US rehearsed dropping nuclear weapons 20km from Russian border – Moscow

American nuclear-capable bombers have flown dozens of sorties across Eastern Europe in the past few weeks as part of drills designed to probe Russian readiness in case of an atomic war, Russia's defense minister has claimed.

Speaking after a meeting his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, in Moscow on Tuesday, Sergey Shoigu said that there has been “a significant intensification of activity from US strategic bomber aviation near the borders of Russia.”

According to him, “over the past month, around 30 missions have been flown near the borders of the Russian federation, around two and a half times more than in the same time period last year.”

Shoigu added that recent American exercises, codenamed Global Thunder, saw “ten strategic bombers practicing their ability to use nuclear weapons against Russia at almost the same time from the west and the east. The minimum distance from our border was 20km.”

At the same time, the Russian Armed Forces chief said that the relationship between his country and China was becoming increasingly important “during a time when geopolitical turbulence and the risk of conflict are growing.”

The minister’s comments come amid growing tensions with NATO over Ukraine, with Kiev claiming that a buildup of Russian troops across the shared frontier could be a precursor to an invasion.

Moscow denies that it is planning such an offensive, insisting that “the movement of some of our military equipment or army units across the territory of the Russian Federation is exclusively our business.”

On Monday, the country’s top foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, issued a statement accusing the US of orchestrating a disinformation campaign playing up the risk of conflict.

In a statement, officials said that it was painting “a terrible picture of how hordes of Russian tanks will start crushing Ukrainian cities,” and that Washington is using diplomatic channels to “share with its allies and partners absolutely false information about the concentration of forces on our territory in advance of a military invasion of Ukraine.”

Both Russia and NATO have accused each other of stepping up warplane flights close to the border, and last year Moscow blasted a “provocative” move from Washington to dispatch American B-1B nuclear bombers into Ukrainian airspace for the first time in history. Russian fighter jets and anti-air rockets were scrambled in response.

https://www.rt.com/russia/541089-us-testing-ability-nuclear-attack-moscow/

Phoenix Mandates Vaccines For ALL Employees – Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego Runs From Reporters When Questioned

Last Thursday, the city of Phoenix announced a vaccine mandate for all employees of America’s fifth-largest city.

They are trying to weed out the uncontrollable and take away our public safety in the name of “public health”.

ABC 15 reports,

“I think this federal program is going to save lives,” Gallego said Friday, one day after the January 18 vaccine deadline was announced.

Phoenix’s 13,000 city employees must be fully vaccinated within the next two months or risk losing their jobs. The requirements were spelled out in a memo to employees Thursday.

City managers claim that because Phoenix has so many federal contracts, the city is considered a federal contractor. Phoenix claims that Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate applies to the city as a whole.

“For example, all of our contracts are ultimately signed by the city manager,” explained Phoenix’s Assistant City Manager Lori Bays. “The city manager works at City Hall and therefore all employees at City Hall are required to be covered under that stipulation.”, according to ABC.

This will not save lives.

Phoenix police are not federal contractors. They are city employees.

Radical Kate Gallego has been actively working to defund the Phoenix Police Department for over a year despite the enormous spike in domestic violence, gang violence, and murders in the dangerous city.

The Phoenix Police Department is already severely understaffed and underfunded.

In June of 2020, AZ Central reported,

There were no wage increases from 2012-2019 as a result of the Great Recession, and we are still 450 officers short of our maximum staffing levels in 2008, which was 3,385 officers.

In August, AZ Big Media ranked Phoenix as number one in population growth and reported that the current population of Phoenix is 1,708,127, up by 262,495 people since 2010.

As of October 13, 2021, the number of sworn officers in the department dropped to 2,776 and the city council only authorizes funding for 3,125 officers, according to KJZZ. City council members have even referred to the low law enforcement staffing levels as “a crisis.”

As the population and soared 18%, the number of law enforcement officials has declined.

Now, the vaccine mandate on city employees will serve as a backdoor to defunding the police.

Only 25% of police and firefighters have submitted proof of vaccination. Officers who do not provide proof of vaccination risk losing their jobs.

Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio calls this a “witch hunt against our public safety”. “We are not federal contractors,” said DiCiccio, “This is a bunch of bs.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/phoenix-mandates-vaccines-employees-phoenix-mayor-kate-gallego-runs-reporters-questioned-video/

Biden to Hire 80,000 New IRS Agents to Target the Middle Class and Conservatives – Just Like the Obama Regime Did

The Obama IRS targeted over 400 conservative groups for unprecedented scrutiny.

The IRS Conservative Targeting Scandal involved:

Hundreds of conservative groups

At least 5 pro-Israel groups

Constitutional groups

Groups that criticized Obama administration

At least two pro-life groups

An 83 year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor

A 180 year-old Baptist paper

A Texas voting-rights group

A Hollywood conservative group

Conservative activists and businesses

At least one conservative Hispanic group

IRS continued to target groups even after the scandal was exposed

10% of Tea Party donors were audited by the IRS

And… 100% of the 501(c)(4) Groups Audited by IRS Were Conservative

A Congressional report revealed 10% of Tea Party donors were audited by the IRS. This is 10 times more often than regular Americans.

Like most scandals by Democrat operatives, no one served time for these criminal actions. No one was fired. Not one single person lost their retirement.

Now Joe Biden is going to hire 87,000 more IRS agents to crack down on average Americans.

Lauren Boehbert and Elon Musk weighed in on Biden’s IRS plans.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/biden-hire-80000-new-irs-agents-target-conservatives-just-like-obama-regime/

Merkel’s husband enters spotlight to slam the unvaxxed

Professor Joachim Sauer, the husband of outgoing German chancellor Angela Merkel, has blasted unvaccinated citizens, saying they are ignoring science and being “lazy.”

“It is astonishing that a third of the population does not follow scientific evidence. Partly this is down to certain laziness and complacency of Germans,” Sauer said in rare public comments to Italian newspaper La Repubblica and picked up by Die Welt.

The chancellor’s husband also slammed those, doctors and scientists included, who have an “ideological reaction to what they consider a vaccination dictatorship.”

Sauer, who is a quantum chemistry professor, also expressed hope that the pandemic would prompt an interest in science among new generations.

“It would be nice if many would be interested in science and decide to study it, there is a need,” he said.

On Monday, Merkel herself reportedly called Germany’s Covid-19 situation “highly dramatic” and expressed support for tougher measures, despite mass protests around Europe prompted by already existing restrictions.

Germany, along with a number of other European countries including Austria and Slovakia, is now facing a record surge in Covid numbers. Health Minister Jens Spahn warned on Monday that by winter’s end almost everyone in Germany would be “vaccinated, recovered or dead.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that Americans avoid travelling to Germany and Denmark because of the deteriorating epidemiological situation.

https://www.rt.com/news/541094-merkel-husband-vaccines-science/

Explosions at factory near Belgrade, deaths & injuries reported

A number of explosions have rocked a munitions factory in the Belgrade suburb of Leštane, with Serbian reports suggesting at least two people have been killed and over a dozen injured.

Photos and footage purportedly of the scene show huge clouds of white smoke billowing over the site, with a number of smaller blasts reported after an initial larger explosion.

The first explosion took place at around 2pm local time (1pm GMT) on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Authorities have told local media that there is a real risk of further blasts.

According to local media, the explosions took place at a rocket-making factory and occurred when rocket fuel ignited. There were reportedly some 100 workers on shift at the facility at the time of the explosion. Two people have been killed and at least 15 injured, TV Prva reported.

Three people have reportedly been transported to an intensive care unit, and another two have been taken to the Military Medical Academy.

The Ministry of the Interior said that the explosion was “reported in a factory” on the ring road in Leštane, near Bubanj Potok, and that firefighters and police were immediately sent to the scene.

Five ambulance crews were spotted heading to the scene, while police have halted and redirected traffic in the area. Emergency services said they’re still searching for the injured. According to a Blic reporter, people were shouting for help from a forested area nearby.

