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International-UN-NGOs
Watchdog finds UNRWA workers praised Hamas massacres in internal Telegram channel
2024-01-11
[IsraelTimes] An investigation by the UN Watch group finds that United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
workers 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 an 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...
used an internal Telegram channel, which was meant to facilitate their work, to praise the Hamas
...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
massacres on October 7.

The probe finds that many of the workers at the United Nations Relief Works Agency — the UN body for Paleostinian refugees — explicitly praised the onslaught in which some 3,000 hard boyz crossed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages, most of them civilians.

"This is the motherlode of UNRWA teachers’ incitement to Jihadi terrorism," says Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental organization that monitors the world body.

The report provides examples, including UNRWA teacher Waseem Ula who shared a post of a suicide bomb vest wired with explosives, with the caption: "Wait, sons of Judaism."

Another UNRWA teacher, Abdallah Mehjez, explicitly called on civilians not to heed IDF evacuation orders and remain as human shields for Hamas.
Related:
UN Watch: 2024-01-07 UN Women says it’s handling code of conduct violations by staffer for anti-Israel posts internally
UN Watch: 2023-03-15 Report finds incitement against Israel still prevalent in UNRWA school material
UN Watch: 2023-01-08 70% of UN rights council members are non-democracies, says watchdog
Related:
United Nations Relief Works Agency: 2008-08-23 Middle East: Border closures impact people of Gaza, says UN official
United Nations Relief Works Agency: 2007-11-09 Ban Ki-Moon orders probe after rockets fired at Israel from UNRWA school
United Nations Relief Works Agency: 2007-07-19 Gaza's economy on verge of collapse
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF arrests 3 suspects in West Bank raids, confiscates weaponry
2024-01-07
[IsraelTimes] Israeli troops arrested several suspects and confiscated weaponry during counterterror raids in the West Bank, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The army says that during an hours-long operation in the Paleostinian town of Qatanna, soldiers interrogated dozens of suspects, two of whom were arrested. A statement from the IDF says that troops also confiscated arms and military gear.

Another suspect was arrested in the town of Bal’a, where the military says troops found dozens of bottles with kaboom and funds designated for terror activities. Raids were also carried out in Nablus and other towns.

No soldiers were maimed during the operations.

Since the October 7 atrocities by Hamas
...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
, Israeli forces have arrested some 2,600 suspects in the West Bank, including 1,300 alleged Hamas operatives.
They’re starting to triple stack them in the prisons, and contemplating building more.
Related:
Qatanna: 2023-09-21 Palestinian killed during clashes with IDF near Jericho, bringing daily toll to 6
Qatanna: 2022-08-24 IDF, police arrest 18 Palestinians, seize weapons in overnight West Bank raids
Qatanna: 2009-11-18 Ban Ki-Moon: Israel must stop blockade of Gaza
Related:
Nablus: 2023-12-31 Israel investigates reports of tunneling in West Bank as locals fear imminent Oct. 7 style attack
Nablus: 2023-12-22 Hamas says Israel's goal of eliminating it 'doomed to fail'
Nablus: 2023-12-09 Six Palestinians said killed as IDF arrests 2 terror suspects in northern West Bank
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian killed during clashes with IDF near Jericho, bringing daily toll to 6
2023-09-21
[IsraelTimes] PA health ministry reports death of 19-year-old from Aqabat Jabr, where Israeli forces have carried out numerous raids since February terror shooting by resident of camp

A Paleostinian man was reportedly killed early Wednesday during festivities between button men and Israeli forces near the West Bank city of Jericho.

The Paleostinian Authority’s health ministry said the 19-year-old was fatally shot during an IDF operation in the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp, without further elaborating.

He was later named on Paleostinian social media as Durgham al-Akhras.

The Israel Defense Forces later said troops opened fire after Paleostinians hurled bombs at them them while carrying out an arrest raid in in Aqabat Jabr, one of several across the West Bank overnight.

"The soldiers fired at a terrorist who threw an explosive toward them and neutralized him," a statement from the military said.

No IDF troops were hurt.

Israeli security forces have carried out numerous operations in the camp this year after Israeli-American Elan Ganeles was killed in late February in a nearby terror shooting.

The accused terrorist and driver both hailed from Aqabat Jabr and security forces have moved to demolish the former’s home.

Along with the operation in Aqabat Jabr, the IDF said troops operated in Hebron and numerous other Paleostinian towns, arresting 12 suspects and seizing numerous weapons and ammunition.

According to the military, soldiers were also met with violence during a raid in Qatanna, where they used riot dispersal means and had gun sex in response to Paleostinians hurling bricks from roofs and shooting fireworks at them. No troops were maimed there either.

Violence has surged across the region over the past year and a half, with a rise in Paleostinian shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and troops in the West Bank, near-nightly arrest raids by the military, and an uptick in Dire Revenge attacks by krazed killer Jewish settlers against Paleostinians.

Paleostinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank since the beginning of the year have left 27 civilians and three soldiers dead, and several others seriously maimed.

