Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Abu Maysara al-Iraqi	Abu Maysara al-Iraqi	al-Qaeda in Iraq	Iraq-Jordan		At Large		20050715
Abu Maysarah al Iraqi	Abu Maysarah al Iraqi	al-Qaeda in Iraq	Iraq-Jordan	Iraqi	At Large	Mouthpiece	20050825
Abu Maysira al-Iraqi	Abu Maysira al-Iraqi	al-Qaeda in Iraq	Israel-Palestine-Jordan	Iraqi	At Large		20051012	Link
Abu-Maysarah al-Iraqi	Abu-Maysarah al-Iraqi	al-Qaeda in Iraq	Iraq				20051205	Link
Majed Mayyah al-Mutairi	Majed Mayyah al-Mutairi	Peninsula Lions Brigade	Arabia	Kuwaiti	Arrested	Tough Guy	20050612
		accused of joining a terror group that allegedly planned to attack U.S. troops in Kuwait

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."

Link

Science & Technology

Musk's Grok signs $200m deal with Pentagon days after antisemitism row

2025-07-15

[BBC] The Pentagon has signed a multi-million dollar deal to begin using Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, as part of a wider rollout of AI tools for government use, the Department of Defence confirmed.

Announced on Monday by Musk's company xAI, the $200m (£149m) contract is part of its "Grok for Government" programme, and aligns with the Trump administration's push for more aggressive adoption of artificial intelligence.

It comes just days after Grok sparked backlash for spouting antisemitic posts, including praise for Adolf Hitler on X, the social media platform owned by Musk.

Musk said the bot was "too compliant" and "too eager to please". He said the issue was being addressed.

Musk's xAI says the new deal will give US government departments access to Grok 4, the latest version of the chatbot, and offer custom tools for national security use.

The company also plans to provide technical support for classified environments.

The Pentagon also announced awarding similar contracts to Anthropic, Google and OpenAI - each with a $200m ceiling.

"The adoption of AI is transforming the Department's ability to support our warfighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries," said the administration's Chief Digital and AI Officer Doug Matty.

Musk says Grok chatbot was 'manipulated' into praising Hitler

WHAT IS AI AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
Musk's expanding government partnerships come amid a deteriorating relationship with President Donald Trump.

The Tesla and SpaceX boss had spent a quarter of a billion dollars on Trump's re-election effort in 2024, and actively campaigned for him.

He was later appointed to run the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) - a federal cost-cutting initiative tasked with reducing the size of the US government.

But in recent months, Musk began openly criticising what Trump had dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill", a sprawling spending and tax cuts legislation that the Tesla boss said was too costly for Americans.

Musk resigned from his post at Doge in May, though the department has not been officially disbanded.

Since then, Trump had suggested Doge could be deployed to harm Musk's companies.

Trump also suggested he might deport Musk, who is an American citizen and was born in South Africa. He also holds Canadian citizenship.

While at the helm of Doge, the White House was criticised for allowing Musk to have unfettered access to troves of government data on American citizens.

Despite the fall-out, Musk's xAI has continued to expand its government work. Its newly-announced contract may also create an avenue for that data collection to continue.

Grok was introduced in late 2023 as a more unfiltered alternative to other AI chatbots like ChatGPT. It is already integrated into Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Three members of UN commission investigating Israel resign amid Trump crackdown

2025-07-15

[IsraelTimes] Resignations, including of former UN rights chief, come as the US imposes sanctions on international anti-Israel investigators

The three members of a United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
commission tasked with investigating Israel quietly resigned earlier this month.

Navi Pillay, Chris Sidoti, and Miloon Kothari, who made up the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Paleostinian Territory, submitted their resignation letters to the president of the UN’s Human Rights Council. The letters surfaced on Monday.

Pillay, 83, the commission’s chair, said she was resigning "owing to age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments" on July 8.

Sidoti resigned a day later, saying Pillay’s retirement was "an appropriate time to re-constitute the commission," and Kothari said the group had reached an "understanding" during the previous week.

The letters were posted on a back-end Human Rights Council website and first publicized by UN Watch, a nonprofit monitoring group.

The commission will continue to exist once it appoints new members. Jurg Lauber, the head of the UN’s Human Rights Council, asked the council’s member states to propose new members by August 31.

The commission released periodic reports on the Israel-Paleostinian conflict that overwhelmingly blamed Israel. The commission’s most recent report was released in May.

Pillay, a South African jurist, was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, during which time she frequently criticized Israel’s actions in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
She chaired the commission of inquiry, which Jewish groups, Israel, the US and other countries have condemned for its alleged bias. It is the council’s first open-ended commission of inquiry, the UNHRC’s highest level of investigation.

The commission overwhelmingly blames Israel for the conflict and accuses the Jewish state of other misdeeds, such as stealing natural resources.

Kothari caused a firestorm of controversy in 2022 when he said that social media was "controlled largely by the Jewish lobby," espousing a common antisemitic trope, and questioned why Israel was allowed in the UN. Pillay defended Kothari’s comments.

Pillay has dismissed antisemitism concerns as a "diversion" and "lies," and called Israeli security concerns "a fiction."

In 2014, over 100 members of Congress signed a letter to Pillay decrying the UNHRC’s bias against Israel under her leadership, saying the council "simply cannot be taken seriously as a human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
organization" while it was probing Israel, but not Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
The commission’s members resigned as the Trump administration cracks down on international Sherlocks into Israel.

In February, the US slapped wide-ranging sanctions on International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan over his decision to file arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. The court works closely with the UN.

