British thief admits to stealing nearly 200,000 chocolate Easter eggs
A man who prosecutors said broke into a U.K. industrial park to steal almost 200,000 chocolate Easter eggs has pleaded guilty to theft and criminal damage.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that Joby Pool, 32, used a metal grinder to break through a gate at an industrial park in Telford, central England, on Saturday, then used a stolen semi truck to tow away a trailer loaded with Cadbury Creme Eggs and other chocolate goods worth more than $38,000.
CHOCOLATE THIEVES STEAL $55K WORTH OF CANDY AFTER DRIVING OFF WITH DELIVERY TRUCK
West Mercia Police tweeted Monday that shortly after the break-in, officers stopped a vehicle "presumably purporting to be the Easter bunny" on a highway and arrested a man on suspicion of theft.
Prosecutor Owen Beale said Pool gave up when he realized police were after him.
Pool "walked towards the police with his hands up. He was arrested and the load was recovered," Beale said.
EIGHT ARRESTED IN GEORGIA THEFT RING AFTER TRAIL OF CANDY WRAPPERS LEADS POLICE TO SUSPECTS
He added that Pool had planned the theft and that he had previous convictions for handling stolen goods.
Pool entered guilty pleas to theft of a trailer, theft of its contents and criminal damage to a chain lock. He is expected to be sentenced next month.
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French authorities find woman’s decapitated head, other body parts in public park: reports
A woman’s decapitated head and other body parts were discovered Monday in a public park in Paris, according to reports.
Municipal workers made the gruesome discovery in a wooded area of the Buttes-Chaumont park, which is in the 19th district of Paris.
Per The Telegraph, workers initially discovered a plastic bag containing the pelvis area of a woman. Upon further search of the area police found additional bags containing more parts of a dismembered body – including a woman’s head.
A forensic team was called to the team and investigators were combing the 62-acre park, which was closed to the public. Police, meanwhile, are investigating CCTV footage.
GEORGIA EX-OFFICER CHARGED WITH DUMPING NAKED BODY OF 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL IN WOODS
An unnamed source told the French outlet, Le Parisien, the victim’s "body was cut dressed."
"The corpse was not in a state of putrefaction, which seems to attest to a recent death," the source reportedly said.
The victim’s identity remains unknown, and an autopsy is pending.
The case has recalled the horrific murder and rape of a 12-year-old girl whose body was found in a plastic box in Paris in October.
The French government said the suspect, a 24-year-old immigrant from Algeria, had been living illegally in the country for several years.
The girl’s horrific death triggered an intense political debate on President Emmanuel Macron’s immigration policies.
Buttes-Chaumont park
Florida men arrested for alleged roles in Haitian president's 2021 assassination: US DOJ
The Department of Justice arrested four Florida men who are accused of plotting to kill the President of Haiti, Jovenel Moise.
Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, 50; Antonio Intriago 59; Walter Veintemilla, 54; and Frederick Bergmann, 64, were arrested on Tuesday in relation to their "participation" in events leading up to the July 7, 2021 assassination of Moise. Pretel is a Colombian national and U.S. permanent resident of Miami, Intriago is a Venezuelan national and U.S. permanent resident of Miami, Veintemilla is a resident of Weston, Florida and Bergmann is a resident of Tampa, Florida.
Moise was assassinated on July 7, 2021 at his private home and was shot a dozen times, with his office and bedroom ransacked, according to Hatian newspaper Le Nouvelliste.
Ortiz, Intriago, and Veintemilla are being charged with "conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a conspiracy to kidnap or kill outside the United States, resulting in death; providing material support and resources to a conspiracy to kidnap or kill outside the United States, resulting in death; and conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person outside the United States," according to the Department of Justice.
2 HAITIAN AMERICANS ARRESTED IN PRESIDENT JOVENEL MOÏSE ASSASSINATION, OFFICIALS SAY
Bergmann is being charged with "conspiracy to commit export violations; submitting false and misleading export information; and smuggling ballistic vests from the United States to Haiti."
According to the DOJ, South Florida served as a "central location" for "planning and financing the plot to oust President Moïse from power and replace him with someone who would serve the coconspirators’ political goals and financial interests."
Officials say that Ortiz and Intriago are principals of Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and Counter Terrorist Unit Security, and Veintemilla is a principal for Worldwide Capital Lending Group, which are all based in South Florida.
WISCONSIN WOMAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN DISMEMBERMENT MURDER
11 people are now facing charges in the Southern District of Florida in relation to the assassination.
The Justice Department is accusing Veintemilla and his company of agreeing to finance the plot and sent a $175,000 line of credit to Counter Terrorist Unit Federal Academy and also sent money to people in Haiti which was used to purchase ammunition.
Officials say that the men met at a house near Moise's residence on July 6, 2021 where firearms and other equipment was distributed, and Moise was assassinated a day later.
Ortiz, Intriago, and Veintemilla are facing up to life in prison for their role in the assassination, and Bergmann is facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Israeli officials double down on settlement construction, rebuke US criticism
Two ultranationalist Israeli Cabinet ministers on Tuesday defiantly dismissed a growing chorus of global condemnation of new Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, instead promising to double down and legalize dozens of wildcat outposts in the occupied territory.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reaffirmed their commitment to expand Israeli authority in the lands that the Palestinians seek for a future state. Their comments came after the United States expressed opposition to the move and as four European countries added their criticism.
Smotrich, a religious settler, said he and his allies in the government — the most right-wing in Israel's history — remain "committed to removing completely the restrictions on building in Judea and Samaria," referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.
BIDEN ADMIN CRITICIZES REPORTED ISRAELI SETTLEMENT EXPANSION IN WEST BANK
"Disagreements are allowed, even between friends," he added.
Ben-Gvir, who also lives in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, urged the U.S. and Europe to "stop being worried."
"The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel," he said emphatically. "Nine settlements is nice. But it’s still not enough. We want many more."
On Tuesday, some of Europe's top diplomats joined the U.S. in censuring Israel over its plans to build 10,000 new homes in existing settlements in the West Bank and retroactively legalize nine outposts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet announced the measure on Sunday, following a surge in violence in Jerusalem.
We "are deeply troubled by the Israeli government's announcement," read the joint statement from the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the U.S. "We strongly oppose these unilateral actions which will only serve to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians."
Israel's Arab neighbors Jordan and Egypt, as well as Saudi Arabia and Norway, similarly expressed grave concern and strong opposition to the new settlement plans.
Still, there was no mention of potential consequences. Despite years of accumulated frustration and escalating rhetoric over Israel's fast-expanding settlements that threaten the realization of the two-state solution that has been a goal of the peace process for years, the U.S. and European Union have avoided taking serious action.
ISRAELI PROTESTERS TAKE TO STREETS TO BLAST NETANYAHU 'JUDICIAL REFORMS' AS PM CALLS FOR UNITY
Israel's new government could nonetheless test the country's closest ties. In a contentious coalition deal, Netanyahu promised Smotrich authority over the defense body responsible for planning for both settlements and Palestinian construction in parts of the West Bank where Israel maintains civilian control.
Once he receives those powers, Smotrich has vowed to "normalize" life for more than 500,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, erasing the differences between living in a settlement and within Israel’s internationally recognized border and effectively annexing West Bank territory. Such a move would draw widespread backlash.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Ultranationalists who oppose Palestinian statehood comprise a majority of Israel’s new government, which has declared settlement construction a top priority.
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Egypt releases former anti-graft chief after 5 year prison stint
Egyptian authorities Tuesday released the country’s former anti-graft chief after he served a five-year prison term for allegedly insulting and disseminating false news about the military, his lawyers said.
Hesham Genena, a former judge, walked free from a police station and returned to his home in Cairo’s eastern New Cairo district, lawyer Hossam Lotfy said.
His daughter, Shorouk Genena, posted images on Facebook showing her father hugging his family. "Baba is out, finally," she wrote.
FORMER ALGERIAN PRESIDENT'S BROTHER GETS 12 YEARS FOR CORRUPTION
Genena was taken Tuesday to the country’s Supreme State Security Prosecution following his release from a prison, where he was questioned over separate allegations of disseminating false news, said another lawyer Naser Amin.
The allegations are related to comments he made in 2016 on the scale of government corruption, Amin said. Prosecutors ordered his release pending an investigation, he added.
Genena, who was arrested in February 2018, served a five-year sentence on a conviction of insulting the military. The conviction was related to incendiary comments in which he claimed that the military's former chief-of-staff, Sami Annan, was in possession of documents incriminating the country’s leadership. He said the documents were kept abroad.
Annan was arrested shortly after he announced his intention to challenge President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in the 2018 election. The president won with 97% of the vote in a race that saw no real challenger.
FORMER MEXICAN SECURITY CZAR EMBEZZLED UP TO $746M, AUTHORITIES CLAIM
Annan was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of fraudulently registering to vote, of breaching regulations, and incitement against the armed forces over a video he released declaring his candidacy. He was released in December 2019 for health reasons, Amin said at the time.
Genena led Egypt’s top watchdog agency until el-Sissi fired him in 2016 following an investigation that concluded he had misled the public on the scale of government corruption. Genena said corruption had cost the country billions of dollars in 2015 alone. He later said he was misquoted by a local news outlet.
Genena had long been the target of criticism from pro-government media, well-connected businessmen and senior officials since being appointed in 2012, but his massive corruption allegations sparked a particular furor, with media branding him a traitor and closet supporter of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
El-Sissi appointed a commission that eventually accused Genena of misleading the public with support from unnamed "foreign" parties.
EGYPT_NEWS
Romania, Moldova report potential UFOs in airspace
Romania briefly scrambled military jets and neighboring Moldova temporarily closed its air space Tuesday after authorities in both countries reported mysterious weather balloon-like objects traversing their skies.
The incidents occurred at around midday local time and briefly raised concerns in the two Eastern European countries, both which border Ukraine and have been affected by Russia’s war.
Romania’s defense ministry said it deployed two jets that are under NATO command to its southeastern skies to seek an aerial object it described as being small with "characteristics similar to a weather balloon." It had been detected initially by radar systems in Romanian airspace at an altitude of about 36,000 feet.
