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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Air Force Global Strike Command Halts Use of Sig Sauer M18 Pistol
2025-07-24
[Breitbart] A July 21, 2025, memo for Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) makes clear all AFGSC personnel are to pause use of Sig Sauer’s M18 pistol.

The M18 is a Sig Sauer P320 variant.

The memo comes in response to an “incident at F.E. Warren AFB.” Personnel are to be armed with M4 rifles instead of the M18 pistol while the investigation is ongoing.
Rifle instead of handgun? That must have been quite an incident.
Inspections of “all Wing-assigned M18 weapons systems” will occur during the first part of the investigation, and those inspections shall be carried out by “Combat arms inspectors.”

F.E. Warren AFB reported that “an active-duty Airman assigned to the 90th Security Forces Squadron, 90th Missile Wing, died on base while on duty in the early morning [of] July 20, 2025.”

Jason Wright, vice president of marketing at Sig Sauer, issued a statement to Breitbart News regarding the Air Force memo, saying, “Our hearts are with the service members and families impacted by the recent reported event at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base. We have offered assistance to the U.S. Military as they investigate the incident and remain willing to help in furtherance of their ongoing investigation.”
Related:
Sig Sauer 06/17/2025 Police Find 'WMDs' at Home of Heavily Armed PA Man Arrested at PA 'No Kings' Rally
Sig Sauer 04/22/2024 Texas lawman final exam
Sig Sauer 04/07/2024 The Army Has Finally Fielded Its Next Generation Squad Weapons

Link


-Land of the Free
Trump Plans to Stop Central Bank Digital Currency Strategy
2025-07-23
[ZeroHedge] A central bank digital currency (CBDC) will not be allowed in the United States, President Donald Trump said at a White House event on July 18, promising to take legislative action to prevent such a situation.

“I also remain fully committed to my pledge, never to allow the creation of a central bank digital currency in America,” Trump said. “My first week in office, I signed an executive order to ban the creation of a CBDC in the United States. And very soon, I look forward to signing legislation that will codify and make it a permanent law.”

Trump’s comments came amid the signing of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act into law.

During a campaign event in January last year, Trump had said that once he became president, “I will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency. Such a currency would give the federal government absolute control of your money,” which would be “a dangerous threat to freedom.”

On Jan. 23 this year, the first week after becoming president, Trump signed the executive order banning CBDCs.

“Agencies are hereby prohibited from undertaking any action to establish, issue, or promote CBDCs within the jurisdiction of the United States or abroad,” the order said.

Globally, various nations are at different stages when it comes to their approach towards CBDCs and introducing such currencies into their economy.

According to a July update from the Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker from the Atlantic Council, of the 137 countries or currency unions tracked by the group, three have already launched a CBDC—Nigeria, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.

Moreover, 49 nations or currency unions are piloting CBDCs, 36 are researching such a currency, and 20 are engaged in the development of such a currency.

In addition, 21 are in an inactive status, while two have canceled launching a central bank digital currency, according to the analysis.

GENIUS ACT
Stablecoins are a type of crypto asset that tracks a reference asset, such as currency or commodities, on a 1:1 basis. For instance, if a stablecoin references the U.S. dollar, the issuer of stablecoins will offer one stablecoin for every dollar.

The GENIUS Act establishes a regulatory framework for stablecoins.

The Act requires stablecoins to have “100 percent reserve backing with liquid assets like U.S. dollars or short-term Treasuries,” according to a July 18 White House Fact Sheet. It also requires issuers of stablecoins to “make monthly, public disclosures of the composition of reserves.”
Related:
Central bank digital currency: 2024-06-14 Saudi leaves the petrodollar system: A global finance paradigm shift
Central bank digital currency: 2024-03-04 Could April 8 Be a Day of Terror and the Start of Financial Endgame?
Central bank digital currency: 2023-10-07 House members reintroduce bill to stop Biden admin from imposing central bank digital currency
Link


Iraq
Iraqi pro-Israel activist speaks up
2025-07-22
[X] The change is that he dares speak out publically.
…my work will do just that, helping build the bridge of peace.
May Iraq 🇮🇶 joins the Abraham Accords next, it will be my dream come true.