According to a tally by The Times of Israel, 186 West Bank and East Jerusalem Paleostinians have been killed during the same period — the majority during festivities with security forces or while carrying out attacks, but some were uninvolved civilians and others were killed under unclear circumstances, including by armed Israeli settlers.
Related:
Jericho: 2023-09-06 Police officer lightly hurt in Jordan Valley shooting; Palestinian gunman killed
Jericho: 2023-09-02 ‘It's like 1948': Israel cleanses vast West Bank region of nearly all Palestinians
Jericho: 2023-08-16 Good Morning
Related:
Aqabat Jabr refugee camp: 2023-08-16 Police: Undercover officers kill two Palestinian gunmen during raid near Jericho
Aqabat Jabr refugee camp: 2023-05-25 6 Palestinians said wounded in IDF raid near Jericho
Aqabat Jabr refugee camp: 2023-05-02 Palestinian teen killed, six others hurt during IDF raid near Jericho
Related:
Elan Ganeles: 2023-08-16 Police: Undercover officers kill two Palestinian gunmen during raid near Jericho
Elan Ganeles: 2023-05-25 6 Palestinians said wounded in IDF raid near Jericho
Elan Ganeles: 2023-05-16 Charges filed against Palestinians accused of killing Israeli-American Elan Ganeles
Related:
Qatanna: 2022-08-24 IDF, police arrest 18 Palestinians, seize weapons in overnight West Bank raids
Qatanna: 2009-11-18 Ban Ki-Moon: Israel must stop blockade of Gaza
Related:
Jenin: 2023-09-15 Terrorist who stabbed Border Police officer in neck gets 20 years in prison
Jenin: 2023-09-13 California quietly disavows medical misinformation law before courts can strike it down
Jenin: 2023-09-12 US said to transfer armored vehicles, weapons to PA to clamp down on West Bank terror
Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: August 16th, 2022
2022-08-17
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Korrespondent] 23:07 There are not enough ships to transport Ukrainian grain, and most of what can be exported does not end up in distressed countries. Ukraine also suspects Russia of exporting stolen grain through the Crimean ports. For more details, see the material The Grain Treaty - Does it bring results?

23:01 The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Kiev "cannot guarantee the safe passage of the IAEA to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant," alternative routes are "the subject of further negotiations."

22:58 During his visit to Ukraine, Erdogan intends to discuss steps to end the war "by diplomatic means", Anadolu reports. In particular, it is planned to discuss the export of Ukrainian grain to world markets. Erdogan will visit Lviv on a one-day working visit at the invitation of Zelensky. The presidents will discuss all aspects of Turkish-Ukrainian relations at the level of strategic partnership. Also during the visit, the leaders will meet with UN Secretary General Guterres.

22:13 Zelensky, in an evening video message, commented on the explosions in Crimea and urged Ukrainians to stay away from Russian military facilities: "Every day and night we see new reports of explosions in the territory temporarily occupied by the occupiers. And now I ask all our people in Crimea, in other regions in southern Ukraine, in the occupied areas of Donbass and Kharkiv region, be very careful. Please do not approach the military facilities of the Russian army and all those places where they store ammunition and equipment, where they keep their headquarters."

According to the president, the causes of explosions in the occupied territory can be "very different" - in particular, if we quote the definition of the occupiers themselves, "bungling." "But they all have the same meaning: the destruction of the logistics of the occupiers, their ammunition, military and other equipment, command posts - saves the lives of our people. The less the occupiers have the opportunity to do evil and kill Ukrainians, the faster we can end this war by liberating our land And the queue to leave Crimea for Russia across the bridge proves that the vast majority of citizens of the terrorist state already understand or at least feel that Crimea is not a place for them," Zelensky stressed.

21:55 Minister of Education and Science Serhiy Shkarlet said that 41% of educational institutions are ready to start the offline educational process.

21:38 Zaluzhny said that he spoke by phone with the Chief of Defense Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces, General Wayne Donald Eyre: "The situation at the front is tense, but completely controlled. The location of missile systems along the state border from the side of the Republic of Belarus, including at the airfield, causes concern Zyabrovka".

According to Zaluzhny, the enemy continues to advance along the entire front line, while carrying out about 700-800 shelling of Ukrainian positions daily, using from 40 to 60 thousand ammunition. The main efforts are focused on ousting Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk region. The most tense situation is now in the Avdiivka-Peski-Marinka direction.

21:00 The Russians launched a missile attack on a military airfield in the Zhytomyr region, the Air Command Center reports. According to the command, this afternoon the occupiers lifted planes from the territory of Belarus and, trying to disguise aviation activity as training flights, launched a missile strike with two X-59 guided air missiles, presumably from Su-34 fighter-bombers. As a result, the runway and several vehicles were damaged. The personnel were in hiding, so they were not injured.

20:29 Zelensky and his team met with representatives of the group of world leaders The Elders - former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and ex-President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos Calderon. "Our important goal is to ensure that the topic of the war in Ukraine remains in the global information space. Support for Ukraine and our common victory depend on this," Yermak commented.

20:04 UN Secretary General António Guterres will visit Lviv on Thursday, August 18, and Odessa on Friday, his office said. The visit will be devoted to discussing the "product deal", the situation with the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and the mission for the pre-trial detention center in Yelenovka. It is also expected that the UN Secretary General will meet with the presidents of Ukraine and Turkey.

19:46 Since the beginning of this day, the Ukrainian military has repulsed the offensive of Russian aggressors in the Donbass, as well as near Novogrigorievka in the Yuzhnobugsky direction, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports in an evening report .

19:08 In Kherson, the Russian military has set up a torture room in a reception center for children - about 60-70 residents of the city are kept there, said Stanislav Troshin, deputy head of the district council. According to him, people are kept in appalling conditions. Kherson mayor Igor Kolykhaev is also being held there.