BIDEN STILL SILENT AFTER THREE MORE UFOS SHOT DOWN OVER NORTH AMERICA
"The crews of the two aircraft did not confirm the presence of the aerial target, neither visually nor on the onboard radars," a ministry statement said, adding that the two MiG-21 LanceR aircraft stayed in the vicinity for about 30 minutes before returning to base.
It was unclear whether the two incidents were related, and neither country said where they believed the objects had come from.
The events follow a string of comparable incidents this month in the U.S., in which objects detected and shot down by warplanes included a high-altitude Chinese balloon that traversed American airspace. China said it was a weather balloon that had accidentally drifted off course.
The incident in Moldova triggered widespread travel disruption and brief panic when authorities temporarily closed the country's airspace over what they later described as an object "similar to a weather balloon" spotted near the northern border with Ukraine.
Scores of flights in the country of about 2.6 million people, one of Europe’s poorest, were canceled or rescheduled. Some were diverted to Romania.
"Given the weather conditions and the impossibility of monitoring and identifying the object as well as its flight path … the decision was taken to temporarily close the airspace," Moldova's aviation authority said in a statement.
Romania has been a NATO member since 2004 and a European Union member since 2007. Moldova is militarily neutral and thus not a potential NATO member. It's looking to forge closer ties with the west and was granted EU candidate status last June, the same day as Ukraine.
On Monday, Moldovan President Maia Sandu accused Russia of plotting to overthrow her country's government and derail it from its EU accession path.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed Sandu’s claims on Tuesday as "absolutely unfounded and unsubstantiated."
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Taliban forces kill 3 IS members in raid on Kabul building
Taliban intelligence forces killed three Islamic State group militants and arrested one in an overnight operation in the Afghan capital of Kabul, an official said Tuesday.
The raid on a residential building targeted IS militants who organized recent attacks in the capital, said Khalil Hamraz, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for Afghanistan's general director of intelligence. He called the target in the Karti Naw neighborhood an important IS hideout.
The Islamic State group did not immediately respond to the government's claims.
During the operation, three IS members were killed, and one militant was arrested. Ammunition and military equipment were seized by the troops, he added.
NY STOCKBROKER TURNED ISIS SNIPER FOUND GUILTY OF AIDING TERROR GROUP
The regional affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — is a key rival of the Taliban. The group has increased its attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021. Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.
Local residents reported hearing several explosions and an hourslong gun battle.
"This place was not known, because people were not going and coming to this area much," said Hejran Khan, a local resident. "The people who were there were not showing themselves and were not coming out, people didn’t know who they are and what their plan was."
The Taliban swept across the country in August 2021, seizing power as U.S. and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their final withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
5 German police officers charged over fatal shooting of mentally ill Senegal teen
Prosecutors in Germany said Tuesday that five police officers have been charged over the death of a Senegalese teenager who was shot dead last year.
Police had been called to an incident at a foster home in the western city of Dortmund on Aug. 8, 2022, because the 16-year-old refugee had allegedly threatened to harm himself with a knife.
Officers claimed the teen, identified as Mouhamed Dramé, had run toward them with a knife, whereupon they used pepper spray and two tasers before shooting him with an automatic pistol.
POLISH BUS TRAVELING TO BELGIUM CRASHES ON GERMAN HIGHWAY, INJURING 35
German news agency dpa reported that the officer who fired the shots was being charged with manslaughter, while his superior officer was being charged with incitement to dangerous bodily harm. Three other officers were charged with dangerous bodily harm, dpa reported.
Public broadcaster WDR quoted Dortmund prosecutors saying they believe the operation was "disproportionate from the start."
The incident sparked a debate in Germany about police violence against minorities and their handling of cases involving people with mental illness.
US condemns Russian use of Iranian drones in Ukraine
FLASH
American defense officials on Tuesday sought to dispel any doubt that Iran is supplying drones for Russia’s war in Ukraine, releasing photos and analysis of unmanned aircraft deployed in the conflict to demonstrate Tehran’s involvement.
During a briefing in London, analysts from the Defense Intelligence Agency displayed photos of drones that attacked Ukraine alongside images of those previously traced to Iran. A comparison of design details such as tail fins, nose cones and landing gear shows that the weapons used in Ukraine are "indistinguishable" from Shahed-131 and -136 attack drones and Mohajer 6 unmanned aerial vehicles used in the Middle East.
The effort to "show the homework’’ is intended to help persuade governments or international agencies of Tehran’s involvement. Iran has said it supplied a "small number" of drones to Russia before the invasion of Ukraine but has denied providing any more since troops crossed the border last February.
IRAN HELPS RUSSIA EMPLOY MULTIPURPOSE DRONES IN UKRAINE FOR 'MAXIMUM DAMAGE'
The evidence proves otherwise, an official from the Defense Intelligence Agency said while speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
"Iran is a partner in the conflict with Russia,’’ the official said.
U.S. officials also suggested that Iran was gleaning valuable information by deploying its technology in Ukraine, including how the drones perform in different weather conditions, seeing how they can be used under different scenarios and getting real life feedback that allows them to make the weapons more effective.
For example, after learning that civilians were able to flee because they could hear the drones approaching, weapons designers are likely to make future models quieter, the official said.
"They are getting to see it used on a mass level,’’ the official said. "It’s a process for them. Iran is able to see this feedback and make adjustments.’’
The war in Ukraine also allows Iran to demonstrate the capabilities of its technology to other potential buyers.
"Iran sees this as a great marketing opportunity,’’ the official added.
The analysis was released a day after Britain presented evidence that Iran is supplying advanced weapons to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Britain presented drones and missiles seized from vessels in the Gulf of Oman to the United Nations as evidence that Iran is violating Security Council resolutions barring weapons shipments to the Houthis.
IRAN, RUSSIA TO INTEGRATE BANKING SYSTEMS TO BYPASS WESTERN SANCTIONS
The timing of the release suggests Western powers are hardening their stance on Iran, said Tobias Borck, a research fellow for Middle East security studies at the Royal United Services Institute.
For the last 20 years, Iran policy has been focused on limiting Iran’s nuclear program. But efforts to resuscitate talks on a nuclear deal are stalled, and officials in Washington, London and Brussels have begun to shift their messaging.
The idea that an agreement could be a confidence building measure paving the way to resolving other issues in the region is vanishing.
"We’re headed in a direction where the West writ large, the U.S. and Europe, will identify Iran as a bad actor,″ Borck said. "And the focus has to be on deterring and containing. And so that’s where the policy is headed."
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Pastor put in week-long solitary confinement for church service predicts Canadian revival: 'Something stirred'
A Canadian pastor who allegedly spent a week in solitary confinement after keeping his church open during the pandemic said he believes Canadians are poised to experience a spiritual revival.
A federal judge dismissed the charges against Pastor Phil Hutchings of Higher Life Church in St. John, New Brunswick, last week – following a legal saga that began when he was arrested in 2021 for holding church services in defiance of a provincial health order.
"We just drew a hard line because we found that the mandates just conflicted with our faith in what we stood for," Hutchings told Fox News Digital. "For us, it wasn't about bravado. It wasn't a fight-the-man attitude. It just conflicted with what we believe as a church. We believe in assembling together."
After a Canadian Thanksgiving service, the government "really started going crazy on us," Hutchings said. He claimed he was subjected to a week in solitary confinement after he and his associate pastor Cody Butler were arrested.
CANADIAN PASTOR REPEATEDLY JAILED OVER COVID PROTOCOLS TO FACE FINAL TRIAL: ‘CRAZY STUFF’
The clergymen did not cooperate with authorities attempting to interrupt the church service, citing a section of the Canadian law that forbids disturbing religious services, said Hutchings.
"They surrounded our church," Hutchings remembered. "It looked like a Mexican drug cartel going down."
‘Something out of a movie’
"Our church folks just couldn't believe that this was actually taking place, like many other Canadians who were arrested," Hutchings said. "We now see how low the province will go to just prove a point, to push this ridiculous narrative."
The pastor said for a week he was "basically in a brick room on a brick slab with blankets and pillows," and that he was only allowed to shower once.
"When I'm telling you this, it still rocks me a bit," he said. "I don't know if my mind's caught up to the fact that this really happened to me."
CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST CANADIAN PASTORS WHO HELD SERVICES DURING PANDEMIC: ‘PLEASANTLY SURPRISED’
After Hutchings was released, his church erected an outdoor commercial tent in response to being ticketed by authorities for holding indoor gatherings, according to the Feb. 2 ruling from Chief Justice Tracey DeWare of the Court of King's Bench. The court tossed out the contempt charges against Hutchings.
Hutchings said authorities began to hover around his church again after he put up the tent, taking pictures and trying to have him charged with contempt. Media also swooped in and portrayed him negatively, he claimed.
Prosecutors argued that the tent, whose flaps were put down during cold weather, constituted a "public indoor space," and that the pastors did not sufficiently ensure that each churchgoer was vaccinated.
DeWare ultimately determined she could not rule beyond a reasonable doubt that the tent Hutchings' church was using for services "clearly and unequivocally" constituted an indoor gathering as defined by the provincial health order in place at the time.
‘A Goliath in front of you’
"It's like sink or swim at that moment," Hutchings said of his imprisonment and what his church experienced. "You learn a lot. You learn about the extent of God's grace, and the level of fight that he actually put into you. You don't know what you're made up of until you've got a Goliath in front of you.
"It's like something gets pulled out of you that you didn't realize you had, and I think that's what we realized as a church," he added. "There was a strength that God put in us to lean into this and draw a line because this wasn't just for us."
Hutchings said his ministry has flourished despite the legal battle, and he believes many Canadians have been invigorated to stand up for their rights in recent years.
He bashed authorities and said his church determined early on that "whatever it takes, we're not bowing."
"Many sadly did," he said.
‘Something stirred’
Still Canada's best days are "right now," he said.
"Even though many bowed their knee to the crazy, many stood," Hutchings said. "And we're now seeing folks who are very appreciative now that everything's been coming out. People are seeing how significant that stand was. If anything, it's almost like it put a fire back in the people."
The pastor said he believes "a different attitude" has seized his nation and that "something stirred" amid the government clampdown during the pandemic, which he believes could lay the groundwork for a spiritual revival in the country.