Khan’s US-based assets were frozen and he was barred from entering the country. He lost access to his email, his bank accounts were frozen and his American staffers were told they were at risk of arrest if they were to enter the US, The News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported in May.

Earlier this month, the US imposed sanctions against UN rapporteur for Paleostinian rights La Belle Francesca Albanese, a harsh critic of Israel with a history of antisemitism. Like Kothari, Albanese has inveighed against the "Jewish lobby."

The commission’s opponents celebrated the trio’s departure.

"First, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
made the historic decision to sanction La Belle Francesca Albanese," said Hillel Neuer, the head of UN Watch. "Now the architects of the UN’s anti-Israel inquisition are fleeing the ship. The tide is turning."

Anne Bayefsky, the head of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and the nonprofit Human Rights Voices, said Pillay "has spent almost twenty years championing antisemitic causes from the highest of UN jobs."

Both the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council condemn Israel more than any other country every year.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Supreme Court Allows Trump's Education Department to Resume Layoffs

2025-07-15

[Breitbart] The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling on Monday allowing President Donald Trump’s Department of Education to resume efforts to slash its workforce in half.

The decision reverses a lower court ruling ordering the reinstatement of Department of Education employees cut loose in mass layoffs, and ultimately allows Education Secretary Linda McMahon to continue her mission of winding down the department.

The Department of Education announced in March that it was reducing its workforce by half in an effort to streamline the department and cut down on unnecessary bureaucracy.

Before the cuts, the Department of Education had 4,133 total staff, a number senior department officials said “exist[ed] largely to oversee contractors, add strings, and in many cases do duplicative efforts across the department.” Senior department officials said at the time the cuts would not impact student aid, the rollout of FAFSA by October 1, funding for special-needs students, Civil Rights investigations, and other functions statutorily mandated by Congress.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun blocked the department’s downsizing effort in May, ruling that the administration needed congressional authorization. Joun ordered the department to reinstate approximately 1,400 workers who had been terminated.

The majority did not issue an opinion to accompany the order, which is not out of the ordinary. However, the court’s three liberal-leaning justices dissented, decrying the ruling as “indefensible.”

“It hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out. The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave,” penned Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Current information on the situation on the front line on July 14 (updated)

2025-07-15

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 21:07 Russian Armed Forces are advancing near Fedorovka, Novotoretskoye and Rodinskoye, –MAP.

20:42 Russian Armed Forces are advancing near Yablonovka and Aleksandro-Kalinovo, –MAP.

19:43 The Crimean paratroopers' Kornet ATGM crew continues to destroy equipment personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Sumy region.

18:33 Calculation of the UAV "Supercam S350" of the "Dnepr" group of forces corrected artillery strike on enemy UAV control point in Kherson region.

UAV operators of the Vostok group of forces destroyed Ukrainian militants near the settlement of Malinovka in the Zaporizhia region.

FPV drone crews of the special forces unit of the Center group of forces destroyed Ukrainian Armed Forces equipment on the approaches to the settlement of Krasnoarmeysk in the Donetsk People's Republic.

17:30 Around 16:00 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed one Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle of the airplane type over the territory of the Kursk region.

17:03 Mirnograd direction. Units of the Russian Armed Forces are rushing towards Krasny Liman. Rodinskoye is behind it, – MAP.

16:57 Advance of the Russian Armed Forces near Volnoye Pole, Shevchenko and Novoselki, – MAP.

16:55 Calculation of the Lancet loitering munition destroyed radar station RADA Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The target was identified by Supercam UAV operators of the 1st Guards Tank Army of the West group of forces in the Khar'kov region.

15:35 Sumy region. Assault groups have taken up new positions in Yunakovka, – MAP.

14:50 In the period from 13:40 Moscow time to 13:50 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the airplane type:

One over the territory of the Republic of Crimea and
One over the waters of the Sea of Azov

.
13:40 Calculations of unmanned aerial vehicles "Geran-2" destroyed a Ukrainian Armed Forces radar station in the area of the settlement of Borzna in the Chernihiv region.

13:26 In the period from 10.30 Moscow time to 12.20 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles of the airplane type:

One over the territory of the Kursk region and
One over the territory of the Republic of Crimea.

13:18 Krasnoarmeyskoye direction. Having occupied a network of fortifications south of Razino, the first assault groups of the Russian Armed Forces entered the northern part of Novoekonomichesky, – MAP.

13:06 Konstantinovskoye direction. Assault aircraft of the 4th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade occupied two strongholds west of Dyleevka, – MAP.

12:13 Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of the special military operation as of July 14, 2025. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to conduct the special military operation.

Units of the North group of forces improved their tactical position, inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of two mechanized, tank, ranger, airborne assault brigades, two assault regiments and an airborne assault regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Alekseyevka, Ryzhevka, Kondratovka, Khrapovshchina, Varachino and Sadki in the Sumy region.

In the Khar'kov direction, units of the airborne assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the territorial defense brigade were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Okhrimovka, Khatneye and Volchansk in the Khar'kov region.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 150 servicemen. Three combat armored vehicles, four cars, three field artillery guns and the Plastun electronic reconnaissance station were destroyed.

Units of the "West" group of forces improved their position along the front line, inflicted defeat on the formations of four mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and two territorial defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Petro-Ivanovka, Petrovka, Kupyansk in the Khar'kov region, Kolodezi, Zelenaya Dolina and Torskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 220 servicemen, an armored combat vehicle, 20 vehicles, and two artillery pieces. Four electronic warfare stations, an air target detection radar, and five ammunition depots were destroyed.

