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Fifth Column

Day 3: Feds charge Capital Jewish Museum killer with murder

2025-05-24

See Day 2 here, Day 1 here.

The US Justice Department said Elias Rodriguez, 31, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, as well as other charges, including the murder of foreign officials.

An affidavit filed by an FBI agent in support of the criminal complaint said that as police escorted Rodriguez from the building, he shouted, “Free Palestine.”

The document said police reviewed security footage showing Rodriguez walking past the victims outside the museum, then turning, pulling a firearm from his waistband, and shooting them in the back.

After the victims fell to the ground, he approached them and fired several more times, as Milgrim attempted to crawl away from him. Milgrim then sat up while Rodriguez reloaded, and he shot her again, the video shows, according to the affidavit.

Investigators recovered 21 empty shell cases and a 9mm handgun from the scene that matched a firearm Rodriguez purchased in Illinois in 2020. He flew from Chicago to Virginia with the firearm in his checked baggage, the affidavit said. He had declared the firearm for the flight.

Rodriguez later told detectives that he admired Aaron Bushnell, an anti-Israel activist who self-immolated outside the Israeli embassy last year in protest, calling Bushnell a “martyr.” Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, also said he had bought a ticket to the event at the museum three hours before it started.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, and is being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said the attacker was inside the event before the attack.

“He milled around inside the event. We still don’t know exactly what he said, but he said enough that they removed him,” Leiter said at a press briefing at the scene of the attack. “He went outside, waited for embassy workers to come out, and shot them.”

Three others escaped the shooting unharmed, Leiter said.

At his first appearance in court on Thursday, the suspect waived his right to a detention hearing, and a preliminary hearing in the case was set for June 18.

Rodriguez said little during the proceeding except to answer, “I do” to questions from a federal magistrate judge about whether he understood his rights.

FBI agents were seen at his apartment in Chicago on Thursday, where law enforcement blocked off the street.

‘He never should have made it inside that building’: Security lapses in DC museum killings
[IsraelTimes] Head of local Jewish community relations council calls to ‘extend the perimeter around our institutions,’ notes finite resources limit extent to which possible targets can be hardened

On Wednesday night, three armed security officers stood guard as the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington held its annual meeting in the nation’s capital. On the agenda: discussions about the various ways antisemitic rhetoric can lead to violence.

Hours later, JCRC CEO Ron Halber said, he found out about the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staff at the Capital Jewish Museum. It was a nightmare come to life.

“It’s just godawful. There’s no other way to describe it. It was a horrific, antisemitic, anti-Israel, violent attack,” Halber told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Thursday. “For years I’ve said in Washington, we’re lucky we’ve never had anything” of this magnitude attacking the Jewish community. “That record came to an end last night.”

In the attack’s aftermath, Jewish community professionals including Halber are refocusing, again, on how to protect their institutions from threats. The shooting has also raised urgent questions: What went wrong? And what needs to change?

“Why they failed tonight we obviously have to figure out,” Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said in an interview with JTA hours after the shooting, regarding security.

He added later, “The risks have continued to rise as antisemitism has risen and as anti-Israel behavior in America has risen and our security teams have worked so hard to keep up with that. They obviously didn’t succeed tonight but we will not stop until we’ve ensured the security of our community.”

The timeline of the attack is relatively clear and, to security analysts, troubling: According to reports, the attacker shot his victims, the couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, on the street outside the museum as the event, organized by the American Jewish Committee, was winding down.

He then walked inside the museum, where an eyewitness said organizers offered him water and he remained for around 10 minutes until police arrived and he confessed to the shooting. Both elements of the incident — that the attacker was able to reach his victims outside the event and then proceed inside for an extended period of time — indicate missteps, according to security professionals.

“What concerned me as a seasoned law enforcement official is in all the work and the efforts that we put into training civilians, his behavior was almost literally screaming that there’s an issue here,” said Paul Goldenberg, the former head of the Secure Community Network, which coordinates security for Jewish institutions nationwide. Goldenberg said that in a widely circulated video of the suspect entering the building, he appeared nervous and disheveled, with jerky movements.

Goldenberg says in the future, rank-and-file attendees need to be aware of those signs — and act on them by alerting someone.

“The second he walked in after the shooting there should have been a plan,” added Goldenberg, who is now the chief policy adviser and head of global policing at Rutgers University’s Miller Center on Policing. “If we know that he just shot individuals outside, whatever security was in place, he never should have made it inside that building.”

Neither the AJC nor the museum immediately responded to JTA queries about who was responsible for security on Wednesday night. But by Thursday afternoon, five of the leading Jewish groups that focus on security put out a series of security recommendations for future events.

The recommendations focus principally on expanding the security perimeter of events; withholding the details of events and vetting attendees; and coordinating with law enforcement or hiring security guards.

The AJC had done at least some of that: The invitation said the location would be “shared upon registration.”

“The Jewish community is already among the most hardened targets in the country,” Oren Segal, who oversees the ADL’s Center on Extremism, told JTA prior to the recommendations being publicized. “Bulletproof glass and metal detectors is the norm. And the question is, how broad does the perimeter need to be for the Jews to feel secure?”

Leading up to the event, the museum was broadly conscious of threats. The day before the shooting, it had announced a new security grant from the local DC government — one that Halber said the JCRC had helped arrange — in connection to a new exhibit on LGBTQ Jews.

The $30,000 grant was meant to help the museum cover the costs of security guards both at the front desk and roaming around the museum “to make sure that everybody is safe and that we are prepared in the event of an emergency,” executive director Beatrice Gurwitz told local news at the time. She added that the grant “also helps our staff prepare.”

Washington shooting suspect was anti-Israel activist, railed against Seattle’s ‘whitening’
[IsraelTimes] Elias Rodriguez, 31, had ‘Tikkun Olam means FREE PALESTINE’ sign in home window, was linked to Party for Socialism and Liberation; apparent manifesto called to ‘bring the war home’

Long. Key associations mentioned:

Signs in window: “Proud Union Home,” “Justice for Wadea”

Jewish Voice for Peace (founded by Hamas BDS activist Hatem Bazian, while its social media managers live in Lebanon and a large chunk of its funding comes from the Soros Open Society Foundations)

Party for Socialism and Liberation - Chicago

ANSWER Chicago (formerly known as International A.N.S.W.E.R.)

Yesterday we learnt that Mr. Rodriguez‘s father, Eric Rodriguez, was an activist for veteran’s and federal workers’ rights, for which he was honoured by Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.), who brought him to see President Trump’s joint speech to Congress in March. This report adds that he had served in the Army National Guard, which sent him to Iraq.