Local residents claimed the ground had shaken for almost a minute after the initial explosion, while others said they thought the area was under attack.

https://www.rt.com/news/541092-explosion-belgrade-serbia-factory/

DOJ to pay millions over FBI failure

The US Justice Department (DOJ) has agreed a settlement that will see the government pay a reported $127.5 million to victims and survivors of the Parkland school shooting, over its failure to investigate tips about the attacker.

In a joint court filing on Monday, lawyers representing families of those killed and injured during the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018 confirmed that a financial settlement had been reached with the US government. Although they did not specify the figures involved, according to the Associated Press, the DOJ has agreed to pay out some $127.5 million.

The settlement centers around the FBI’s failure to properly investigate two tips about the gunman, which the victims’ families claim could have prevented the tragedy.

“Although no resolution could ever restore what the Parkland families lost, this settlement marks an important step toward justice,” Kristina Infante, lead attorney for the families of the victims, said in a statement after the deal was reached.

One of the warnings provided to the FBI came about a month before the shooting, when a woman contacted the agency’s tip line saying she feared that a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Nikolas Cruz, had armed himself and intended to “slip into a school and start shooting the place up.”

Another tip-off cited a YouTube comment from a user under the name of ‘nikolas cruz’ who claimed they were going to become “a professional school shooter.”

The FBI previously accepted that it received the two tips but failed to act on them.

Seventeen people were killed and a further 17 wounded in the school shooting on February 14, 2018. Cruz, who had been expelled from the school before the incident, pleaded guilty last month to multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against Cruz, although his legal team is hoping he will be able to avoid that fate when the penalty phase of the trial begins next year.

https://www.rt.com/usa/541085-fbi-settlement-parkland-shooting/

Horowitz: Wisconsin Gov. Evers vetoed bills that could have kept Waukesha suspect behind bars

Here's an infrastructure bill idea: How about we build prisons and jails — lots of them?

It's great to finally see the political commentariat catching up to our criminal justice observations over the past decade, as everyone observes with horror how Darrell Brooks, the suspect in the Waukesha parade massacre, was released from jail multiple times despite a 20-year violent criminal career. Just two days before the attack, he was released on $1,000 bond after being charged with running over a woman, despite having violated the terms of release from a July 2020 incident when he was accused of discharging a firearm that he could not lawfully possess.

But I have news for those who are just waking up and smelling the stench of our rotten criminal justice system. There are likely hundreds of thousands of people like Brooks on the streets who have committed numerous violent felonies, including gun crimes, yet the same people who cry about gun violence are the first ones to release gun felons from prison. In fact, the only people held without bail nowadays are military veterans with a clean record accused of trespassing on public property on Jan. 6.

A simple proposition that every Republican legislature should push in this upcoming session is that anyone who violates the terms of parole or supervised release should be immediately re-incarcerated and anyone who has a history of either violating bail or a mix of violent crimes or arrests for felony possession of a firearm should be denied bail at a special bail arraignment. These people, by definition, already had their second chances.

Incidentally, such legislation already passed the Wisconsin legislature, but in Feb. 2020, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers vetoed those bills. They included the following:

Assembly Bill 805: The bill required the Department of Corrections to revoke parole from anyone charged with a crime while on parole, extended supervision, or probation.

Assembly Bill 806: At a time of skyrocketing juvenile crime, this bill would have authorized prison time for any juvenile convicted of a Class G felony, which comes with up to 10 years in prison if committed by an adult.

Assembly Bill 808: This bill would have barred a prosecutor from dismissing a charge of felony firearm possession if the offender had a previous violent crime conviction.

Assembly Bill 809: This bill would simply have barred the early release of anyone convicted of violent crimes like homicide or aggravated battery.

Yet Gov. Tony Evers vetoed all of these commonsense bills that exclusively target violent criminals. The dangerous "criminal justice reform" movement began with its rallying cry of freeing "low-level, first-time, nonviolent" offenders filling up our prisons. The problem is, as they well know, these people are not filling up our prisons. Thus, in order to achieve their goal of de-incarceration at all costs, they had to proceed to releasing the most violent criminals. The same people who cry about gun rights for peaceful citizens actually oppose any effort to lock up dangerous gun felons.

https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-wisconsin-gov-evers-vetoed-bills-that-could-have-kept-waukesha-suspect-behind-bars

The Road to Fascism: Paved with Vaccine Mandates and Corporate Collusion

We are moving fast down the road to fascism.