"Unfortunately, some folks had to be the spearhead, but I feel like something broke, and we're only going to see positive changes from this point on," he said.
Hutchings
UN calls for $397M in humanitarian aid for Syrian earthquake survivors
The United Nations chief launched a $397 million appeal Tuesday to help nearly 5 million survivors of last week’s devastating earthquake in rebel-held northwest Syria who have received very little assistance because of deep divisions exacerbated by the country’s 12-year war.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the appeal a day after he welcomed an agreement between the U.N. and Syrian President Bashar Assad to open two new crossing points from Turkey for an initial period of three months. The U.N. has only been allowed to deliver aid to the northwest Idlib area through a single crossing at Bab Al-Hawa, at Syrian ally Russia’s insistence.
Guterres said the devastation from the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that ravaged southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Feb. 6 "is one of the worst in recent memory," and "we all know that lifesaving aid has not been getting in at the speed and scale needed."
TURKEY-SYRIA EARTHQUAKE DEATH TOLL LIKELY TO SURPASS 56,000, UN EMERGENCY AID CHIEF SAYS
He said the $397 million will provide "desperately needed, life-saving relief for nearly 5 million Syrians — including shelter, health care, food and protection" for three months.
Guterres said the U.N. is in the final stages of preparing an emergency appeal for quake-ravaged southern Turkey.
He urged the international community to provide the emergency funding without delay, saying: "The human suffering from this epic natural disaster should not be made even worse by manmade obstacles — access, funding, supplies."
The secretary-general said aid to Syria must get through by all routes to all areas without restrictions.
A senior U.N. World Food Program official warned that food insecurity in afflicted parts of Syria had been rising dramatically even before the earthquake struck.
"It was very bad before. Now it’s dramatic," said Corinne Fleischer, the agency's Middle East Director.
"Half of the population faces hunger. And that’s the worst that we’ve seen since the beginning of the crisis in Syria. Even at the height of the war, we didn’t have 12 million people food insecure," she said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Guterres announced that an 11-truck convoy was on the move to go through one of the newly opened crossings at Bab Al-Salam, "with many more to come." He said the second new crossing at Al Raée is also open, "and goods are flowing."
The announcement of the two additional crossings from Turkey came as the U.N. Security Council was meeting Monday afternoon on the difficulties of getting aid to northwest Syria.
The U.N. has also been trying to send a convoy to the northwest across conflict lines within Syria, but it hasn’t gotten a green light from all parties. The convoy has reportedly been blocked by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel group with ties to al-Qaida that controls part of the northwest.
France’s U.N. ambassador, Nicolas De Riviere, told reporters before Monday’s council meeting that there were two options — either the Syrian government grant additional access to the northwest or the council would try to adopt a resolution authorizing additional crossing points to the region.
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: A WEEK OF UP-CLOSE HORRORS AND HEROICS IN THE TURKISH EARTHQUAKE ZONE
After the meeting and the announcement of the two new crossings, De Riviere said there should be no "obstacles" to delivering aid through the three crossings. If there are, he said, the Security Council should look into adopting a resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which means it can be enforced militarily, to authorize the crossings and get aid to the millions in need.
Secretary-General Guterres, asked about a possible meeting with president Assad, said what’s needed now is not high-level visits that divert resources but stepped-up relief efforts.
"I am following that very, very closely," he said, "and whenever it would be useful and positive, I am ready to do whatever is needed."
As for whether a Security Council resolution is needed, he reiterated that the two new crossings are open, "and we will see, of course, if the situation would change, we would adopt the necessary measures."
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Hazardous air pollution reduces life expectancy by eight years in Bangladesh
Dhaka Air quality was hazardous for nine days in January 2023
Originally published on Global Voices
Dhaka, once surrounded by trees, is now a megacity full of concretes. Image via Flickr by ASaber91. CC BY 2.0.
The inhabitants of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, had a very difficult January as the air quality was hazardous for nine days, the most in the past seven years. An Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 50 or below represents good air quality, 201 to 300 is Very Unhealthy. A score of over 300 is marked as hazardous air quality which may have widespread effects among the general population and may lead to moderate to severe respiratory symptoms in members of sensitive groups.
Air pollution is a longstanding problem in Dhaka that may only be worsening. Studies show that the megacity's residents regularly inhale severely polluted air, reducing their normal life expectancy by an average of seven to eight years.
In Bangladesh, January is known for its poor air quality, due to the lack of rain. The Atmospheric Pollution Study Center at Stamford University reported that in 2017, there were five days in January with disastrous air pollution Between 2017–2022, the number of days with disastrous air pollution has only increased, starting from four in 2017 to eight in 2022.
Why is Dhaka's air quality so bad?
A significant portion of the air pollution in Dhaka is generated by three sources — traditional brick kilns, dust particles in the air during the winter season, and exhaust fumes from vehicles.
More than a thousand traditional brick kilns in the suburbs of Dhaka create a significant amount of air pollution. Moreover, industrial fumes and waste, mismanagement of solid waste, burning of trash and vast construction initiatives throughout the city all add to the air pollution.
The Air Quality Research Center of the Department of Chemistry at Dhaka University has studied the sources of air pollution in Dhaka. According to them, dust and smog make up half of Dhaka's air pollution. The smog is composed of smoke and small particles from biomass such as straw, wood, and chaff. The dust is generated by construction sites and air pollution from aging vehicles.
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Many feel that the mega construction works like the Dhaka Metro Rail system has also increased air pollution in the city. Image via Wikipedia by Selim Khandoker. CC BY-SA 4.0.
During the winter season construction increases as there is less rain. However, mismanaged digging of soil and poor disposal of building waste contribute to the increase in dust particles in the air.
Also, the widespread burning of garbage contributes to air pollution, as UNICEF Bangladesh tweeted:
The burning of garbage in the Buriganga area of #Dhaka is a significant contributor to hazardous levels of air pollution.
Our future.
Our responsibility.#COP25 #ClimateAction© UNICEF/Khan pic.twitter.com/qR3uA4KMDx
— UNICEF Bangladesh (@UNICEFBD) December 13, 2019
News daily The Daily Star tweeted that air pollution levels are high in areas where major construction work is occurring, most affecting those who are stuck in the traffic on their daily commute:
The sites with major construction and persistent traffic in Dhaka city have the highest level of air pollution.#Bangladesh #AirPollution https://t.co/YXiyFSXWyV
— The Daily Star (@dailystarnews) December 4, 2022
“Living in Dhaka is becoming very difficult”
Dhaka is home to approximately twenty million people, making it the fourth-largest city in South Asia in terms of population. Since Bangladesh achieved independence in 1971, Dhaka has grown exponentially, with numerous infrastructure and urbanization projects being implemented. This has encouraged people from villages and other cities to come and settle in Dhaka. To make the city more livable, the government has initiated several major development projects such as a metro rail, subway, and the Dhaka Elevated Expressway.
Economist Anu Muhammad sees Dhaka's air pollution as a result of this “development,” as he discussed in a Fcebook post:
যে ধারায় ‘উন্নয়ন’ হচ্ছে মানুষের এই বিষাক্ত যাত্রা তারই ফল। বিশুদ্ধ নিরাপদ বাতাস, নিরাপদ পানি, নিরাপদ খাবার, নিরাপদ জীবন সবই এখন ধরাছোয়ার বাইরে চলে যাচ্ছে। শুধু থাকছে ‘উন্নয়নের’ পরিসংখ্যান!
The inhabitants of Dhaka have been set on a malicious trail as a consequence of the current trend of “development.” Fresh and secure air, fresh water, safe food and safe life are all now out of reach. All that is left are the “development” statistics!
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, the Chief Executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) who was named as one of the 40 Environmental Heroes of the World by TIME magazine, and received the Goldman Environmental Prize (2009) also attributed Dhaka's air pollution to unplanned development:
সরকার চাইলে উন্নয়ন প্রকল্পগুলো জবাবদিহির আওতায় এনে বায়ুদূষণ কমাতে পারতো। গাছ লাগিয়ে, জলাশয়গুলো রক্ষা করেও বায়ুদূষণ নিয়ন্ত্রণ করা যেত। বায়ুদূষণ মানুষের জীবনের অধিকারের ওপর হস্তক্ষেপ করছে, মরণের দিকে ঠেলে দিচ্ছে, মানুষকে কঠিন কঠিন অসুখ দিচ্ছে। এদিকে আমরা ন্যূনতম মনোনিবেশ করছি না।
The government could have reduced air pollution by making development projects accountable. Air pollution could also be controlled by planting trees and protecting water bodies. Air pollution is interfering with people's right to life, causing serious illness to people and leading to death. We are not mindful of it.
Climate activist Farzana Faruk Jhumu mentions on Twitter that “Living in Dhaka is getting harder every day”:
Living in Dhaka is getting harder every day with the air pollution. #AirPollution https://t.co/2OxeRsK17K
— FARZANA FARUK JHUMU (@FarzanaJhumu) February 9, 2022
Pollution leading to diseases
The prolonged and persistent air pollution has lasting impacts on people in the form of diseases and deteriorating mental health. The number of patients suffering from respiratory diseases in public and private hospitals has increased. The citizens of the city are also seeing increased vector-borne diseases like dengue fever and deteriorating mental health among many.
In November 2022, the World Bank published a research report titled “Breathing Heavy: New Evidence on Air Pollution and Health in Bangladesh.” According to their research, about eighty-eight thousand people die every year due to ailments related to air pollution in Bangladesh.
Although the Department of Environment has campaigned its “Air Pollution Prevention Guidelines” by identifying the reasons behind air pollution, no major initiative of the government is visible to mitigate the pollution except for sprinkling water on the roads to prevent dust from being airborne.
Written by পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha) Translated by Rezwan · View original post [bn]
Editor's Note
I have some personal affairs to attend to. Blogging will return this evening.
Congo reports 32 civilians killed by rebels, militias
At least 32 civilians have been killed by rebel groups in eastern Congo's Ituri province, said a spokesman for the United Nations.
Twenty people were killed by the militia group CODECO and a dozen were killed by the Allied Democratic Forces, which is allied to the Islamic State group, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a press conference on Monday.
Calling the situation "confusing," Dujarric said it is hard for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo to get more information due to restricted movement in the area.