Link

Europe

French Report Warns Of Islamist / Muslim Brotherhood 'Entryism' As Risk To National Cohesion

2025-05-23

[BBC] Islamists are infiltrating France's republican institutions and are a threat to national cohesion, according to a report presented to President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday.

It’s only been going on for two generations, but still — congratulations on noticing.

The report, drawn up by two senior civil servants, claims to find evidence for a policy of "entryism" by the Muslim Brotherhood into public bodies like schools and local government.

The French do like their philosophical jargon.

After a meeting of his security cabinet, Macron asked the government to come up with "new proposals" by early next month in light of the seriousness of the report's conclusions.

Secularism is a core tenet of France's national identity.

According to an Élysée official speaking off the record, there is a "new phenomenon - entryism - which is different from separatism".

While separatism implied Muslims living in a parallel society in France, "entryism means getting involved in republican infrastructure… in order to change it from the inside. It requires dissimulation… and it works from the bottom up," the official said.

In a copy of the report published in Le Figaro newspaper, the authors identified the Federation of Muslims in France (FMF)

…is that a name variant for the Muslims of France (Musulmans de France) or, like here, does France have a number branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in France?

as the main French emanation of the historic Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded 100 years ago to promote a return to core Islamic values.

…one of those core values is the conquest of the non-Muslim world (Dar al Harb) for Islam. Though the Brotherhooders are modern enough to prefer infiltration and colonization and the soft jihad of the law to the hard jihad of the sword until they’ve establish governance of the new territory.

They said the FMF controlled 139 places of worship in France, with a further 68 affiliated – in all around 7% of the total. The organisation also ran some 280 associations, in sports, education, charity and other fields, as well as 21 schools.

In accordance with the MB tradition — seduce ‘em with charity and lifestyle stuff, making religion secondary for the targets.

The aim of the movement was to set up "ecosystems at local level" to "structure the lives of Muslims from birth till death".

"[The movement's] officials, who are hardened activists, enter into a relationship with the local authority… Social norms – the veil, beards, dress, fasting - are gradually imposed as the ecosystem solidifies," the authors write.

"What happens is that religious practice become stricter, with a high level of girls wearing the abaya (long robe) and a massive and visible increase in the number of young girls wearing Islamic headscarves. Some are as young as five or six."

The Federation angrily rejected "any allegation that associates us with a foreign political programme, or with a strategy of 'entryism'".

"Confusing Islam with political Islamism and radicality is not only dangerous, but counter-productive for the Republic itself," the FMF said. "Behind these unfounded accusations there is a plan to stigmatise Islam and Muslims."

Yeah, yeah.

The report has been seized on by proponents of a strict enforcement of France's secular laws, which are meant to exclude all religion from public life.

Interior minister Bruno Retailleau, who on Sunday was elected leader of the conservative Les Républicains party, warned on Tuesday of "below-the-radar Islamism trying to infiltrate institutions, whose ultimate aim is to tip the whole of French society under sharia law".

Municipal elections are due in France next year, and Retailleau - who has won a reputation as a hardliner - has said he is concerned about the possibility of Islamic lists of candidates.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon warned that "Islamophobia has crossed a line", accusing the president's security cabinet of adopting the "delusional theories" of both Retailleau and far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen.

The report's authors, who visited 10 different regions of France and four other European countries, concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood was losing influence in the Middle East and North Africa, and so was targeting Europe, backed by money from Turkey and Qatar.

"Having given a Western look to the ideology in order to implant themselves in Europe, (the Muslim Brotherhood) tries to lay down the roots of a Middle Eastern tradition while concealing a subversive fundamentalism," they wrote.

Link

Government Corruption

Thar's Gold In Them Thar NGOs!

2025-05-24

[HotAir] You'll remember one of the biggest drop-mic revelations was the $20B slush fund new Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin, along with Musk's DOGE waste-huntin' hounds found stashed in a sketchy secret Citibank account.

That money was allocated to just eight climate-related NGOs in last-minute 'awards' from the Biden administration as they shoveled bucks out the door like a steam-driven locomotive's fireman flings coal. The most egregious of which was an earmarked $2B award to a Stacey Abrams-connected NGO called 'Power Forward Communities,' which was only a little over a year old and had less than $100 in the bank.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that the Biden EPA awarded a group linked to Stacey Abrams with no real track record a 2 billion dollar environmental grant in 2024.

Everyone has been dying to know more as Zeldin turned to clawing back the money.

In the meantime, other folks started digging into the Power Forward Communities (PFC) NGO, and one of them uncovered the web of deep money progressive tentacles that run all through these seemingly humanitarian organizations. Sadly, they are, in fact, usually only money laundering schemes for progressive elites and their foot soldiers.

Integral to the PFC story is a fellow named Shaun Donovan, who cut his political progressive teeth as the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. He left the city to become, first, Obama's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and then his director of the Office of Budget Management.

When Obama left, Donovan knew he needed a new gig, so he slid on over to the Ford Foundation, which lobbies the federal government using Henry Ford's fortune. Eventually, through all his connections, he became the new CEO of Enterprise Community Partners (ECP).

The previous CEO of this non-profit NGO - one wealthy enough to boast about investing $72B for a million energy efficient homes - earned $900K a year, which is quite a chunk for a charity, you'd think. But, according to Mr Chavous' research, the co-CEO pulled down a cool $800K, and the NGO spent over 27% of all its considerable income on salaries.

What does this have to do with Power Forward Communities (PFC)?

For one thing, the well-compensated and connected CEO of ECP, Mr Donovan, is the one who then formed that NGO and bragged about scoring the $2B award for his umbrella organization.

Small, incestuous, lucrative world, these NGOs, aren't they?

It also explains what went down in Lee Zeldin's testimony to Congress yesterday about the specifics that they have been finding about the proposal that came with PFC's grant paperwork.

What was in the documents required to meet the 'eligibility requirements' for the federal handouts was so outrageous, it blew even the Biden administration EPA staff's mind. To the point where, when they were screening the paperwork, as internal documents have subsequently revealed, they wrote notes and memorandums about it to cover their own asterisks. One staff member reviewing the proposed salary structure thought they were so out of whack that they worried it might look bad should the public catch a glimpse.

But, if you look at the mothership, ECP, that's where they all are as far as numbers go.

On 12 May, PFC filed a status report with the D.C. district court claiming 'irreparable harm,' as they still could not access their Citbank funds because of mean old Lee Zeldin.