Units of the "Southern" group of troops improved their tactical position. They defeated the manpower and equipment of four mechanized, airmobile, mountain assault, assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard brigade in the areas of the settlements of Kleban-Byk, Pleshcheyevka, Zakotnoye, Slavyansk, Seversk, Krivaya Luka, Svyato-Pokrovskoye, Konstantinovka, Serebryanka and Dronovka of the Donetsk People's Republic.

The enemy lost up to 130 servicemen, a Cossack armored vehicle, eight vehicles, two field artillery guns, two electronic warfare stations, and five ammunition depots.

Units of the Center group of forces continued to advance into the depths of the enemy's defense and liberated the settlement of Mayak in the Donetsk People's Republic.

Formations of six mechanized, two assault, a Jaeger, an airborne brigades, two unmanned systems brigades, two assault regiments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, two naval infantry brigades, three territorial defense brigades and four national guard brigades were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Krasnoarmeysk, Udachnoye, Novopavlovka, Rodynskoye, Vladimirovka, Muravka, Petrovskoye, Stepanovka, Dimitrov of the Donetsk People's Republic, Novopodgorodnoye and Filiya of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces amounted to 360 servicemen, a US-made HMMWV armored combat vehicle, a Cossack armored car, and four artillery pieces.

As a result of active and decisive actions by units of the "East" military group, the settlement of Malinovka in the Zaporizhia region was liberated.

The manpower and equipment of the mechanized, airborne assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the naval infantry brigade and two territorial defense brigades were defeated in the areas of the settlements of Temirovka, Poltavka in the Zaporizhia region, Novopil and Tolstoy in the Donetsk People's Republic.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 185 servicemen, four combat armored vehicles, 11 cars, two field artillery pieces and a Verba multiple launch rocket system combat vehicle.

Units of the Dnepr group of forces improved their tactical position, defeated formations of a mechanized, mountain assault brigade, two coastal defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and two territorial defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Kamenskoe, Plavni, Novoandriyevka in the Zaporizhia region, Sadovoe, Ponyatovka and Nikolskoe in the Kherson region.

Up to 60 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen, six vehicles, seven electronic warfare stations, an Israeli-made RADA RPS-42 radar station and two ammunition depots were destroyed.

Operational-tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces groups have damaged an ammunition production facility, assembly centers, military airfield infrastructure, storage sites for unmanned aerial vehicles and anti-ship missiles, ammunition and fuel depots, temporary deployment points for Ukrainian Armed Forces formations and foreign mercenaries in 140 districts.

Air defense systems shot down three guided aerial bombs and 120 unmanned aerial vehicles.

In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the following have been destroyed:

663 aircraft,

283 helicopters,

69,490 unmanned aerial vehicles,

616 anti-aircraft missile systems,

24,212 tanks and other armored combat vehicles,

1,577 combat vehicles of multiple launch rocket systems,

27,356 field artillery pieces and mortars,

38,143 units of special military vehicles.

12:07 As a result of active and decisive actions by units of the "East" group of forces released Malinovka settlement, Zaporizhia region.

12:06 Units of the Center group of forces continued to advance into the depths of the enemy’s defenses and released settlement Mayak of the Donetsk People's Republic.

07:31 Changes to map over the past 24 hours:

Advance west of Mirny and Poddubny➡️

Russian Armed Forces entered Ryzhevka➡️

Nikolaevka has been liberated➡️

Russian Armed Forces storm Novotoretskoye and Fyodorovka

07:05 During the past night, from 20:30 Moscow time to 7:00 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed 11 Ukrainian aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles:

Six UAVs over the territory of the Oryol region,
Two UAVs over the territory of the Bryansk region,
One UAV over the territory of the Kursk region,
One UAV over the territory of the Republic of Crimea,
One UAV over the waters of the Black Sea.

05:07 Crews of T-72B3M tanks of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army of the West Group of Forces destroyed camouflaged positions and concentrations of manpower of the Ukrainian Armed Forces units.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

IDF seizes 3 tons of arms from ex-Assad regime sites; violence flares in southern Syria: 30 toes up, HTS vows to intervene

2025-07-14

[IsraelTimes] Troops locate explosives, rockets at ‘key’ commando bases in operation aimed at keeping arms from being smuggled to Lebanon; deadly clashes break out in Druze area

Israeli troops found more than three tons of weapons while raiding military facilities inside Syria. The sites had been maintained by the deposed Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
regime, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.

In the raids, which took place over the past week, reservists of the 810th Mountain Regional Brigade located at the peak of Mount Hermon, inside Syria, searched several "key headquarters" formerly belonging to the Assad regime’s commando forces, the IDF said.

The weapons found by troops included anti-tank mines, bombs, and rockets.

The IDF said its operations in the area were intended to prevent weapon smuggling into Leb
Leb

...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
from Syria.

Israeli troops have carried out a number of raids inside Syria in recent weeks, mostly targeting alleged members of Iran-sponsored cells stationed near the Golan frontier.

The military has also carried out ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s aimed at keeping Syrian weapons from falling into the hands of the Islamists who ousted Assad late last year.

The raids were announced as deadly sectarian violence flared in Druze areas of the Syrian side of the Golan, which Israel has previously acted to protect from Islamists.

Clashes broke out between Bedouin tribes and local fighters in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on Sunday, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reporting 18 killed in the fighting, including 14 Druze and four Bedouin.

Local outlet Sweida 24 gave a preliminary toll of 10 people killed and 50 maimed across both sides.

The outlet also reported the closure of the Damascus-Sweida highway due to the violence.

