Siri, Alexa and Google Home make children rude, anti-social: study

By Ariel Zilber

September 28, 2022 11:35am Updated

Voice assistant technology such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Home devicenegatively impact children’s emotional and cognitive development, according to a new study.

The smart devices make it more likely that children will suffer from “impeded social development” and “hindered learning opportunities,” according to researchers who published their findings in the scientific journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

“The lack of ability to engage in non-verbal communication makes use of the devices a poor method of learning social interaction,” the two University of Cambridge researchers who headed the study, Ananya Arora and Anmol Arora, wrote.

The Post has sought comment from Apple and Alphabet-owned Google.

A spokesperson for Amazon told The Post: “Alexa is designed to provide accurate and helpful information.”

“Many of our customers have told us that Amazon Kids on Alexa, Echo Dot Kids and Kids Skills are helping their children, including those with autism and ADHD,” the rep added.

The study, published Tuesday, claims children’s reliance on the artificial intelligence-powered technology could lead to anti-social and harmful behaviors.

It also cited a BBC News story from last year claiming that anAlexa voice assistant “challenged” a 10-year-old girl to rub a coin against the prongs of a half-inserted electrical plug.

“Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs,” the smart speaker said.

The child did not follow the dangerous directions, her mother had told the BBC.

Amazon said it updated its software and fixed the error after it became aware of the incident.

Researchers also said that “requiring social cues when interacting with the devices” such as “Hey Google” or “Hi Alexa” could increase therisk that children “over-anthropomorphize digital devices” — or attribute human characteristics of behavior to an inanimate object or animals.

The devices are also lacking because they do not teach children to respond with “Please” and “Thank you,” the study said.

“[M]ost social etiquette that exists in conventional human-human interactions is not replicated when making requests with digital devices,” according to the authors.

While the researchers note that the devices could benefit older populations who suffer from loneliness, they appear to have “counter effects in a pediatric population” which thus “requires more and urgent attention.”

They write that children’s interactions with the devices, which are useful in quickly providing information and social companionship to adults, “at a crucial stage in social and emotional development might have long-term consequences on empathy, compassion, and critical thinking.”

The Amazon rep countered: “Our Amazon Kids service on Alexa provides parental controls which help parents manage the ways their children interact with technology and serves age appropriate content.”

“We also offer polite mode which encourages children to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when speaking to Alexa.”

“We believe voice technology will be a big part of the future and our goal is to provide an educational experience for kids combined with controls that give parents peace of mind.”

https://nypost.com/2022/09/28/siri-alexa-and-google-home-make-children-rude-anti-social-study/

Denmark’s Queen Margrethe strips four grandchildren of royal titles

Nika Shakhnazarova

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has stripped four of her eight grandchildren of their royal titles, as well as “His/Her Highness” titles — a decision that has rocked the royal family.

The children of the Queen’s second son, Prince Joachim; Nikolai, 23, Felix, 20, Henrik, 13, and Athena, 10 will now be referred to as either “His Excellency Count of Monpezat” or “Her Excellency Countess of Monpezat” starting on January 1, 2023.

Prince Joachim is sixth in line to the Danish throne.

Queen Margrethe II, 82, who is now the longest-reigning monarch following Queen Elizabeth II’s death, announced she was removing the royal titles in a statement on Wednesday.

“With her decision, Her Majesty The Queen wishes to create the framework for the four grandchildren to be able to shape their own lives to a much greater extent without being limited by the special considerations and duties that a formal affiliation with the Royal House of Denmark as an institution involves,” the statement read.

“Her Majesty has decided that, as of 1 January 2023, His Royal Highness Prince Joachim’s descendants can only use their titles as counts and countess of Monpezat, as the titles of prince and princess that they have held up until now will be discontinued.”

The Danish monarch defended her decision telling reporters, “It is a consideration I have had for quite a long time and I think it will be good for them in their future. That is the reason,” according to Hello! Magazine.

Queen Margrethe said removing her grandchildren’s prince and princess titles will enable them to “shape their own lives to a much greater extent without being limited by the special considerations and duties that a formal affiliation with the Royal House of Denmark as an institution involves.”

But the news wasn’t well-received by all members of the royal family.

Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg — the mother of Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix, who are set to lose their royal titles, said she was “confused” by the news.

“We are saddened and in shock,” Prince Joachim’s ex-wife said in a statement from her press advisor Helle von Wildenrath Løvgreen, according to Danish magazine Se og Hør.

“This comes like a bolt from the blue. The children feel ostracized. They cannot understand why their identity is being taken away from them.”

No changes were made to the titles of Prince Frederik, the heir to the throne, as well as his wife, Princess Mary, and their children — Prince Christian, 16, Princess Isabella, 15, and 11-year-old twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine.

The palace said “the Queen’s decision is in line with similar adjustments that other royal houses have made in various ways in recent years.”

Queen Margrethe’s decision echoes the drama that’s recently unfolded within the British royal family, which has endured a series of back-to-back scandals over the years.

https://nypost.com/2022/09/29/denmarks-queen-margrethe-strips-grandchildren-of-prince-and-princess-titles/

Hurricane Ian live tracker: DeSantis calls Ian a ‘500-year flood event’

By New York Post

September 29, 2022 9:19am Updated

Follow the New York Post’s live coverage of Hurricane Ian as it moves North after lashing Florida. Get the latest on path updates, timelines, evacuation notices and more.

What you need to know:

Ian leaves over 2M without power before weakening to tropical storm

Cuba begins to turn on lights after Ian blacks out island

Video shows Hurricane Ian obliterate an entire section of Fort Myers

By Olivia Land

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday said Hurricane Ian's devastation was historic, calling the storm a "500-year flood event" that will require rebuilding infrastructure to restore power.

Speaking just hours after the Category 4 storm ravaged the state's west coast before moving inland, DeSantis confirmed that both Lee and Charlotte Counties were "off the grid" as over 2 million residents remain without power.

He said that new infrastructure would be necessary to restore power to the two counties, not just “connecting a power line back to a pole."

DeSantis also warned of "potential major flooding" in central Florida through Thursday, while reassuring viewers that most public schools will open Friday or Monday.

After confirming that he spoke with President Biden this morning, the governor also said that "300 truckloads" of food and water were headed to aid victims.

Section of major Florida bridge wiped out by Hurricane Ian

By New York Post

A powerful storm surge from Hurricane Ian wiped out an entire section of a massive bridge in Florida, leaving residents of the barrier island city Sanibel cut off from the mainland Thursday morning.

https://nypost.com/2022/09/29/tracking-ian-path-and-evacuation-updates/

As Democrats who care about our kids’ schools, we’re voting for Zeldin

Maud Maron and

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On Wednesday, New York released state tests scores and parents finally got confirmation about the devastating learning loss so many of us saw first-hand during extended school lockdowns. The most reliable academic indicator for students in third to eighth grade — math scores — plummeted across all grades.

The slow progress made pre-pandemic was eviscerated. Students in every year tested lost ground, and the largest drop was among eighth graders heading to high school, who saw 11% fewer students proficient in math.

This wasn’t much of a surprise to those of us who spent months fighting against the public-school system’s disastrous response to COVID. That experience is part of why we —lifelong Democratic voters, moms of girls, staunchly pro-choice and long-time supporters of gay rights — are voting for Rep. Lee Zeldin for governor.

As veterans of the school wars on merit and co-founders of PLACE NYC, a 15,000-parent- strong advocacy group dedicated to improving academics, we spent the last two years fighting to open schools, eliminate needless mask and vaccine mandates and are now trying to restore the academic standards erased during COVID. We worry that our children have become pawns in the highly charged debate on the rights of parents. And we no longer trust that Democrats are on our side.

Pre-COVID, we battled then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s effort to eliminate the city’s Specialized High School Admissions Test and Gifted and Talented program — and the larger agenda to dumb down all schools to prioritize political interests over student success.

With COVID as the excuse, once-rigorous schools are now accessed by lottery; accelerated coursework has quietly vanished in many middle and high schools; funding for AP courses was slashed. Parents who’ve fought along with us feel exhausted and disenfranchised. And many have left New York, or are planning their exit.

In fall 2020, we took on our most critical school fight. What good are accelerated academics if schools aren’t even open? What good is G&T if kids are tuning out while logging in to Zoom rooms? How could the system ignore teens facing all-time-high rates of mental-health problems, including thoughts of suicide?