Link

-Land of the Free

Secretary Of The Army Dan Driscoll: Army unveils modernization plan because, ‘No lobbyist ever won a war'

2025-05-21

[FoxNews] Army pledges to prioritize drone capabilities, AI-driven systems and combat readiness over 'parochial interests'

Since becoming secretary, I have been alarmed to find that our Army is at risk of falling behind other major powers across the globe, including China. Why? For decades, antiquated processes and bureaucratic bloat shackled our innovation and modernization efforts. If we continue business as usual our national security will be at risk.

The gap between the Army we have and the Army we need is growing fast. Our soldiers are innovative, resourceful and capable – they are our nation’s best. But they are being held back by lobbyists and complacent stakeholders who prioritized parochial interests over our soldiers’ lethality and readiness.

No lobbyist ever took a hill. No lobbyist ever won a war. Our soldiers deserve better. And our nation deserves better. That’s why Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently directed the Army to accelerate change.

We got to work immediately.

The Army Transformation Initiative (ATI) is how we break free from entrenched government bureaucracy, enable our soldiers and outpace our adversaries.

This is the way forward:

1. Get battle-winning gear to the front lines

Our soldiers must out-survive and outfight the enemy on the battlefield. Today, they need drone and counter-drone capabilities, AI-driven decision-making and lethal, battle-ready tanks and attack aircraft. We have been slow to put these tools in our soldiers’ hands, not for lack of vision, but because of outdated acquisitions practices. That ends now. Our mission is clear: cut red tape so we can quickly equip troops with the best capabilities available.

2. Out-innovate the enemy

We will channel America’s bold and innovative spirit, not just in words, but in action. We will fuel market competition, back industry-led research and development, and streamline the process by placing users, testers and developers shoulder-to-shoulder in the field. We will embrace change and fight system inertia, keeping us agile, lethal and one step ahead of our enemies.

3. Unloading what we don’t need

For far too long, our hands have been tied by parochial interests propped up by swarms of lobbyists. We have been forced to buy gear that we no longer want or need. With ATI, we’ll ensure that we use American taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars effectively. If a capability no longer benefits our soldiers and does not make our Army more lethal, we will not buy it.

4. Efficiency over bureaucracy

We are transforming the Army from the ground up, not just upgrading our processes and equipment. We are building an organization that will drive process improvements, leading to better products and better outcomes for soldiers. As a start, we will consolidate organizations within the Army to eliminate redundancies and reduce bureaucratic overhead.

5. Getting soldiers out from behind desks

We will refocus resources on our fighting formations by cutting overhead, starting within the Army headquarters. We will get our soldiers back where they belong: training to dominate the battlefield and win wars.

Our soldiers and the American people deserve an Army that is equipped to fight and win anywhere, anytime, against any adversary. Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, that’s exactly what the Army Transformation Initiative will deliver.

Make it so. They’re having issues over on the watery side of the Service:

Trump’s shipbuilding agenda is sinking.

I returned this week from shipyard tours in California to a flood of calls and DMs from DC and none of the news is good.

Friday marks 45 days since the president signed the Executive Order mandating a full shipbuilding review in 45 days.… pic.twitter.com/UAt84Zz0gx
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) May 20, 2025

…in 45 days. So far, only one Cabinet Secretary has shown any urgency, and only in the past few days.

I pray I’m missing something, but sources inside every relevant department say otherwise. There’s no indication
@SecDuffy
,
@KristiNoem
, or
@SecDef
are prioritizing this effort.

Reports from inside DOT are disturbing: they’re 20 years behind on their mandated shipyard survey to Congress. DOT should be the lead agency on this—but they’re failing.

Trump’s pick to lead
@DOTMARAD
—known for shaking things up had his nomination pulled by Duffy days before confirmation. No explanation, but rumors swirl about ties to Project 2025 and the anti-Jones Act Heritage Foundation.

The replacement is a strong candidate on paper, but shipbuilding is his weak spot and he has deep ties to
@Maersk
, which prioritizes Chinese shipyards.

No Deputy Administrator at MARAD has been named. DOT also hasn’t filled the critical Assistant Secretary role for policy and planning.

The acting head of MARAD is a West Point classmate of Mark Esper—yes, the same Esper who helped auction off the Army’s watercraft fleet. Sources claim he’s undermining both Trump’s and Esper’s maritime goals.

Lobbyists hold major sway at MARAD, making the General Counsel role crucial. A well-known, pro-Trump maritime executive with a stellar résumé applied, he was sidelined by Duffy. Instead, a woman with zero shipbuilding experience was installed this week. Initial reports about her are terrible.

Several of the most capable Trump loyalists at MARAD who held the line during the Buttigieg years have resigned in frustration.

On the Navy side, there’s no serious effort underway to reorganize the 83,000-person shipbuilding & repair enterprise. The critical SUPSHIP AGM role is still up in the air.

No admirals have been fired. No CNO appointed. The acting CNO is offering nothing but bureaucratic word salad.

The Secretary of the Navy remains verbally committed but no action plan has been released. Sources say he’s overwhelmed with internal crises & not getting enough support from the admirals and SES

Not one admiral has publicly endorsed shipbuilding as a national priority.

At USCG, a culling of admirals is underway & DHS is quietly investigating but the rot runs deeper than expected. Until that’s fixed, real shipbuilding effort is impossible.

Meanwhile, the individual making the most shipbuilding waves in DC? A former Obama donor who runs a CIA-linked registry exposed by
@DataRepublican
.

Trump promised a dedicated shipbuilding office during his state of the union speech. This idea was nixed along with shipbuilding desks at OMB, NEC, and a new White House office. Instead, Waltz expanded his NSC maritime team but progress stalled as Waltz fell out of favor. A leaked memo lists staffers to be purged this week & two of them work on maritime.

Interim Director Rubio has barely been seen or heard from at NSC. Nothing’s moving.

At State, the maritime team is small, and slow.

No one with real, hands-on experience building commercial ships at world-class yards has been hired.

Finally, after a promising bipartisan start, several top maritime leaders are breaking ranks publicly voicing concern about last-minute changes made to the bill and there are rumors that Mark Kelly’s strong anti-Trump rhetoric could sink the effort.

The clock is ticking. We started drifting without power when the dedicated WH shipbuilding office idea was nixed then lights went out Duffy pulled the nomination for MARAD. Now the ship is taking on water.