Please share the word.
Hayder Alasadi
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Soldier killed in blast, as IDF pushes into central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah for 1st time
2025-07-22
[IsraelTimes] Staff Sgt. Amit Cohen killed in Khan Younis; hostage families alarmed by new ground offensive; undercover troops said to nab Hamas health official in Rafah

An Israeli soldier was killed by a kaboom in southern 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...
on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced, as troops began ground operations in the Deir al-Balah area in the Strip’s center for the first time since the beginning of the war.

The soldier was named as Staff Sgt. Amit Cohen, 19, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, from Holon.

According to a preliminary IDF investigation, Cohen was killed by a blast from Israeli military munitions that detonated inside a building in Khan Younis. The explosion also seriously maimed an officer in the 13th Battalion, the IDF said. The military said it was further investigating the cause of the earth-shattering kaboom, including the possibility that it was an "operational accident."

Cohen’s death brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 455.

Earlier Monday, media in Gaza reported that IDF tanks had pushed into the southern and eastern districts of Deir al-Balah. It is one of the few places in the Strip where the IDF has, until now, not operated with ground troops because it believed Hamas to be holding hostages there, though it has conducted Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s in the city. Hamas has vowed to execute captives if the IDF approaches.

As a matter of policy, the IDF has said it avoids ground operations in areas of Gaza where it believes Hamas to be holding hostages or cannot rule out the presence of captives, in order not to endanger them.

The push into the southeast of Deir al-Balah was being led by troops of the Golani Infantry Brigade, along with tanks and combat engineers, according to military sources. The ground operations came after Paleostinian reports of artillery shelling and airstrikes overnight and on Monday morning in the area.

A day earlier, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for several zones in the southwest of Deir al-Balah, where many Paleostinians had sought refuge. According to United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
figures, between 50,000 and 80,000 people were in the area when Sunday’s evacuation order was issued.

Sunday’s announcement told civilians to head south to the Mawasi area on the coast, where at least 600,000 Paleostinians were already massed.

The expanded military operation commenced as global criticism mounted over the war and the US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. At the same time, negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release deal were ongoing in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
. Should those talks prove fruitless, the IDF is proposing a further intensification of the fighting, even as it acknowledges burnout among troops after more than 21 months of war.

Deir al-Balah resident Abdullah Abu Saleem, 48, told AFP that "during the night, we heard huge and powerful explosions shaking the area, as if it were an earthquake," which he attributed to "artillery shelling in the south-central part of Deir al-Balah and the southeastern area."

"We are extremely worried and fearful that the army is planning a ground operation in Deir al-Balah and the central camps where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering," he said.
Why? They told you where they will be. The IDF is very trustworthy about such things.
Local medics said tank shelling in the area hit houses and mosques, killing at least three Palestinians and wounding several others. At least 130 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,000 wounded by Israeli gunfire and military strikes across the territory in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Monday.

The ministry’s figures cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Also on Monday, Marwan al-Hams, an official in the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, was reportedly detained by an undercover Israeli force outside the field hospital of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip. Hams is the director of Yusuf al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah, and also serves as the head of all field hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas health ministry said that Hams was on his way to visit the ICRC hospital in Rafah when an Israeli force “abducted” him after opening fire, killing one person and wounding another civilian nearby.

Medics said the person killed was a local journalist who was filming an interview with Hams when the incident happened.

An ICRC spokesperson said the ICRC hospital had admitted and treated patients injured in the incident but would not comment further on their status in order to protect their privacy. It said it was “very concerned about safety and security” around the field hospital.

The IDF did not immediately comment on the incident.

Negotiations over a 60-day ceasefire that would see the release of about half the hostages are continuing in Qatar, though difficulties reaching Hamas’s Gaza leadership are reportedly slowing the process. Should those talks fail, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was drawing up plans for an expansion of the fighting. A Channel 12 news report that quoted sources familiar with the proposal described it as “the plan for taking over Gaza,” and said it was an alternative to the controversial “humanitarian city” in Rafah pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, which Zamir opposes.