This COVID-19 pandemic has shifted us into high gear.

The heavy-handed collusion between the Techno-Corporate State and the U.S. government over vaccine mandates is merely the latest manifestation of the extent to which fascist forces are working to overthrow our constitutional republic and nullify the rights of the individual.

In early November 2021, the Biden Administration drew its line in the sand for more than 100 million American workers: get vaccinated against COVID-19 (by Nov. 22 for federal workers, and Jan. 4 for federal contractors and companies with more than 100 employees) or else.

Or else what?

For many individuals with sincere objections to the vaccine, either based on their religious beliefs or some other medical or philosophical concern, non-compliance with workplace vaccine mandates will mean losing their jobs and the possibility of no unemployment benefits.

One survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management estimated that 28% of employed Americans wouldn’t get a COVID vaccine even if it meant losing their jobs.

Although OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is requiring that employees be paid for the time it takes to get vaccinated and recover from any side effects, those who refuse to get vaccinated but keep their jobs will have to test negative for COVID weekly and could be made to shoulder the costs of those weekly tests. Healthcare workers are not being given an option for testing: it’s the vaccine or nothing.

To give the government’s arm-twisting some added strength, companies that violate the workplace mandate rules “can face fines of up to $13,653 per violation for serious violations and 10 times that for willful or repeated violations.”

In other words, as Katrina Trinko writes for USA Today, “the government is turning employers—who are not paid by, nor work for, the government—into an army of vaccine enforcers.”

You know who won’t suffer any harm as a result of these vaccine mandates? The Corporate State (manufacturers, distributors, and health care providers), which were given a blanket “get out of jail” card to insulate them from liability for any injuries or death caused by the vaccines.

While this vaccine mandate is being presented as a “targeted” mandate as opposed to a national mandate that impacts the entire population, it effectively leaves those with sincere objections to the COVID vaccine with very little options beyond total compliance or unemployment.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/covid-road-to-fascism/

Kevin Spacey ordered to pay studio $31M for breaching sex-harassment policy

Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay almost $31 million to the studio behind “House of Cards” for violating the company’s sexual harassment policy, a new court filing revealed.

The private ruling by an arbitrator was initially handed down more than a year ago, but it only was made public on Monday after lawyers for MRC, the studio behind the Netflix political thriller, filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court to confirm the sum would be delivered.

The arbitrator ordered the disgraced award-winning actor and his production companies to pay just shy of $31 million in damages, as well as lawyers’ fees.

Spacey served as an executive producer of “House of Cards” and was the initial main character of the series. In the show, he played an ambitious Democratic Congressman who would stop at nothing to rise up the political ranks.

The show aired for six seasons from 2013 to 2018.

But while the final season of the show was being filmed — and as the #MeToo movement was gaining steam globally — actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making a sexual advance toward him in 1986, when Rapp was just 14.

That initial allegation led to more accusations against Spacey, including by crew members of “House of Cards.”

MRC and Netflix eventually fired Spacey from the show and ended the series.

In the more recently settled arbitration, MRC said Spacey’s behavior was a violation of the studio’s policy barring sexual harassment and that ultimately cost it millions of dollars.

https://nypost.com/2021/11/23/kevin-spacey-ordered-to-pay-studio-31m-for-breaching-sex-harassment-policy/

WHISTLEBLOWER: Facebook Internal Docs Likely Show How Tech Giant Blacklisted Kyle Rittenhouse

Rittenhouse likely fell under the company's "Dangerous Individuals and Organizations" policy, allowing him to be purged from Facebook and Instagram

Shortly after Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with murder following the self defense shootings he was ultimately acquitted for, Facebook moved to wipe any positive mention of the teenager from the company’s platforms. This included links to Rittenhouse’s legal fund and the sharing of any evidence that proved his innocence, of which there was an abundance.

