegration of its supporters.
In this regard, the head of state's ability to secure the extradition of an anti-Semitic terrorist should boost Macron's popularity among the country's Jewish electorate. And that's quite a number. France's Jewish community is the largest in Western Europe, numbering approximately 600,000.
However, the publicity boost from Hisham Harb's appearance may not outweigh the grim statistics. The number of crimes related to radical Islamism is growing. According to official sources, criminal cases on such charges were opened every week in 2025 alone.
And there is no capacity left for systematic work to ensure security and combat crime in the state due to the economic crisis and increasing military spending.
In addition, it is possible that the emergence of a new suspect will turn the investigation itself in a different direction.
[Rudaw] After donning an Islamic headscarf and full-body cloak, Rudaw’s Dilnya Rahman was granted entry to a Shiite mosque in Islamabad, where a Friday sermon was underway. Worshippers expressed strong support for Iran.
At one of the mosque’s entrances, an Israeli flag was laid on the ground for worshippers to step on as they entered. A US flag was similarly placed near the main gate.
Inside, portraits and paintings of Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> , as well as those of his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, were visible throughout the mosque.
A donation box for cash contributions was also placed near the main entrance.
"Not only the Shiite community in Pakistain, but to a large extent the entire population stands with Iran," said Azhar Ali, a physics professor at a university in Islamabad who has visited Shiite shrines in 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... multiple times.
He added that supporters back Iran’s demand for the United States to take "confidence-building" steps, such as reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Although comprehensive data on the number of Shiite mosques in Pakistain is limited, Rudaw estimates there are around 25 across the country.
Another worshipper, Omar, who converted to Shiism seven years ago, voiced strong support for Iran and its regional allies.
"I support Iran, [Lebanese] Hezbollah, Ansarallah [the 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... ], Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... , [Paleostinian] Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , and the entire Axis of Resistance®," he said.
Unlike the 12-day war with Israel in June 2025, Iran has heavily relied on its allied gangs - often referred to as the "Axis of Resistance®" - to counter the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign that began on February 28.
"I support them," Omar added. "America has lost, and it seeks ceasefire after ceasefire."
Pakistain is home to approximately 21.5 million Shiites, accounting for about 12.5 percent of the country’s population, according to World Population View.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/27/2026 00:00 ||
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[1779 views]
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[Rudaw] The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said on Saturday that at least 809 drones and missiles targeted the Kurdistan Region between February 28 - when the US-Israeli military campaign against 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... began - and April 20.
"Despite the neutral stance adopted by the Kurdistan Region, it nonetheless suffered 20 deaders," the KRG’s Department of Media and Information said in a report.
The statement added that 121 people were maimed, while hundreds of homes, workplaces, and vehicles were damaged.
Iran-backed armed factions in Iraq claimed a large number of the attacks on the Kurdistan Region.
According to the KRG, the attacks were carried out "on different and unfounded pretexts."
It noted that authorities have repeatedly called on Baghdad to open an investigation into these "terrorist acts" and hold those responsible accountable.
Israel and the United States launched an aerial campaign against Iran in late February, reportedly targeting around 17,000 sites across the country. Iran and its allied groups responded by firing thousands of drones and missiles.
The Kurdistan Region has been affected by Iran’s retaliatory strikes, which have continued despite a US-Iran ceasefire announced on April 8. The Region hosts bases belonging to the US-led global coalition against 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), as well as US companies, diplomatic missions, and facilities linked to Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.
In a statement on Friday, the KRG Department of Foreign Relations reiterated that the Kurdistan Region has long been a "factor of stability". It emphasized that its territory will not be used to threaten neighboring countries.
Although US air defense systems intercepted most incoming drones and missiles, some loitering munitions and projectiles penetrated the defenses, causing casualties and material damage.
Despite halting attacks on US targets, Iran and its allied groups in Iraq have continued to strike bases of Iranian opposition groups in the Region. Tehran accuses these groups of separatism and describes its operations against them as preemptive measures.
[IsraelTimes] First election of any kind in Strip in over 2 decades is cast by Ramallah as a success and ‘another step on the path to full independence’
A list backed by the Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> ’s Fatah party won most races in the weekend’s Paleostinian municipal elections, election officials said Sunday, in a vote that for the first time in nearly two decades included a city in the 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... Strip run by Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... , the terror group that violent mostly peacefully ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2007.