Silver lining? Trump & JD are, by all accounts, more interested in shipbuilding lately, not less. They just seem to be too trusting that Hegseth, Duffy and Noem are following commander’s intent.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel allows UN to bring 93 aid trucks into Gaza as international pressure mounts

2025-05-21

[IsraelTimes] UN says aid distributed through ‘existing systems’ though new US-Israeli mechanism set to begin in coming weeks; UN official claims 14,000 babies on verge of death in ’48 hours’

The United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
received permission from Israel for 93 more aid trucks to enter 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 on Tuesday, a spokesperson for its humanitarian office and Israeli authorities said, as international pressure mounted on the government to take immediate steps to alleviate the effects of an 11-week blockade that ended Monday.

Israel had blocked all aid from entering Gaza since March 2, arguing that sufficient humanitarian assistance had entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas
Hamas

..always the voice of sweet reason...
was stealing aid, with the blockade necessary to pressure the terror group to release the dozens of hostages it is holding. In recent weeks, however, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the politicianship that the enclave was on the brink of starvation.

Five trucks of humanitarian aid

, including baby food, entered the Gaza Strip Monday via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, Israel said, marking the first such delivery since the blockade began.

"We have requested and received approval for more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office told a Geneva press briefing on Tuesday.

Later Tuesday, the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced that 93 UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza.

COGAT said the aid delivery came "following the recommendation of professional IDF officials and in accordance with the directive of the political echelon."

The trucks included "flour for bakeries, food for babies, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs," COGAT said. The aid underwent an inspection first by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cleared nine aid trucks on Monday to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, although just five of those actually entered the territory.

"The next step is to collect them, and then they will be distributed through the existing system, the one that has proven itself," said Laerke.

The "existing system" for aid distribution that Laerke referred to is based on several international organizations, including the UN World Food Programme and the World Central Kitchen, which have taken on the task of distribution for much of the 19-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza.

This system is in contrast to a new US- and Israel-backed mechanism, known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is set to begin operating later this month.

Through the GHF, aid will only be distributed from a small number of sites in southern Gaza that are secured by American contractors.

Aid organizations currently operating in Gaza have come out strongly against the GHF plan, arguing that it violates humanitarian principles, forces mass displacement of Paleostinians who aren’t currently living near the humanitarian zone, ignores vulnerable populations, and doesn’t adequately address the humanitarian crisis.

Members of the American company that will distribute aid in the Gaza Strip were photographed during media briefings in Israel armed and wearing bullet-proof vests.

According to a Tuesday report by the Ynet news outlet, the American GHF contractors, which it referred to as "elite combat veterans," have arrived in Israel and are undergoing training for their expected deployment in the Strip.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir slammed the large-scale resumption of aid trucks to the Strip on Tuesday, complaining that the aid is entering Gaza "while our hostages continue to be dragged through the tunnels" and that "there is no way to guarantee [that the supplies] will not end up in the hands of Hamas murderers."

"This is a serious mistake, which is delaying our victory. I call once again on the prime minister to explain to our friends in the White House the implications of this ’aid,’ which only prolongs the war and delays our victory and the return of all our hostages," he said.

Ben Gvir also condemned the decision to allow even five aid trucks to enter Gaza on Monday, asserting that "the prime minister is making a grave mistake with this move, which doesn’t even have a majority."

"We must crush Hamas and not simultaneously give it oxygen," Ben Gvir said in a statement, as other hawkish politicians and groups joined in pillorying the step.

HIGH COURT DEMANDS GOVERNMENT RESPOND TO AID PETITION
Also on Tuesday, the High Court of Justice told the government to respond by May 27 to a petition demanding the immediate facilitation of large supplies of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
group Gisha and others argued in a petition filed this week that the blockade of Gaza since March 2 constitutes a violation of the government’s obligations under Israeli and international law to enable the provision of humanitarian supplies to Gaza’s civilian population.

In response to the petition, Justice Yosef Elron asked the government to update it within a week whether "a change in factual circumstances justifies rejecting the petition."

In the petition filed on Sunday, the human rights groups asserted that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is the worst it has been since the beginning of the war, and pointed to a sharp increase in the cases of child malnutrition as recorded by humanitarian organizations working in Gaza between March and April.

It also pointed out that in the state’s response to a 2024 petition by Gisha on the same issue — which was ultimately dismissed by the court — the government did not deny it had an obligation to provide for the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s civilian population and the court affirmed this obligation in its decision, despite ruling against the motion.

Gisha asserted in its petition that the government’s decision to prohibit the entry of all aid into Gaza violated the orders of the International Court of Justice in the genocide case brought by South Africa.

The organization also pointed out that the Israeli ad hoc judge on the ICJ panel, Aharon Barak, voted in favor of that specific order, despite voting against most of the other court orders against Israel.

"The government’s decision [to block aid] is using a protected civilian population to exert pressure on Hamas and therefore amounts to prohibited collective punishment and even using starvation as a tool of war," alleged Gisha in its petition.

’14,000 BABIES COULD DIE IN NEXT 48 HOURS’ IF NO AID
A top UN official said Tuesday that some 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid does not reach them in time.

"I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours," Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told BBC Radio.

He said that "we need to flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid."

When the program’s host, Anna Foster, said that 14,000 is "an extraordinary figure," Fletcher replied that it is an "utterly chilling" figure.

Asked how the UN arrived at these figures, Fletcher did not specify how the figure was calculated or what it was based on.

"We have strong teams on the ground, and of course many of them have been killed," he said.

He went on, "We still have lots of people on the ground — they’re at the medical centers, they’re at the schools... trying to assess needs."

"But this is what we do, we keep going. It will be frustrating, we will be impeded and run huge risks. But I don’t see a better idea than getting that baby food in," he said.

There was no immediate comment on his claims from the Israeli government or military.

The war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, in which Lions of Islam killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251, who were taken as hostages to Gaza. Since then, more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. That toll includes hundreds of Gazooks killed in strikes since Israel initiated a fresh intensive operation on Friday.

The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 Lions of Islam inside the country during the October 7 onslaught.

Related: UAE says Israel has agreed to allow it to send aid that will feed 15K Gazans
Update from the Jerusalem Post, courtesy of Skidmark at 1:30 p.m. ET: UN retracts aid chief Tom Fletcher’s claim that 14,000 Gazan babies will die in 48 hours without aid: The UN later cited a report that said there could be 14,100 cases of malnutrition in children in Gaza between April 2025 and March 2026, a timeframe of one year not two days.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Six years of Zelensky. 'Servant of the People' is heading to the final of 'Game of Thrones'

2025-05-21

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Denis Davydov

[REGNUM] On the sixth anniversary of Zelensky's presidency, which he vowed in 2019 to serve only one term to "change the system for the future" and then hand Ukraine "into the hands of a new generation of politicians," the country's leading publications are writing about all sorts of things.