18:51 In the 40 days that have passed since the capture of Lisichansk and the settlements around it, the Russian army has not advanced even 10 kilometers in any of the directions of the 1000-kilometer front. For more details, see the article Dead End in War .

18:33 The Finnish Foreign Ministry has officially announced that since the beginning of September it has been halving the number of applications received from Russians for Schengen visas.

18:07 Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov announced another attack on the Saltovsky district. "Preliminary - no casualties, but with a fire. I ask everyone to be in shelters," he wrote.

17:59 The Rada adopted as a basis a bill banning salutes, fireworks and firecrackers. The document proposes to ban the use, sale and transfer of fireworks, salutes and firecrackers. The ban does not apply to the use of pyrotechnics by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Police and emergency services.

17:27 Zelensky said that he had spoken on the phone with Danish Prime Minister Matte Frederiksen: "Thanked for the productive meeting of defense ministers and the new assistance package from Denmark. He noted Denmark's leadership in the restoration of the Mykolaiv region. We discussed increasing financial support for Ukraine and strengthening sanctions against the Russian Federation."

17:03 If the authorities had warned the Ukrainians about the upcoming Russian invasion back in October, then Ukraine would have held out for three days, Zelensky said in an interview with The Washington Post. According to him, the silence of the authorities about the plans of the Russians made it possible to avoid mass emigration, a recession in the economy and, on the whole, to keep the country: “Nothing would be left. There would be a political war within the country, because we would not be able to hold out on 5-7 billion dollars a month. We would not have been able to get out of this situation, and the country would have been in chaos."

16:59 Orekhov, Zaporozhye region, was under massive Russian shelling today. According to the head of the OVA, Alexander Starukh, one person died, six were injured, including three employees of the energy company who were engaged in the restoration of networks. Dozens of private houses and civilian infrastructure were damaged.

16:55 The Russian army again fired at the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region this afternoon. As a result of a strike on residential areas of Nikopol from Gradov and cannon artillery, at least four people were injured, one of them was hospitalized, said the head of the OVA, Valentin Reznichenko.

16:40 Zelensky, in an interview with The Washington Post, called on the West to close the borders for Russians and impose an embargo on energy resources to prevent the preparation of "referendums" in the occupied Ukrainian territories: "There is nothing in these sanctions that would take away property or human life. I At the beginning, he said that I consider the closure of borders to be the most important sanctions, because they take away foreign territory. Well, let them live in their own world until they change their philosophy."

16:11 Zelensky said that he had spoken on the phone with Macron: “I informed about the situation at the front, Russia’s nuclear terrorism at the ZNPP. He thanked France for significant defense support. We discussed strengthening macro-financial assistance to Ukraine and challenges in the field of food security. We should increase sanctions pressure on RF".

15:52 Missiles were fired at the Zhytomyr region from the territory of Belarus, there are no casualties, the head of the UVA Vitaly Bunechko said.

15:19 A series of explosions occurred on the occupied peninsula on August 16. Moscow claims sabotage. More details - in the material The war came to the Crimea .

15:16 The mayor of Nikopol Yevgeny Yevtushenko urged citizens to leave the streets, the threat of shelling has been declared in the city.

15:00 The FSB of the Russian Federation stated that on August 4, 9 and 12, Ukrainian saboteurs allegedly blew up power transmission towers through which the Kursk NPP supplies industry, transport, social infrastructure and the population of the Kursk region and neighboring regions. The actions of the saboteurs "led to disruption of the technological process of the operation of the nuclear power plant", a criminal case has been initiated on the terrorist attack, and the search for "criminals" is underway.

14:53 The fictitious trial in the "DPR" over foreign citizens is a gross violation of the rules of warfare, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said: "The fictitious trial of Russia in the Donbass over foreign citizens serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a humanitarian worker is insignificant. This is still one proof that Moscow is flagrantly violating the rules of war. International humanitarian law must apply to all prisoners of war and civilian detainees."

14:31 The New York Times writes, citing an anonymous Ukrainian official, that behind the explosions at a military base in Maysky, Dzhankoy district, there is an "elite Ukrainian unit" that operated behind enemy lines.

14:22 Ukraine has the right to use weapons from Western partners, in particular from Germany and Sweden, to protect its territorial integrity. This was stated by the heads of government of Germany Olaf Scholz and Sweden Magdalena Andersson at a joint press conference in Stockholm. Answering the question whether the Armed Forces of Ukraine can use the weapons provided by Germany and Sweden to return the Crimea, Scholz said: "We support Ukraine with the supplied weapons. These weapons are so that Ukraine can use them to protect its territorial integrity and sovereignty."

14:08 There were about 50 units of various equipment at the military base near Dzhankoy, StratCom reports. According to preliminary data, at least eight S-400 air defense systems, three S-300 air defense systems and five Pantsir-S1 air defense systems were deployed there. Also in the area of ​​the Azovskaya railway station, unloading was carried out: 17 armored combat vehicles, ten self-propelled guns Gvozdika, seven self-propelled guns Msta-S, two self-propelled guns Pion and three MLRS BM-21 Grad, as well as ammunition. In addition, 440 TPK - transport and launch containers were concentrated at the airfield. They were planned to be sent to the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions for shelling Nikolaev and Zaporozhye, "especially on the eve and immediately on August 24."