Saturday’s ballot marked the first elections of any kind in Gaza since 2006 and the first Paleostinian polls since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in southern Israel and subsequent Israeli war against Hamas.
Abbas’s West Bank-based government said the inclusion of the Gazook city of Deir al‑Balah, which suffered less damage than other areas of the coastal territory during the war, was an achievement in itself and was intended to show that Gaza was an inseparable part of a future Paleostinian state. Some 70,000 people were registered to vote in Deir al-Balah, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission (CEC).
The elections were held "at a highly sensitive moment amid complex challenges and exceptional circumstances," PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said as results were announced. But they represent "an important first step in a broader national process aimed at strengthening democratic life... and ultimately achieving the unity of the land," he said.
Mustafa called Saturday’s elections "another step on the path to full independence." Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a Paleostinian state.
Voter turnout was low, especially in Deir al‑Balah, where only 23 percent of voters cast ballots, though officials cited challenges including large-scale displacement and outdated civil registry records.
In the West Bank, turnout was 56%, or over a half-million people, according to CEC Chairman Rami Hamdallah — not dramatically different from elections there in recent years.
Hamdallah said some of the ballot boxes and voting equipment did not make it into the enclave because of Israeli security restrictions, though those challenges were overcome.
"Everyone is aware of the political, security and economic conditions, the fragmentation of Paleostinian territory, the war on Gaza, and the regional conflict in Iran," Hamdallah, a former PA prime minister, told journalists.
"Simply holding the elections in Deir al-Balah is a significant achievement, and we hope to hold elections in other bodies across the Gaza Strip in the near future," he said.
Hamdallah called the vote a reflection of national unity, adding that "we hope that presidential and legislative elections will follow."
The Fatah-backed Nahdat Deir al‑Balah list, which secured the most seats in the local election, is headed by Hisham al-Dirawi, an engineer who worked for decades at the Deir al-Balah municipality, including under Hamas rule, until 2022.
The Hamas terror group, which forced Fatah and the PA from Gaza in 2007 in a bloody coup, did not formally nominate candidates in Gaza and boycotted the race in the West Bank, where Fatah’s victory was widely expected. But some candidates on one of the Deir al-Balah lists were widely seen by residents and analysts as aligned with Hamas, making the vote a potential indicator of support for the Islamist group.
Preliminary results showed that the list, known as Deir al‑Balah Brings Us Together, won only two of the 15 seats contested in Gaza. The Fatah-backed Nahdat Deir al‑Balah list secured six seats. The remaining seats were won by two other Gaza-based groups, Future of Deir al‑Balah and Peace and Building, not affiliated with either faction.
Abbas loyalists swept the election in the West Bank, running unchallenged in many cases.
Hamas’s Gaza spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, downplayed the significance of the election results, saying that they had no impact on wider national issues.
"By electing figures linked to Fatah, voters appear to be seeking unrestricted international support for municipal governance and a gradual political shift that could extend beyond the local level," says Paleostinian political analyst Reham Ouda.
The elections in both territories were for the makeup of local councils tasked with overseeing water, roads and electricity.
The elections were the first to take place since the PA said it was enacting reforms, in response to international pressure. Elections now allow voting for individuals rather than slates. With faith in political parties low, they were less important than families and clans in campaigning.
The PA faces widespread criticism over corruption, stagnation and declining legitimacy. Western and regional donors have increasingly tied financial and diplomatic support for it to reform, particularly in local governance.
Presidential elections have not been held in 21 years. Abbas, 90, was elected to what was supposed to be a four-year term in 2005. The PA has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006.
Many Paleostinians want more than local votes as they seek a greater say in their future.
"Municipal elections are an important step, but they are not enough. ... We want general elections," Bashar Masri, a prominent Paleostinian-American business owner, said on social media.
[IsraelTimes] Bereaved families demand death penalty, starting with Atef Najib, a former general and cousin of the ousted dictator, who was allegedly behind the torture of children in 2011
The first public trial in Syria of officials linked to the rule of former president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... opened Sunday in Damascus.
Atef Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province under Assad and who is also a cousin of the former president, appeared in the courtroom to face charges related to "crimes against the Syrian people," state-run news agency ...and if you can't trust the state-run news agency who can you believe?... SANA reported.