Global criticism of the war, and reports of a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, mounted on Monday. In a call for the war to end, 25 countries zeroed in on criticism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began operating aid distribution sites in May under American and Israeli backing.
25 governments out themselves, which will not give them their preferred result.
Hundreds of people have been reported killed around the sites, according to Hamas officials. Israel has acknowledged deaths near aid sites and has confirmed that troops have fired warning shots when crowds have gotten too close, but says the death tolls, which mostly come from Hamas-run authorities, are exaggerated.

The UN’s World Food Program, in a rare condemnation, said a crowd surrounding its aid convoy in northern Gaza on Sunday “came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire.” It said “countless lives” were lost. Hamas authorities reported nearly 80 dead from Israeli gunfire in the area of the convoy, which is unrelated to the GHF aid distribution sites.

Responding to the reports, the IDF said it had fired “warning shots to remove an immediate threat posed to the troops” in northern Gaza, but denied the steep death toll, insisting that the “reported number of casualties does not align with the existing information.”

An Israeli reservist told the Wall Street Journal that soldiers fired at aid-seeking Palestinians who veered off approved paths even though some of them were carrying white flags. The report, published Monday, said that Israeli soldiers fired on Palestinians who strayed from the paths or came too close to the troops.

“We have an unwritten rule that if you are worried and they get too close and you see that it could be something that puts you and your team at risk, you don’t take that risk,” the reservist said.

A spokesman for the GHF, Chapin Fay, said Monday that it was willing to deliver food to Palestinians for the UN, which he says “has given up distribution altogether.” He added that “desperation levels” in Gaza are rising.

“We can get their aid into Gaza safely and securely and have offered to help repeatedly, but they continue to reject our offers,” Fay said in a media briefing. The UN has argued that it will not cooperate with the GHF, as its distribution mechanism has placed Palestinians at risk.

[X]

Footage shows renewed protests in Gaza against Hamas, in support of ceasefire
[IsraelTimes] Media outlets in Gaza published footage showing several dozen people, including children, protesting earlier today in the Khan Younis area against Hamas and in support of ending the war. In the footage, protesters can be heard chanting “Hamas out.”

One demonstrator is seen holding a sign reading “Stop the war,” while another sign says “Stop exploiting the blood.”

The demonstration appears to be the first in Gaza against the terror group, since it violently suppressed a series of protests in March and in April.



Related:
Deir al-Balah: 2025-07-20 Director of Nuseirat police among those killed in Gaza strike, 98 dead in past 24 hours
Deir al-Balah: 2025-07-11 Permanent ceasefire hinges on demilitarising Gaza: Israel
Deir al-Balah: 2025-07-11 Five killed in bombing at Gaza school
Link


Great White North
Pilot with 'ideological motive' steals small aircraft and disrupts major international airport operations
2025-07-19
[FoxNews] Police apprehended 39-year-old Shaheer Cassim after he safely landed the aircraft following tense air traffic suspension

A stolen plane triggered a major security incident at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) on Tuesday afternoon, temporarily halting operations and forcing multiple flights to reroute.

Just before 1:30 p.m. local time on July 15, a "security incident" involving a small private plane led to a temporary halt in airport operations, according to a statement from YVR. The plane, flying within YVR’s airspace, forced nine incoming flights to reroute to different airports.

At approximately 1:45 p.m., following a 39-minute air traffic suspension, the Cessna 172, operated by a single individual, safely landed. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) then apprehended the pilot.

In an air traffic control recording obtained by the Vancouver Sun via LiveATC.net, a controller alerted other pilots: "We do have an aircraft that has been hijacked and is in the vicinity of the airport ... just in case anything starts heading toward [you], you have the ability to move at your discretion."

"They are currently flying overhead," a voice from air traffic control can be heard saying. "At this time, I have no further updates. We have the aircraft in visual range—please stand by for further instructions."

Later, air traffic controllers instructed grounded aircraft to remain on standby during the ongoing situation:

"We’re not certain what will happen next. The aircraft continues to circle above, and its intentions remain unknown. For now, we are holding position."