About the results of the elections in Romania, about the 17th package of EU sanctions, about how Trump was "charmed by the dictator" in a telephone conversation. But not about the fact that the government has outlasted all conceivable terms, and not about the promises it made.

The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology even made a modest gift by re-rolling the results of 74% trust in Zelensky this week, which were dragged into all the news. With the obvious goal of showing that the 73% of votes received in the presidential elections have not disappeared.

But this time, sociology was done with a bonus: in a telephone survey of 1,010 people, again done “on their own initiative,” respondents were asked to decide which politicians they trusted, which they didn’t, and which they didn’t even know.

It turned out that, in addition to the first person, half of the "Ukrainians" (as the media correctly calls them) trust only the head of the largest volunteer fund, Serhiy Prytula, also a former comedian and TV presenter. All the rest are below 50%, including the famous boxer and mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko, whom, as it turns out, not everyone knows.

According to KIIS, 34% of respondents do not know the “traitor” of the ruling party, Dmytro Razumkov, former speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and head of this very party, and it turns out that 43% of respondents of Kiev sociologists are not familiar with the head of the banned party “Nashi”, Yevgeny Murayev, who gathers a multi-million audience on YouTube.

"And no one from the media wants to ask why Valeriy Zaluzhny has somehow "strangely" started to disappear from the ratings ? Accordingly: if Zaluzhny had been in the poll, then it would have been possible to draw 74%?" - the fugitive ex-MP Igor Mosiychuk, who has repainted himself as a people's oppositionist, is surprised.

But this question is also posed incorrectly.

Six years ago, the young and handsome Zelensky spoke bluntly from the podium during his inauguration: “I want to assure you right away that I am running for one term, to change the system for the sake of the future.” He then planned to hand this system over to a new generation of politicians.

But, as follows from the KIIS table, no new generation has emerged: the main political opponent is ignored, four are “experienced, systemic, pompous politicians” against whom people voted six years ago; one is closely affiliated with the government, two are professional opportunists, and two more fled to avoid being killed.

"I have often been asked: what are you ready to do for the sake of a ceasefire? A strange question. And what are you ready to do for the sake of the lives of your loved ones? I can assure you that I am ready to do anything to ensure that our heroes do not die anymore. And I am certainly not afraid to make difficult decisions, I am ready to lose my popularity, my ratings, and if necessary, I am ready to lose my positions without hesitation so that peace can come. Without losing our territories," Zelensky said in his inauguration speech.

Now, for peace to come, he is not ready for anything at all. Perhaps this is his most amazing transformation - when living people have turned into statistics, into expendable material, into dust on which the former actor walks in blood-stained boots.

Although in May 2019 he claimed that “each of us is a president.” And that his mission is “to do everything, Ukrainians, so that you don’t cry.”

But he went against his promises quite deliberately, disrupting the Minsk Agreements, disrupting the Istanbul talks, disrupting any chances for peace talks now. Under Zelensky, Ukraine has not become, as planned, a country of other opportunities, "where everyone is equal before the law, where there are fair and transparent rules of the game, the same for everyone."

What it has become is best described by news from pretrial detention centers and prisons, where Ukrainian citizens, imprisoned on charges of treason, separatism, collaborationism, etc., are offered for exchange. “ These are businessmen, underage “photographers of arrivals and military facilities,” car arsonists, ideological pro-Russians, and those who were simply set up,” says a source for the publication “Strana.”

And sources of the Regnum news agency add that a price is added to such proposals: if you want to leave, you have to pay. Only this formula is applicable to all categories of citizens who want to live and work: the entire system of power from top to bottom is permeated with unprecedented levels of corruption associated with exemption from mobilization.

From the “land of other opportunities” they flee through inaccessible mountainous terrain, risking their lives, because other routes are already blocked and carefully guarded by an entire army fighting against their own fellow citizens.

"Of course, besides the war, there are many other troubles that make Ukrainians unhappy. These are shocking tariffs, humiliating salaries and pensions, painful prices, non-existent jobs. This is medicine, the improvement of which is spoken about most by those who have never been in a regular hospital with a child. These are mythical Ukrainian roads that are built and repaired only in someone's wild imagination," - this is another quote from the inauguration speech, which then got all TV viewers to the very giblets with its piercing honesty and folk style.

After the presidential term and another year, Ukrainians can see that tariffs have become even more shocking, while salaries remain just as humiliating.

Over the last year alone, the average increase in utility costs has been 20%, and over the 10 years since Maidan, electricity tariffs for the population alone have increased by 700%. At the same time, the average salary in relation to the dollar exchange rate has remained at $380.

Almost 42% of citizens surveyed by the analytical platform Vox Ukraine can only afford food and some household services. About a quarter of Ukrainian individual entrepreneurs are talking about closing in the near future. However, by the end of last year, 17 thousand new millionaires appeared in the country — those who, one way or another, make money from war and evasion of it.

Apparently, they are the “new generation of politicians” to whom Zelensky is ready to hand over power. As well as those who openly call for “killing the Russians,” while “defending Ukraine” by committing linguocide against the Russian language and destroying memorial plaques. Zelensky, who remains a Russian speaker outside of cameras and microphones, no longer cares about the rights of those like him.

Today, he is a classic character in the Game of Thrones series, the finale of which coincided with the inauguration in 2019 and six years later intertwined with the storyline of the Servant of the People series. There was a very clear message that any fighter against a bad system eventually turns into a dragon himself and burns people for the sake of a crazy idea. And according to the laws of the genre, the same ending always awaits madmen - although they are sure that their power is eternal.

And it is unlikely to be any different now, since along with the external war, Zelensky is already clearly getting an internal one.

The “elite”, tired of his manic and hysterical manner of single-handedly managing all processes, formed over the years in the USAID and Soros Foundation system, is already actively promoting the thesis that Zelensky is incapable of managing processes in the face of a long war of attrition. That he is weak and corrupt, and that his “diplomatic line” in negotiations with Russia has failed miserably.

In addition, he has obviously become unwelcome to the US, and Putin is not going to negotiate with someone who has personally insulted him. That is, Zelensky is the main obstacle to the formation of more favorable conditions for a possible peace.

It should be replaced by a "strong hand" or a "government of national unity", the idea of which is actively promoted by former President Petro Poroshenko, who considers himself a much more skilled diplomat. Politicians broadcasting from the outside are also actively talking about a coalition transitional government.

So far, the propaganda machine, disconnected from financial support by a strong-willed decision of the new administration in Washington, has not gone anywhere. Fighting corruption, exposing the "criminal government", promoting a single narrative - this is what they have been learning for years. And showing how the one who promised "not to trade the country for the sake of preserving power" is trading the country can be done without much trouble.