The government sent forces to de-escalate the situation.

Sweida Governor Mustapha al-Bakur called on his constituents to "exercise self-restraint and respond to national calls for reform."

Several Syrian Druze spiritual leaders have also called for calm and asked Damascus to intervene.

In April and May, festivities between the new government’s security forces and Druze fighters killed dozens of people, with local leaders and religious figures signing agreements to contain the escalation and better integrate Druze fighters into the new government.

During those festivities, Israel carried out a dronezap on an gang preparing to attack a Druze community near Damascus, and Defense Minister Israel Katz told troops to be prepared to act in Syria in defense of the Druze. Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a message to Syria at the time that Israel "expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze."

Following the December overthrow of Assad, Syria’s longtime ruler, Israel sent troops into the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
-patrolled buffer zone that separated opposing forces on the strategic Golan Heights, from which it had conducted forays into southern Syria.

Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) into Syria, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of "hostile forces."

Immediately after Assad’s ouster, Israel also carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria to prevent key military assets from coming under the control of the administration headed by Sharaa.

Officials from Syria and Israel have held discussions over that military presence in recent weeks, and, in June, a senior Israeli official said the sides were in "advanced talks" to end hostilities, even as Jerusalem has taken a cautious approach toward the country’s new Islamist leadership.

The two countries have formally been in a state of war since Israel’s establishment in 1948, and last fought a major conflict in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

A meeting this past weekend in Azerbaijan between Syrian and Israeli officials was reportedly to focus on the IDF presence in Syria. Sharaa, who was in Baku, the capital, to discuss energy cooperation with Azerbaijani leaders, did not attend the meeting with the Israelis.

In addition, on Sunday, the Syrian Interior Ministry announced that it had arrested a Hezbollah operative who was planning terrorist attacks. Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction, was a chief ally of Assad’s regime.

The ministry named the operative as Mahmoud Fadl, saying he was in possession of ready-to-use explosives that he intended to deploy for terrorist attacks in the area. According to the statement, Fadl belonged to a Hezbollah cell that was active in Syria.

Damascus vows to intervene as at least 30 killed in armed clashes in Druze city of Sweida

[IsraelTimes] At least 30 people have been killed and 100 injured in a preliminary count in armed clashes between local military groups and tribes in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria’s interior ministry says.

The ministry says that its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict and halt the clashes.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

'They Fell and Ran': How the Red Army Defeated the Ukrainian SS Division

2025-07-14

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Andrey Khrustalev

[REGNUM] On the morning of July 13, 1944, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front moved forward in the direction of the cities of Lvov and Rava-Ruska. The Lvov-Sandomierz operation was launched, which began the liberation of Western Ukraine and which put an end to the history of the SS Division "Galicia". At least, in the form that its German curators initially gave it.

The formation of units from “inferior” (from the point of view of the ideas of National Socialism) Slavs did not begin out of a good life - even though the initiative from below came immediately after the Nazi invasion of the USSR.

Already on June 29, 1941, one of Stepan Bandera’s deputies in the OUN (b)*, Yaroslav Stetsko, having arrived in Lviv in the convoy of the advancing Wehrmacht, organized a “national assembly” that adopted an act on the “restoration of the Ukrainian state.”

It stated: Ukraine "will closely cooperate with the National Socialist Greater Germany, which, under the leadership of its Leader Adolf Hitler, is creating a new order in Europe and the world and is helping the Ukrainian people to free themselves from Moscow occupation." The Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS command, as well as the occupation authorities, did not appreciate this zeal - in 1941, the Third Reich did not need the services of volunteer assistants.

But by 1943, after the defeats at Stalingrad and the Kursk Bulge, the situation had changed. When all forces were thrown at the Eastern Front, someone had to maintain the "Ordnung" in the occupied territories.

The date of creation of the 14th SS Grenadier Division "Galicia" is considered to be April 28, 1943, although recruitment lasted for several months. Personnel - over 80,000 people.

The division was called volunteer, and modern Ukrainian historians emphasize that motivated youth, high school students and students from the former “borderlands” – the eastern outskirts of Poland – went to “Galicia”.

In reality, anyone could join the volunteer Waffen Grenadier Division, many with physical limitations. The occupation authorities needed a picture - they needed to demonstrate to Berlin the loyalty and enthusiasm of the population under their control. There were far fewer real volunteers.

The first commander of the division was SS Gruppenführer Walter Schimana, a native of the Bohemian Troppau (now Opava in the Czech Republic), an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War, and a member of the NSDAP since 1926. The officers of the “national-Ukrainian” division were exclusively Germans.

KILLINGS OF CIVILIANS
"Patriotically minded" Ukrainian historians often claim that ordinary Galicians allegedly did not know where they were signing up, perceiving the abbreviation SS as an abbreviation for "Sich Riflemen". It is difficult to say who this fake is intended for, because the oath of soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers of "Galicia" sounded the same as the oath of other volunteer divisions and legions of the Reich:

"I serve you, Adolf Hitler, as Führer and Chancellor of the German Reich with loyalty and courage. I swear obedience to you until death. So help me God!"

It is also claimed that those who finally understood that they had not ended up in the "Sich Riflemen" thought of "Galicia" as the core of the Ukrainian army, which would allegedly turn its bayonets against both Stalin and Hitler. From this point of view, the division turns out to be one of the historical predecessors of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

But in reality, Galicia unquestioningly obeyed its German masters, just as the Ukrainian Armed Forces are oriented towards their Western partners.

The division's testing phase included participation in punitive actions.