RCMP later confirmed that the aircraft had been taken from Victoria International Airport and had flown around 40 miles into Vancouver’s airspace.

A spokesperson for Vancouver Airport Authority said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the issue involving a plane from the Victoria Flying Club had been resolved without injury.

"Safety and security are our top priorities, and we continually review our processes and procedures in service of our operation, our passengers, and our airline customers," the statement read. "Following any significant situation or emergency operations activation and as part of our standard procedures, we debrief on what took place and make recommendations for changes or improvements where necessary."

One eyewitness, speaking to CBC, described seeing the low-flying aircraft and suspected something was wrong.

"A few minutes later, the plane made a second pass, circling in a wide clockwise turn," eyewitness Paul Heeny told CBC.

On July 16, RCMP revealed the identity of the pilot as 39-year-old Shaheer Cassim, who now faces a hijacking charge. Authorities allege he threatened a flight instructor at YYJ before taking control of the aircraft.

RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Tammy Lobb said in a press release that the suspect appeared to have an "ideological motive" aimed at disrupting air traffic. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.

Police noted that the investigation is still in its early stages and remains active.

Suspect charged with hijacking in YVR incident used to be a pilot

[GlobalNews] The suspect charged with hijacking in connection with an incident at Vancouver International Airport on Tuesday was a pilot more than a decade ago.

Shaheer Cassim, 39, has been charged with hijacking after being accused of stealing a small plane from the Victoria Flying Club, flying it over the Salish Sea and eventually landing it at YVR.

Cassim made a brief court appearance on Wednesday afternoon and remains in custody.

A Facebook page of someone with the same name and image describes himself as a “messenger of Allah.”

“I am the messiah sent to save humanity from climate change and usher in an era of world peace.”

This person also writes about climate change, saying the sea ice is going to disappear within two years and humans will eventually go extinct.

The Facebook profile says he was employed from 2008 to 2010 by now-defunct KD Air, a small airline based on Vancouver Island.

The airline’s former owners, Diana and Lars Banke, said in an interview that Cassim was one of the smartest and best pilots they ever worked with, calling him a fast learner who was highly intelligent.

But Lars Banke said Cassim left the airline after getting “bored” and then went to medical school. He also said Cassim believed the world was coming to an end.

Cassim has been involved in climate activism in the past and in 2012 he held a news conference in Victoria at the start of a cross-country bicycle trek to raise awareness about global warming.

Under the Criminal Code of Canada, a charge of hijacking could mean a sentence of life in prison. The Prosecution Service of Canada has also indicated this charge could come with terrorism implications.

An order has been made to determine if Cassim is fit to stand trial.
Related:
Vancouver International Airport: 2010-08-13 Controversial Copt with $60m bounty visits Vancouver
Vancouver International Airport: 2010-05-16 Cathay Pacific plane from HK escorted to Vancouver
Vancouver International Airport: 2008-02-10 Air India bombing convict completes sentence, stays in jail
Link


Africa North
Libya: Armed clashes reported in Najila between militia forces and Dbeibah's defense units
2025-07-18
[X]
Link


Government Corruption
Zelensky started distributing profitable assets to Americans from Odessa
2025-07-16
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Alexander Shchegolev

[REGNUM] The Supreme Court of Ukraine has decided to transfer the largest grain terminal of the Odessa port, Olympex, to the ownership of American investment funds. It is capable of handling up to 5 million tons of cargo per year, which is almost a quarter of the entire pre-war cargo turnover of the port as a whole.

Before the start of the SVO, grain terminals were one of the most profitable types of port business in Ukraine. The export of grain, a product that requires minimal investment to grow and yields maximum profit per unit of investment, was steadily increasing, and the capacity for its storage and loading onto ships was becoming more and more in demand.

And the construction of such a terminal requires significantly less investment than, for example, the construction of a container or oil and fat terminal: several silos, conveyors for loading, some additional equipment - all that remains is to cut the red ribbon, and you can start operating the facility! An excellent business that provides an impressive income and quickly pays for itself.

