Microplastic detection kit and tips on how to avoid them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqCMEHa2JSM
Syrians spitting bidding Russian forces farewell the way they deserve during their withdrawing from Syria
Would.
On December 15, a tourist from China filmed the Royal Australian Navy's "Fleet Base East" in Sydney with a drone.
If a tourist pulled this shit off in China, they'd get massacred.
Russia has become refuge for shady characters.
Allahu Ekber, fuck this piano in particular.
Taiwan receives first batch of US-made Abrams tanks
Taipei, Taiwan —
Taiwan has received 38 advanced Abrams battle tanks from the United States, the defense ministry said Monday, reportedly the island's first new tanks in 30 years.
Washington has long been Taipei's most important ally and biggest arms supplier — angering Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its own territory.
The M1A2 tanks — the first batch of 108 ordered in 2019 — arrived in Taiwan late Sunday and were transferred to an army training base in Hsinchu, south of the capital Taipei, the defense ministry said.
The M1A2s are the first new tanks to be delivered to Taiwan in 30 years, the semi-official Central News Agency said.
Taiwan's current tank force consists of around 1,000 Taiwan-made CM 11 Brave Tiger and U.S.-made M60A3 tanks, technology that is increasingly obsolete.
Abrams tanks, which are among the heaviest in the world, are a mainstay of the U.S. military.
Taiwan faces the constant threat of an invasion by China, which has refused to rule out using force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.
China's foreign ministry on Monday urged the United States to "stop arming Taiwan… and supporting Taiwan independence forces."
"The Taiwan authorities' attempt to seek independence through force and foreign help is doomed to fail," ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.
"China will firmly defend its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity."
While it has a home-grown defense industry and has been upgrading its equipment, Taiwan relies heavily on U.S. arms sales to bolster its security capabilities.
Taiwan requested the state-of-the-art M1A2 tanks in 2019, allocating the equivalent of more than $1.2 billion for them. The rest of the order is expected to be delivered in 2025 and 2026, an army official told AFP.
While U.S. arms supplies to Taiwan are enshrined into law, a massive backlog caused by Covid-19 supply chain disruptions and U.S. weapons shipments to Ukraine and Israel have slowed deliveries to Taiwan.
The backlog now exceeds $21 billion, according to Washington think tank Cato Institute.
Taiwan would be massively outgunned in terms of troop numbers and firepower in any war with China and in recent years has increased spending on its military.
Taipei allocated a record $19 billion for 2024 and next year's budget is set to hit a new high as it seeks to bolster its defense approach.
China has increased military pressure on Taiwan in recent years, regularly deploying fighter jets and warships around the island.
Taiwanese authorities said last week that China had held its biggest maritime drills in years, with around 90 ships deployed from near the southern islands of Japan to the South China Sea.
The vessels simulated attacks on foreign ships and practiced blockading sea routes, a Taiwan security official said previously.
Beijing did not confirm the drills and its defense ministry did not say whether the maneuvers had taken place when asked at a press conference on Friday.
https://www.voanews.com/a/taiwan-receives-first-batch-of-us-made-abrams-tanks/7902881.html
Taiwan makes 90% of the world's computer chips. You're saying let China just take it and fuck everyone else over?
'Biden got it absolutely wrong': Pa. officials condemn clemency for 'kids for cash' judge
-President Biden commuted the sentence of former Luzerne County judge Michael Conahan, who was convicted in the "kids for cash" scandal.
-Conahan accepted bribes in exchange for sending children to for-profit detention centers.
-The decision has drawn criticism from victims, politicians, and the public.
-Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people nationwide in the closing days of his administration.
President Joe Biden this week granted clemency to a former Luzerne County judge convicted in the infamous “kids for cash” scheme to send children to for-profit detention centers in exchange for kickbacks.
Michael Conahan, now 72, was sentenced to 17½ years in prison in 2011 in connection with the judicial scandal, which the FBI described as the “worst in Pennsylvania’s history.”
He and a second judge, Mark Ciavarella, were charged with accepting $2.8 million in kickbacks for diverting hundreds of children to PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care, two for-profit juvenile facilities. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed out the convictions for about 2,300 children whose cases were affected by the scandal, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Biden’s decision to commute the notorious judge’s sentence drew condemnation from State Sen. Lisa Baker, a Republican who called it “incomprehensible and indefensible.”
2016:Judge in 'kids for cash' case wants his conviction tossed
“Where does ruining the lives of vulnerable kids in order to enrich oneself warrant a presidential commutation?” Baker, who represents part of Luzerne County, said in a prepared statement. “It is truly disheartening to see a national leader on criminal justice issues for decades so wantonly undermine the rule of equal justice in his waning days.”
Speaking Friday in Scranton, Gov. Josh Shapiro acknowledged that he's not privy to all the information that factored into the federal commutations but said he does feel "President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in Northeastern Pennsylvania."
"This was not only a black eye on the community, the kids for cash scandal, but it also affected families in really deep and profound and sad ways," the Democratic governor said. "Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart."
Kids for cash victim Amanda Lorah also decried the commutation.
"It’s a big slap in the face for us once again,” Lorah told WBRE-TV news in Wilkes-Barre.
All told, almost 1,500 people nationwide — including individuals in about 50 Pennsylvania cases — have had their sentences commuted by Biden during the closing days of his administration. The outgoing president chose individuals who moved from prison to home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, Conahan received permission to leave a Miami prison and start serving his sentence at home because of an underlying health condition that put him at risk of severe illness from the coronavirus, the Associated Press reported.
Ciavarella is serving a 28-year sentence at a North Carolina detention center and isn’t scheduled for release until June 2034, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Biden commuted sentences in several dozen other Pennsylvania cases, including
-Rafael Cordero, a former Philadelphia police officer convicted of feeding confidential information to his half-brother, a gang member;
-Aaron Johnson, a Harrisburg man sentenced to 11 years in prison for committing four armed bank robberies;
-Matthew Kolodesh, a Bucks County hospice owner accused of defrauding Medicare out of more than $16 million;
-David Francis, a McKees Rocks rehab owner convicted of dealing heroin, often to current or former patients in his treatment center; and
-Gregory Podlucky, former CEO of a Pennsylvania soft drink company who ran a roughly $685 pyramid scheme and used the ill-gotten money to build a mansion and buy jewels.