And for this machine to start spinning, grinding “74%” to zero, all that is missing is some kind of precedent, after which all of Zelensky’s plans for a reboot and maintaining power will dissolve, as the Ukrainian national anthem states, “like dew in the sun.”

Link

-Land of the Free

There's A New Law Firm In Washington. It Wants To Take All The Cases Liberals Hate

2025-05-20

[DailyCallerNewsFoundation] A growing conservative law firm led by attorneys who worked with Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk aims to tackle political litigation others won’t touch.

Within the Trump administration, there’s an intentional shift away from reliance on left-leaning “BigLaw” firms, seen through President Donald Trump’s deals securing millions in pro bono work from major firms and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to distance itself from the American Bar Association. Outside, Lex Politica is positioning itself to fill the void in a changing legal landscape.

“The administration and others are catching on,” Lex Politica CEO Chris Gober told the DCNF in an interview. He argued the “hypocrisy” of major firms who don’t apply equal standards in taking on political cases is creating a need for firms like his that are willing to be “unapologetically conservative.”

“They bend over backwards not to offend the sensitivities of those [liberal] lawyers and those clients, and what they’ll tend to do is just refuse to take on cases that are, you know, synonymous or connected with the conservative or Republican movement,” Gober told the DCNF.

Lex Politica’s current clients include close to 20 senators and over 50 members of the House, along with governors, attorneys general and other Republican politicians, Gober says. They have been involved in key issues, such as legal and political considerations related to establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Attorneys Steve Roberts and Jessica Furst Johnson left Holtzman Vogel to join Gober’s effort, as did Christine Fort and Nicole Kelly.

“We are offering what BigLaw can’t – and won’t,” Lex Politica Partner and Political Law Co-Chair Steve Roberts told the DCNF in a statement. “Having worked at an AmLaw 100 firm, I can tell you first hand that BigLaw’s problem with Trump isn’t legal, it’s cultural. While some firms dance around politics, we’re stepping in with a firm that says what it believes and can act in the best strategic and legal interests of our clients.”

Trump’s executive orders against law firms have stirred up controversy and legal challenges. A judge struck down Trump’s order against Perkins Coie, which sought to cancel the firm’s government contracts and attorney security clearances, as unconstitutional in early May.

“I think a lot of these firms would have no problem at all taking on a pro bono case for an organization like a Planned Parenthood, but they will say that they can’t take on some kind of religious liberty case for a company that is out there,” Gober said.

During the presidential campaign, Gober worked with Musk closely to establish America PAC, which he expects will continue to play a critical role in the midterm elections and beyond.

“I do not see it being a one and done,” he said, noting a lot of people had that question during the campaign. “I think we’ve answered a little bit of that…in our involvement with Wisconsin.”

Musk gave $238 million to America PAC to help elect Trump, according to CNN.

Musk’s America PAC spent close to $12.7 million backing conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Judge Brad Schimel, who lost his race in April, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Working with Musk through the PAC was a “new experience,” Gober says, noting some of the unique initiatives they launched, such as the petition program.

“There was definitely a level of creativity with the PAC that you normally don’t see in politics,” he said.

As far as DOGE goes, Gober says he doesn’t see much “fundamentally changing” as Musk scales back his work.

“The fact of the matter is, it was the creation and structure of DOGE that I think is critically important,” Gober said. “Even without him being there, I think you’re left with a lot of the same kind of foundational elements and people with the same kind of mindset as Elon.”

Link

Caribbean-Latin America

Three U.S. State Department Advisors Gunned Down at Taco Stand in Mexico

2025-05-19

[Breitbart] Authorities in Mexico are looking into the targeted killing of two men and the injury to a third who provided training to Mexican police agencies and worked as advisors for the U.S. Department of State and other agencies.

The attack took place on Friday night in the city of Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, where a group of gunmen pulled up and began firing dozens of shots at three men who were eating tacos.

The three men had just finished teaching a series of courses to Jalisco State Police officers.

Breitbart News Foundation confirmed that Chavela and Cajigal worked as advisors for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.

Similarly, Guzman worked with Interpol and various other agencies, including Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office and the Jalisco State Police.

While a motive for the targeted killing has not been revealed, the city where the attack took place is controlled by Cartel Jalisco New Generation, one of the Mexican criminal organizations designated as terrorists by the U.S. Department of State.

Link

Europe

Huge protest in The Hague demands Dutch government draw ‘red line’ on Gaza war

2025-05-19

Literal Red Shirts demonstrating their heartfelt impotence and Jew hate.

[IsraelTimes] Organizers say 100,000 attend demonstration, calling it the Netherlands’ biggest protest in two decades, as new Israeli military offensive begins in war against Hamas terror group

Tens of thousands of red-clad protesters marched through the Dutch capital on Sunday to demand that their government do more to halt Israel’s campaign in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, in what organizers called the country’s biggest demonstration in two decades.

Human rights groups and aid agencies — including Amnesty International, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders — estimated the crowd at more than 100,000 people.

The protest came as Israel launched the first stage of a new offensive in the Strip, dubbed "Gideon’s Chariots," aiming to "seize strategic areas" of the enclave. Hamas
Hamas

..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
-linked officials, who don’t distinguish between civilians and fighters, have reported over 100 people killed over the last 24 hours.

"We hope this is a wake-up call for the government," said teacher Roos Lingbeek, attending the march with her husband and their 12-week-old daughter, Dido, who slept in a carrier as her parents brandished a sign simply reading: "STOP."

David Prins, whose yarmulke was printed with the image of a watermelon — which shares the colors of the Paleostinian flag — told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named he was attending the protest "to speak out against the atrocities." The 64-year-old was standing across the street from the synagogue he attended growing up, which overlooks the field where the demonstration began.

Protesters walked a 3-mile (5-kilometer) loop around the city center of The Hague, to symbolically create the red line they said the government has failed to set.

Videos of the protest captured crowds chanting "From the river to the sea, Paleostine will be free!" — a phrase often interpreted as calling for the elimination of Israel altogether — as well as "Free, free Paleostine." Crowds also chanted, "Starving people is a crime."

The Hague is the site of both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, both of which have seen cases in which Israel and its leaders are accused of violating international law, including by intentionally starving the Gazook population, during the campaign against Hamas.

Israel denies the allegations, pointing to its efforts to avoid civilian casualties, and, for much of the war, to facilitate the flow of aid into the enclave. Israel also points to Hamas’s practice of embedding itself among civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and mosques.