14:02 Aksenov announced the introduction of a state of emergency of a regional nature after the "detonation of ammunition" in the Dzhankoy region.

13:55 Zelensky changed the composition of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander, introducing Vasily Malyuk (first deputy head of the SBU), Igor Tantsyura (commander of the Troop Forces) and Viktor Khorenko (commander of the Special Operations Forces) into it. The President also approved the Commander of the National Guard Yuri Lebed as part of the Headquarters. Ivan Bakanov, Grigory Galagan and Yuri Galushkin were excluded from the composition.

13:46 The Rada has changed the preventive measure procedure for spotters - now it is impossible to get out on bail before the trial, People's Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak said.

13:44 Residents of the village of Gvardeyskoye in the occupied Crimea report explosions and puffs of black smoke at a military airbase, Kommersant writes. The Dozhd TV channel clarifies that a mixed aviation regiment of military unit 46451 is based at the airbase in Gvardeisky.

13:41 Russia is increasing the number of military helicopters around Ukraine, Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said: "The enemy is pulling up aviation equipment from within the country. Currently, there are about 430 enemy aircraft around Ukraine, but the group of helicopters has grown, about 360 helicopters." In early February, he said, there were about 400 planes and 250 helicopters around Ukraine.

13:39 The head of the Zhytomyr OVA, Vitaliy Bunechko, announced two explosions as a result of a missile attack on the territory of the Zhytomyr region.

13:33 Huge queues have formed to leave Crimea, Tamila Tasheva, the presidential representative in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, said: "The war came to Crimea like this" unexpectedly ". The invaders and colonialists are already fleeing Crimea. Today, after another careless handling of ammunition by the invaders, it detonated in the Dzhankoy district "People are hiding in basements. There are huge queues to leave Crimea." Tasheva urged Ukrainians in Crimea to be careful, hide in equipped places or their basements, and prepare everything they need.

13:21 The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine commented on the information that Belarus is preparing for a massive missile attack on Ukraine. Yuri Ignat, a spokesman for the Air Force Command, noted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are constantly monitoring the movement of troops and the transportation of ammunition.

"This threat has always existed, since Russia has been using the territory of the Republic of Belarus from the first days of full-scale aggression, striking from there ... Therefore, we must, of course, prepare. A big national holiday is coming soon - Independence Day. The enemy always uses such dates for "congratulations", and we must be ready for this," Ignat emphasized and added that the Air Force already lives in 24/7 readiness mode.

12:57 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that the explosions near Dzhankoy were the result of sabotage , a military warehouse was damaged. Damage was also caused to a number of civilian facilities, including "power lines, a power plant, a railway track, as well as a number of residential buildings," the department added.

12:51 Macron will discuss the situation around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant with Zelensky today, French media report.

12:48 Another 19 bodies of dead defenders have been returned to Ukraine, the Ministry of Reintegration reported.

12:36 The transformer station near Dzhankoy, where a fire broke out today, could be used to supply electricity from the Zaporozhye NPP to Crimea, Podolyak said on the air of the telethon: “What is a transformer station? electricity to Crimea. I think this is karmic retribution. What is stolen does not bring prosperity."

Speaking about the explosion at the ammunition depot near Dzhankoy, Podolyak noted that, "based on the level of intelligence of the Russian army, the number of such excesses will grow in the Crimea."

12:13 In the event of an accident at the Zaporozhye NPP, about 400 thousand people are subject to forced evacuation, said the head of the Zaporizhzhya OVA Oleksandr Starukh: "The situation is dangerous, and not only for the Zaporozhye region. If we take a 50 km zone of mandatory evacuation as a result of a possible accident at a nuclear power plant, then this more than 200 thousand in our region and 200 thousand in the Dnipropetrovsk region, including the cities of Nikopol, Marganets, Energodar, Vasilievka, Dneprorudne and others." Starukh added that it is very difficult to fully implement measures of civil protection of the population, because part of the territory has been occupied.

12:03 Canada has frozen $320 million worth of Russian assets as part of economic sanctions against the Russian Federation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which monitors compliance with the sanctions, said.

11:54 The people of Kiev returned about 1,000 weapons from 6,500 machine guns, which were massively issued at the beginning of the Russian invasion. The rest of the weapons are registered, said the head of the capital's National Police, Ivan Vyhovsky: "Now there is a question of creating a unified register for the circulation of weapons, it requires a legislative settlement, this will allow an inventory of the weapons that Ukrainians have in their hands."

11:29 Five ships with a cargo of corn and wheat left the ports of Chernomorsk and Yuzhny today, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. Also, the Joint Coordinating Center will inspect four vessels that will go to Ukrainian ports.

11:15 Yermak commented on the explosions in Dzhankoy: "Operation" demilitarization "in the jewelry style of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue until the complete de-occupation of Ukrainian territories. Our soldiers are the best sponsors of good mood. Crimea is Ukraine."

11:13 Russian propagandist Zemfira Suleymanova, who allegedly was engaged in "humanitarian aid" and realized her "dream of becoming a real military journalist," died in Donbas. According to Russian media, she was blown up by a mine.

11:09 "Authorities" of Crimea reported that as a result of the "dispersal of ammunition" a section of the railway in the Dzhankoy area was damaged, restoration work is underway.

11:06 In Estonia, the T-34 tank is being dismantled in Narva. It will be removed from the pedestal and delivered to the Estonian War Museum in Viimsi, the country's authorities said.