As “open-school moms,” we got a front-seat look at the intersection of our children’s education and political power, at how our elected leaders and teachers unions treat our kids as collateral damage in their schemes.

In keeping most schools closed and many programs suspended, they claimed to be “following the science.” But the science had already shown that schools are safe from COVID and children at extremely low risk.

And Gov. Kathy Hochul, using emergency powers she inherited and endlessly extended, played an outsize role in robbing our children of the education and normalcy they deserve. She mandated masks for all children in school — including toddlers — while unmasking higher-risk adults in bars and packed sports stadiums.

The parental victory of mask-optional policies in schools was the result of a lawsuit brought by intrepid Nassau parents — parents fighting our own governor and attorney general on behalf of all our kids.

Parents were also ignored when our elected leaders mandated the hastily researched and newly approved pediatric COVID vaccine for students to participate in school sports and afterschool activities — even as millionaire entertainers and pro athletes got waivers.

Politicians who couldn’t convince parents of the safety or efficacy of the pediatric vaccines (which clearly aren’t needed for the overwhelming majority of kids) decided to just ignore and steamroll parents instead.

Parents are the only decision-makers who prioritize their children’s needs exclusively. We don’t balance the competing needs of donors, unions and political allies.

https://nypost.com/2022/09/28/as-democrats-who-care-about-our-kids-schools-were-voting-for-zeldin/

This seems like a winning template for all maga Republicans to win. Take Education back for our children! Fantastic!

>>17602300

2 of 2

Parental involvement in their children’s lives is the No. 1 indicator of successful outcomes. The city Department of Education used to acknowledge this: The first item in the Parents Bill of Rights is: “Be Actively Involved and Engaged In the Education of Their Children.”

Yet many parents are still barred from their children’s classrooms, school plays, recitals and in-person parent-teacher conferences because of vaccine mandates — even though the pandemic is clearly long over.

The Democratic leaders we supported, donated to and elected now try to paint parental rights as a right-wing talking point — going so far as to mischaracterize Florida’s worthwhile Parental Rights in Education Bill as a “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

We see through it. Like so many NYC parents we have worked closely with, including gay parents and parents of gay kids, we are strong supporters of gay rights and parental rights.

Parents need to be unapologetic about taking back our seats at the school table. But we are convinced that Hochul will continue to do everything to keep us out.

It’s not just the way she bypassed parental rights since taking office, or howher authoritarian anti-child policies have harmed an entire generation of kids. Her education platform is a list of who and how much she will give our tax dollars to — with no real plan to address learning loss, engage with parents’ concerns about curriculum and zero accountability for academic outcomes and funding.

Some who agree with us still stop short of endorsing Zeldin. We often hear, “Aren’t you worried about women’s rights?” Yes, we still care about abortion rights — and we know they’re codified in state law and in no danger of changing under Zeldin because it is the will of an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers. We are not fooled by Hochul’s fear-mongering.

What is at stake are our rights as parents. We need elected leaders who respect and uphold our rights in raising and doing what is best for our kids.

That’s what’s really on the ballot in November. We have met with and listened to Zeldin. More important,he has met with and listened to us — to parents all across the state. His education policies align with ours and he has been an outspoken and firm advocate for parents’ rights.

That’s why, as pro-choice, pro-gay rights Democrats, we will vote across the aisle for Lee Zeldin this November.

Yiatin Chu and Maud Maron are co-founders of Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, PLACE- NYC.

https://nypost.com/2022/09/28/as-democrats-who-care-about-our-kids-schools-were-voting-for-zeldin/

(Why isn’t Letitia James all over this? Why do dems look so weird?)

Hochul campaign hired son of donor tied to $637M ‘pay-to-play’ COVID deal

Zach Williams,

The son of a major Kathy Hochul donor was hired by her campaign right around the time his father hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic governor — and just weeks before the dad’s company scored what’s being called a “pay-to-play” deal to sell the state $637 million in overpriced COVID-19 tests.

James Tebele, 21, has a resume that starts with a 2016 summer internship at his dad Charlie’s New Jersey-based Digital Gadgets consumer technology company, which pivoted to selling masks, gowns, sanitizer, thermometers and at-home rapid tests during the pandemic.

