Russia invites UN and Red Cross experts to investigate POW camp bombing

Moscow earlier blamed Ukraine for the strike, saying US-made HIMARS rocket launchers were used to carry it out

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that it had officially invited independent experts from the UN and the Red Cross to investigate the shelling of a detention center in Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The Friday bombing killed 50 prisoners, with dozens more wounded.

“In the interest of conducting an objective investigation of the strike on the detention center in Yelenovka, which led to the deaths of many Ukrainian prisoners of war, the Russian Federation has officially invited experts from the UN and the International Red Cross Committee,” the ministry said.

The facility in Yelenovka, south of Donetsk, housed hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners – mainly members of the “Azov” neo-Nazi militia who surrendered in Mariupol in May.

According to the Russian military’s earlier statement, the strike was conducted using US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.

“All political, criminal and moral responsibility for the bloodbath against Ukrainians is borne personally by Zelensky, his criminal regime and Washington, which supports them,” Moscow said.

The Ukrainian military released a statement on Friday, accusing Russian troops of shelling the town. Moscow destroyed the prison in order to pin the blame on Kiev, as well as to “hide the torture of prisoners and executions," the statement alleged.

However, the DPR military suggested it was the Ukrainian authorities who had the reason to “deliberately” target the facility. The republic’s head Denis Pushilin said “Azov” members had been providing testimonies about possible war crimes by their commanders. The Kiev authorities also knew exactly where the “Azov” prisoners were being held, DPR militia spokesman Eduard Basurin told reporters.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s backers in the US government did not rush to blame it on Moscow.

“We just don’t have enough information to speak intelligently about these very early reports,” John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, told reporters.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

https://www.rt.com/russia/559920-russia-pow-un-red-cross-ukraine/

China Launches Live-Fire Drills Off Taiwan With US Carrier Group Nearby, As Pelosi's Plane En Route To Asia

According to prior comments from President Biden, the Pentagon wants House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to cancel her visit to Taiwan - but now pending her possible arrival in Taipei the US military has moved a Navy strike group into the South China Sea led by the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.

The USS Reagan left a port call in Singapore and is now patrolling waters near China, with Beijing flexing its own military muscle by launching fresh naval exercises near the self-ruled island - and more worrisomely issuing threats that the PLA military is on stand-by to respond with "forceful measures" if needed. Turkey's EHA media outlet on Saturday is circulating (unverified) video purporting to show large US warplane formation flyovers of the South China sea, with destroyers below.

Pelosi is currently en route over the Pacific for a scheduled tour of Asia - including stops in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore - with The Washington Post's Josh Rogin on Friday reporting that a Taiwan stopover is "expected to happen" during the "early part" of the trip, based on diplomatic sources.

All eyes are on Pelosi's flight path after it was days ago revealed that Taiwan was listed "tentative" as part of her itinerary…

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-holds-live-fire-drills-taiwan-us-carrier-group-nearby-pelosis-plane-en-route

US and South Korea expand joint military drill

The defense chiefs for the two countries have agreed to enlarge their planned exercise amid increasing tensions with North Korea

US and South Korean defense chiefs have agreed to expand their joint military exercise planned for later this year, setting the stage to deploy more of Washington’s strategic weapons on the peninsula amid increased saber-rattling in Pyongyang.

The drill, likely to be called Ulchi Freedom Shield, will be integrated with a civil defense exercise and upgraded to what Seoul considers its highest level of drill, according to a statement by the South Korean Defense Ministry. Meeting on Friday in Washington, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup also agreed to strengthen the “deterrence posture” of their alliance, “including the deployment of ballistic missile defense systems and US strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula.”

The talks came one day after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned that his country’s “nuclear war deterrent” was “fully ready” to respond to threats. Pyongyang has launched a slew of missile tests this year and may be poised to conduct its first nuclear weapon test since September 2017.

Lee and Austin “made it clear that if North Korea conducts its seventh nuclear test, despite opposition from the international community, the ROK [South Korea] and the United States will resolutely and jointly respond based on a strong combined defense posture,” the defense ministry said.

