1 May, 2023 08:59

Explosion derails train in Russian region bordering Ukraine

A cargo train has veered off track in Russia’s Bryansk Region, according to local governor

An explosive device planted on the trackshas caused the derailment of a cargo train in Russia’s Bryansk Region, which borders Ukraine, the local governor has said.

“An unidentified explosive device has detonated, causing a locomotive of a cargo train to go off track,” Aleksandr Bogomaz wrote on Telegram on Monday.

The incident, which happened in the region’s Unechsky District, did not result in any casualties, the governor said.

Traffic on the affected line has been halted, with rescuers and other services working on site, he added.

Russian Railways has confirmed the incident, saying it occurred at 10:17 Moscow time (7:17 GMT) andcaused the locomotive and seven cars to go off track. The engine also caught fire in the crash, it added.

Early on Sunday, Bryansk Region came under one of the deadliest Ukrainian cross-border strikes since the outbreak of the conflict more than a year ago. The shelling of Suzemka village from a multiple rocket launcher left four civilians dead and two wounded, according local authorities.

The Russian regions ofBryansk, Belgorod and Kursk, all of which border Ukraine, have been the targets of numerous drone and missile attacks by Kiev’sforces over the past year.

The strikes have been directed against energy infrastructure and residential areas, resulting in several civilian deaths and many injuries, and in the destruction of property.

Bryansk Region suffered a major terrorist incident in early March when a group of gunmen crossed the border from Ukraine before attacking civilians and planting explosive devices. Two people were killed and a ten-year-old boy wounded in that incursion.

https://www.rt.com/russia/575603-bryansk-ukraine-train-derailment/

1 May, 2023 08:01

Indian government official accuses Kiev of ‘assault on Hindu sentiment’

A tweet by the Ukrainian defense ministry featuring a caricature of the goddess Kali has caused widespread anger

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry offended Hindu sentiment by tweeting a caricature of the Hindu goddess Kali, Senior Advisor at the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Kanchan Gupta has said.

The backlash from Gupta and other Indians prompted Kiev to delete the controversial image shortly after it was posted on Sunday.

The tweet in question included a drawing by Ukrainian artist Maksym Palenko, accompanied by a short caption reading “Work of art.”

Palenko had reworked an image of an explosion to make it look like the Hindu goddess of ultimate power, time, destruction and change in a pose reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe in the 1955 movie ‘The Seven Year Itch’.

The post by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry was an example of “brazen hate speech,”Gupta wrote in a tweet. No other government had ever done such a thing regarding India, he added.

A Hindu goddess being “caricatured on a propaganda poster… is an assault on Hindu sentiments around the world,” the official insisted.

Kiev’s diplomatic advances towards India are all “fakery,” and the cartoon shows the “real face” of the Ukrainian authorities, Gupta claimed.

Despite being swiftly removed, the tweet was seen by almost a million people and made headlines in the Indian media. The Times of India newspaper described the cartoon as “offensive” in its report.

A large number of Twitter users also expressed their outrage that their revered goddess Kali had been “mocked.”

“Our faith is not a matter of joke,” one individual commented, describing the tweet as “shocking.”

Another person insisted that “hurting [the] sentiments of 1.4 billion Indians was not okay,” accusing the Ukrainian defense ministry of a “blatant display of Hinduphobia.”

Indian users also tagged Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, urging them to take action.

India, as a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement, has taken a neutral stance since the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022. New Delhi has abstained from UN votes on resolutions condemning Moscow’s military operation, while resisting Western pressure to implement anti-Russia sanctions.

India has also boosted trade cooperation with Moscow, angering Kiev by becoming one of the top buyers of Russian oil. In December, the Ukrainian foreign minister claimed that New Delhi was benefiting from the “suffering”of his compatriots and therefore needed to do more to help Kiev.

(So far Kiev has insulted and disparaged 4-5 world leaders and their countries in the last four days. Weird considering they are begging for more arms. One of the many reasons they will never be admitted to EU or NATO. This is what US and EU get for supporting NAZIs)

https://www.rt.com/india/575601-ukraine-india-kali-tweet/

The board won’t take the pic

1 May, 2023 11:47

A literal minefield: Why the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine will be felt for decades

Ukraine is teeming with explosives that have been placed in the ground. The repercussions of this catastrophe will affect future generations

Since February of last year, when Russia launched its military offensive in the country, mine explosions have killed about 200 civilians in Ukraine, while hundreds more have been injured.

The UN has already called Ukraine the most heavily mined state in the world. Yet the contamination continues to grow because of how positional warfare is carried out. With the conflict far from over, the further laying of explosives could have disastrous consequences.

Deadly traps

Official reports claim that 250,000 square kilometers (almost 62 million acres) of Ukrainian territory have been mined. This is equal to the entirety of the UK (244,000 square kilometers). According to Prime Minister Denis Shmigal, his country has become the world’s largest minefield, which has even spurred the government to create a special center to deal with the fallout.