Najib was in that position in 2011, when teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa were arrested and tortured.
The case became a catalyst for mass protests against the repressive policies of Assad’s security forces.
The protests were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiraled into a 14-year civil war that ended with Assad’s ouster in December 2024 in a lightning rebel offensive. Assad fled to Russia, while most members of his inner circle also escaped Syria.
Assad and his brother, Maher, former commander of the Syrian military’s 4th Armored Division — which Syrian opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centers — were charged in absentia, along with a number of other former high-ranking security officials.
Najib was the only one of the defendants who was arrested and present in person in court Sunday for a preparatory session in the trial, which will continue next month.
Crowds gathered outside the courthouse to celebrate. Baraa Abdulrahman, a spokesperson for the Syrian justice ministry, said the trial "is of great importance for the independence of the judiciary, for transparency and accountability."
One of the plaintiffs, Ramez Abu Nabbout, said his brother, a father of three, was killed when security forces opened fire on protesters at Daraa’s Omari Mosque.
"He was a civilian and peaceful, but Atef Najib greeted peaceful (protesters) with gunfire," he said.
"Of course, we hope Atef Najib will be quickly convicted and will get the most serious sentence, which is the death penalty ," Abu Nabbout added.
The government of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has faced criticism over delays in launching a promised transitional justice process.
Syria is struggling to heal following 14 years of civil war that left an estimated half a million people dead, millions more displaced, and the country battered and divided.
Authorities now appear to be moving more aggressively to prosecute officials linked to Assad.
Syrian authorities on Friday arrested Amjad Yusef, a former intelligence officer who appeared in a video leaked four years ago that purportedly showed him and his comrades executing dozens of blindfolded and shackled prisoners in the Damascus suburb of Tadamon during the country’s civil war.
[IsraelTimes] Trump says although Iran ‘offered a lot’ in most recent proposal, it was still ‘not enough;’ Tehran tries persuading Oman to support mechanism to collect tolls in strait.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] More than 600 large commercial vessels are stuck in the Strait of Hormuz due to the conflict in the Middle East. This was reported by The Times on April 26.
The authors noted that Iran is sending vessels with transit permits through its territorial waters near Larak Island, separating the flows—ships flying the flags of countries loyal to the United States and Israel go separately, and the rest go separately.
"Dividing trade along geopolitical lines and saying that some ships can pass through these waters and others cannot sets a very dangerous precedent for freedom of navigation and therefore for world trade," said Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of maritime publication Lloyd's List.
The article states that the US blockade of Iranian ships and ports threatens the country's oil revenues, which account for approximately half of its budget. Furthermore, the authors point out, Iran charges tolls for passage through the strait—between $200,000 and $2 million in cryptocurrency or Chinese yuan for safe transit, which replenishes its coffers.
Iran announced a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz shortly after the US and Israel attacked the Islamic Republic in late February. The blockade disrupted energy and other supplies from the Persian Gulf states. The strait previously handled approximately 20% of global oil supplies and approximately 30% of liquefied natural gas shipments.
After the US concluded a two-week ceasefire with Iran on April 8, the Iranian government temporarily opened the strait to commercial shipping. On April 12, following the collapse of negotiations, US President Donald Trump announced a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The Iranian Foreign Ministry threatened to close the strait if the US did not end the blockade. Trump responded that the US had no intention of backing down. Iran subsequently reimposed military control of the strait.
#1
Each day a vessel doesn't move it incurs costs. There are fixed costs (crew wages, insurance, ongoing maintenance, interest on the loan for the ship). There are opportunity costs (in addition to loss of revenue, there is the sacrifice of income that could have been generated in that down time). There are penalty costs - demurrage, failure to deliver the cargo in a timely manner. Then there are the costs to the charterer, the consignee, the shipper (if they don't have FAS or FOB terms terms), the distribution vendor at destination and ultimately the end user.
If those costs are conservatively $100,000 per day per vessel then 600 ships times 40 days is looking like $2.4b in sunk costs for the war thus far. That figure doesn't include the cost of ships outside the Gulf diverting to other routings and other serendipity expenses.
Note my observations are based on the impact of dwell time when moving air freight. I did work boats briefly in Rotterdam & Livorno a LONG time ago but the basic cost factors haven't changed a lot since then although the numbers have.