In order to do this, Facebook likely exploited a loophole that allowed them to skate around their terms of service and selectively moderate content. Internal documents shared with National File by Facebook whistleblower Ryan Hartwig shine light on these practices.

Hartwig worked on Facebook’s content moderation team while employed at a company called Cognizant from 2018-2020 until he eventually blew the whistle after realizing the platform’s content moderation efforts pushed political agendas and punished those who disagree. Hartwig now says he believes he knows the mechanisms Facebook used to purge all positive mention of Kyle Rittenhouse.

According to Hartwig, Facebook most likely branded the Kenosha shootings as a “mass murder”, then used that designation to purge pro-Rittenhouse content under the company’s “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations” policy.

“In an effort to prevent and disrupt real-world harm, we do not allow organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on Facebook,” reads the policy rationale.

Facebook will assess organizations both online and offline in order to gauge the likelihood of groups or individuals causing real world harm. Groups that fall under the dangerous organizations policy include terrorist organizations, “hate organizations”, organized crime syndicates such as drug cartels, and multiple-victim murderers.

https://nationalfile.com/whistleblower-facebook-internal-docs-likely-show-how-tech-giant-blacklisted-kyle-rittenhouse/

Biden Running in 2024 for Second Term: White House

President Joe Biden, America’s oldest president, plans on running for a second term in 2024.

“He is. That’s his intention,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Air Force One on Monday.

Recent reports said Biden was informing allies he will run for a second term.

Biden, who turned 79 over the weekend, was the oldest person sworn in as president in January.

Before that, President Ronald Reagan was the oldest president. He was 77 when he left office.

Some Democrats have wondered whether Biden will seek another term due to his age and a drop in his approval ratings.

“I’m hoping the president runs for re-election, but for whatever reason that might not be the case, it’s hard to believe there would be a short list without Kamala’s name on it. She’s the vice president of the United States,” former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), a Biden ally, recently told the New York Times.

Vice President Kamala Harris, 57, was a 2020 presidential contender but dropped out of the race after Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) won a series of early-voting states in the Democrat primaries.

Biden later tapped her as his running mate.

“That’s my expectation,” Biden told reporters in March when asked about the prospect of running again.

Biden beat former President Donald Trump in 2020 by 74 electoral votes.

Trump, 75, has floated a 2024 bid but has said he won’t announce his plans until after the 2022 midterm elections.

No candidates have yet officially launched campaigns. Potential candidates include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Those who have said they won’t run include Fox News host Tucker Carlson, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Biden, meanwhile, was examined by a doctor on Friday for the first time since taking office.

https://www.ntd.com/biden-running-in-2024-for-second-term-white-house_705265.html

>>15064333 US rehearsed dropping nuclear weapons 20km from Russian border – Moscow

>>15064346 CLOT SHOT BEING USED TO IMPLEMENT PRE-CRIME SURVEILLANCE IN CANADA

>>15064385 Merkel’s husband enters spotlight to slam the unvaxxed

>>15064404 Explosions at factory near Belgrade, deaths & injuries reported

>>15064419 DOJ to pay millions over FBI failure

>>15064444 Horowitz: Wisconsin Gov. Evers vetoed bills that could have kept Waukesha suspect behind bars

>>15064462 Kevin Spacey ordered to pay studio $31M for breaching sex-harassment policy

>>15064477 WHISTLEBLOWER: Facebook Internal Docs Likely Show How Tech Giant Blacklisted Kyle Rittenhouse

>>15064480 Cultural Marxist Propaganda Will Be Massive – Waukesha Officials and Feds Press Conference

>>15064503 Biden Running in 2024 for Second Term: White House

This baker is a clown gatekeeps the important shit and put sauceless shit into notes - check for yourself

>>15064508

Baltimore County police officer convicted of 2nd degree rape sentenced to home detention..Pictured

A Baltimore County Police Officer has been sentenced to four years of home detention after being convicted of the rape of a 22-year-old woman.

Anthony Westerman was sentenced on Friday. Westerman was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but that part of the sentence was suspended.