North Korea has long issued threats over US-South Korean defense drills, calling them rehearsals for invasion. This week, Kim called the joint drills “thug-like behavior” and threatened to “wipe out” Seoul if the ROK makes any “dangerous attempt” against the North. In a speech marking the 69th anniversary of the armistice that halted the 1950-1953 Korean War, he accused South Korea of seeking a “suicidal confrontation” to deepen ties with “the US imperialists.”

South Korea has sought to deepen military ties with the US since newly elected President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in May. Yoon said at the time that joint military drills were “key to our combined defense capability.” The new president also has been an advocate for stationing US nuclear weapons in South Korea.

https://www.rt.com/news/559918-south-korea-us-expand-joint-military-drill/

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3110721/readout-of-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iiis-meeting-with-republic-of-ko/

comms?

17-Year-Old Swims Out of Flooded Home With Dog and Waits for Hours on Roof to Be Rescued

Early Thursday morning, 17-year-old Chloe Adams woke up to a nightmare. Rushing waters were coming out of the bathroom drains, bubbling up through the kitchen tiles and quickly surrounding her home.

Chloe, who lives with her grandfather in Whitesburg, Kentucky, was alone, with no one but her trusted companion, Sandy, the dog she’s had since she was a toddler.

“There was water as far as I could see,” she told CNN in a message. “I had a full-blown panic attack.”

But she was determined to make it out safely, and take her dog with her.

At least 25 people were killed in Thursday’s heavy rains and widespread floods across eastern Kentucky and hundreds of others lost everything they had, Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday.

Chloe’s grandparents were at a home just a few feet away, separated from their granddaughter by the rushing waters. They yelled over to her, urging Chloe to stay inside until help arrived. But with little cell service and a 911 center which, likely overwhelmed, was unresponsive to her calls, Chloe said she realized she needed to get out to survive.

“My next thought was that we needed to swim out to my uncle’s house,” where the rest of her family was taking shelter, she said. “I put Sandy in the water momentarily to see if she could swim. But she couldn’t, so I scooped her up and went back inside, wading through the waist deep water to try to locate something that she could float to put her on.”

After experimenting with other pieces of furniture, Chloe placed her dog inside a plastic drawer from her closet to keep her dry—and then placed the drawer on a sofa cushion to keep her afloat.

“I finally had a plan that I believed … might work,” she said. “I knew the dangers of trying to swim in deep and moving water, but I felt I had no choice.”

She swam in the cold waters, pushing Sandy’s cushion in front of her, until she reached the slim roof of a nearby storage building; the only part of the structure not yet submerged.

There, the two sat for more than five hours before Chloe’s cousin rescued the teen and her dog with the help of a kayak. Nearby, Chloe’s family, sheltering in the second floor of her uncle’s home, watched over and talked to her as she waited for help.

When the teen returned to her grandmother’s home, she broke down, “from the relief of knowing Sandy and I survived the flood,” she said.

“My heart goes out to all the other people who lost and suffered so much more than I did in this horrific devastation,” Chloe added.

In a Facebook post after the rescue, Terry Adams, the teen’s father, called his daughter a “hero.”

“We lost everything today,” he wrote. “Everything except what matters most.”

https://www.ntd.com/17-year-old-swims-out-of-flooded-home-with-dog-and-waits-for-hours-on-roof-to-be-rescued_817090.html

Survivor TV star and former SAS commander Mark Wales opens up about childhood sexual abuse

When former SAS troop commander Mark Wales cradled his baby boy Harry in his arms for the first time, he wondered how anyone could ever hurt a child.

They were so innocent, trusting and defenceless.

His mind cast back to when he was a young ankle-biter, growing up in a red dust cul-de-sac on the cusp of Western Australia's Pilbara region.

But what should have been happy childhood memories were eclipsed by the sexual abuse he and his older brother Steven suffered at the hands of a family member on a WA dairy farm in the 1980s.

Mark is arguably best known for winning the television series Survivor.

Others may recall him serving in Afghanistan as part of the Special Air Service Regiment in the Australian Army.

But he has never publicly spoken about the abuse he endured until now.

Mark described walking into the Northbridge police station in 2019 to report the crimes as the hardest thing he had ever had to do.

He told the ABC it took more courage than walking through minefields in the Middle East.

After four decades, the brothers' abuser Richard Ernest Jackson was this month convicted of indecent dealings with children under 14 and jailed for two years and four months.

Mark and Steven said although the process was challenging, they were grateful to finally have closure.