Thus, soldiers of the 4th Galician SS Police Regiment (commander - SS-Sturmbannführer Siegfried Binz, chaplain - Uniate priest, Doctor of Theology Osip Karpinsky ), with the support of a hundred of the UPA* Dmitry Kostenko, nicknamed "Hawk", entered the village of Huta Karpinskaya, populated by Poles, on February 28, 1944. About half a thousand people, including old people, women (one of them was pregnant) and children were driven into the buildings of a school and a church and burned alive. The rest were shot on the spot. An elderly Polish woman, who could not keep up with the guards, was stabbed with a bayonet.

In total, soldiers of the “national-Ukrainian” regiment and Banderites, according to various sources, killed from 800 to 1,000 civilians.

More difficult to carry out were battles with partisans - for example, the motorized battalion of the 2nd "Galicia" Regiment in Poland took part in an operation against the raid of the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division named after Sidor Kovpak, which was commanded by the former chief of intelligence "Grandfather" Petro Vershigora.

FRITZ FRIDAY
In early summer 1944, as the front approached Galicia, a decision was made to throw collaborators who had proven their loyalty to the Reich into battle with the Red Army. A serious battle was ahead.

By the end of June, our troops had assembled 1.2 million fighters, over 2,000 tanks and self-propelled guns, over 14,000 guns and mortars, and over 3,100 aircraft for the offensive. The enemy could have deployed almost 6,000 guns and mortars, over 840,000 troops, 540 aircraft, and over 900 tanks and self-propelled guns against our group.

Unlike Belarus, where the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS did not have powerful fortifications and tank groups, in Western Ukraine the enemy managed to build an echeloned system of fortifications (50-60 km deep), and set up 160,000 anti-personnel and 200,000 anti-tank mines.

In addition, the 1st Panzer and 8th Panzer divisions alone had more than 100 "Panthers" among various tanks and self-propelled guns, and the 506th Heavy Panzer Battalion had over 40 "Tigers". But, given that the advancing Soviet troops had gained more than serious experience in the fourth year of the war, the Nazi command was gathering maximum forces and equipment for defense. And here "any bast was in order" - including "Galicia".

In June 1944, the collaborators were transferred to the area of the city of Brody, where "Galicia" fielded more than 11,000 troops, 110 guns, including several 88mm and 34 anti-tank guns. The division was also led by no "conscious Ukrainian nationalist" at this time, but by SS Oberführer Fritz Freytag, who was not even disguised as some kind of Pylyp P'yatnitsa (Freitag is "Friday" in German).

On July 13, having begun an offensive in the Rava-Russky direction, Soviet divisions fairly quickly broke through the enemy’s defenses; the next day, the divisions of the 38th and 60th armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front in the Lvov direction were able to advance 8-10 km.

Soviet aviation attacked the 1st Panzer and 8th Panzer divisions of the enemy, however, the latter retained sufficient striking power - by the beginning of the battles it had more than 230 tanks and self-propelled guns. On July 15, the enemy began to launch counterattacks on our positions.

It was then that the SS Galicia Division entered into battle with the divisions of the 60th Soviet Army at Brody.

NARROW CORRIDOR
Since the Soviet troops at Brody had penetrated into the German positions, the 1st and 8th Panzer Divisions were ordered to attack from the south, and the XIII Army Corps from the north.

In the area of Krugov, the 30th Infantry Regiment came under attack from Soviet troops. This unit, as reported by the chief of staff of "Galicia" Major Wolf-Dietrich Heike, received an order to counterattack the enemy, came under attack from Soviet tanks and was defeated. The regiment lost half of its personnel, and almost all company commanders were out of action. However, the losses of the Soviet 336th Rifle and 99th Rifle divisions were also large, amounting to 320 killed and 250 wounded.

On July 15, units of the 9th Mechanized and 7th Tank Corps (3rd Guards Tank Army) were able to break through a narrow corridor literally 4-6 kilometers wide at Koltovo, which opened up the prospect of outflanking the enemy at Brody for the Red Army. Our command brought two tank armies into the corridor at once - the 3rd Tank and 4th Guards Tank corps. The Germans constantly attacked, and the "walls" of the corridor had to be reinforced with various tank units and tank destroyer units.

On July 17, the 31st Galicia Infantry Regiment, reinforced by artillery, engineer and reconnaissance battalions, and an anti-tank division, fought with the 99th Rifle and 336th Rifle divisions.

On July 18, the situation of the XIII Army Corps became much worse - our troops attacked in several directions at once and effectively encircled eight German divisions in the Brody area. The Galicia units continued to counterattack, but suffered losses and retreated from their positions.

On July 19, the 29th and 31st Infantry Regiments attempted to stop the advance of the 68th Infantry Division at Zabolottsy. They were attacked by units of the 31st Tank Corps.

KATYUSHAS ENSURED A BREAKTHROUGH
In the books of modern Ukrainian historians it is stated that "Galicia" held back the attacks of "steel avalanches" in unprepared positions, collaborators allegedly literally threw themselves under T-34s with grenades and anti-tank grenade launchers and burned the vehicles at the cost of their own lives.

The journal of the 31st Tank Corps indicates that in the sector of Guta Penyatskaya, Maidan, Podgortsy, in addition to two regiments of "Galichina", there was also a regiment of the 349th Infantry Division, an artillery regiment. The enemy took cover in full-profile trenches, pillboxes and forests.