Now a student at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, James Tebele began working for Hochul’s campaign as a finance intern in November — and appears to have risen up the ranks, or at least pay scale, of her campaign as his dad’s fundraising for the governor increased.

On Nov. 22, Charlie Tebele — whose family has donated over $300,000 to Hochul — spent $5,150 on food, decorations and servers for a Hochul fundraiser and his wife, Nancy Tebele, also donated $18,000 to the governor’s campaign that day, the Albany Times Unionfirst reported earlier this month.

Just four days later, Hochul suspended competitive-bidding rules for the state’s purchase of COVID-19 supplies, leading to the first of two contracts awarded to Digital Gadgets for a total of 26 million test kits.

Despite the rapid confluence of events, and her campaign’s hiring of James Tebele, Hochul has maintained that she “was not aware that this was a company that had been supportive of me” — an assertion rejected and ridiculed by her critics.

“The governor attended an in-person fundraiser hosted by the donor and hired one of his family members, but claims she was unaware of any connection. It’s laughable,” Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Fulton) said Wednesday.

The first contract — inked on Dec. 20 —charged taxpayers $13 per test, even though Hochul’s administration had recently struck a deal to buy similar tests from another supplier for just $5 each, according to the Times Union.

Digital Gadgets charged the state an average of $12.25 per test — costing taxpayers a total of $268 million more than if officials bought the “Carestart” tests directly from the manufacturerinstead of using Charlie Tebele as a middleman, the Times Union said.

Since May 2021, Charlie Tebele and his relatives have donated a total of around $310,000 to Hochul and her running mate, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, according to campaign finance reports.

Tebele hosted a second fundraiser for Hochul in April, shortly before son James’ LinkedIn profile shows he was promoted from “finance intern” to “finance associate” for her campaign.

The new job came with a raise that boosted hismonthly pay from about $1,270 to nearly $3,700, a nearly threefold increase, campaign finance records show.

A source with knowledge of James Tebele’s work for the Hochul campaign described him as a “junior staffer” and “not a high-up person” whose main responsibilities included helping compile lists of potential fundraiser attendees.

“He did name tags for the fundraisers,” the source said.

Hochul — who faces Republican challenger Lee Zeldin in the Nov. 8 gubernatorial election — has denied any wrongdoing and on Wednesday told reporters in Albany thatshe didn’t regret the dealwith Digital Gadgets, despite the calls for a probe of potential “pay to play”, saying, “I would do that all over again.”

https://nypost.com/2022/09/28/hochul-campaign-hired-son-of-donor-tied-to-637m-pay-to-play-covid-deal/

>>17602357

Birth control wasnt the beginning of the poison but it was is a massive and ramped up poisoning of women of childbearing age, that wasnt such a dramatic shift suddenly, so no one tracked the effects of introducing it. Scientists that created it pose that its a blessing to mankind, but they don’t say their original intent, stopping the evolutionary development of mankind, but poisoning woman and children with imbalanced male/female genetic balance which is 51/49.

I believe birth control accelerated a usually rare anomaly, up of homosexual behaviour. So even a minor deviation of male/female genes to 50.5% and 49.5% imbalance can change all future generations. Small changes in the balance of genes permanently, creates evolutionary manmade deviation, has dramatic changes in brain, body development and human development.

Hence I think birth control brought on slowly more and more deviant personality changes of sex addiction and other perversions, removing the sense of right and wrong, such as parents today taking small children to drag shows and strippers, and every other kind of grooming. Lots of other examples out there.

I’d like to see a true scientific study starting with birth control pills since the 70s and studies on human behavior becoming sicker and more disgusting, showing and documented imbalance of the make/female balance. Birth control started the idea of sexual freedom, no responsibility, anything goes and mankind has no need to follow acceptable social behavior.

As a kid in high school used yo say all the time, “If it looks good, feel it, if it feels good do it”. There was no right or wrong in his statement.