Previously, the Olymprex terminal was owned by the GNT Group of businessmen Sergey Groza and Vladimir Naumenko. They began creating the terminal back in 2003, and in 2006 the terminal was put into operation. Subsequently, it was expanded and modernized several times: for example, in 2015, they took out a loan of 53 million dollars from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for these purposes.

In 2019, GNT Group planned the next stage of modernization, for which they agreed on investments with Argentem Creek Partners and Innovatus Capital Partners - the program consisted of several loans for a total of $93 million.

It was assumed that after the modernization work, the volumes of transshipment, and therefore profits, would increase, which would allow the loan to be quickly repaid, as money borrowed from other creditors during previous modernization cycles had been repeatedly repaid.

But the war began, and this business plan went down the drain: cargo flows fell almost to zero, and so did income. Accordingly, it was not possible to repay the loan, but the Americans did not try to understand the situation of the Ukrainian businessmen and demanded that the debt be repaid in kind.

An important nuance: the market value of the Olymprex terminal before the war, according to the most conservative estimates, was 150 million US dollars, and according to less conservative estimates, up to 300 million.

To put it simply, the Americans decided to cleverly take advantage of the situation in order to get a strategic enterprise at their disposal on the cheap.

For a long time, the situation was traditionally dragged out in Ukrainian courts, but in July 2025, events began to develop rapidly: having begun consideration of the case on July 4, on July 9, after only three sessions, the Supreme Court ruled that the terminal should be transferred to the ownership of the Americans.

Even according to official statistics, the average consideration of commercial cases in the Supreme Court takes 3-6 months, but in reality, in complex and complicated disputes and in cases where large sums of money are at stake, it can drag on for years.

Here the court made a final decision in just five days!

The Financial Times writes that the Americans owe the case's swift consideration to the very clear position of the Ukrainian President's Office, which "provided coordination support for the process." The publication also adds that "this will test Kyiv's ability to attract capital to restore the economy in the fourth year of the war."

In fact, there is no talk of any “attracting capital”: what is evident is a banal raid on the part of an American company, on whose side the official authorities of the country acted.

Moreover, they acted quite harshly and decisively: for example, one of the owners of GNT Group, Vladimir Naumenko, was arrested in June 2025 and placed in pretrial detention on charges of fraud.

The story there, by the way, is rather murky: Naumenko allegedly pulled off a number of fraudulent schemes to remove grain from the terminal, which was supposed to be there as part of the collateral for loans. However, this grain was removed and sold, and was recorded in the documents as "spoiled".

Plus, according to rumors, GNT Group participated in the schemes of the "king of Odessa smuggling" Vadim Alperin, whom Vladimir Zelensky intended to imprison at the dawn of his presidency. Grain bought from farmers for cash was exported through the terminal using forged documents. And these are just a few examples of what the terminal owners could be charged with.

However, such things are normal practice in Ukraine (or at least were before the war), and it is difficult to find an operator who has not engaged in such things. Many of them have been subject to various types of inspections, and even criminal cases have been opened, but such a thing as a terminal owner being put in jail for such things has never happened. True, American money was not involved in other cases…

And this takes the entire story of the Olympex terminal far beyond a simple economic dispute: it looks like a large-scale campaign is starting in Ukraine to distribute the remaining strategic assets at Kyiv’s disposal to “Western partners.”

For example, just recently it was announced that there were plans to transfer the container and universal terminals of the Illichivsk port, right next to Odessa, to Polish companies for a 40-year concession.

It should be understood that there are not many truly valuable assets left in Ukraine – ports, as well as agricultural land.

For example, next to Olymprekh there is another large private grain terminal - Brooklyn-Kyiv, and next to it there is another, smaller one - Novotech. Another whole group of terminals is located in neighboring Yuzhny: in addition to the giant TIS, there are also terminals MV Cargo, Delta-Vilmar, Global Ocean Link Terminal and others. True, there have been no conflicts with investors around these terminals for quite a long time, but, as they say, if there is a man, there will be an article!

Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Five Kurdish security forces killed by ISIS in northeast Syria: War monitor
2025-07-15
[Rudaw] Five members of the Kurdish-led internal security forces (Asayish) were killed in northeast Syria (Rojava) in an attack carried out by 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) turbans, a war monitor reported on Monday, adding that the incident underscores a surge in ISIS activity targeting both civilians and security forces in Kurdish-controlled areas.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the five Asayish members "were killed in Hasaka province when ISIS cells attacked their security checkpoint on the al-Dashisha road in southern Hasaka countryside.

"The assailants fled to an unknown location," SOHR added.

The UK-based war monitor characterized the attack as part of a broader ISIS campaign aimed at "reorganizing its ranks and creating a state of chaos."

Since the beginning of 2025, SOHR says it has "documented 126 ISIS operations" in areas administered by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES).

"These operations included armed assaults, assassinations and bombings," resulting in the deaths of 51 individuals - 34 fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), nine civilians, and eight ISIS members.

The US-backed SDF was instrumental in defeating ISIS in 2019 and capturing thousands of the group’s fighters. The force continues to operate in coordination with hundreds of US troops as part of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.

Both the SDF and Asayish are also primarily responsible for securing the Roj and al-Hol camps in Rojava. These camps house thousands of individuals suspected of ISIS ties and are widely viewed as potential breeding grounds for hard boy ideology.

Since its defeat in 2019, ISIS has been trying to regain its strength, particularly after a coalition of opposition groups led by the now-dissolved 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) on December 8 toppled the regime of Syrian dictator Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
SDF chief Mazloum Abdi has repeatedly warned of the growing threat posed by ISIS. In mid- January, he urged the "need to intensify efforts to continue the fight against ISIS if we don’t want to see it make a comeback."
Link


Home Front: Politix
NYC mayor feuds with comptroller over Israel bonds investments
2025-07-15
[IsraelTimes] Eric Adams accuses Brad Lander of divesting from Israel in line with BDS policies; comptroller says decision was apolitical, city has hundreds of millions in other Israeli assets

New York City Mayor Eric Adams
...Hizonner da Mare of Noo Yawk. As a Manchurian candidate, Hizonner was all in favor of law and order and that kind of stuff. Once in office, a bunch of his friends found cushy jobs with the city, the windows kept getting broken, and Soros-funded DA Alvin Bragg remained right where he was. Most people comfort themselves with the thought that he's not Bill di Blasio but that's pretty small comfort with kids who actually go to school getting bumped off while standing in front of them. But he's a Dem, so the rubes will vote for him next election too, so he's what they deserve...
on Sunday sent a letter to city comptroller Brad Lander, accusing Lander of effectively disinvesting from Israel bonds and linking the policy to the boycott campaign targeting Israel.

Lander rejected the accusations in a letter to Adams’s office, confirming that the city no longer held Israel bonds, but saying the decision against reinvesting in the bonds was in line with his office’s guidelines and not political.

Lander, as comptroller, is the highest-ranking Jew in the city government and identifies as a progressive Zionist. He partnered with New York City Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a harsh critic of Israel, during the city’s Democratic party mayoral campaign. Mamdani is a longtime supporter of the BDS campaign targeting Israel.

Mamdani won the campaign and is now the party’s nominee for the mayoral general election in November, when he will face off against Adams, who is running as an independent. Adams, who is not Jewish, is a staunch supporter of Israel who has leaned into the Jewish vote during the early stages of his reelection campaign.

Adams’s first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, sent a letter Sunday on behalf of the Adams administration requesting a review of decision-making and "effective withdrawal" of New York City pension funds from Israel bonds. As comptroller, Lander is responsible for the city’s financial policy and acts as a check on the mayor. Adams and Lander have long had an adversarial relationship.

The Adams letter said "the public record is incomplete" regarding Lander’s Israel bonds investment policies. The mayor’s office said it appeared the city’s pension systems had held tens of millions of dollars in the bonds for decades, resulting in healthy returns with low risk. Under Lander, the bond holdings dropped to less than $1.2 million in the NYPD pension fund, the letter said, accusing Lander of a "sustained and coordinated decision" against reinvestment that had hurt the city’s investment returns because the Israeli bonds outperformed other similar assets.