In addition to artillery, Galicia was armed with many anti-tank grenade launchers, including heavy "offenrohrs". There were no "steel avalanches" - a maximum of ten to fifteen T-34s operated against the division, and in total during its battles near Brody, in different parts of the front and on different days, from 70 to 90 tanks and self-propelled guns.

Having encountered stubborn resistance from the enemy, the Soviet troops took advantage of the support of the 201st Guards Mortar Division - the Katyushas fired about 98 rounds, killing more than 25 people. As German officers recalled, the Galicians wavered under the blows of rocket artillery and fled from their positions.

Soviet troops drove the collaborators out of Podgortsy. Moreover, on that day, units of the 31st Tank Corps attacked the positions of "Galichina" near Yasenev, from the southern direction, from where the Galician "SS men" did not expect an attack. Our soldiers managed to cut off the Brody-Krasne highway.

Convinced that the German troops' defense had collapsed and they were surrounded, Oberführer Fritz Freitag decided to resign as division commander. Major General Gerhard Lindemann, commander of the 361st Infantry Division, took over "Galicia".

THE ROUT AND POSTSCRIPT
The divisions of the German 48th Panzer Corps, which were tasked with unblocking the troops trapped in the cauldron at Brody, including the remainder of the "Galicia", did not complete the task.

The encircled people tried to break out of the cauldron on their own, but they came under powerful attacks from our aviation and artillery. According to Major Gaike's reports, about 500 "Galicia" servicemen broke out of the cauldron (out of 11 thousand, let us recall).

From the journal of the Soviet 15th Rifle Corps, we can learn that on July 22, the enemy lost more than 2,000 killed and 1,850 captured. According to data collected by military historian Beglyar Navruzov, "Galicia" lost 9,600 killed and missing.

Modern Ukrainian authors, for obvious reasons, cite more modest figures: 3,500 killed, 2,000 captured, less than 2,000 went over to the UPA* (that is, they simply ran away and betrayed the Fuhrer) - the total losses of the division, Kiev historiography estimates at just over seven thousand.

Be that as it may, in the battles from July 15 to 22, "Galichina" was routed. Like the entire Brody group of the enemy - more than 20 thousand were killed, about 12-15 thousand were taken prisoner.

The history of the Galician SS, however, had a postscript. In September 1944, "Galicia" was re-formed, and its "combat path" continued in Slovakia, where it suppressed a national uprising.

Here the Galicians acted together with the Sonderkommando Dirlewanger, which had previously distinguished itself with mass murders in Belarus. Several units of the Galicians joined the battle group of SS-Obersturmführer Karl Wildner, which, when the Germans took the center of the uprising, Banská Bystrica, "cleansed" this city.

In January 1945, the revived Galicia was sent to suppress the Yugoslav partisans.

In April, a month before the end of the war, a Ukrainian was finally put in charge of the collaborators. By decision of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht, "Galicia" was transformed into the "Ukrainian National Army", headed by Pavlo Shandruk, a former ensign general in the Petliura army and now a German lieutenant general.

The Galicians surrendered to the British and Americans, knowing what awaited them if they fell into the hands of the Red Army.

SS MEN NOT RECOGNIZED AS NAZIS
In 1949, the Association of Former Members of the Galicia Division appeared in the American occupation zone. That same year, by the way, Shandruk quietly left the newly formed FRG for the States, where he lived in freedom until old age (he died in 1979). Since the 1960s, the association of former SS men moved from West Germany to Canada. Sympathizers of these "fighters against Bolshevism" claim that the division was not condemned by the Nuremberg Tribunal, completely forgetting that the court recognized the entire SS as a criminal organization.

But it is significant that the Jules Deschênes Commission, a Canadian war crimes body that operated in 1985-86, brought charges against only 20 soldiers and officers. This is not surprising, since the commission included many descendants of migrants from the Baltics and Ukraine.

In modern Ukraine, the "Galicia Division Reserve" is active, led by Igor Ivankov, Vasyl Bychko and Dmitry Pravosudov. This historical and cultural society, dedicated to the glorification of SS men, opened a memorial cemetery in the Zolochiv district of the Lviv region in 1994. After the Maidan of 2014, marches in memory of the division became regular.

In Lviv itself, at the Lychakiv Cemetery, a monument to the SS men of "Galicia" has been erected. This is all the more significant because in May-June of this year, with the permission of the Lviv City Council, the cemetery on the Hill of Glory, where the Soviet soldiers-liberators were buried, was destroyed.

The Kiev regime supports the myth-making of the activists of the Galicia Reserve, who regularly publish books that talk about how the “Ukrainian division” almost led the XIII Army Corps out of encirclement and single-handedly held back the onslaught of entire Soviet armies.

"Reservists" can be seen at various mass events in SS uniforms. And there is nothing shameful about this, because already under Volodymyr Zelensky, the Supreme Court of Ukraine in 2022 recognized the division's symbols - responsible, among other things, for the murder of Jews - as not Nazi. This means that they are not prohibited. Active financial support for the "Division Reserve" is provided by the heirs of the veterans of "Galicia" in the Canadian and other diaspora. But new generations of Nazis are already growing up, who support the neo-SS inside Ukraine as well.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Gaza war, regional updates

2025-07-14

[X]

🧵Gaza war, regional updates:
👉27 killed in Gaza, including at water distribution points
👉Malnutrition cases rising in Gaza: UNRWA
👉Israel arrests Palestinians in West Bank raids

🔴 Live blog:https://t.co/SJUmeJPTwt
— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) July 13, 2025

IDF admits error in deadly strike on water delivery site as truce talks stay jammed

[IsraelTimes] Israel’s military said Sunday that a strike near a Gaza water distribution point that reportedly killed several children was an accident, as Israeli aircraft pounded targets across the Strip.