10:56 Aksenov, after the explosions near Dzhankoy, announced a reduction in the route of trains to Crimea - they will stop near Feodosia, and people will be taken by buses further along the peninsula.

10:47 Putin said that the US is "trying to drag out" the conflict in Ukraine. Shoigu, in turn, added that in Ukraine, Russian servicemen are confronted by "the combined forces of the West, which control the leadership of this country in a hybrid war against Russia."

10:40 Finland will reduce the number of visas issued to Russian tourists by 5-10 times, said Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. According to him, priority in issuing entry documents will be given to those who want to visit Finland for study, work or family reasons. Now Finland daily accepts about a thousand applications for a visa from citizens of the Russian Federation.

10:36 Shoigu said that Russia does not intend to use chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine. According to him, from a military point of view, "there is no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine to achieve the goals."

10:17 In Mariupol, due to a shortage of teachers, teachers were banned from leaving the city, they are not issued passes. Moreover, according to Mayor's adviser Pyotr Andryushchenko, facts of "persuasion" to return to work through beatings are becoming widespread: "Individual patrols visit teachers at home and explain the need for cooperation with butts. All this happens with the assistance and under the accompaniment of collaborators."

10:02 Podolyak about the next explosions in Crimea: "The morning near Dzhankoy began with explosions. Let me remind you once again that the Crimea of ​​a normal country is about the Black Sea, mountains, recreation and tourism. And the Crimea occupied by Russian militants is about explosions of warehouses and growth mortal danger for invaders and thieves. Demilitarization in action".

09:45 In the Poltava region, on the territory of the Lubny territorial community, firing practice will be held on August 16 and 17, warned the head of the OVA Dmitry Lunin.

09:28 In the occupied Melitopol, two explosions were recorded this morning in the area of ​​​​the substation, after which the broadcasting of on-air television seized by the Russians stopped. According to preliminary information, the transit cable was damaged, Mayor Ivan Fedorov said.

09:24 British intelligence believes that the threat to Odessa from the sea has been largely neutralized, and the limited effectiveness of the Russian Black Sea Fleet undermines the overall Russian invasion strategy. That means Ukraine could divert resources to put pressure on Russian ground forces in another region, analysts say.

09:20 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that in the morning in the Maiskoye area in Crimea, "a fire broke out on the territory of a bunded area for temporary storage of ammunition in a military unit." As a result of the fire, the stored ammunition detonated. "There are no serious injuries," the cause of the fire is being investigated, the department added.

Aksyonov said that two civilians were injured as a result of the "detonation".

09:16 The head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, reports that the hit was on the military unit of the Russians in the village of Azov, near Maisky. Meanwhile, Russian media write that about 2,000 people were evacuated from the village of Mayskoye. According to local "authorities", "the detonation of ammunition occurred" in the village of Mayskoye, Dzhankoysky district of Crimea, at about 6:00.

09:12 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the enemy on the morning of August 16. The enemy suffered the greatest losses in the Donetsk direction.

  • personnel - about 43,900 (+150) people liquidated,

  • tanks - 1880 (+4),

  • armored combat vehicles - 4152 (+11),

  • artillery systems - 989 (+4),

  • MLRS - 263 (+2),

  • air defense systems - 136 (+0),

  • aircraft - 233 (+0),

  • helicopters - 196 (+1),

  • UAV operational-tactical level - 790 (+3),

  • cruise missiles - 190 (+3),

  • ships/boats - 15 (+0),

  • automotive equipment and tankers - 3049 (+5),

  • special equipment - 92 (+0).

08:51 In the Dnipropetrovsk region this night, the Russian army attacked two districts - Nikopol and Krivoy Rog. In Krivoy Rog, the settlements of Maryanskoye and Velikaya Kostromka of the Zelenodolsk community were affected, two people were injured, said the head of the OVA, Valentin Reznichenko. In the Krasnogrigoryevsk community of the Nikopol district, private houses, warehouses with grain and equipment of a local agricultural enterprise were damaged. The gas pipeline and the power line were interrupted.

08:49 Near Dzhankoy, the evacuation of the population began due to the detonation of ammunition after the explosion in the village of Mayskoye, Russian media report, citing local officials.

08:46 As a result of night attacks in Bereznegovatoe settlement of the Nikolaev area one person was lost, one more is wounded, houses are destroyed, the head of OVA Vitaly Kim reported. In Pervomaisk, as a result of the shelling, an educational institution and private houses were damaged; in the village of Shirokoye, a house was damaged.

08:44 The mayor of Kramatorsk Alexander Goncharenko reported on the night shelling of the city. The private sector suffered, houses were destroyed. According to preliminary information, no casualties.

08:42 In the Donetsk region over the past day, one civilian died from Russian shelling - in Konstantinovka. Two more people were injured, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the OVA, said.

08:39 The mayor of Slavyansk, Vadim Lyakh, announced night strikes on the city. According to him, several neighborhoods were affected. A quarry was on fire in Lesnoy, the building of the hostel of the Pedagogical University was damaged.

08:31 In Crimea, according to local media, there were two emergency situations at once - a fire at a transformer substation in Dzhankoy and a detonation at an ammunition depot in the village of Maiskoye. "Head" of Crimea Aksyonov said that he went to the scene in the village of Maiskoye near Dzhankoy, he did not specify the details.