And perhaps birth control relieving the youth of responsibility has ushered in the hedonistic idea that abortion was just A OK now, because we need more freedom of responsibility. Because Mad Scientists developed and gave mankind drugs to allow free sex, multiple partners, STDs massive explosive (that btw created more drugs), etc it only got worse from there. Now society is at the point to some people agree with Governors that want to pass abortion even after the child is born, which after coming out of the womb, they want to allow murder. It’s definitely not abortion any longer. A person can only beiieve such a disgusting and evil idea if they’ve lost permanent contact from God and their own soul, and possibly lost their souls completely.

I’ve had this theory for years. And as a theory it makes sense to me. Right now its infected at least 5 generations of our development.

Radical DOJ Lawyer Kristen Clarke Targeted Pro-Life Dad and Other Conservatives

Victoria Taft

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Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) warned us about Kristen Clarke. Cruz called the radical lawyer “completely unfit to serve,” but serve she does as the Biden Administration’schief of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice (DOJ). Her department is where equal justice now goes to die.

Clarke considers her calling in Biden’s Justice Department one of score-settling for past decisions, holding contemporaries responsible for historical injustices, and chasing ghosts of the past.

She greenlit the federal case against Mark Houck, a Pennsylvania Catholic pro-life author, whose seven children screamed for mercy for their “best friend,” their dad, as an estimated 20-25 FBI agents trained their rifles on him after beating on the family’s door at seven in the morning last Friday. According to LifeSiteNews, Houck was already aware that the Feds were after him and had offered to come in and talk with them. But gun-toting agents dragged him out and took him to a federal facility.

And it was Clarke who reached into the past and pulled out the more-than-a-year-old discredited case against Houck, whom a pro-abortion protester accused of “attacking” a man escorting abortion seekers. But that’s not how it went down. That story was such a put-up job that even Pennsylvania authorities threw out the case against Houck because it didn’t pass the smell test.

But Clarke, fueled by her upset over the Dobbs decision, which sent abortion decisions back to the states, reached back, shook off the dust from the Houck case, and sought to find a crime to fit the man. She found it in the 1994 so-called FACE Act.

“The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 (FACE)…prohibits the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services or to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship,” according to the DOJ website.

The end game of the FACE act is financially ruining the perp and locking him up in one of Merrick Garland’s political gulags.

“The DOJ said that Houck could face “up to a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000” if he is convicted of the alleged offenses,” according to Trib24/7.

The case is meant to chill free speech by conservatives who oppose abortion and just about any other issue. And here was his crime: in October 2021, Houck was legally praying and standing by to counsel women outside abortion clinics with his 12-year-old son. Both were exercising their free speech rights, as were the pro-abortion activists. But an abortion escort wouldn’t leave his son alone.

“The pro-life leader’s wife Ryan-Marie told LifeSiteNews on Friday the abortion facility worker had been harassing their 12-year-old son by using vulgar language and getting into the boy’s ‘personal space,’ and that Houck had shoved him away to protect his son.”

“’He didn’t have any injuries or anything, but he tried to sue Mark,’ Ryan-Marie said, adding that the case was thrown out of court in the summer.”

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2022/09/28/radical-doj-lawyer-kristen-clarke-targeted-pro-life-dad-and-other-conservatives-n1632738

>>17602656

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And the harassment of Houck and his son wasn’t new, according to Trib24/7:

On several occasions when Mark Houck went to sidewalk counsel last year, he took his eldest son, who was only 12 at the time, she explained. For “weeks and weeks,” a “pro-abortion protester” would speak to the boy saying “crude … inappropriate and disgusting things,” such as “you’re dad’s a fag,” and other statements that were too vulgar for her to convey.

Repeatedly, Mark Houck would tell the man that he did not have permission to speak to his son and please refrain from doing so. And “he kept doing it and kind of came into [the son’s] personal space” obscenely ridiculing his father. At this point, “Mark shoved him away from his child, and the guy fell back.”

In addition to “sidewalk counseling,” Houck founded a ministry called The King’s Men, which helps men heal from their pornography addictions. Clearly, he’s a menace to Leftist society.

And that’s why Clarke is after him and others, conducting “actions in more than a dozen states” and digging around in “investigations in other states” for these crimes. I’m a law and order person, but let’s call this what it is: “padding the file.” And it’s reminiscent of what we’ve seen in the January 6 prosecutions by Clarke and Garland.