The strike, which the Israel Defense Forces attributed to a "technical malfunction," came as negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal continued to stall, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly set to convene top ministers and defense brass in a bid to find a way to break the logjam.

Gazook health officials at al-Awda Hospital said the strike that hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp killed 10 people, including six children.

The IDF admitted it had erred while targeting an operative from the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
terror group.

"Due to a technical malfunction in the munition, it struck dozens of meters away from the intended target," the IDF said, adding that it had opened an investigation and that it "makes every effort to minimize harm to uninvolved civilians."

Ramadan Nassar, a witness who lives in the area, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that around 20 children and 14 adults had been lined up to get water. He said Paleostinians walk some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to fetch water from the area.

Water shortages in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centers where they can fill up their plastic containers.

More than a dozen people were also reported killed near an aid distribution site on Sunday, with eyewitnesses describing shots to victims’ heads and bodies. The Israeli military said its troops had fired warning shots, but that its review of the incident had found no evidence of anyone hurt by its soldiers’ fire.

Negotiations toward a ceasefire in Gaza have stalled primarily over when the war will end and to what extent the IDF will withdraw during the truce.

Paleostine al-Youm, an Islamic Jihad-affiliated news outlet, quoted a senior Hamas
Hamas

..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
official Sunday saying negotiations had reached a critical stage and signaling the Paleostinian group could walk away if the logjam was not cleared in the coming hours.

Channel 12 news reported Sunday that Netanyahu would convene a meeting of senior defense officials and several government ministers that night in a bid to break the impasse, focusing on a new proposal for the troops’ redeployment in Gaza and the direction of talks.

IDF brass has told the government that it is close to achieving the goals of its recent offensive, and US President Donald Trump
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
has repeatedly urged an end to the 21-month-old war. Polls show most Israelis support a deal to free the hostages still held by Hamas and end the war.

During his recent visit to Washington, DC, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed optimism about a deal. But in a video posted to social media Sunday afternoon, he blamed Hamas for obstructing an agreement, saying Israel had accepted the outline proposed by Trump’s chief envoy, Steve Witkoff.

"We accepted it, Hamas refused it," Netanyahu said, adding that he "won’t accept" a deal that allows Hamas to stay in Gaza and rearm."

The deal currently being negotiated in the 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...
i capital would see 10 living hostages released in an initial 60-day stage, along with the remains of 18 deceased captives.

Netanyahu has insisted the war cannot end until Hamas is no longer able to rule Gaza or pose a threat to Israel, vowing to achieve both that goal and the return of all 50 hostages still being held in the Strip.

The IDF is waiting for the government to make a decision regarding the war as the military nears completion of its Gideon’s Chariots offensive, launched in mid-May. In late June, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said the military would soon "reach the lines" set by the offensive, in which the IDF aimed to take control of 75 percent of Gaza.

Jordan announced Sunday morning that a local charity had sent 50 trucks of aid to Gaza. The shipment came after the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
announced last week that a deal had been reached to reopen several aid corridors, including humanitarian routes through Egypt and Jordan.

A group of United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
agencies warned, meanwhile, that a fuel shortage had reached "critical levels" in Gaza, threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity.

On Sunday, in a rare incident, an Israeli soldier driving on a road in Israeli territory near Gaza was lightly maimed by a stray Israeli bullet.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 451. The toll includes two coppers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.

Link

Europe

New Gaza-bound boat leaves Italy carrying symbolic aid

2025-07-14

[X]

Handala: New Gaza-bound boat leaves Italy carrying symbolic aidhttps://t.co/VfK4LmvCwf
— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) July 13, 2025

Symbolic aid doesn't sound very filling.

You’d think they’d get tired of embarrassing themselves while failing in their stated mission, but they’re definitely in the “No publicity is bad publicity” camp.

A 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...
-bound boat carrying pro-Paleostinian activists and humanitarian aid

left Sicily on Sunday, over a month after Israel detained and deported people aboard a previous vessel.

The Handala, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left the port of Syracuse shortly after 12:00 pm (1000 GMT), an AFP journalist saw, carrying about fifteen activists.

Several dozen people, some holding Paleostinian flags and others wearing keffiyeh scarves, gathered at the port to cheer the boat's departure with cries of "Free Paleostine".

The former Norwegian trawler - loaded with medical supplies, food, children's equipment and medicine

… the tradition for that crowd is that the supplies are expired, but they mean well in a symbolic kind of way that doesn’t help their targets at all..

- will sail for about a week in the Mediterranean, covering roughly 1,800 kilometres (1,120 miles), in the hope of reaching Gaza's coast.

In early March, Israel imposed a total aid blockade on Gaza amid an impasse in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.

The boat will make a stop at Gallipoli, in southeastern Italia, where two members of the left-wing La Belle France Unbowed party (LFI) are expected to join.

The initiative comes six weeks after the departure of the Madleen, another ship that left Italia for Gaza transporting aid and activists, including Greta "Pippi" Thunberg
...an autistic sixteen year old Swedish expert on climate change, though I guess she's older now...
Israel authorities intercepted the Madleen about 185 kilometres west of Gaza's coast.

"This is a mission for the children in Gaza, to break the humanitarian blockade and to break the summer silence on the genocide," said Gabrielle Cathala, one of the two La Belle France Unbowed party members set to board the boat on 18 July.

"I hope we will reach Gaza but if not, it will be yet another violation of international law" by Israel, she added.