POPE FRANCIS SENDS CONDOLENCES TO CONGO BOMBING VICTIMS AHEAD OF HIS TRIP TO AFRICA
Fighting between CODECO, a loose association of various ethnic Lendu militia groups, and Zaire, a mainly ethnic Hema self-defense group, has been ongoing since 2017 but has worsened recently. At least 32 civilians were killed by CODECO last month, say local officials. In December, the United Nations said the insurgent group was expanding its areas of control, attacking civilians and Congo's military, and taxing communities in the areas that it holds.
The killings come amid surging violence across eastern Congo, where conflict has been simmering for decades as more than 120 armed groups are fighting in the region, most for land and control of mines with valuable minerals, while some groups are trying to protect their communities.
In neighboring North Kivu province, the situation is deteriorating as the M23 rebel group, which was dormant for nearly a decade and resurfaced at the end of 2021, continues to seize swaths of territory and killing civilians.
The M23 first rose to prominence 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, the largest city in Congo’s east, which sits on the border with Rwanda. The group derives its name from a peace agreement signed on March 23, 2009 which called for the rebels to be integrated into the Congo army. The M23 accuse the government of not implementing the accord. The group is believed to have backing from Rwanda, findings supported by the U.N.
A peace agreement last year made during a summit in Angola was supposed to see the M23 withdraw from areas it had captured, however that is not being implemented, according to local residents.
Last week M23 fighters advanced toward Sake town in the Masisi area, displacing more than 65,000 people, according to an internal report for aid groups seen by The Associated Press. The rebels' advance increases the risk of isolating Goma and cutting off humanitarian access, say aid agencies.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, has also been attacked amid the volatility.
Earlier this month one of the U.N. mission's helicopters came under fire in North Kivu province, killing a South African peacekeeper and injuring another, said the U.N. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The United Nations Security Council said the deliberate targeting of peacekeepers could constitute war crimes.
congo_civilians_killed
Palestinian teenager fatally shot during Israeli army raid in West Bank
A Palestinian teen was killed Tuesday during an Israeli army raid in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
The death was the latest in an almost year-long surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence that shows no signs of abating.
The Israeli military said it carried out raids across the occupied West Bank overnight, and that during an operation in the Faraa refugee camp, a person approached troops with an explosive device. The army said that soldiers shot the person.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that local residents clashed with Israeli soldiers, who shot at them.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that Mahmoud Al-Aydi, 17, died from a bullet wound to the head.
EGYPTIAN APARTMENT BUILDING COLLAPSE KILLS 2, INJURES 20 OTHERS
Tensions have mounted for months as Israel has conducted nightly arrest raids in the West Bank, which were prompted by a spate of Palestinian attacks on Israelis last spring. Some 30 people were killed in Israel by Palestinians in 2022, and at least 12 others died in attacks so far in 2023.
On Monday, an Israeli Border Police officer died after he was stabbed by a Palestinian teen in east Jerusalem. Police said a security guard opened fire, apparently shooting 1st Sgt. Asil Su'ad.
Su'ad, a Bedouin Arab serving in Israel's paramilitary police force, was to be laid to rest in northern Israel on Tuesday.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, making it the deadliest year in those areas since 2004, according to figures by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. At least 48 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops since the start of this year.
Israel says that most of those killed have been militants but others — including youths protesting the incursions and other people not involved in confrontations — have also been killed.
Israel says the military raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks while the Palestinians view them as further entrenchment of Israel’s open-ended, 55-year occupation.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for independent state.
Bus in northern South Africa involved in head-on collision with van; 20 dead
A crash between a passenger bus and a van armored to carry cash in the northern province of Limpopo, South Africa has killed at least 20 people and injured 68, officials have reported.
The two vehicles collided head-on along the N1 freeway in the Makhado area on Monday evening, according to paramedics who responded to the crash.
The bus reportedly rolled down a slope to a river and some passengers were found trapped underneath.
Three people by the highway were confirmed dead while 16 other bodies were found by the river where the bus had rolled, according to ER24 paramedics spokesman Ross Campbell.
FORMER ALGERIAN PRESIDENT'S BROTHER GETS 12 YEARS FOR CORRUPTION
"Most of the fatalities down the river had been trapped under the bus," said Campbell.
One more person died after being taken to a hospital, he said. Others injured received treatment at the site with some being transported to nearby health facilities for further care, he said.
While exact details surrounding the collision are unknown, heavy rains have been falling in the area, according to Campbell.
Police investigators were still on the scene on Tuesday morning, said Campbell.
Has World War III Already Begun? And Are We Now In An Endless War?
Summit News: French Historian: World War III Has Already Begun
“We are now in an endless war.”
A French historian who accurately predicted the fall of the Soviet Union over a decade in advance says that World War III has already begun as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
The comments were made by Emmanuel Todd, one of France’s leading intellectuals, during an interview with the Le Figaro newspaper.
“It is evident that the conflict, initially a limited territorial war, has evolved into a global economic confrontation between the whole West on one side, and Russia, backed by China, on the other. It has become a world war,” Todd said.
Todd added that “the resistance of the Russian economy is pushing the U.S. imperial system toward the abyss” and that Biden must “hurry” to rescue a “fragile” America.
According to the historian, U.S. control of the world financial system is at risk because the Russian economy’s resistance to sanctions is pushing “the American imperial system” toward the precipice,” with Russia still able to rely on China for monetary backing.
Todd says America “cannot withdraw from the conflict, they cannot let go,” because it has no exit strategy and the stakes are too high.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: About two years ago former Russian President Medvedev was warning that the world was entering a dangerous phase of war and conflict between Russia and the West. He even warned in 2019 that if Russia was banned from SWIFT, it would mean war .... Russian Prime Minister Medvedev: Cutting Russia Off From SWIFT Would Mean Declaration Of War (December 5, 2019).
At the time I was critical of the former Russian President. I did not share his views that the security situation in Europe was that serious, and I was confident that through talks and diplomacy a solution would be found.
I was wrong.
In the above post the French historian Emmanuel Todd is right that we are now entering an era of endless war. The world order that we have gotten to know since the fall of the Soviet Union is disintegrating, and we are now facing a conflict between three superpowers. The financial superpower (i.e. the West). The resource superpower (i.e. Russia), and the manufacturing superpower (i.e. China).
Here is a sad but easy prediction.
If this conflict is not managed properly, and if de-escalation and de-coupling efforts fail, we are all going to be facing some very hard and difficult times in the years to come.
Kenya's president holds national day of prayer to end drought
With the prospect of a sixth consecutive failed rainy season in the east and Horn of Africa, Kenya's president is hoping the heavens will finally open with the help of a national day of mass prayer on Tuesday.
William Ruto announced the plans for the country's first ever day of prayer on Sunday at a service in the drought-stricken city of Nakuru, some 100 miles from the capital Nairobi. It follows a joint call by the country's spiritual leaders to dedicate an entire day to prayer to ease drought conditions in the nation.
Ruto’s own ambitious economic revival strategy for the country is also dependent on a successful rainy season.
"As a government we have set out elaborate plans for food security, we have seeds, ample fertilizer, and water harvesting strategies including dams. We now need God to send us the rain," Ruto said. "I urge all people from all faiths ... to pray for our country."
BUILDING COLLAPSE IN KENYA KILLS 3
Kenya and other east African nations have been experiencing some of the worst drought conditions in decades, causing crop failure, loss of livestock, wildlife and biodiversity, and malnutrition. Domestic agriculture is a large part of Kenya's economy.
The U.N. humanitarian agency has termed the ongoing drought in the region a "rapidly unfolding humanitarian catastrophe."
Meteorologists say human-caused climate change has been exacerbating the extreme conditions.
"It is time we started including climate change as factor in our development plans," Evans Mukolwe, former director of the Kenyan and U.N. weather agencies, told The Associated Press. "The current drought which we warned about some years ago has wider ramifications on the social economic conditions of the region including peace, security, and political stability."
WILLIAM RUTO SWORN IN AS KENYA'S PRESIDENT AFTER CLOSE VOTE
Mukolwe added that climate change has contributed to below average rainy seasons in the region for about three decades.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development's climate center said that since 2020, five rainy seasons have failed, affecting over 50 million people. The center will release its projections for the long rains season, typically from March to May, later in February. Early projections from other meteorological groups are not optimistic.
Around the world people from different faiths have often sought divine intervention for rain or other favorable weather. Last summer Milan's Archbishop made a pilgrimage to three churches in hopes of ending the country's dry spell and Utah's governor called for citizens to pray for rain ahead of a weekend of extreme heat.
Some Kenyans intend to heed the president’s call.
Nairobi business owner Millicent Nyambura said she supported the idea, "even though it will affect my colleagues in the flower business who expect to boost sales on Valentine's Day."
Kenyan-prayers
Romania's second earthquake in two days reaches 5.7 magnitude
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 rattled Romania Tuesday, the second tremor of similar magnitude to shake the country in 24 hours. No serious damage was reported in either case.
The quake on Tuesday occurred at 3:16 p.m. in Romania’s southwest Gorj County at a depth of approximately 40 km (25 miles), data from Romania’s National Earth Physics Institute shows.
The quake was reportedly felt in the capital, Bucharest, and the northern city of Cluj in the north. Social media posts showed supermarket products that had purportedly fallen from their shelves during the quake.
TURKEY, SYRIA EARTHQUAKE: BIDEN, NETANYAHU AND OTHER WORLD LEADERS OFFER AID AFTER THOUSANDS KILLED
Local emergency authorities in Gorj County said in a statement Tuesday that they didn’t receive any calls related to the earthquake and that no damage or casualties were reported.
SHALLOW EARTHQUAKE IN INDONESIA KILLS 4 AFTER RESTAURANT COLLAPSES
It was the second earthquake to hit Romania’s Oltenia region in as many days. On Monday, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 was reported also in Gorj County at a depth of 13.2 kilometers (8 miles).
Aftershocks above magnitude 3 followed both quakes.
Aftermath of the devastating earthquakes hit the southern Turkiye
Gunmen storm Syrian hospital where baby born in earthquake rubble is recovering
Gunmen stormed a hospital in north Syria where a baby girl is receiving care after being born under the rubble of her family’s earthquake-shattered home, a hospital official said Tuesday, adding that the attackers beat the clinic's director.