Marjon Rozema, of Amnesty International, told the AP on Sunday, "We are calling on the government to stop political, economic and military support to Israel," while the country continues to block humanitarian aid

to Gaza.

Aid hasn’t entered Gaza since March 1, with Israel arguing that sufficient humanitarian assistance entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas had been stealing much of that aid.

In recent weeks, though, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the political echelon that the enclave is on the brink of starvation. Israel has been involved in creating a new body — the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — to distribute aid in the Strip. The GHF said it would begin to operate in the Strip by the end of the month, though Israel has yet to confirm this.

Dutch policy toward Israel is just one of many issues causing splits in the Netherlands’ fragile coalition government. Hard-right leader Geert Wilders is staunchly pro-Israel and his anti-immigrant Party for Freedom holds the largest number of seats in the country’s parliament.

Last week, however, foreign affairs minister Caspar Veldkamp of the minority center-right VVD party urged the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
to review a trade agreement with Israel, arguing that its blockade of humanitarian aid violated international law. Wilders hit back, denouncing the call as an "affront to cabinet policy."

The war in Gaza began October 7, 2023, when some 5,000 Hamas-led bully boyz invaded southern Israel from the Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Fifty-eight captives remain — including 20 who are believed to be alive, and three about whom the government has grave concerns —and 35 who have been confirmed dead by the military.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Head of controversial Israel-backed Gaza aid group says ‘plan isn’t perfect, but feeds people’

2025-05-18

[IsraelTimes] Jake Wood of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation tells CNN other aid organizations ‘face a choice. This is the mechanism by which aid can be distributed. Are you willing to participate?’

The executive director of the newly established 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...
Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), Jake Wood, told CNN
...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
on Saturday that conditions in Gaza are "clearly urgent," but that he expected positive updates on bringing in aid in the coming days. Wood couldn’t confirm when or how many aid trucks Israel would allow into Gaza.

The US- and Israel-backed aid organization, established to manage a new model for distributing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, announced on Wednesday that it would begin operating in the enclave by the end of the month and that Israel would lift its more than two-month blockade in the interim.

There was no Israeli confirmation of the announcement, but an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that one would be made in the coming days.

GHF is an organization that will oversee the distribution of humanitarian aid

in Gaza in a manner that does not allow its diversion by Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
. It was established in close coordination with Israel amid mounting mistrust between Jerusalem and UN-backed aid groups that have been operating in the Strip to date.

GHF is backed by the Trump administration, but the rollout has been rocky, with many international organizations refusing to cooperate with it due to the strict conditions Israel is placing on its operations.

Among those restrictions was a limit on aid distribution sites to just four, all located in southern Gaza. Even GHF acknowledged in a memo earlier in May that the sites would only be enough to, at best, feed 60% of Gaza’s population.

Accordingly, GHF said in its inaugural Wednesday statement that it had asked and received Israeli approval for additional "Safe Distribution Sites" (SDSs) to be established throughout Gaza. The statement didn’t say how many SDSs Israel agreed to build. As of last week, only one SDS was in the process of construction by the Israel Defense Forces.

Wood agreed that the current number of distribution sites was "not sufficient" but added that it was "hard to say" if the foundation could do more without support from UN agencies.

"This plan is not perfect, but this plan will be feeding people by the end of the month, in a scenario where no one has allowed aid in over the course of the last 10 weeks," Wood, former CEO of the Team Rubicon disaster relief group, said in his first interview since starting the foundation.

"Ultimately, the community is going to face a choice. This is going to be the mechanism by which aid can be distributed in Gaza. Are you willing to participate? The answer is going to be, you know, pretty critical to whether or not this ramps up to sufficiently feed 2.2 million people in a very desperate situation."

Wood said he thinks the humanitarian community’s opposition to the foundation is due to "misinformation" about an Israeli role or involvement in the distribution, or claims that data would be shared with Jerusalem.

"I would not have participated in a plan that did those same things. However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
that is not the plan," Wood said, adding that he "unequivocally ... will not be a part of anything that forcibly dislocates or displaces the Paleostinian population."

GHF said it would launch operations by the end of May, but acknowledged that it would take time before it would be fully operational. Accordingly, the foundation said Israel has agreed "to allow the flow of transitional aid into Gaza under existing mechanisms" until the construction of "Safe Distribution Sites" is complete.

GHF said it secured the concession from Israel after Wood sent a letter to the Israeli government that outlined the organization’s requirements for operation.

The organization said this week it was in the "final stages" of securing enough food from aid organizations already operating in Gaza to box 300 million meals within the first 90 days of operation.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, the enormous newt was trying to decide if Gloria was edible...
Trump officials have been meeting in recent days with representatives from UN agencies and other international aid organizations, pressuring them to cooperate with the plan and, in at least one case, threatening to cut funding from groups that refuse.

Two organizations that have agreed to join the effort are American security firms UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions, who will be tasked with running logistics and security at the SDSs so that the IDF does not need to be directly involved, the Israeli official told The Times of Israel, adding that the military will only secure the perimeter of a still-being-built humanitarian zone where the SDSs will be located.

Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza since March 2, arguing that enough assistance entered Gaza during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas was diverting aid from civilians. Nonetheless, the IDF has warned the political echelon that the Strip is on the brink of starvation, the Israeli official told The Times of Israel.

In his letter to the Israeli government, Wood sought to address some of the concerns. He said the foundation would not share any personally identifiable information of aid recipients with Israel.

Wood also asked in the letter to the IDF to "identify and deconflict sufficient locations in northern Gaza capable of hosting GHF-operated secure distribution sites that can be made operational within thirty days."

The GHF statement did not address all of the criticism and unanswered questions that the international community has about the group, including who would fund the work and how much involvement the US, Israel, or any other government or military would have in controlling life-saving aid for Paleostinian civilians.

Link

Science & Technology

Turkish NMS 4x4 showcases next-gen firepower at Lithuania's Live Firing Show 2025

2025-05-17

[TURKIYETODAY] A successful example of integration, combining the competencies of Türkiye's defense industry, was showcased at a live fire demonstration in Europe.

Platforms participating in the Live Firing Show 2025 held in Lithuania, where modern defense technologies are demonstrated in real-time, drew significant attention with their capabilities. Organized by the National Defense Foundation, the event is considered one of the most prominent defense and security gatherings in the Baltic region, bringing together defense planners, military leaders, active-duty soldiers, and strategic partners from numerous countries.

This year, the Live Firing Show once again went beyond static displays, offering participants the opportunity to test and observe advanced defense systems in real-world operational scenarios.