Link

-Obits-

The family has announced passing of the former president, Muhammadu Buhari

2025-07-14

[X]

INNA LILLAHI WA INNA ILAIHIRRAJIUUN.

The family of the former president has announced the passing on of the former president, Muhammadu Buhari, this afternoon in a clinic in London.
May Allah accept him in Aljannatul Firdaus, Amin. pic.twitter.com/Dv0IfgzWAc
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) July 13, 2025

Muhammadu Buhari, who took power in Nigeria by both coup and ballot box, dead at 82

[CBC] Former military ruler who became a 'converted democrat' fought endemic corruption

Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, who led Africa's most populous country from 2015-23 and was the first Nigerian leader to oust an incumbent through the ballot box, died in London on Sunday, a presidential spokesperson said.

"President Buhari died today in London at about 4:30 p.m., following a prolonged illness," President Bola Tinubu's spokesperson said in a post on social media platform X.

Buhari, 82, who first led the country as a military ruler after a coup in the 1980s, earned a devoted following for his brand of anti-corruption conviction politics.

He referred to himself as a "converted democrat" and swapped his military uniform for kaftans and prayer caps.

"I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody," was a constant refrain Buhari told supporters and critics alike.

Buhari defeated

Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau.Other than that he's pretty useless as the Boko Haram debacle shows...
, who served as president from 2010-15, in what was judged to be Nigeria's fairest election to date. Many hoped the retired major-general would crack down on gangs, just as he had as the country's military head of state.

Instead, violence that had mostly been confined to the northeast spread. That left swaths of Nigeria outside the control of its stretched security forces as button men in the northwest, armed separatists and gangs in the southeast roamed unchecked.

Much of Buhari's appeal lay in the anti-corruption ethos that was a central plank of his agenda both as a military and civilian ruler. He said endemic corruption in Nigeria's political culture was holding people back.

But Buhari quickly disappointed after his 2015 win.

He took six months to name his cabinet. During that time, the oil-dependent economy was hobbled by low crude prices, prompting people to call him "Baba Go Slow."

His second victory in 2019 came despite his initial term being blighted by Nigeria's first recession in a generation, murderous Moslem attacks on oilfields and repeated hospital stays.

Born on Dec. 17, 1942, in Daura, in the northwestern state of Katsina, Buhari enrolled in the army at 19. He would eventually rise to the rank of major-general.

He seized power in 1983 as a military ruler, promising to revitalize a mismanaged country. Buhari took a tough line on everything from the conditions sought by the International Monetary Fund to unruliness in bus lineups.

In 1984, his administration attempted to kidnap a former minister and vocal critic living in Britannia. The plot failed when London airport officials opened the crate containing the kidnapped politician.

Buhari's first stint in power was short-lived. He was removed after only 18 months by another military officer, Ibrahim Babangida.

He spent much of the following 30 years in fringe political parties and trying to run for president until his eventual victory over Jonathan in 2015.

“Former president Buhari is gone”

Nigerians rn: pic.twitter.com/xnv3iYgWxr
— 𝒎𝒐𝒆. (@moe4dem) July 13, 2025

Link

Home Front: WoT

Report: ICE Arrests 30K Illegals in June, the Most in at Least Half a Decade

2025-07-14

[BREITBART] Some 30,000 illegal aliens were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in June, the most illegals arrested by the agency in at least half a decade, when monthly figures were first made public, a new report states.

The ICE data, obtained by NBC News, found that in June, about 30,000 illegal aliens were arrested by ICE. This is a slight uptick from May, when about 24,000 illegal aliens were arrested by ICE.

The report from NBC News also includes removal and deportation figures, but does not distinguish between the two.

According to the ICE data, more than 18,000 illegal aliens were either deported by ICE agents from the interior of the United States or returned to their home countries by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents while attempting to cross into the United States.

The number of all-important deportations from the interior of the United States is still unknown, as DHS officials say more than 253,000 illegal aliens have been either removed or deported — also not distinguishing between ICE deportations and CBP removals.

ICE agents, thanks to the Trump administration, will get a huge funding boost now that Congress approved the Big Beautiful Bill, which includes $45 billion for more detention space for illegal aliens and nearly $30 billion for ICE to hire more deportation agents.

Link

Economy

Trump Tariffs Deliver Surprise Budget Surplus

2025-07-14

[BREITBART] The federal government posted an unexpected budget surplus in June, fueled by a sharp rise in tariff revenues and higher-than-anticipated tax receipts, marking a notable vindication for President Donald Trump

...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
's economic strategy.

The $27 billion surplus reported Friday by the Treasury Department stood in stark contrast to forecasts for a $50 billion deficit, representing one of the largest upside surprises in recent budget data.

Monthly surpluses typically occur in April, when many Americans file their taxes. Surpluses are also common in January and September. A June surplus is highly unusual.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that he expects tariffs to bring in as much as $300 billion in revenues this year.

Much of the improvement stemmed from a 301 percent increase in tariff collections compared to June of last year. Customs duties totaled $27 billion in June, up from $23 billion in May and more than quadruple the $6.7 billion collected a year earlier. For the fiscal year to date, tariff revenues have reached $113 billion, an 86% increase over the same period in 2024.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that he expects tariffs to bring in as much as $300 billion in revenues this year.

The surge follows Mr. Trump's sweeping 10 percent universal tariff on imports implemented in April, as well as a growing array of reciprocal duties aimed at specific trading partners. Administration officials have pointed to the June surplus as evidence that the new trade regime is strengthening federal finances without imposing the widespread inflationary pressure critics once warned about.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More