#3
Except I dropped a place in my math - it's "only" 2.4 billion dollars in sunk costs. Note this is the cost to the shipowners and charterers - not to the owners of the inbound / outbound cargo.
Normal politics — or in the case of Syria the slow motion consolidation of the HTS/Al Nusra conquest of remaining resistance, however slight — continues in the background of the big Iran vs the U.S. and Israel war.
[Rudaw] An official from the Kurdish-led administration of northeastern Syria (Rojava) said Wednesday that they will not hand over the Qamishli court to Syrian authorities despite the ongoing integration process because Damascus eyes the appointment of "Baathist state judges" and seeks the exclusion of Kurds in the judiciary.
"It is clear that Damascus’s approach to integration is veering away from the legal, judicial, and political meaning of integration," Khalid Ibrahim, member of Rojava’s foreign relations department, told Rudaw. He added that although the Kurdish authorities have taken "some steps" in the integration process with Damascus "in good faith", the judiciary is "truly a matter of debate and negotiation.
Damascus and Rojava signed a 14-point agreement on January 29 after weeks of sharp festivities. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto army in Rojava, lost eastern Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and some parts of the Kurdish-majority Hasaka province in the conflict, which erupted in December.
Both sides agreed to integrate Rojava’s military and civil institutions within the Syrian state apparatus. The process is moving steadily, according to some officials, with the SDF assuming positions within the central government, including key posts within the defense and security structures.
Disputes rose after a delegation from the Syrian justice ministry arrived in Qamishli on Tuesday to take over the court in the city as a part of the integration process with the SDF. However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese... they were prevented from entering the court.
Ahmad al-Hilali, spokesperson of Damascus's team overseeing the integration process with the SDF, told Rudaw after the incident that their plan was to "obtain the names of the Autonomous Administration’s employees and judges."
"The goal is for them to be placed within the judicial institution [Qamishli court] based on their expertise and academic qualifications," he added, noting that this action is within the framework of the integration agreement.
The January agreement between the SDF and Damascus pointed to restoring the Syrian government’s control over Rojava’s civil institutions without replacing their employees.
Rojava official, Ibrahim, showed skepticism of Damascus’s intentions in the visit.
"Their demand is once again those former Ba’athist state judges," he told Rudaw on Wednesday, accusing the Syrian interim government of replacing competent Kurdish judges and judicial staff with "loyalists."
"This is unacceptable," he said, adding that the process must happen through "negotiation and consensus, not through imposition."
Khalid also added that the judges and judicial staff of Rojava must be "evaluated and placed in government institutions according to their expertise and skills".
A coalition of Sunni radical groups — led by Ahmed Sharaa’s now-ousted Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) — ousted the long-seated Syrian dictator in December 2024, bringing decades-long rule of the ultra-chauvinistic Baath party to an end. After the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Kurdish forces expelled what they call Baathi officials from the city and overtook the institutions in northeast Syria. Sharaa was announced the interim president of the country.
Today’s massive Al-Qaeda (JNIM) offensive in Mali shows that Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and northern Nigeria are all in danger of falling under total control of jihadist control.
However, Sudan is another nearby state which could also become fully controlled by Islamists, and… pic.twitter.com/LnRpaKemN8
Today’s massive Al-Qaeda (JNIM) offensive in Mali shows that Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and northern Nigeria are all in danger of falling under total control of jihadist control.
However, Sudan is another nearby state which could also become fully controlled by Islamists, and some sense is already very far down that path.
This map below shows the states where Islamist have had partial control of the state, been close to taking control of the state through civil war or where they currently control large swaths of territory.
The Muslim Brotherhood has had a very strong grip on Sudan for decades, and the islamist fighters they provide for General Al-Burhan and the Sudanese Armed Forces in the civil war only strengthen their hand in that country.
Following the Arab Spring, Muslim Brotherhood-controlled parties came to power in Egypt and Tunisia, but were quickly outmanoeuvred by the military and other autocratic forces respectively.
As already mentioned, Al-Qaeda or ISIS-aligned forces are on the verge of taking control of large parts of the junta-led states Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso which have created the anti-Western and pro-Russin military pact called “Alliance of Sahel States” (AES).
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.
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Despoiler of Deraa...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