The official denied reports on social media claiming that the Monday night attack was an attempt to kidnap the infant, named Aya — Arabic for "a sign from God." Aya has been at the hospital since hours after the Feb. 6. earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. Her mother, father and four siblings died in the disaster.
Aya has been closely followed since her birth and people from around the world have been offering to help her.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the hospital’s director had suspected that a nurse who was taking pictures of Aya was planning to kidnap her and kicked him out of the hospital. The nurse returned hours later accompanied by gunmen who beat up the director, the official said. The director's wife has been breast-feeding Aya, her doctor said previously.
Upon arrival at the hospital, the gunmen told local police officers protecting the girl that they were going after the director for firing their friend and were not interested in Aya, according to the official.
Several people had shown up falsely claming to be Aya's relatives, prompting local policemen to guard her, the doctor said previously.
Aya’s mother died after giving birth to her in the aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. Her father and four siblings were also killed in the quake.
TURKEY, SYRIA EARTHQUAKE: BIDEN, NETANYAHU AND OTHER WORLD LEADERS OFFER AID AFTER THOUSANDS KILLED
Aya may be able to leave the hospital as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday, according to her great-uncle, Saleh al-Badran. He said the baby’s paternal aunt, who recently gave birth and survived the quake, will raise her.
Rescue workers in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis discovered the dark-haired baby girl more than 10 hours after the quake hit, as they were digging through the wreckage of the five-story apartment building where her parents lived.
Buried under the concrete, the baby still was connected by her umbilical cord to her mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya. The baby was rushed to the hospital in nearby Afrin, where she has been cared for since.
The devastating quake followed by a series of tremors that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria reduced many of the towns and cities inhabited by millions to fragments of concrete and twisted metal. More than 35,000 people were killed, a toll expected to rise considerably as search teams find more bodies.
The earthquake destroyed dozens of housing units in the town of Jinderis, where Aya’s family had been living since 2018.
Aya’s father, Abdullah Turki Mleihan, was originally from the village of Khsham in eastern Deir el-Zour province, but left in 2014 after the Islamic State group captured their village, said al-Badran, an uncle of Aya’s father.
Baby-syria-earthquake
Dutch court prohibits Netherlands' military police from racial profiling in identity check selection process
An appeals court on Tuesday prohibited the Netherlands' military police from using racial profiling as a way of selecting people for identity checks at borders, marking a victory for two citizens and rights groups who sued the government.
The Hague Court of Appeal overturned a 2021 ruling that said ethnicity could be one of the criteria for singling out passengers, but not the only one. The checks are carried out at airports and on trains and buses from European Union destinations to prevent people illegally coming and staying in the Netherlands.
The appeal court said in a statement that it found that the police, called the Marechaussee, "makes a distinction on the basis of race. Given the serious consequences of discrimination on grounds of race, such discrimination should only be made if there are particularly compelling reasons. The State has not demonstrated such compelling reasons."
The court said it "therefore prohibits the State from making selection decisions that are (partly) based on race" during border checks.
NETHERLANDS REPORTEDLY SET TO FORCIBLY CLOSE 3,000 FARMS TO COMPLY WITH EU MANDATE
The case was brought by two citizens who argued that they were singled out for checks by officers from the country’s Marechaussee police force because of the color of their skin.
One of the plaintiffs, Mpanzu Bamenga, a city councillor from Eindhoven who was born in Congo, said after the original ruling in 2021, every time he returned to "my country, the Netherlands, I’m being stopped because of my ethnicity."
On Tuesday, he was jubilant at the court's ruling.
"This is discrimination, it’s ethnic profiling," he said in a telephone interview. And it’s so wonderful to see that the higher courts basically acknowledge it. And for me, as a human being, it’s so good to see that justice has prevailed."
DUTCH COURT UPHOLDS NETHERLANDS’ BAN ON ASSISTED SUICIDE
The Marechaussee said after the 2021 court case that it would change the way it works at border checks, but the appeals court said it saw "no or only limited change in working method."
Marechaussee spokesman Maj. Robert van Kapel said the organization would carefully study the ruling "and see what its consequences are for now."
The organization has the option to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Dionne Abdoelhafiezkhan of the Dutch rights group Controle Alt Delete said the court ruling "also makes it clear that someone’s appearance and color say nothing about someone’s nationality. That’s an important correction to the court’s earlier ruling that shocked many people of color and made us feel like second-class citizens."
Netherland-racial-profiling
Good Samaritan in Kazakhstan climbs out window to save child dangling from building
A man in Kazakhstan was praised for his heroism after a video resurfaced from last year that showed him climbing out of a multi-story building’s window and rescuing a child who was dangling from a glass panel.
The daring rescue reportedly happened on the outside of a building in Kazakhstan in May last year.
Bystanders recorded video purportedly showing the child clinging to an open glass window after having apparently climbed out of the building. The child appeared to be about eight floors above the ground.
A man can be seen climbing out of a window below the child and perching on the glass panel without any rope or safety harness.
US CRANE SHIP RETRIEVES HUGE SECTION OF CHINESE SPY CRAFT FROM ATLANTIC
He then grabs the child’s leg and pulls him into his arms before passing the child to someone inside the building.
It was unclear whether anyone was injured during the incident.
Kazakhstan is a former Soviet republic and shares a border with both Russia and China.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This report has been updated to clarify the time and location of the rescue.
Kazahkstan rescue 1
Thailand prime minister candidate hits campaign trail in Bangkok
The campaign for this year’s general election in Thailand has not yet officially begun, but aspirants for the prime minister’s job are already angling for auspicious photo ops.
If symbolism won elections, one of the main contenders, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, would be a shoo-in.
Prawit hit the campaign trail on Tuesday at a series of locations in Bangkok chosen to enlist fate on his side.
The former general is nicknamed "Big Pom." On a hot afternoon he visited temples in the capital’s Pom Prap Sattru Phai district, which translates as "Pom destroys all enemies," and prayed for success.
CNN APOLOGIZES FOR ENTERING THAILAND MASS SHOOTING SITE, REMOVES REPORT FROM WEBSITE
He ended his tour at a well-known old fort whose name can be loosely translated as "Pom of great power."
Superstition and the search for lucky signs play a significant part in Thai politics.
The general election -– the first since 2019 -– is expected to be called within weeks, with voting most likely in May.
Prawit has already declared his candidacy for the top post under the banner of Palang Pracharath, the current main governing party. Incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has joined a new group, the United Thai Nation Party. Also expected to run, and pose a formidable challenge, is Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by an army coup in 2006.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS FROM THAILAND'S POST-COUP ELECTION
In a brief talk with reporters, Prawit noted that he had chosen to launch his push with Bangkok voters on Valentine’s Day.
"Today is Valentine’s Day so I want love from Bangkokians. We can then love one another, move on beyond conflicts so that we can work on getting rid of poverty and drought in our country," he said.
A December national poll by the National Institute of Development and Administration suggests the love may be unrequited. Despite his reputation for being a wily operator, his party languished at seventh place in popularity, while Big Pom didn’t make the top 10 choices for prime minister.
Thailand-prime-ministers
Chinese leader Xi Jinping expresses support for Iran during meeting with Ebrahim Raisi
Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed support for Iran during a visit by its president on Tuesday as Tehran tries to expand relations with Beijing and Moscow to offset Western sanctions over its nuclear development.
The official Chinese account of Xi’s meeting with Ebrahim Raisi gave no indication whether they discussed Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Tehran supplied military drones to Russian President Vladimir Putin's government but says they were delivered before the war began.
Xi expressed support for Raisi’s government in language Beijing uses to criticize Washington’s domination of global affairs. China and Iran portray themselves, alongside Moscow, as counterweights to American power.
"China supports Iran in safeguarding national sovereignty" and "resisting unilateralism and bullying," Xi said in a statement carried by Chinese state TV on its website.
IRAN’S RAISI TO MEET WITH CHINA’S XI JINPING TO STRENGTHEN TIES
Xi and Raisi attended the signing of 20 cooperation agreements including trade and tourism, the Chinese government announced. Those add to a 25-year strategy agreement signed in 2021 to cooperate in developing oil, industry and other fields.
China is one of the biggest buyers of Iranian oil and a source of investment.
Iran has struggled for years under trade and financial sanctions imposed by Washington and other Western governments over what they say is Tehran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons, an accusation the Iranian government denies. The U.S. government cut off Iran’s access to the network that connects global banks in 2018.
Xi said Beijing "opposes external forces interfering in Iran’s internal affairs and undermining Iran’s security and stability," according to the government statement. It said Xi promised to "work together on issues involving each other’s core interests," but gave no details.
Raisi’s government didn’t immediately release details of the meeting, but the president called the two governments "friends in difficult situations" in a commentary published Monday by the ruling Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, asked whether Beijing was concerned that getting closer to Iran might complicate U.S.-Chinese ties, said their "friend relations" contribute to "promotion of peace and stability in the Middle East."
"Our relations do not target any third parties," said the spokesperson, Wang Wenbin.
China-xi-jinping-iran
NATO Wants To Be Able To Fight Two Wars At The Same Time
Bloomberg: NATO Struggles to Meet Spending Goals as It Weighs Higher Target
(Bloomberg) -- NATO countries may agree as soon as this summer to spend at least 2% of their economic output on defense, a slight shift from the alliance’s 10-year-old pledge to “move toward the 2% guideline.”
North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the alliance’s defense ministers will begin discussing the target when they meet in Brussels for two days starting on Tuesday, with the aim to agree on a revision by the next NATO summit in Vilnius in July.
NATO countries have pledged to spend more on defense following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, but many nations — including Luxembourg, Canada and Italy — are still struggling to comply with the old guideline. That makes it hard for NATO to significantly strengthen the target, which may lead allies instead to agree to a 2% floor, current and former officials and diplomats say.
Read more ....
Update: NATO eyes fighting two wars – Bloomberg (RT).
WNU Editor: The key part of the Bloomberg article is this ....
.... The classified guidance will plan ways for NATO to simultaneously engage in a high-intensity so-called Article 5 conflict, where allies would have to defend each other, as well as an out out-of-area, non-Article 5 event at the same time, people familiar with the matter said. Article 5 is NATO’s mutual defense clause.