The attack happened in 2017. The victim told police she met Westerman through a friend at a bar. Prosecutors say Westerman took the victim from a bar to his home, where she passed out. When she woke up, prosecutors say Westerman was on top of her.

He was also convicted of second degree assault charges from an incident involving a woman in June of 2019. Westerman was sentenced to one day in jail for the assault charge.

Westerman has been suspended from the Baltimore County Police Department without pay since he was charged with these offenses.

https://www.cracknewz.com/2021/10/channing-tatum-i-hate-that-dave.html

Disney stars defending convicted pedophiles is not a good look

Despite making millions playing superheroes and galactic bounty hunters, Hollywood actors Mark Ruffalo and Pedro Pascal are proving that they can't tell who's a villain.

Last Friday, teenager Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of first-degree homicide. A jury decided that he shot three people, two fatally, in self-defense during a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin. More than a year of shoddy journalism throughout the case's coverage resulted in an American social media reaction largely split down political party lines. In Hollywood, progressives angrily complained, while the handful of openly conservative actors that still exist lauded the decision as a just outcome based on evidence. Notably, a pair of Disney stars expressed regret that the two deceased men, Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, were no longer with us.

They quickly found that Twitter wasn't having it.

Mark Ruffalo, who's played Bruce Banner and The Hulk for Marvel Studios since ‘The Avengers’ in 2012, tweeted first. “We come together,” he desponded, "to mourn the lives lost to the same racist system that devalues Black lives and devalued the lives of Anthony and JoJo. #ReimagineKenosha"

Pedro Pascal, who plays the title character on the Star Wars Disney+ show ‘The Mandalorian’, tweeted a similar sentiment on the following day, complete with photos of both men smiling like saints: “Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 27, murdered August 25th, 2020. Rest In Peace.”

Apart from both statements, in view of Rittenhouse’s acquittal, being horrendously defamatory, it is worth taking a closer look at the lives led by the dearly departed Anthony and JoJo. Huber was a violent criminal who threatened family members with a knife and was convicted of repeated domestic abuse. Such a felonious past hasn't prevented the Left from posthumously canonizing other people, certainly, but the straw that snapped this camel's spine like a human bicep shot point-blank with an AR-15 was Ruffalo's and Pascal's attempts to eulogize ‘JoJo’ Rosenbaum.

Rosenbaum, his lengthy criminal record shows, was a pedophile rapist of young boys.

https://www.rt.com/pop-culture/541007-disney-rittenhouse-pedophiles-defending/

US military base in Syria comes under rocket attack — SANA

There is no information on casualties or damages

The US Kharab al-Jir military base in Syria’s Hasaka Province has been shelled with rockets, the SANA news agency reported on Tuesday.

According to its information, five rockets were fired upon the military airfield at the Kharab al-Jir base used by US forces.

The agency noted that immediately following the attack several US helicopters were scrambled trying to detect the area where the rockets were launched.

There were no reports of casualties or damage.

Since 2015, the US command has created nine bases in north-eastern Syria with the US military stationed there assisting a Kurdish alliance, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in their fight against the Islamic State (IS, outlawed in Russia - TASS) terrorist group. The main outposts of the IS in this region were eliminated in March 2019 by the SDF units with the support of the Western coalition. Damascus views the US military presence as an illegal occupation which is accompanied by the plunder of natural resources that belong to the Syrian people.

On December 29, 2014, the Russian Supreme Court declared the Islamic State - IS - (before 2014 - the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS) a terrorist organization. The extremist organization’s activities are outlawed in Russia.

https://tass.com/emergencies/1365103

PM’s son, 9, gets COVID vaccine as Israel officially launches shots for ages 5-11

Coronavirus inoculation campaign kicks off with 2.5% of age group signed up; health officials warn of rising cases among kids

Israel officially launched its coronavirus vaccination campaign on Tuesday for children aged 5-11, hoping to stem the spread of COVID-19 in schools and patch the largest remaining gap in its drive for national immunity from the pandemic.