According to an FBI whistleblower, “The Washington, D.C. field office is ‘manipulating’ FBI case management protocol and farming out J6 cases to field offices across the country to create the false impression that right-wing domestic violence is a widespread national problem that goes far beyond the ‘black swan’ event of Jan. 6, 2021.”

Who’s cheerleading the investigation into these “white nationalists”? Kristen Clarke…

“Kristen Clarke is one of the most radical nominees ever put forward for any position in the federal government,” intoned a serious Cruz in remarks before his Senate colleagues. “I believe appointees to the Department of Justice should have a demonstrated record of fidelity to the law, impartiality, and the ability to defend the law. Kristen Clarke does not,” he said.

In a department headed over the years by the likes of Merrick Garland and Eric Holder, that’s saying something.

“Let me be clear: Kristen Clarke is completely unfit to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division,” warned the Texas senator. “Not only has she made her disgust for law enforcement clear by her repeated calls to defund the police, she has a history of not only excusing, but celebrating criminals who have murdered police officers. What are police officers across the country supposed to think about Democrats elevating someone to a senior position at the Department of Justice knowing that she has celebrated a brutal cop killer?”

Though at her confirmation hearing she claimed she didn’t believe in defunding police, she did. If you feel uncharitable, you could make a case for blaming the legal Leftist activist and now civil rights director of the DOJ for the bodies piling up in major American cities. Some civil rights matter more than others.

Clarke’s leadership at the very far-left Lawyers’ Committee and the New York Attorney General’s office saw the Harvard and Columbia Law grad take the side of black perpetrators always. Except for Enrique Tarrio, the Hispanic leader of the Proud Boys, whom she derided as a “white nationalist.”

While Leftist Antifa terrorists and Black Lives Matter grifters held major cities throughout the country hostage in 2020, including D.C. Their rioters literally burned a church, in addition to the other mayhem, violence, and terror they caused.

Tarrio and the Proud Boys ripped a banner festooned with a Black Lives Matter logo from a churchyard. Clarke’s Lawyers’ Committee sued Tarrio and his “white nationalist” group for conducting a “violent riot.” While we don’t doubt that was troubling to the people who put up the banner at the traditionally black church, and while it certainly is not civil, it hardly rises to the level of a “violent riot.” But Clarke framed the theft as “an attack on a black church,” intentionally drawing a moral equivalence between an act of vandalism and an actual church burning by Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

Remember this?

Indeed, as the head of the Civil Rights Division, Clarke now has at her disposal the FACE Act, which also covers churches.

And she’s in charge.

A former DOJ prosecutor told me the other day, “It’s not just Merrick Garland, Victoria. There’s a boss that makes these calls before Merrick Garland ever hears of a case. Name the names.”

So let’s name her name: Kristen Clarke.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2022/09/28/radical-doj-lawyer-kristen-clarke-targeted-pro-life-dad-and-other-conservatives-n1632738

>>17602627

Honestly this creature is such an embarrassment! Anything she does or says is written by someone else, and she doesnt have the smarts to not say stupid shit

High winds in North GA today, still a bright sunshining day, but perhaps not for long.

>>17602308

These reports normalized something that had never been done in elections historically. They never said a word of how weird and illegal this was to stop counting

29 Sep, 2022 13:55

Moscow warns Kiev not to rely on ‘foreign assistance’

Ukraine will not succeed in destabilizing Russia, even with the help from outside, the foreign ministry has said

The Ukrainian government won’t be able to disrupt Russia domestically even with the help of its foreign backers, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

“Kiev should not count on foreign assistance in its attempts to destabilize the situation inside our country,” she warned during a media briefing on Thursday.“They failed so far and will fail in the future.”

The diplomat explained that Russian people have a record of unifying during times of trouble, setting aside all differences in the face of external threats.

“We didn’t sort ourselves by nationality or social class, and we definitely didn’t hold a roll call to see what our political views were,” she added, describing historical examples of such mobilization. “We saw that we are needed and came as one, which is what is happening now.”

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of military reservists. He accused the US and its allies of seeking to partition Russia and warned that Moscow would use all means at its disposal to prevent that from happening.

The Defense Ministry said it intended to enroll some 300,000 people into active service. The move is meant to bolster Russian troops sent into Ukraine to defend seized territories.