Australian police searching for 3 men after $165 million of cocaine washes ashore along with capsized boat
Police in Western Australia are searching for three men they say are linked to a capsized boat and roughly $165 million dollars of cocaine from that boat that washed up on a beach.
In a press release, Australian Federal Police say they were alerted by the Western Australia Police Force on February 1 that three men were rescued from the ocean off the coast of the city of Albany, but their story that their fishing vessel had capsized seemed inconsistent to authorities.
A little less than a week later, police say a plastic-wrapped package with packets of cocaine inside washed up on the beach near the town of Denmark on the western coast. Shortly after, an overturned boat was discovered off the coast of Peaceful Bay about 25 miles west of the town of Denmark.
Police say they found eight plastic-wrapped packages of cocaine, weighing 88 pounds, in the boat.
POLICE BUST METH-PEDDLING PASTOR WHO 'BRAGGED' ABOUT HIS DRUG DEALING PROWESS: 'DOUBLE LIFE'
In total, police recovered 805 pounds of cocaine they say has a street value of $165 million and say the bust "has saved the community more than $235 million in drug-related harm, including associated crime, healthcare and loss of productivity."
Police believe the packages were dropped in the ocean before being collected by the boat, and they are actively investigating while also asking for the public’s help locating the three men.
MORE THAN $300M WORTH OF COCAINE FOUND FLOATING IN PACIFIC OCEAN
The persons of interest have been identified as Mate Stipinovich, 49, Karl Whitburn, 45, and Aristides Avlontis, 36.
"There is a perception by some in the community that cocaine is a safe drug.," AFP acting Commander Graeme Marshall said. Let me be clear – it is not."
"Just as importantly, the transnational serious organized criminals who prey on Australia are undermining our national security, economy and social security system."
Australia cocaine
Dutch fighter jets intercept three Russian military aircraft near Poland, escort planes away
A pair of Dutch F-35 fighter jets have intercepted a formation of Russian military planes that were flying near Polish airspace, defense officials have revealed.
The incident happened Monday as "The then unknown aircraft approached the Polish NATO area of responsibility from Kaliningrad," a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea, Reuters quoted the Netherlands defense ministry as saying.
"After identification, it turned out to be three aircraft: a Russian IL-20M Coot-A that was escorted by two Su-27 Flankers," Netherlands officials reportedly added. "The Dutch F-35s escorted the formation from a distance and handed over the escort to NATO partners."
AMERICANS TOLD TO LEAVE RUSSIA ‘IMMEDIATELY’ OR FACE FALSE ARRESTS, US WARNS
The IL-20M Coot-A is NATO’s name for the Russian Ilyushin Il-20M reconnaissance aircraft, while the Su-27 Flankers are Sukhoi Su-28 jets, according to Reuters.
US LEADS THE REST OF THE WORLD WITH $196 BILLION GIVEN TO UKRAINE AMID WAR WITH RUSSIA
The Polish defense ministry told Politico that the planes were traveling over international waters and "none of [its] airspace has been interrupted."
"Dutch F-35 stationed at the 22nd Tactical Air Base in Malbork were scrambled on Monday in order to identify and intercept three Russian aircraft that were operating near Polish airspace," it added in a statement.
The incident comes as tensions remain high between NATO and Russia over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Dutch F-35
Reporter's Notebook: Italian support for Ukraine on the wane according to recent poll
You will meet people in Italy who are actually pro-Russia. Or at least ready to lay some blame on the United States and/or NATO for provoking Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine, as if somehow absolving the Russian president.
Largely, however, such positions are expressed privately. So when former four-time Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, with cameras rolling before him, described his "very, very, very negative view" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the weekend, he set off a firestorm on this side of the Atlantic. Berlusconi’s comments were incendiary, given NATO’s full-throated support of Ukraine.
"If I were prime minister, I would never go talk to Zelenskyy," Berlusconi said, adding, "We are assisting in the destruction of his country, the killing of his soldiers and civilians. All that was needed was for him to stop attacking the two autonomous republics in the Donbas, and this would never have happened." Nevermind that in the minds of many, Putin provoked the initial hostilities in the Donbas back in 2014 and stirred it up with his agents before turning around and saying that Russian speakers were under attack.
'RED ALARM' RAISED IN ITALY WHILE THREAT OF PUTIN'S INTERFERENCE HOVERS OVER UPCOMING ELECTION
The current Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who met with Zelenskyy last week in Brussels and is planning to visit Kyiv, was quick to enact damage control. Berlusconi is the leader of one of the parties in her coalition government, and during the election campaign she had to constantly push back against suggestions that a right-wing government would be soft on Russia. This, in part because of Berlusconi’s longstanding friendship with Putin. Her office issued a statement immediately after Berlusconi’s rant, saying that Italy’s support of Ukraine is "solid and unwavering." And in that, Italy is officially in lockstep with its European partners.
Still, the fact that Berlusconi made those comments as local elections were taking place in some regions does suggest that the wily 86-year-old politician believes there is a significant part of the population who thinks just like he does.
According to Professor Lorenzo De Sio at Rome’s Luiss University, old pro-Russian sentiment dies hard around here. "Italy is at the crossroads between the European world and the Mediterranean world. It was at the crossroads between East and West during the times of the Iron Curtain. It’s important to remember that Italy used to have the strongest Communist Party in Western Europe." With that, De Sio, says, comes a lingering critical attitude toward the United States in some corners, and positive attitudes toward Russia, which, by the way, has been a very strong trading partner for Italy. Italy had always worked hard at holding neutral ground when it came to Moscow versus the West.
ITALY'S BERLUSCONI SAYS RUSSIA'S PUTIN GAVE HIM VODKA, 'SWEET' NOTE
De Sio does believe that most Italians support President Zelenskyy and Ukraine and are horrified by the scale of death and destruction being visited on the country, but the numbers do not unequivocally back that up. A poll right after the war broke out found "57% of the population took the side of Ukraine, 38% took no side and just five percent sided with Russia," De Sio explains, adding that a recent Ipsos poll found that things had changed significantly. "Support for Ukraine has dropped from 57% to 45% percent," and the group that supports neither side has gone from 38% to 47%. De Sio says data shows just 41% of Italians support sending weapons to Ukraine, and 52% oppose it.
So, are there are a lot of closet Putin supporters among those who publicly don’t take sides in this war? It is not clear, but De Sio believes that many in that segment opposed to arming Ukraine are mostly disillusioned that diplomacy has not found a way and are frightened of further escalation.
Meanwhile, Berlusconi did hint that he wanted to be that missing peace bridge. He claimed to have re-established relations with Putin last fall after the Russian leader sent him twenty bottles of vodka for his birthday and a "very sweet note." Berlusconi said he sent back an abundance of Lambrusco.
Meanwhile, Kyiv, slower than Rome to respond to Berlusconi’s tirade, perhaps because it has more than enough on its plate as it is, finally reacted, with Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oleg Nikolenko accusing Berlusconi of "defending Russian propaganda and encouraging Moscow to continue with its crimes and for that bears moral and political responsibility." Nikolenko called Berlusconi’s comments "an attempt to kiss Putin’s hands, which are up to the elbows in blood."
Berlusconi
How one Hindu devotee is using Trinidad & Tobago Carnival's ‘Jab Jab’ character to invoke sacred, feminine power
[I]n the Caribbean, we don’t just do philosophy through lyrics and music
Originally published on Global Voices
Renella Alfred at the Queen's Park Savannah in Port of Spain, Trinidad, 2022. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
By Dr. Gabrielle Hosein
This article was originally published in the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. An updated version is republished below with permission.
Renella Alfred comes from the Alfred family from Couva [in central Trinidad] who are famous for playing Jab Jab, a form of martial arts involving traditional, pretty mas and whips of plaited hemp seen in Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. Recent photos of her, self-titled the Whip Princess, catch her sticking out her tongue as part of her portrayal. However, this banal description fails to convey what Renella brings to town through her mas, which is her invocation of the Hindu goddess Kali Mai or Mother Kali.
This is easy to miss unless you are thinking about Indianness in the Caribbean, and how it is being practiced beyond the Sanskritization of Hindu life as authorised by religious texts and authorities. It speaks to how Indian women in Trinidad and Tobago take up mas in ways that breathe life into post-indenture feminist legacies.
When Indians arrived in the Caribbean, they brought an eclectic range of cultural and religious customs, and a pantheon of goddesses whose spiritual ascendence confronted European patriarchal belief systems where God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and disciples were conceived of as male. African religious traditions with, for example, a pantheon of female orishas such as Yemaya, Oshun and Oya, similarly offered an alternative cosmology of feminine divinity and energy.
Stereotypically, Hinduism and Carnival are cast as oppositional. One is associated with purity and the other with sin. However, mas-making among Indians in Trinidad and Tobago tells a different story of mas being played to express a sense of spirituality, reverence for ancestry, devotion to discipline and respect for aesthetic forms of connection.
Among traditional mas makers, mas is a deeply sacred moral universe full of ritual, which is not opposed to being Indian or Hindu. In fact, mas-making in the lives of Indo-Caribbeans weaves together all of these, creatively defining the afterlife of indenture, and redefining creolization.
For Hindus who understand how village youth can play the revered roles of Rama and Sita for Ramleela, mas becomes another stage for a “leela” (or play) about an epic journey and experience of exile and morality as it confronts the demonic, gender and sexual tensions, and legacies of Indian presence in the Caribbean.
The concept of “post-indenture feminist legacies” refers to the spiritual and cultural traditions, artefacts, myths, symbols and imagined possibilities brought from India in jahaji and jahajin bundles (Creolised as “georgie/jahji bundle”) which, today, are being drawn on by women, and not just Indian women, to express feminine power and feminisms.
As Lisa Outar and I describe in the edited collection, Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought, such woman-centered world-making articulates “a feminist praxis where Indian gendered experiences in the Caribbean are not marginal, while being understood in ways centered in a politics of solidarity across ethnicity, class, gender, sexualities, and nation.” Praxis describes more than action. It means action, portrayal or performance grounded in considered thought and reflection.