Disputing Lander’s previous defense, that he had limited investment in all foreign debt, the mayor’s office said that Israel was the only country the city had bought bonds from, according to a copy of the letter Adams’s office shared with The Times of Israel.

"This policy appears to target only Israel bonds. This divestment, occurring amid a global ’Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)’ campaign against Israel, appears to be in furtherance of that BDS campaign," the letter said.

Adams’s office requested all documents and communications surrounding the Israel bonds policy, including communications with third parties. The letter gave Lander one week to supply the information "because this matter implicates the financial security of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers."

Lander disputed the mayor’s accusations in a response shared with The Times of Israel on Monday.

Lander mocked the mayor’s administration, saying it was "in poor position to question others about their legal and ethical obligations," an apparent reference to corruption allegations.

He confirmed that New York City had not reinvested in Israel bonds when they matured, does not hold any Israel bonds, and that Israel had been the only country the city had held bonds in. He said the purchase of the assets in the first place had been politically motivated, though, and at odds with his financial responsibilities.

"Prior Comptrollers chose to depart from standard cash management best practices to purchase Israel bonds," the letter said. "There was no credit process in place, no risk management, and no documentation for how purchases were approved."

The investment was "a political decision, not a fiduciary one," the letter said. The city had held more than $39 million in Israel bonds when Lander took office in January 2022. The bonds matured a year later, and the comptroller’s office had decided not to reinvest, in line with guidelines.

The city holds other Israeli assets, Lander said, countering the BDS charge. In May 2025, during the most recent audit, the city’s public pension systems held more than $315 million in Israeli assets, mostly common stocks.

Lander said that, under his stewardship, for the third consecutive year, the city’s investments had outperformed the 7% return targeted by the New York State legislature.

"We treat investments in Israel as we treat investments in any other country. No better, and no worse. The BDS Movement asks investors to treat Israel worse than other countries; I oppose this effort," Lander said. "You appear to be asking that the City’s pension funds treat Israel better than all other countries. That would also be politically motivated, and inconsistent with fiduciary duty."

He accused Adams of seeking to "exploit division" with the charges, adding, "I reject these cynical efforts."

During the mayoral primary, Lander and Mamdani cross-endorsed each other, meaning they asked their supporters to rank the other candidate second in the city’s ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to select up to five candidates in order of preference. The cross-endorsement was a boost to both campaigns, but primarily Mamdani, because Lander was eliminated as a candidate during the vote counting. His supporters helped Mamdani win the election.

The runner-up was former New York governor Andrew Sonny Cuomo, who had appealed to Jewish voters and highlighted his support for Israel throughout the campaign. Cuomo has registered as an independent and will be on the ballot again for the general election.

Mamdani caused repeated controversies during the campaign with his anti-Israel rhetoric, especially his defense of the phrase "Globalize the intifada."
Related:
Eric Adams 07/02/2025 Trump threatens to arrest New York City mayoral candidate Mamdani
Eric Adams 06/29/2025 Ex-Hochul and Cuomo Aide Arrested As Chinese Agent, Kash Patel Calls for Full DOJ Investigation
Eric Adams 06/10/2025 Jewish groups pull out of San Diego Pride festival over anti-Israel singer’s performance

Related:
Brad Lander 06/25/2025 NYC Democratic party primary: Pro-Israel Cuomo concedes to socialist Mamdani in mayoral race, ditto for Brooklyn council member, but there are already questions about irregularities
Brad Lander 06/22/2025 ICE Agents Now Face 500% Increase in Assaults While Trying to Arrest Illegal Aliens
Brad Lander 06/05/2025 Schism in the Democratic Party: NYC mayoral candidates spar over Israel’s right to exist as Jewish state in 1st debate

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Abbas urges Hamas to free hostages, says it won’t rule postwar Gaza
2025-07-14
[IsraelTimes] Meeting former UK PM Tony Blair in Amman, PA president calls on terror group to cede its arms and let PA take over governing Strip

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....>
urged Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
to release the hostages it is holding and hand over its weapons to the PA, stressing that the terror group "will not rule 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" after the war there ends.