Nurol Makina, which had previously demonstrated the successful integration of the 120mm Ragnarok system developed by Rheinmetall Norway onto its Ejder Yalçın 4x4 platform, participated this year with its NMS 4x4 vehicle. The NMS 4x4 was presented in the version produced and delivered according to Estonia’s requirements.

At the event, the NMS 4x4 was equipped with the 30x113 mm VENOM LR low-recoil medium-caliber cannon and the TRAKON 30 remote-controlled weapon station developed by Samsun Yurt Savunma (SYS) Group, along with the Ilgar I loitering munition.

It sounds like they are boasting about their mad skillz with nuts and bolts, attaching together the inventions of others…

During its demonstration, the NMS 4x4 displayed superior mobility and high performance, executing successful firings with both the 30x113 mm cannon and the loitering munition.

As near as I can tell, every round missed the target.

Empire Stormtroopers making advance orders

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

The Israeli government has agreed to resume humanitarian aid delivery to Palestinians in Gaza

2025-05-15

[X]

BREAKING: The Israeli government has agreed to resume humanitarian aid delivery to Palestinians in Gaza.

Source: Axios
— Clash Report (@clashreport) May 14, 2025

New aid group: We’ll start Gaza operations by June; Israel to lift blockade in interim

[IsraelTimes] Organization says Israel will establish more distribution sites throughout Strip after initially only agreeing to 4 in the south; US still working to secure key backing from other NGOs

A US-backed aid organization established to manage a new model for distributing humanitarian assistance in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
announced Wednesday that it would begin operating in the enclave by the end of the month and that Israel would lift its over two-month blockade in the interim.

There was no Israeli confirmation of the latter announcement by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), but an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that one would be made in the coming days.

GHF is an organization established earlier this year in close coordination with Israel to oversee the distribution of humanitarian aid

in Gaza in a manner that does not allow its diversion by Hamas
Hamas

..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
amid mounting mistrust between Jerusalem and UN-backed aid groups who have been operating in the Strip to date.

GHF is backed by the Trump administration, but it’s rollout has been rocky, with many international organizations refusing to cooperate due to the strict conditions Israel is placing on its operations.

Among those restrictions was a limit on aid distribution sites to just four all located in southern Gaza. Even GHF acknowledged in a memo earlier this month that this would only be enough to at best feed 60% of Gaza’s population.

Accordingly, GHF said in its inaugural Wednesday statement that it asked and received Israeli approval for additional "Safe Distribution Sites" (SDSs) to be established throughout Gaza. The statement doesn’t say how many SDSs Israel agreed to build. As of last week, only one SDS was in the process of construction by the IDF.

GHF said it would launch operations by the end of May, but acknowledged that it would take time before it would take time before it would be fully operational. Accordingly, the foundation said Israel has agreed "to allow the flow of transitional aid into Gaza under existing mechanisms" until the construction of SDSs is complete.

GHF said it secured the concession from Israel after it sent a letter to the Israeli government that outlined the organization’s requirements for operation. The letter was sent by Jake Wood, the founder and former CEO of the Team Rubicon disaster relief group, who has agreed to come on as GHF’s executive director.

"There is no time to wait for ideal conditions. We have a responsibility to act and to do it without compromising our values," Wood said in a statement.

"Today we are one step closer to doing just that. GHF’s neutral, cooperative, and secure model will allow NGOs and humanitarian groups to operate safely, with minimized aid interdiction, resulting in maximum life-saving impact," he added.

It is unclear which aid organizations will cooperate with GHF, though. UN-backed aid organizations currently operating in Gaza issued a joint statement earlier this month saying they would not join the effort, arguing that Israel’s conditions on GHF would leave vulnerable populations without humanitarian assistance.

Humanitarian workers criticized the initial plan to have just four distribution sites in Gaza, along with other criteria only allowing one family representative chosen by Israel to pick up a roughly 40-lb box of assistance once every two weeks. They also argued that the requirement to then carry the box of aid long distances still exposed recipients to Hamas looting.

However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
the GHF statement said it was in the "final stages" of securing enough food from aid organizations already operating in Gaza to box 300 million meals within the first 90 days of operation.

Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, a triangular dorsal fin appeared in the water. Then another...
Trump officials have been meetings in recent days with representatives from UN agencies and other international aid organizations, pressuring them to cooperate with the plan and — in at least one case — threatening to cut funding from groups that refuse.

Two organizations that have agreed to join the effort are American security firms UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions, who will be tasked with running logistics and security at the SDSs so that the IDF does not need to be directly involved, the Israeli official told The Times of Israel, adding that the military will only secure the perimeter of a still-being-built humanitarian zone where the SDSs will be located.

Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza since March 2, arguing that enough assistance entered Gaza during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas was diverting aid from civilians. Nonetheless, the IDF has warned the political echelon that the Strip is on the brink of starvation, the Israeli official told The Times of Israel.

In his letter to the Israeli government, Wood sought to address some of the concerns. He said the foundation would not share any personally identifiable information of aid recipients with Israel.

Wood also asked in the letter for the IDF to "identify and deconflict sufficient locations in northern Gaza capable of hosting GHF-operated secure distribution sites that can be made operational within thirty days."

Israel is planning to launch a massive military operation as early as Friday that aims to reoccupy and permanently hold onto the entire Strip, while squeezing the entire population into a small humanitarian zone in the southern Strip that makes up less than a quarter of the enclave’s territory.

Wood asked Israel to facilitate the flow of enough aid "using existing modalities" now until GHF’s infrastructure is fully operational, saying this is essential to "alleviate the ongoing humanitarian pressure, as well as decrease the pressure on the distribution sites during our first days of operation."

The GHF statement identified several US military veterans, former humanitarian coordinators and security contractors that it said would lead the delivery effort. However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
a GHF memo distributed to potential donor countries and organizations included names of several individuals it claimed would sit on its board, even though they had never agreed to do so, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The GHF statement did not all of the criticism and unanswered questions that the international community has about the group, including who would fund the work and how much involvement the US, Israel or any other government or military would have in controlling life-saving aid for Paleostinian civilians.

Last week, the UAE turned down a request to bankroll GHF, a bigwig familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

The rejection marked a major blow to the initiative, as Israel hoped that Emirati support would help convince other countries and international organizations to follow suit.

Emirati officials told their Israeli counterparts that the UAE would not be able to provide such financial support because the GHF initiative — as it currently stands — does not properly address the humanitarian crisis, the official said, confirming an Axios report.

The official stressed that Abu Dhabi’s position could change if the initiative is adapted to properly meet the moment. It was not immediately clear if the changes Wood said he had secured would be enough to convince the UAE to change its mind.

Link

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