Such praxis is a profoundly philosophical contribution and, in the Caribbean, we don’t just do philosophy through lyrics and music. We do it through the sacred, and the clashing and combining of belief systems or cosmologies; through gender and sexuality, which has long been defined by struggle against authorities that demarcate the good, holy and respectable from the polluting, profane and improper; and through embodiment, or the pleasures of how we assert our right to exist, and affirm the value and joy of our sovereign selves, with our bodies.
Photos also show Renella wearing a “nath” or nose ring with a chain connected to her hair. The nath is associated with bridehood and childbirth, and goddess Parvati, but also with Parvati’s incarnations as Durga, a warrior goddess, and goddess Kali, who emerges from within Durga to destroy the demonic with her dance of destruction. The nath is also a symbol of Indian femininity, hardly seen outside of weddings and Diwali, or in mas.
By naming herself the “Whip Princess,” Renella has elevated her royal status in mas “lore” as above that of secular “law,” challenging what political scientists describe as the modern nation-state’s monopoly over violence.
While she is bringing a diasporic consciousness of Jab Jab mas as descended from India, she is also defying indenture-descended, male religious prerogative over when and how she can be Indian, woman and Hindu.
Finally, she is douglarising Carnival, continuing an Indian presence that has shaped “sokah” itself. As outlined by Ras Shorty I, the “so” in soca comes from calypso and the “ca” comes from “ka,” the first consonant of the Indian alphabet.
Similarly, the African-Creole, spiritual space of Carnival can be re-envisioned, as Renella is doing, to enact spiritual connection to the divine feminine and ancestral connection to India.
All this and more is in Renella Alfred’s sacred invocation of Kali Mai through mas, and through her pre-Carnival fasting from meat and alcohol, which is part of Hindu preparation for puja or prayer. Her family also combines Kali worship with the use of plants to prepare their bodies for battle on the road and on stage. This is spiritually Hindu as much as it is a form of Carnival spirituality.
Many of our ancestors were brought to plantations to be violently exploited and dehumanized in what was meant to be a labour and conversion factory. Yet, out of indenture and in mas, is painstaking crafting of a society of beautiful, sacred, equal, and free human beings.
How a younger, contemporary generation of Indian women participate in such aesthetics inevitably draws on and traverses ideas of women’s rights and independence introduced by Caribbean feminisms over past decades. Renella’s Kali mas, therefore, represents such feminist navigation of post-indenture aesthetics brilliantly.
As a fearsome goddess, Kali Mai is sometimes treated with ambivalence and disavowal by mainstream, upper-caste Sanatanist Hinduism just as the jamette/stickfighter is rejected by upper-class patriarchal moral authority in Trinidad.
Renella’s darker skin, strong body and South Indian lineage only partly explain her lifelong sense of affiliation with the undefeatable, black divine mother. Her Jab Jab whip also parallels the whip in Kali ecstatic veneration. Even more, her family’s preparations to play Jab Jab include devotions to goddess Kali.
When an Indian woman opens her jahajin bundle to find all that has travelled and remains, however transformed, those contents are available to her to counter the subordination of womanhood and marginalization of Indianness that accompanies ethnic and national belonging. Such indenture legacies cannot be contained.
Renella’s embodiment of Kali is an expression of remembering and devotion taken outside of temple worship, just as it occurs in Manzanilla, Marianne River, Phagwa grounds, and in the food-producing “gardens,” bush and forests of rural areas.
In mas, Kali is making a crossing that mimics that from India to the Caribbean, which was seen to bring pollution, immorality and loss of authenticity. Yet, Hinduism survived by sanctifying new ground in the new world. So too, today.
Like indentured women before her, who may also have been bonded to Mother Kali, this Jab Jab daughter is charting new crossings and her own journey.
Written by Guest Contributor
Ukraine killing nearly 1,000 Russian troops every day, eliminates 5,000 in single battle
Ukrainian forces are killing nearly 1,000 Russian troops every day, and they eliminated 5,000 troops in a single battle in late January, according to U.K. officials citing data from Ukraine.
Russian troops, including the elite 155th naval infantry, stormed the Ukrainian coal mining city Vuhledar near Dontesk in late January. Ukrainian forces repelled the offensive, however, and killed, injured or captured 5,000 Russian troops. Meanwhile, U.K. officials say the war is exacting a heavy toll on Russia, with 824 Russian troops dying each day, according to Ukrainian updates.
"The 155th brigade already had to be restaffed three times. The first time after Irpin and Bucha; the second time they were defeated near Donetsk – they recovered again," Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, a Ukrainian defense forces spokesman, told Politico. "And now almost the entire brigade has already been destroyed near Vuhledar."
The spike in Russian casualties comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin has conscripted hundreds of thousands of fresh troops into his military. The poorly trained recruits are now making their way to the battlefields of Ukraine.
FORMER PUTIN SPEECHWRITER, OTHERS ADDED TO RUSSIA'S 'FOREIGN AGENT' REGISTRY
News of Russia's losses comes a day after the U.S. Department of State ordered all U.S. citizens in Russia to leave immediately on Monday, warning of false arrests.
"U.S. citizens residing or traveling in Russia should depart immediately," the U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned. "Exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions."
In a stark message the department also said, "Do not travel to Russia."
Fox News' Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
Ukraine War Weapons
Senior White House Official Says The US Can't Keep Doing 'Anything And Everything' For Ukraine In The War
U.S. warns Ukraine it faces a pivotal moment in war © Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post
Washington Post: U.S. warns Ukraine it faces a pivotal moment in war
As the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears, U.S. officials are telling Ukrainian leaders they face a critical moment to change the trajectory of the war, raising the pressure on Kyiv to make significant gains on the battlefield while weapons and aid from the United States and its allies are surging.
Despite promises to back Ukraine “as long as it takes,” Biden officials say recent aid packages from Congress and America’s allies represent Kyiv’s best chance to decisively change the course of the war.
Many conservatives in the Republican-led House have vowed to pull back support, and Europe’s long-term appetite for funding the war effort remains unclear.
Several officials noted the strong bipartisan support that has accompanied every Ukraine package, adding that Congress gave the White House more than it asked for, but they acknowledged that was under a Democratic-led House and Senate.
Read more ....
Update #1: Senior Biden official says the US can't keep doing 'anything and everything' for Ukraine in the war: The Washington Post (Business Insider)
Update #2: US warns Ukraine that war is reaching pivotal point (Ukrainska Pravda)
WNU Editor: So much for US reassurances that they will support Ukraine for as long as it takes.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry says it will shoot down any suspected Chinese spy crafts, military objects
Amid speculation over alleged Chinese spy balloons, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it would shoot down any suspected military object coming close to its shores from mainland China.
Maj. Gen. Huang Wen-chi, the assistant deputy chief of general staff for intelligence, told reporters that the self-governing island was on guard for any incursions, but had yet to find any that had penetrated its defenses.
Balloons found so far around Taiwan were used for meteorological exploration, he said. They were relatively small and light and would burst after rising to an altitude that could be threatening. Taiwan has yet to find targets requiring a lethal response, he said.
TAIWAN SAYS 'DOZENS' OF CHINESE SPY CRAFT CROSS ITS AIRSPACE AS TENSIONS FLARE WITH US
"We haven’t seen such sophisticated spy balloons sent by the Chinese Communist Party in the waters near Taiwan," Huang said, referring to the balloon shot down by the U.S. earlier this month after traveling for days from above Alaska to South Carolina.
China, which claims Taiwan as its territory to be reunited by force if necessary, regularly sends fighter jets and other military assets into Taiwan's airspace and sea lanes.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the U.S. downing of the Chinese balloon a "clear overreaction." Beijing says it was an unmanned airship made for meteorological research that had been blown off course.
The U.S. military had engaged an "absurd and costly large-scale political performance art show. We also advise the U.S. side to be careful about overexerting itself and spraining its back," Wang said at a daily news briefing.
The White House defended the shootdowns of three unidentified objects in as many days even as it acknowledged that officials had no indication the objects were intended for surveillance in the same manner as the high-altitude Chinese balloon.
Taiwan-defense-minister
The U.S. Air Force Is Using Sidewinder Missiles To Shoot Down Balloons At A Cost Of $439000 Per Missile
A US sailor checks the AIM-9 sidewinder of a F-14 Tomcat aboard the USS Constellation in Gulf waters. © Photographer: LEILA GORCHEV/AFP
Bloomberg: These Are the $439,000 Missiles the US Is Using to Shoot Down Mystery UFOs
(Bloomberg) -- As mysteries continue to swirl around the balloon and three other so-far-unidentified objects shot down by the US in recent days, at least one thing has been clear: the weaponry used to knock them out of the sky.
Be it the original, alleged Chinese surveillance balloon downed off South Carolina, or the objects targeted over Alaska, Michigan and Canada, all have been shot down by the same type of missile — the AIM-9X Sidewinder.
Here’s what you need to know about it:
Read more ....
WNU Editor: This is an expensive miss .... First Sidewinder Missile Targeting Object Over Lake Huron Missed At Cost Of $400,000 (Zero Hedge).
Update: Good question (see tweet below):
The Lake Huron "balloon" (octagonal object) was at just 20,000 feet. So why did our fighters use heat-seeking $400,000 sidewinder missiles to shoot it down when a few cannon rounds could have done the job? Balloons don't have a heat signature and a missile is overkill.
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) February 14, 2023
A… https://t.co/EuCRr0TEVT
As Pakistan's Financial Crisis Worsens, It Is Now Facing Massive Unemployment And Food Shortages
First Post: With no cash left for imports, Pakistan staring at massive unemployment, food shortage
Top businessmen in Pakistan have warned the government that a failure to lift the ban on imports will leave millions jobless and have urged the cash-strapped administration to allow manufacturing materials stuck at the Karachi port into the country
Islamabad: Even as thousands of containers with essential items remain stranded at the Karachi port due the severe lack of foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan is staring at an even bigger unemployment crisis due to a lack of imports.
Top businessmen in Pakistan have warned the government that a failure to lift the ban on imports will leave millions jobless and have urged the cash-strapped administration to allow manufacturing materials stuck at the Karachi port into the country.