Growing up on the dusty Pilbara plains

Steven and Mark were both born in Newman — an iron ore town 1,100 kilometres north-east of Perth.

With parents working in the mines, the brothers spent their days meandering barefoot across the outback.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-31/mark-wales-sas-commander-tv-star-child-sex-abuse-survivor/101275128

Sky news is in lalaland

https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/vladimir-putin-preparing-plans-for-evacuation-if-ukraine-overcomes-his-troops-in-war-that-has-lasted-162-days-so-far/news-story/7c098576968f205292763fe4cbe84052

BOMBSHELL: Paul Pelosi Jr Caught In HUGE Corruption Scandal, $180,000 CASH

The more you look at Paul Pelosi Jr. the more you see another Hunter Biden.

Paul Pelosi Jr. – like Hunter Biden, was given no-show jobs for which he wasn’t qualified in an effort to buy influence with his politician parent.

Nancy Pelosi’s son Paul is also on the board of an energy company.

Paul Pelosi Jr. also traveled to Ukraine for his work.

AND — Better Yet — Speaker Nancy Pelosi even appears in the company’s video ad!

According to Patrick Howley at National File Speaker Pelosi’s son Paul Jr. was an executive at Viscoil.

Paul Jr. traveled to Ukraine in 2017.

BOOM: Nancy Pelosi's son Paul Pelosi Jr. (who went to Ukraine in 2017) was a board member of Viscoil and executive at its related company NRGLab, which DID ENERGY Business in UKRAINE!

And Nancy Pelosi appeared in a promotional video for the company!https://t.co/wlndLhPqLe

— Patrick Howley (@HowleyReporter) October 3, 2019

Shortly after his mother Nancy Pelosi became the first woman speaker, Paul Pelosi Jr., was hired by InfoUSA for $180,000 a year as its vice president for Strategic Planning in 2007.

Pelosi kept his other full-time day job as a mortgage loan officer for Countrywide Loans in California. And, unlike all of the other InfoUSA employees, Paul Pelosi did not report to work at the company’s headquarters in Omaha.

It must be nice being the spawn of a powerful Democrat politician.

Newsmax reported on Paul Pelosi’s shady dealings in 2007:

The firm InfoUSA, headed by major Clinton backer Vinod Gupta, has placed Pelosi’s son, Paul Pelosi Jr., on its payroll – even though he has no experience in the company’s main business activities, NewsMax has learned. As NewsMax previously reported, InfoUSA repeatedly rented marketing databases to unscrupulous persons who used the information to defraud the unsuspecting elderly, investigators found. The company is also under fire in a shareholder lawsuit which alleges that Gupta is appropriating company funds for personal use and his political pet projects. Shareholder critics are furious that Gupta had InfoUsa pay former President Bill Clinton $2.1 million in “consulting fees” since he left the White House, with another $1.2 million promised. Pelosi’s son Paul acknowledged he has also been taking trips on corporate jets provided by Info USA. Just four weeks after Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the House this past January, Gupta and InfoUSA hired her son as a senior vice president. He told NewsMax InfoUsa pays him $180,000 a year. Even though his job with InfoUSA is considered full-time, Paul Pelosi continues another full-time job, as a home loan officer at Countrywide Home Loans, part of Countrywide Financial, in San Mateo, a suburb of San Francisco. While InfoUSA is based in Omaha, Pelosi said he reports to a small InfoUSA office in San Mateo. In two interviews, Paul Pelosi confirmed that Gupta hired him as senior vice president for strategic development starting Feb. 1, just after Pelosi’s mother took the gavel as speaker on Jan. 4. He said his mother is aware of his new job. A person familiar with the arrangement says Gupta treats Pelosi as a “trophy” and has the Speaker’s son accompany him at high profile meetings around the country. Pelosi denied the suggestion he is being used because of his family ties. “I don’t think that’s really what happens,” he said.

thegatewaypundit.com/2019/12/revealed-nancy-pelosis-son-paul-pelosi-jr-was-given-lucrative-180000-a-year-position-on-infousa-weeks-after-his-mother-became-speaker-despite-having-no-experience/

https://outragedpatriot.com/bombshell-paul-pelosi-jr-caught-in-huge-corruption-scandal-180000-cash/