In a meeting in Amman on Sunday with British former prime minister Tony Blair, Abbas also called for the release of Paleostinian prisoners from Israeli jails, an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and unhindered entry of humanitarian aid to the Strip, according to the PA’s official news agency WAFA.

Abbas also called for the PA to be given control of the enclave, a notion long rejected by Israel. He further stressed the need to implement a two-state solution to the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict based on the Arab Peace Initiative and called for an international peace conference to be held in New York, the report said.

Though Abbas has in the past called for the hostages to be released, an end to the war, and for the PA to takeover governing Gaza, it was only last month that, for the first time, he condemned the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel during which the hostages were kidnapped. The attack, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, triggered the ongoing war.

At the time, Abbas also said that Hamas must not be permitted to rule Gaza and should hand over its weapons to the Paleostinian Security Services.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 kidnapped by Hamas-led murderous Moslems on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.

Hamas seized control of Gaza from the PA in 2007 during a bloody coup. The terror group and Abba’s Fatah secularist party, which dominates the West Bank-based PA, have remained at odds ever since.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to vanquish Hamas, has thus far ruled out any role for the PA in Gaza, but failed to advance any alternative amid pressure from his far-right partners, who want to establish settlements in the Strip.

The PA is largely seen as ineffectual and corrupt. It has not held general elections since 2006, and presidential elections since 2005.

Blair left office in 2007, then became an envoy for the Middle East Quartet — the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
, the United States, the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, and Russia — set up in 2002 to mediate peace between Israel and the Paleostinians. He established the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a non-profit organization, in 2016. In January 2024, the institute denied as "a lie" a Hebrew media report linking him to talks for the resettlement of Paleostinians from Gaza to other countries.

US President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
has touted a highly disputed initiative to relocate Paleostinians out of the coastal enclave to other countries. Netanyahu has openly backed the plan, which has been flatly rejected by Paleostinians.
Related:
Tony Blair 07/05/2025 Former UK Labour leader Corbyn, ousted over antisemitism, to found new party
Tony Blair 05/11/2025 Farage Calls for 'Halt' on Immigration, Making UK 'Less British Every Day'
Tony Blair 05/01/2025 Workless 'Lost Generation' Suffering Mental Health Issues

Related:
Mahmoud Abbas 07/03/2025 Threats or nuisance? After years of cooperation, some Gaza clans rise up against Hamas
Mahmoud Abbas 07/02/2025 Report: Removing Hamas From Power A Condition For Saudi Normalization
Mahmoud Abbas 06/28/2025 Weakened Hamas faces rebel clans, doubts over Tehran’s backing after Israel-Iran war

Link


International-UN-NGOs
Diah Permata Megawati Soekarno Putri, former president of Indonesia, addressed the Global Civilizations Dialogue
2025-07-12
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
…addressed the Global Civilizations Dialogue Ministerial Meeting in Beijing on Thursday. She praised China as a model for development, highlighting its transformation from a participant in the Bandung Conference to a major global power. She also emphasized that China's development path demonstrates that countries in the Global South are fully capable of becoming a central force in shaping the global order.
The Global Civilizations Dialogue Ministerial Meeting kicked off in Beijing on Thursday, with focus on the importance of cultural diversity and mutual learning in advancing human progress. Themed "Safeguarding Diversity of Human Civilizations for World Peace and Development," the two-day event drew over 600 guests from 140 countries and regions. #CivilizationsDialogue #Indonesia #china #GlobalSouth #BandungConference

She's the one who who assured us there wasn't any danger of al-Qaeda in Indonesia.
Related:
Megawati 10/03/2015 Nork Diplomats Desperate as Party Anniversary Looms
Megawati 02/20/2010 Indonesia Cuts Terror
Megawati 07/28/2009 Kalla files lawsuit over result
Link


-Lurid Crime Tales-
WSJ beats the FBI and DOJ at releasing Epstein List names
2025-07-11
This Political Sex Torn won't go away. There is too much reader / voter interest. Eventually the DC Swamp and Global Elites will either start turning on each other or they will pick a small collection of scapegoats to serve up.
Or both.
From the archives dated Nov. 3, 2023
Link



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