07:40 The Russians are attacking in the direction of the Lisichansk Oil Refinery - Ivano-Daryevka, as well as in the direction of Solodka - Novomikhailovka, where they have partial success, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports in the morning summary .

06:26 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) writes about a split in the pro-Russian forces fighting in Ukraine. In particular, the militias of the so-called "LPR" refused to continue fighting in the Donetsk region and complained about the grueling pace of the offensive outside the Luhansk region.

Over the past 24 hours, Russian forces have carried out several limited ground assaults northwest of Slovyansk, as well as numerous offensive operations east and southeast of Seversk and northeast and southeast of Bakhmut. They continued offensive operations to the northwest, west and southwest of Donetsk, made a limited ground assault north of Kharkov.

05:38 In the event of a nuclear war between Russia and the United States, more than 5 billion people will die, scientists at Rutgers University in the US state of New Jersey have calculated. In particular, 360 million people will die from the explosions themselves, and more than 5 billion will become victims of starvation caused by nuclear winter and climate change. The remnants of the population will be provided with a minimum amount of food for survival at the rate of 1911 kilocalories per day.

04:11 The Russians fired at night on five of the nine districts of Kharkov - Shevchenkovsky and Kievsky (actually the very center of the city), Saltovsky, Industrial and Kholodnogorsky, Mayor Igor Terekhov said. According to him, such a radius of impact of missiles on the city "was not there for a long time." There is currently no information about the victims, in some cases there is destruction of infrastructure and other facilities, roads.

01:03 Six more M109 howitzers that recently arrived in Ukraine from Latvia are already showing results on the battlefield, Reznikov said.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian forces fingered for executions in Aleppo
2016-12-14
[Al Arabiya] Syrian regime forces and sectarian militias carried out on Monday nearly two hundred executions in Aleppo, which included women and children, according to eyewitnesses from within the city, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.

A firing squad from Bashar al-Assad’s forces and militiamen also executed medical staff.

According to activists on the ground, Hezbollah militia carried out most of the mass executions in the war-torn city.

Sources confirmed to Al Arabiya that militias loyal to the regime had also burned nine children and four women.

Meanwhile, the White Helmets in Aleppo reported more than 90 bodies under the rubble that had not been recovered.

Civilian Evacuation
The legal adviser of the Free Syrian Army, Osama Abu Zayd, appealed to the international community to help provide assistance for the evacuation of civilians and guarantee their freedom and safety, stressing that the FSA was willing to exit if there were international guarantees for them.

Zayd stressed that the Syrian regime forces are forcing those fleeing from Aleppo to fight on their side.

UN ‘alarmed’
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is alarmed by reports of atrocities against “a large number” of civilians, including women and children, in recent hours in the Syrian city of Aleppo, his spokesman said Monday.

“While stressing that the United Nations is not able to independently verify these reports, the secretary-general is conveying his grave concern to the relevant parties,” said spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Ban has asked his envoy Staffan de Mistura to follow up.

“The United Nations underlines the obligation of all parties on the ground to protect civilians and abide by international humanitarian and human rights law,” Dujarric said.

“This is particularly the responsibility of the Syrian government and its allies,” notably Russia and Iran, he added.

Assad Aleppo take over
Syria’s army and its allies have taken full control of all Aleppo districts abandoned by rebels during their retreat in the city, a Syrian military source said on Tuesday.

On Monday rebel defenses collapsed, leading to a broad army advance across more than half of the remaining insurgent pocket in Aleppo and a retreat of opposition fighters to a few districts on the west bank of the city’s river.

Recapturing the entire rebel pocket of Aleppo will constitute the biggest battlefield victory yet for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his military coalition of Russia’s air force, Iran and Shiite militias.

For rebels, it will mark a sobering loss and leave them without a significant presence in any of Syria’s main cities. They still hold much of the countryside west of Aleppo and the province of Idlib, also in northwest Syria.

Soddy condemn Syrian government Aleppo progrom
The upside for the Syrian government is they think they have a good chance of winning the elections in Aleppo
[Asharq Al-Awsat] Saudi Arabia’s top religious body on Tuesday condemned what it said were “criminal massacres” by the Syrian regime against civilians in Aleppo and called on the Islamic world to help save fellow Muslims.

State news agency SPA said the secretariat appealed to the Muslim world “to rise in support of its causes and stand with all its energy for its rights”. Qatar earlier called for an emergency Arab League meeting to discuss the situation in Aleppo, Qatar-based Al Jazeera television reported.

The appeal came after the United Nations said it had reports that Syrian soldiers and allied Iraqi fighters had summarily shot dead 82 civilians in recaptured Aleppo districts, and a military source said the last rebel pocket could fall “at any moment”.

“The criminal Syrian regime has committed the ugliest crimes in a way unknown in modern history, where the bodies of the dead fill the streets and under the rubble of destroyed buildings,” the secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars said in a statement carried by SPA.

“The savage bombardment harvests lives everywhere, including in hospitals and houses of worship, while the international community is helpless or ineffective to take any decision to deter this criminal machine,” it added.
Link


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
New U.N. chief says politicians are failing 'losers of globalization'
2016-11-23
[Yahoo] The incoming head of the United Nations warned on Tuesday that "losers of globalization" in rich countries have felt ignored by establishment politicians, prompting them to turn to nationalist agendas, as in the U.S. election and Brexit referendum.
So... if the rich countries are "losers", why the fucking holy hell would they want to be in your mad scheme?
Antonio Guterres, elected in October to take over as U.N. secretary general next year,
I missed that. Is he any better than Ban Ki Moon or Boutros Boutros Gali, or any of the rest of the flaccid nonentities who have been compromised into the job in recent years?
told a conference in his native Lisbon that this trend had undermined the willingness to receive refugees in Europe this year.