Among the first to receive the shot Tuesday was David Bennett, 9, who was brought to a vaccination clinic by his father, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

“Today we are starting the nationwide campaign to vaccinate children, first of all to safeguard our children. David was just vaccinated. This safeguards both children and parents, and the entire State of Israel,” the elder Bennett said. “It works, it’s safe and I call on all Israeli parents to come and have their children vaccinated.”

Israel recently emerged from a fourth COVID-19 wave and daily infections have been relatively low for the last few weeks. But Health Ministry statistics show that a large share of the new infections have been in children and teenagers and children age 5 to 11 make up nearly half of active cases.

“We are on the verge of what appears to be a wave of illness affecting children,” Bennett said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Officials hope the new inoculation campaign will help bring down the numbers, choke off transmission chains and perhaps stave off any future waves.

Prompted by his father to explain why it was important to get vaccinated, David Bennett said that it was “so that children don’t get sick with the coronavirus and they don’t infect their parents.”

“It didn’t hurt, it was nothing. It just looked like it was going to hurt,” he said.

Though the official launch was only Tuesday, health providers started rolling out the shots for children at a number of locations across the country on Monday, as kiddie-sized doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine began being shipped to clinics.

Health officials said several hundred children were vaccinated Monday and that appointments for vaccinations starting on Tuesday had been booked for 24,000 children — some 2.5% of those eligible in the age group.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/pms-son-gets-covid-vaccine-as-israel-officially-launches-shots-for-ages-5-11/

Ex-Mossad chief Pardo: Bennett has no Iran strategy

Israel lacks ability to take out all Iran nuke sites, say security officials.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett still has not decided on an Iran strategy, though he seems to be flirting with returning to the approach of the previous government, former Mossad director Tamir Pardo said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a conference at Reichman University, Pardo said: “The question is whether Israel has a strategy regarding Iran… I think Israel still does not have a strategy. But it seems to me that the trend is for Israel to return to what was before,” referring to thematic similarities between the prior government and an earlier speech given by Bennett at the conference.

Pardo was a firm critic of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy which advocated open, strong criticism of the US-sponsored 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal and of the Biden administration’s hope to return to the deal.

In contrast, the former Mossad chief has said that with all of its holes, the deal also has advantages and that Jerusalem must not fight with the US in public over Iran-related policy differences.

Rather, he has said Israel should work quietly behind the scenes to convince Washington to improve the deal.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/ex-mossad-chief-pardo-bennett-has-no-iran-strategy-685764

Trump criticizes Biden for opening US oil reserves, says only for 'serious emergencies, like war'

Trump also accuses Biden of launching "attack" on the United States' Strategic Oil Reserves

Former President Trump on Tuesday criticized President Biden's plan to open U.S. oil reserves as part of an international effort to lower high fuel prices around the world, saying the supply is "meant to be used for serious emergencies, like war, and nothing else."

Trump, in the fundraising letter, also accuses Biden of launching an "attack" on the United States' Strategic Oil Reserves, to try to get petroleum into the global economy to lower prices, after he filled the supply when gas was at record-low prices.

"For decades our country’s very important Strategic Oil Reserves were low or virtually empty in that no president wanted to pay the price of filling them up. I filled them up three years ago, right to the top, when oil prices were very low,” Trump writes in the letter.

"Those reserves are meant to be used for serious emergencies, like war, and nothing else. … We were energy independent one year ago, now we are at the mercy of OPEC, gasoline is selling for $7 [a gallon] in parts of California, going up all over the country, and they are taking oil from our Strategic Reserves. Is this any way to run a country?"

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/trump-criticizes-biden-opening-us-oil-reserves-says-only-serious

Secret Memo Details Turkish Special Forces’ Engagement With Ukrainian Military For Training In Unconventional Warfare

The Turkish army’s elite Special Forces Command (Özel Kuvvetler Komutanlığı, or ÖKK) — designed to engage in unconventional warfare, secret cross-border operations, sabotage and surveillance – assigned special advisors to the Ukrainian army and started training Ukrainian troops under a multi-year plan, according to a classified memo obtained by Nordic Monitor.