Experts believe that the situation in Ukraine is worse than in Afghanistan and Syria. The number of unexploded ordnance, anti-personnel, anti-tank, and other mines and explosive shells is estimated to be in the millions of units.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s minefields are growing exponentially. In the past year, the entire length of the front line on both sides has been mined. They are often laid in a scattered manner and without mapping. Given Ukraine’s large size, this greatly complicates the process of finding and neutralizing them.

“Indeed, there is a chance that the mined territories may expand further, both due to the prolongation of the conflict and the likely offensive from either side, which may move hostilities to previously unaffected territories,”Maxim Semenov, a political analyst and specialist in conflicts in the post-Soviet space, told RT.

Official sources also report that the contaminated area is expanding. Last summer, the Ukrainian Deminers Association statedthat minefields covered about 133,000 square kilometers of Ukraine, but the number recently announced by Shmigal is already double that.

Meanwhile, there are no solutions that can be totally effective, and most importantly, quick and simple. Demining is the exclusive job of sappers. For example, back in the 2000s, an average of 50 people a day were blown up on anti-personnel objects in Angola, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. To this day, about 500,000 explosive devices remain, despite the fact that dozens of sapper units from all around the world have helped out in the country. It’s also worth noting that both the fighting and the scope of contamination in Angola were a lot less severe than in Ukraine.

“We should note the experience of African and Asian countries, and even of the Soviet Union, where, decades after the end of war, mine explosions occasionally happened. It is impossible to provide guarantees that an area is completely clear of mines. The army may not make maps of minefields, as has been the case with the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbass since 2014. Or the maps may be inaccurate, they may get lost, etc. All this complicates the work of the sappers,” notes Semenov, adding that even decades after an area is cleared, mines can still pop up in the most unexpected places. Even sappers cannot guarantee that all mines and shells are found and cleared….(very long article)

https://www.rt.com/russia/575354-kingdom-of-mines-ukraine/

29 Apr, 2023 07:20

Secret $1.6 billion submarine plans found in pub toilet – media

Britain's Royal Navy has launched a probe into the incident

The plans of the torpedo mechanism for the Royal Navy’s newest nuclear-powered submarine were found lying on the floor inside a bathroom stall in a pub, British tabloid The Sun reported on Friday, citing a source.

The files regarding HMS Anson, an Astute-class vessel, werereportedly marked ‘official-sensitive’ – the second level in the UK government’s three-tier classification scheme. People handling official-sensitive information must abide by the ‘need to know’ principle, especially if documents “might be shared outside of a routine or well understood business process,” the Ministry of Justice website states.

According to the newspaper, the files were discovered in a pub in the port town of Barrow-in-Furness, northern England. The establishment is located not far from the BAE Systems’ shipyard where naval vessels are built. “It was quite a lively night,” the source, who claimed to have spotted the documents, said. “The pub was full of people from the docks – military and civilian.”

“I went into the toilet and the plans were lying on the floor of the cubicle with the lanyard … Anyone could have found them,” the source said.

The files reportedly included a description of the submarine’s hydraulics, which “control torpedo hatches, steering and buoyancy.”

A Navy spokesperson told The Sun the files were “generic training documents,” but added that “the circumstances of their discovery”would be investigated.

https://www.rt.com/news/575525-uk-submarine-files-bathroom/

1 May, 2023 00:17

Iranian president plans Syria visit to ‘celebrate victory’ – officials

Ebrahim Raisi’s trip will mark a “turning point” in the region and beyond, Tehran’s ambassador to Damascus has claimed

Ebrahim Raisi will become the first Iranian president to visit Syria in over a decade when he travels to Damascus this week for talks that Tehran’s ambassador to Damascus has touted as a “turning point” in regional relations.

The two-day trip to Damascus will foster closer ties between embattled nations that oppose Western world dominance, Ambassador Hossein Akbari claimed on Sunday in an interview with Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, apparently alluding to America’s hegemonic foreign policy. “This trip will not only be beneficial for Tehran and Damascus, but it is a very good event that other countries in the region can also take advantage of.”

The timing of the visit makes it all the more important because of changes happening in the region, Akbari said. Iran and Saudi Arabia reportedly plan to open embassies in each other’s countries within days after agreeing last month to normalize relations under a deal brokered by China. Meanwhile, some Arab countries are normalizing relations with Damascus after years of joining the US in backing rebel fighters in a failed regime-change campaign against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian uprising began in 2011, triggering a war that killed over 500,000 people and created a massive refugee crisis. Assad emerged victorious, regaining control of most of his country, thanks largely to military and economic support from Iran and Russia. Iranian officials hope that success will inspire other nations opposed to US hegemony.

“This trip can open a space and chapter of interaction between the countries that oppose the domination system, especially the countries that are in the area of sanctions and have common interests,” Akbari said. “Other countries can also use it.”

Mohammad Jamshidi, Tehran’s deputy presidential chief of staff for political affairs, said Raisi’s trip to Syria will bea “celebration”for the so-called “axis of resistance.” He added, “West Asia has undergone a tense period of geopolitical change with two results: victory of Iran and failure of the US.”

General Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian military commander who was assassinated by US forces in January 2020, taught his country’s leader that “successful diplomacy is rooted in being powerful in the field,” Jamshidi said.