He said the world must re-establish international protection for refugees coming from war zones such as Syria, but it would not be easy as developed countries were turning to nationalist agendas.
Not hard when your "refugees" act as colonists and attack the natives.
Europe has struggled to handle a huge influx of refugees, many of whom displaced by the war in Syria. The United States has accepted only a very small number of refugees and may take in even fewer next year.
Send 'em back via nuclear missile.
"In 2016, we have witnessed a dramatic deterioration of that international protection regime (for refugees)," Guterres said.

"This example started in the developed world, it started essentially in Europe, it is spreading now like a virus into other parts of the world."

Guterres, who was U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees until last year, linked the growing resistance to accepting refugees to wider concerns about globalization.

"I don't think we can look strictly at the refugee issue, I think the problem is a broader problem," he told the conference on Europe's refugee crisis.

There was a consensus in the mid-1990s that globalization would benefit all, he said.
Well, those in power. As you stated the rich countries get fucked.
"But a lot of people were left behind ... In the developed world, (there are) those who have been losers in globalization," he said. "The recent analysis of the rust belt in the United States, I think, is a clear demonstration of that, when we speak about the elections."

Donald Trump won this month's election in the United States in part thanks to support from voters who have seen their jobs lost to countries with cheaper labor.

"So globalization has not been as successful as we had hoped and lots of people became not only angry with it, but feeling that political establishments and international organizations are not paying attention, were not taking care (of them)," he said.

This led to what he called "a kind of evolution" in which anti-establishment parties now tended to win elections and referendums tended to attract majorities against whatever was put to a vote.
I vote we fire your asses into the sun.
Link


International-UN-NGOs
UNsilenced: Whistleblower Exposes UN Culture of Corruption
2016-11-02
It got so bad that in 2015, as Warah explains, a coalition of nine UN whistleblowers got together to raise the matter with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. "Each of us has blown the whistle on serious wrongdoing, gross misconduct, and even criminal acts at the United Nations," the group wrote in the letter, which is quoted in the book. "Our collective experience of reporting misconduct in the UN covers sexual exploitation, abuse of power, corruption, and other criminals activity over a period of more than a decade and a half."

Instead of the UN scrambling to make things right, though, it responded in every case by attacking the whistleblower instead of the crimes, abuse, and the people behind the problems. "Each of us has faced retaliation for reporting the wrongdoing," the whistleblowers continued. "Our cases are well-known, and sadly, deter others from reporting wrongdoing. This must change." Unfortunately for humanity, despite threats from Congress to cut funding, and increasingly widespread media attention, nothing has changed, as the book documents extensively.
Link


Arabia
Top Military Brass among Those Killed in Yemen Funeral Strike
2016-10-13
[AnNahar] Leading rebel officers were among those killed in the weekend air strike on a funeral in Yemen's capital, blamed on pro-government Arab coalition warplanes, according to official media reports on Tuesday.

Funerals for several top rebel-allied officers and officials killed in Saturday's strike were held in Sanaa on Tuesday, rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported.

The Iran-backed rebels have blamed the Saudi-led coalition for the air strike, one of the deadliest since the alliance launched a military campaign against the Shiite Death Eaters in March 2015.

After initially denying responsibility, the coalition said Sunday it was ready to investigate the "regrettable and painful" strike, while UN chief Ban Ki-Moon demanded a "prompt and impartial" probe.

Three commanders of the elite elite republican guard brigades, loyal to former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
who is allied with Shiite Houthis, were said to be among those killed.

They were named by Saba as General Ali al-Jaefi, head of the elite republican guard and Brigadiers Abdulmalik Marzooq and Ali al-Hamzi.

General Ahmed Manea, a member of the supreme security committee, was also among those killed in the air strike which killed at least 140 people and maimed more than 525 others according to the UN.

Deputy security chief of Sanaa province, Ahmed al-Shalef, and the head of the rebels' civil status authority, brigadier Yehya al-Rowaishan, were also listed as killed in the attack.
Link


Caribbean-Latin America
Colombia peace deal: Historic agreement is signed
2016-09-27
[BBC] The Colombian government and left-wing Farc rebels have signed a historic agreement that formally brings an end to 52 years of civil war.

The rebel leader Timoleon Jimenez, known as Timochenko, apologised to "all the victims of the conflict" and was greeted by cheers and applause.

He said: "I would like to ask for forgiveness for all the pain that we have caused during this war."

Guests dressed in white at the ceremony in Cartagena, to symbolise peace.

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, and leaders of Latin American countries were among those present.

The last of the major Cold War conflicts killed 260,000 people and left six million internally displaced.

Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
US accuses Israel of systematically seizing Palestinian land
2016-07-08
[IsraelTimes] State Department says plans for new homes in East Jerusalem, West Bank raise questions about Israel’s commitment to peace; Netanyahu: Paleostinian incitement is the problem, not Israel building

Tuesday accused Israel of systematically seizing Paleostinian land after the Jewish state okayed the construction of 800 housing units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In the unusually strongly worded statement, front man John Kirby said the reports of new construction permits, which came Sunday as a response to two deadly terror attacks, called into question Israel’s commitment to the two-state solution.