The memo, submitted to then-Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar, now the defense minister, in June 2016 made a detailed assessment of Turkey’s engagement in training the Ukrainian military. The memo was prepared to comply with Akar’s orders of May 27, 2016 in which he asked for conclusions after a military team returned from a coordination and assessment visit to Ukraine.

The Turkish military sent a special team to Ukraine composed of representatives of various forces to make an assessment on how to coordinate joint military training. The visit took place April 6-10, 2016.

According to the memo ÖKK’s engagement with Ukrainian troops covered the training of Ukrainian special forces by the ÖKK teams, starting with a program in Turkey. Kyiv asked Turkey to send two officers at the rank of colonel or major for language training in Ukraine, a request that was approved by the Turkish General Staff in 2016.

Secret memo submitted to then-Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar, now the defense minister, reveals how Turkish special forces trained Ukrainian military personnel in unconventional warfare:

Turkey also gave the green light for hosting and training about a dozen Ukrainian special force members in weeks-long sharp-shooting and sniper courses as well as free fall parachuting and other special force capabilities until 2018.

The memo also covered the assignment of special military advisors from the Turkish army to train and advise the Ukrainian military. Joint military exercises between the special forces of both countries were planned for 2018.

The 2016 plan was later expanded to include more troops and involved the land, air and naval forces as well.

Last week Nordic Monitor reported that Ukrainian Naval Forces Command personnel were given “Navy Internship” training on a Turkish corvette.

https://southfront.org/secret-memo-details-turkish-special-forces-engagement-with-ukrainian-military-for-training-in-unconventional-warfare/

Turkey Propagates “Greater Turan” map stretching from Balkans to China

A provocative map of the Turkic-speaking world was given to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last week by his coalition partner and leader of the Far-Right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli. The map presented by Bahçeli and enthusiastically accepted by Erdoğan includes not only Turkey, but also large areas of southern Russia and eastern Siberia, parts of Greece and other areas of the Balkans, Central Asia, China’s Xinjiang province, Mongolia and Iran – a depiction of a so-called “Greater Turan”.

It is noted that the map was given to Erdoğan only a few days after the eighth summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, more commonly known as the Turkic Council, was held. The Istanbul-held summit was attended by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan’s president and Hungary’s prime minister attended as observers. At the summit, Erdoğan strongly advocated for pan-Turkic unity by calling on other member states to officially recognize the illegal but de facto “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” and apply pressure for a transportation corridor to cut through Armenian territory to connect Turkey with Azerbaijan and Central Asia.

In this particular summit, with the Turkish lira crashing to new lows against the US dollar every few days and inflation now out of control, pan-Turkist and Turkic nationalist rhetoric was utilized in an attempt to distract Turkish citizens with grandeur illusions of territorial expansionism based on the false mythology of common Turkic heritage and culture.

The uncomfortable truth is that even claims of common heritage and ancestry among the pan-Turkic World is false. Take for example Mustapha Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey. He himself was an Islamified Albanian Jew that strongly adopted a Turkish identity after being expelled from his homeland of Macedonia following the First Balkan War (1912-13) and created a “Turkey for the Turks” after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

A “Turkey for the Turks” meant the forced Turkification and Islamification of all citizens regardless if they were Kurdish, Greek, Armenian or any other ethnicity. The by-product of this forced Turkification is felt today. Consider Bahçeli, the Far-Right Turkish ultranationalist that denies the Armenian Genocide despite himself being a Turkified Armenian. In another example, Erdoğan has ancestry from one of the few remaining villages in rural Turkey where Greek is still the mother tongue despite the 1913-1923 genocide and all residents today identifying as Turkish Muslims. Erdoğan still calls his ancestral village by its former Greek name of Potamya (River Village) instead of the Turkish name Güneysu. Erdoğan even lamented in an interview how his father questioned his Turkishness to his grandfather, with his grandfather responding “when we die and go to heaven, they will ask us what God you believe, who your prophet is and what your religion is. They will not ask us of our ethnic origins.”

https://southfront.org/turkey-propagates-greater-turan-map-stretching-from-balkans-to-china/