Following referendums, Moscow is expected to grant requests by the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions in Ukraine to join Russia.

Kiev denounced the votes as “sham” ballots and pledged to use military force to retake all lands.

https://www.rt.com/russia/563738-kiev-cannot-destabilize-russia/

This diplomat is very impressive

29 Sep, 2022 13:44

Ukrainian drone strikes Zaporozhye nuclear plant – local authorities

The attack however, did not hit the station's reactor, a statement said

The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant came under attack by a Ukrainian drone on Thursday, local authorities have said. There has been no leak, though, they have reassured the public.

The explosive-laden UAV crashed into the plant’s support infrastructure, the head of the Zaporozhye region’s administration Evgeny Balitsky told Channel 1. “It didn’t hit the reactor. The reactor is out of danger,” he added.

The Zaporozhye nuclear facility, the largest in Europe, and the nearbytown of Energodar have come under repeated missile and artillery strikes in recent weeks, which Moscow has blamed on Kiev. It also said that Russian forces have repelled several attempts to retake the plant by Ukrainian saboteurs.

Russia has repeatedly warned that the continued shelling of the nuclear site could cause a disaster that would eclipse the 1986 Chernobyl incident and affect many countries in Europe. Earlier this month, the last working reactor out of six at the plant was shut down for security reasons.

Ukraine claims that Russia has turned the plant into a military base and that it’s striking it itself, in order to pin the blame on Kiev.

Together with the Donbass republics and the Kherson region, Zaporozhye voted to join Russia in a referendum that concluded earlier this week. The leadership of those regions has already sent requests to Moscow to become part of the Russian Federation.

https://www.rt.com/russia/563735-zaporozhye-nuclear-drone-ukraine/

29 Sep, 2022 11:50

Poland outlines condition for NATO intervention in Ukraine

The bloc’s forces may enter the country if Russia resorts to the nuclear option, Warsaw says

NATO may send troops into Ukraine if Russia deploys nuclear weapons in that country, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau told local media on Thursday. The US-led military bloc has repeatedly maintained it’s not at war with Moscow and is not a party to the conflict.

Speaking to RMF FM Radio, Rau was asked how the organization would respond if Russia resorts to the nuclear option. According to the minister, the West would firmly – and in coordination with the US – respond to such an attack.

Should the worst happen, Rau said, NATO’s reaction probably wouldn’t differ much from the steps outlined by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. “It would amount to a conventional response on the territory of Ukraine,” the minister explained.

In this vein, Warsaw’s foreign minister did not rule out that NATO troops could enter Ukraine’s territory. “However, it must also be noted that such a move may be unnecessary, because it is possible to use conventional weapons, such as aviation, or to launch relevant missiles,not necessarily from Ukrainian soil,” Rau added.

On Sunday, Jake Sullivan warned that Washington and its allies would act “decisively” if Russia uses tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, adding that it had communicated “at very high levels to the Kremlin” that any use of nuclear weapons in neighboring country would be “met with catastrophic consequences.”

His comments came after Russian President Vladimir Putin last week issued a warning to the West, noting that those who use nuclear blackmail against Moscow “should know that the wind rose can turn around.”

Meanwhile, later Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov reiterated that Moscow is “not threatening anyone with nuclear weapons,” citing Russia’s military doctrine that allows the use of such arms only if the very existence of the country is at stake.

Last week, the chair of NATO’s Military CommitteeRobert Bauer reiterated that the alliance is not at war in Russia, even as it supports Kiev with large quantities of weaponry in its fight against Moscow. (Yeah Right!)

https://www.rt.com/news/563722-poland-ukraine-nato-intervention/

wind rose, map diagram that summarizes information about the wind at a particular location over a specified time period. A wind rose was also, before the use of magnetic compasses, a guide on mariners’ charts to show the directions of the eight principal winds. The modern wind rose used by meteorologists gives the percentage of the time the wind blows from each direction during the observation period; it sometimes shows the strengths of these winds and the percentage of the time calm air or light winds are observed. This wind rose usually has eight radiating lines, whose lengths are proportional to wind frequency, and shows wind strength by the thickness of the lines or by feathers attached to them. The frequency of calm or nearly calm air is given as a number in the centre.

https://www.britannica.com/science/wind-rose