"If its true, this report would be the latest step in what seems to be the systematic process of land seizures settlement expansions and legalization of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution. We oppose steps like these which we believe are counterproductive," Kirby said.

He added that Washington was "deeply concerned" about the move.

"This action risks entrenching a one state reality and raises serious questions about Israel’s intentions," he said, citing a report released by the Quartet
... The Quartet are the UN (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy....
for Mideast Peace which criticized Israeli settlement building.

In Rwanda on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the US criticism was not unusual, but was not accepted by Israel. The new building was not preventing peace, he said. What was preventing progress was Paleostinian incitement against Israel.

Kirby said the US was having "tough discussions" with Israeli leaders over moribund peace efforts with the Paleostinians.

"We’re going to continue to look for leaders in the region to do what they need to do ... to demonstrate leadership to take down the violence, reduce tensions," he said.

On Sunday night, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman approved hundreds of new housing units in Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem. Israel regards East Jerusalem, which it annexed after the 1967 war, as part of its unified, sovereign capital.

According to the plan, 560 new units will be built in Ma’ale Adumim, a West Bank settlement to the east of the capital, 140 homes were approved for the Jewish East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot and 100 for the Har Homa neighborhood, in southeastern Jerusalem.

The move came in response to the killing of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, who was stabbed to death by a Paleostinian while sleeping in her bed on Thursday, and to the shooting of Rabbi Miki Mark and the injuring of his family as they were driving near Hebron a day later.

Both Ariel and Miki Mark’s wife Chava Mark, who was maimed in the attack, are American citizens, but Kirby indicated their citizenship did not play a role in any US response to the attacks.

"Any death and any injury is significant when it results from this sort of violence," he said, reiterating Washington’s condemnation of the attacks.

The State Department’s statement followed a similar denunciation from UN chief Ban Ki-Moon a day earlier.

The UN leader is "deeply disappointed" that Israel’s announcement came days after last week’s release of a key report by the Middle East diplomatic quartet -- the United States, European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, Russia and the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
-- that urged Israel to stop building settlements, front man Stephane Dujarric said in a statement Monday.

"This raises legitimate questions about Israel’s long-term intentions, which are compounded by continuing statements of some Israeli ministers calling for the annexation of the West Bank," he added.

Ban said that "settlements are illegal under international law" and called on the Israeli government to "halt and reverse such decisions in the interest of peace and a just final status agreement."
Link


International-UN-NGOs
WikiLeaks: NSA Spied on UN's Ban Ki-Moon & Other World Leaders
2016-02-24
[ALMANAR.LB] Wikileaks published a new trove of top secret documents revealing that the NSA spied on the private meetings of major world leaders, including UN chief Ban Ki-Moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom...
, as well as the prime ministers of Italia and the Zionist entity, Russia Today reported.

The National Security Agency (NSA) listened in on high-level meetings on climate change, global economics, and even "how to deal with [US President Barack] Obama," according to the new documents released by WikiLeaks.

"Today we showed that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's private meetings over how to save the planet from climate change were bugged by a country intent on protecting its largest oil companies," said WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange about NSA activities.

Assange added that the UN will most likely react to these leaks.

"We previously published Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Daniel Webster ...
's orders that US diplomats were to steal the secretary general's DNA.
Why on earth would such a thing be wanted?
The US government has signed agreements with the UN that it will not engage in such conduct against the UN -- let alone its secretary general.

"It will be interesting to see the UN's reaction, because if the secretary general can be targeted without consequence, then everyone from world leader to street sweeper is at risk."
Link


Africa North
Egypt army releases journalist after 'false news' accusation
2015-11-11
Egypt's military released a leading investigative journalist and human rights advocate on Tuesday who had been detained under accusations of spreading "false news," although it was unclear what charges he may face.
Just another reminder that the current Egyptian government is far better than the last one but isn't especially "democratic"...
Hossam Bahgat, detained Sunday after being summoned to an intelligence building in Cairo, was released after signing a document saying that he would abide by the law when writing about the military, wrote Mada Masr, the news website that has published his work.

Gasser Abdel-Razeq, head of The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which Bahgat founded in 2002, said colleagues and lawyers were awaiting news from the army regarding any charges or investigation.

"We do not know now," he said. "We will ask the military prosecutor for an update tomorrow."

Bahgat is one of Egypt's best-known rights advocates, honored with a Human Rights Watch Alison Des Forges Award in 2011.

The army had said he was referred to military trial for "compromising national security" and writing about the military without its written permission, while lawyers said he faced charges of spreading "false news."

A day earlier, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed concern over the detention, with his spokesman calling it "the latest of a series of detentions of human rights defenders and others that is profoundly worrying."

Egypt's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denounced Ban's concerns, saying his statement had "jumped to conclusions" over press freedoms while the Bahgat investigation was clearly related to possible violations of the penal code.

The detention, which caused a wave of uproar on social media and among activists, is part of a sweeping crackdown on critical media launched in the aftermath of the military overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

Lawyer Adel Ramadan has said military prosecutors asked Bahgat in detail about an article he wrote last month which described the August 2015 conviction of a group of military officers on charges of conspiring with the banned Muslim Brotherhood to plot a coup against President Abdel-Fattah El Sissi.
Link



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