The last Iranian president to visit Damascus was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who traveled to the Syrian capital in 2010.

(Are the Abraham Accords ongoing? Trump knew our DS would never try to make real peace in the middle east, did he work with other leaders to accomplish this? So when he’s back there is no foreign involvement.Maybe not but interesting the CIA didn’t even know it was happening. 7 Apr, 2023CIA chief admits US ‘blindsided’ by Saudi-Iran deal – WSJTop diplomats from Tehran and Riyadh met in Beijing on Thursday to reestablish contacts between the longtime rivals)

https://www.rt.com/news/575591-iran-president-visit-syria/

30 Apr, 2023 11:12

Leading non-western states resisting US pressure over Russia – WaPo

Countries are trying to sit out the standoff between Washington, Moscow and Beijing, leaked documents seen by the paper suggest

India, Brazil, South Africa AND Pakistan —and numerous other emerging economies —have rebuffed American attempts to enlist them in the fight against Russia amid the conflict in Ukraine, the Washington Post has reported, citing leaked Pentagon files.

According to classified US intelligence documents, which investigators believe were released online by US Air National Guard serviceman Jack Teixeira, India has no intention of taking sides in the standoff over Ukraine, the paper reported on Saturday.

One of the documents seen by the Post suggests that during a meeting in February, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval told the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, that New Delhi was resisting pressure to support a Western-backed UN resolution on Ukraine. India “would not deviate from the principled position it had taken in the past,” Doval reportedly assured the Russian official.

Another leaked file suggested that Brazil was more interested in playing a mediation role in the conflict than supporting Washington and its allies.Russia favours the idea of a “world peace bloc” to resolve the crisis over Ukraine, put forward by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during his visit to China earlier this month. Moscow believes it would counteract the West’s “aggressor-victim”narrative about Kiev, according to the document.

In late February, Brazil welcomed two warships from America’s arch foe Iran, with one of the files suggesting that Lula likely allowed the port call “to bolster his reputation as a global mediator and burnish Brazil’s image as a neutral power.”

The leaks also revealed that when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Africa last year and raised the Ukraine issue, he was told by local officials thatPretoria would not be “bullied” into making decisions that go against its interests, the Washington Post wrote.

An intelligence file from February 17 reportedly described discussions betweenPakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifand his subordinate about an upcoming UN vote on Ukraine. It said the aide pointed out to the premier that support for the Western-sponsored resolution would signal a shift in Islamabad’s position, after its earlier abstention on a similar draft. Such a move would jeopardize important trade and energy deals with Russia, he warned, as cited by the Post. Pakistan was among 23 abstaining nations when the vote at the UN General assembly took place a week later. (Even the leader in Pakistan placed their by US by the coup to remove the legal leader, will not support a western sponsored resolution)

As for Central Asian countries, their leaders were “eager to work with whoever offers the most immediate deliverables, which for now is China,” another leaked document, seen by the newspaper, suggested.

https://www.rt.com/news/575565-us-ukraine-india-brazil/

Tucker has 300,000 more since 8 pm last night, 79,100,000

https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1651376097349578753?s=20

Elon Musk Interviewed by Ann Coulter’s Old Boyfriend

April 30, 2023 | Sundance | 16 Comments

Over the weekend Ann Coulter’s ex-boyfriend interviewed Elon Musk on his legacy enterprise HBO television show. The interview is interesting from the dynamic of a few short soundbites that come from a brief discussion. It’s 20 minutes for those who are interested. WATCH:

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/04/30/elon-musk-interviewed-by-ann-coulters-old-boyfriend/

https://youtu.be/oO8w6XcXJUs

Victor Davis Hanson Gives Big Picture Perspective on Fox News and Tucker Carlson Firing

April 30, 2023 | Sundance | 189 Comments

Victor Davis Hanson often has a unique big picture perspective on current events, linking and contrasting the disconnected high-brow outlook to the pragmatic perspectives of the modern populist movement.

Hanson takes an academic approach to the reality of current social constructs, yet in his own unique way he can describe the current status in a thoughtful and practical way. In this analysis VDH contrasts the goals of the ideological media, specifically the goals of those in the Republican wing of the media control apparatus, to the reality they have created by removing the voice of Tucker Carlson.

In their quest to control the mounting opposition to the corporate manipulation behind the DC Potemkin Village, the corporate media are creating a nimbler and more consequential army of opposition to their efforts. The need for control is a reaction to fear.

There is a particular type of spider that carries several hundreds of young on her body after birth. If you spot one of these in your shower, and your irrational fear instinct is to smash what seems to be a big scary spider, what you discover in the aftermath is the bathtub walls moving. Yes, you may have squished the spider, but hundreds of smaller spiders are now crawling all around you.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/04/30/victor-davis-hanson-gives-big-picture-perspective-on-fox-news-and-tucker-carlson-firing/

https://youtu.be/2SiaaCznZKE

>>18780217

Good news when they lost Brazil the last conservative country in SA it was supposed to be the end. Russia wants all of SA communist the same with china. Huge victory