Pakistan, which is struggling with critically low dollar reserves, has imposed a ban on imports with only essential items such as food and medicines being exempt.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: There is no good news coming out from Pakistan. The word "panic" is now being said regularly in the news reports .... Rising panic over blocked imports in crisis-hit Pakistan (AFP).
Qatar plans to send 10,000 cabins, caravans from World Cup to provide shelter for Turkish earthquake survivors
Qatar plans to send 10,000 cabins and caravans from last year's World Cup to provide shelter for survivors of the Turkish earthquakes, officials said.
The gas-rich Gulf nation says it had always planned to donate the mobile homes. They were needed to help house some of the 1.4 million fans who descended on the small country during soccer's biggest tournament.
An initial batch of 350 structures was shipped out on Sunday, the Qatar Fund for Development said.
VIDEO SHOWS DOG IN TURKEY BEING PULLED ALIVE FROM RUBBLE 5 DAYS AFTER EARTHQUAKE
The magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 quakes that struck nine hours apart on Feb. 6 killed more than 35,000 people in southeastern Turkey and war-torn northern Syria. The toll is expected to climb even further as search and rescue teams find more bodies.
TRAGEDY STRIKES TURKEY, SYRIA: DEATH TOLL RISES TO OVER 22,000, MIRACLE RESCUES BRING HOPE
Tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, leaving millions homeless. As shelters filled up in the days after the quake many were forced to sleep outside in wet, wintry weather.
Qatar and other wealthy Gulf countries have joined the global effort to send rescuers and aid to the stricken region. The United Arab Emirates has pledged $100 million for relief efforts. Saudi Arabia has dispatched eight planes loaded with supplies to Turkey and Syria.
The eighth Saudi flight landed in government-held Aleppo, in northern Syria, on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia was a strong supporter of the opposition at the height of Syria's civil war and — unlike other Arab countries — has shown little interest in any rapprochement with President Bashar Assad.
World-cup-mobile-homes
What Do We Know About The Objects That Have Been Shot Down In The U.S. And Canada
CNN: White House offers few answers on objects shot from sky
Three airborne objects in North American airspace were shot from the sky by the American military in the span of three days over the weekend at President Joe Biden’s direction, an unprecedented series of events that is leading to fresh questions about what exactly is transpiring high in the skies above the US.
Biden on Monday ordered a new government-wide effort to determine what precisely is happening. And in four separate locations, from the frozen waters off Alaska to the Carolina coast, work was underway to collect and analyze debris from the shot-down objects.
But answers about what the objects were, where they were from and what they were doing remained elusive.
During a midday briefing at the White House, the only detail of certainty was that the objects did not originate from outer space.
Read more ....
WNU editor: This is probably when we will know more about what these "objects" are .... Senators will get classified briefing on unidentified objects shot down over weekend (The Hill).
What Do We Know About The Objects That Have Been Shot Down In The U.S. And Canada
Explainer-What we know about the objects shot down by the U.S. military -- Reuters
Here's Everything We Know About 'Unidentified Objects' Shot Down Over the U.S. and Canada -- Time
What We Know About the Objects Shot Down in the U.S. and Canada -- New York Times
What we know so far about the Chinese spy balloon and the other objects shot down -- CBS News
Four flying objects shot down by US jets: What we know so far -- New Scientist
Pentagon Says 'Significant Debris' Recovered From Downed Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon
Several unidentified objects were shot down over the weekend that landed in Michigan, Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory
US Navy crews participating in efforts to raise a Chinese spy balloon in waters off South Carolina have recovered a portion of the apparatus from the ocean floor, officials said Monday.
A senior defense official did not say how big the payload was, but described it to Fox News as "significant" in size and that crews "got the electronics they were looking for."
Read more ....
Pentagon Says 'Significant Debris' Recovered From Downed Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon
'Significant debris' recovered from downed suspected Chinese spy balloon, U.S. military says -- Reuters
Chinese Balloon: US Salvages 'Significant' Amount of Sensors from the Balloon -- Bloomberg
Significant portion of Chinese balloon spy equipment recovered, US official says -- ABC News
US military recovers electronic sensors from downed Chinese spy balloon -- NYPost
Chinese balloon sensors recovered from ocean, says US -- BBC
‘Significant’ debris from China spy balloon retrieved, says US military -- The Guardian
US recovers 'key sensors' from suspected Chinese spy balloon -- SKY News
Picture Of The Day
A man prepares packages of roses ahead of Valentine's Day at a market in Bangkok, Thailand, February 13, 2023. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa
WNU Editor: The above picture came from this photo-gallery .... In pictures: Valentine's Day around the world (Reuters).
Reporter's Notebook: A week of up-close horrors and heroics in the Turkish earthquake zone
ISKENDERUN, Turkey - It hung in the air of the streets of the Turkish city of Iskenderun Monday. The smell of death. One week after twin earthquakes rocked the region, dramatic rescues were getting infrequent and instead replaced by a grim recovery of bodies crushed under the rubble of the quake’s horrific force. The hard-hit city was swarming with emergency teams busy at work with heavy construction machinery at many sites.
The ritual is bone-chilling. At one location we were at, the digging machine would be at work, and a body would be found. The call goes out for family to identify it. Howls of horror and sorrow are next. The victim carried off in a body bag to be placed in wooden casket and driven off in a van from the morgue. We saw this happen several times.
The aftermath of the huge earthquakes have taken several turns since we first arrived in Turkey last week. Our first stop Tuesday was Kahramanmaras, the town closest to the epicenter of the first major quake. After a deceptively calm drive through its mainly untouched outskirts, the full force of the natural disaster became apparent with building after building folded in onto themselves
TURKEY-SYRIA EARTHQUAKE DEATH TOLL LIKELY TO SURPASS 56,000, UN EMERGENCY AID CHIEF SAYS
Our live position that night was nearby a gas station; a beacon of life for the freshly bruised victims, who lined up for gas for their home generators with the power in the city gone, getting a charge for their phones on the station’s electricity and a quick warm-up.
As a follow-up to the disaster, the region was hit with snow and wind-whipped sub-freezing temperatures. Villagers huddled around fires to keep warm.
The next day, we were in Gazientep, the biggest city close to the quake. Usually bustling, this day was eerily silent. Some buildings had been knocked down. Most had been damaged. Forcing just about all the residents to stay out of their homes and keep shops and businesses closed.
The search for survivors at the site we covered was especially poignant. Waiting outside among many was the mother of a 17-year-old boy trapped in the wreckage. She had made it out alive. She spoke with us and prayed for him to survive. Two days later, her prayers were answered. Rescuers brought him out looking and sounding in great shape. His mother swore she would never let him leave her side.
TURKEY-SYRIA EARTHQUAKE: 5 FAMILY MEMBERS PULLED FROM RUBBLE AFTER 129 HOURS AS DEATH TOLL TOPS 25K
On Thursday, we traveled to the mountain city of Adiyaman. Search and rescue teams from the Fairfax, Virginia, and Los Angeles Fire Departments had been brought there by USAID to lend a hand. It was much needed. The place was probably the worst-served by a struggling Turkish government we had seen. Everybody was getting into the act trying to find anyone alive while slipping on loose stones, carrying away rubble with bare hands, praying and cheering at any sign of life.
We were actually pressed into the mission, giving a team from L.A., all their gear, and a sniffer dog, Diva, a lift in our 18-seat van. After a torturous three-hour drive through streets that looked like Berlin after the war, we arrived at a caved-in structure. Another team thought there was life there. A circular blade saw was used to carve out a passageway through concrete. Camera and sensors were dropped in. But after a few sniffs around, sadly, Diva the dog quickly decided there was no hope.
As recovery efforts continued, the humanitarian crisis mounted. On Saturday, we went to a tent city set up by the Turkish military to accommodate the quake’s homeless in the city of Sanliurfa along with those just afraid to stay in their damaged homes amid all the aftershocks. We spoke with one 17-year-old girl who explained to us in perfect English that she was asleep in her family’s apartment on the 6th floor of a building when the quake hit. The apartment dropped two floors trapping her and her family inside. She was lucky. She was rescued six hours later along with the rest of her family. With barely a scratch. This night she had a smile for us.
US, UN EARTHQUAKE AID SLOW TO ENTER SYRIA AS BORDER ENTRY BARRIERS COMPOUNDS THE CRISIS
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan happened to be touring the place that day. We told him what critics had been saying, that his government had not prepared enough and was not doing enough to help quake victims. He tartly replied through his translator, "Of course there are deaths, it’s an earthquake." We pressed him on whether his government could have done more, to which he replied, "We’re trying to solve the problems." After, he walked off with his entourage.
One problem that emerged Sunday was perhaps at least some of this carnage could have been avoided if contractors had followed earthquake-safe zoning rules. Over 100 builders were cited by Turkish government officials as suspects. We were at one site in Adana, a big city on the west side of the quake zone, where a 14-story apartment building had completely collapsed while other buildings were still standing. Relatives of those killed stared at the debris, looking at material that did not seem to make the grade, including one man whose brother and family was killed. "I’m angry," he told us, "but that doesn’t matter. They’re dead."
Which brings us to Iskenderun and this day’s scene of death and destruction. As the natural disaster turned in to a humanitarian catastrophe. We visited an emergency clinic that had been set up across from the city’s main hospital too damaged by the quakes to handle patients. After the first wave of direct injuries from the quakes, like broken arms and legs, now they were handling a new wave of harm. Injuries from after-shocks. Near suffocation from inhaling dust and grit. "It’s bad," one patient told us, "but we’re strong."
That clinic was beefed up by a big presence of Indian aid, doctors and security. Part of the global outpouring of help that is helping Turkey cope. But sadly, just across a nearby border, in northern Syria, also affected by the quake, the landscape lies in ruins. An international community that the war-torn country has kept at a distance, providing little in the way of help, the people there struggling.
I have covered many natural disasters around the world for Fox News. This ranks up there as one of the worst. My personal take-aways? First, how brave, caring and kind the Turkish people are, to each other, even to us outsiders, as they stood in the face of devastation. Second, how there needs to be a serious examination of what Ankara did or did not do, which contributed to these horrors. Finally, no matter how sophisticated and technologically in control we think we are, the forces around us, our natural world, will always have the last say.
Pray for the people of Turkey and Syria.
93b2df05-Turkey 1
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