Baltimore police plan to monitor the whole city with spy planes

For the second half of 2020, Baltimore will be under constant police surveillance as a trio of spy planes constantly sweep the city.

The plan, which CBS News reports will cover about 90 percent of the city, is meant to deter violent crime. And while police commissioner Michael Harrison says the spy planes aren’t accurate enough to spot an individual’s face, the monitoring program raises glaring privacy concerns for city residents and visitors.

Baltimore actually enacted a similar surveillance program in 2016 — but it operated under total secrecy until Bloomberg journalists uncovered it, CBS reports.

And while Harrison says things will be different this time — he promised but hasn’t yet scheduled community meetings to discuss how and why the footage will be used — police officials continue to defend the first version of their city-wide spy ring.

The program has civil liberties groups up in arms over what amounts to constant surveillance without a warrant or probable cause, according to CBS.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/75809/baltimore-police-plan-to-monitor-the-whole-city-with-spy.html

Taliban Elders Agree to a Short-Term Ceasefire With US

Ceasefire will happen after Afghan peace deal is reached

US hope to get a new peace deal with the Taliban that would include a ceasefire seems to be panning out, as the Taliban sent part of its delegation to Pakistan to meet with elders in the movement, and they have endorsed the idea.

The ceasefire won’t be immediate, or necessarily long-lasting, however. Rather, the ceasefire will come into place for a short-term once the US-Taliban deal is finalized. Exactly how long it is to last is unclear.

A previous peace deal the US was poised to announce was withdrawn from by President Trump at the last minute, reportedly over the lack of a ceasefire. Trump has insisted on a ceasefire this time, and while negotiators weren’t 100% clear they could, the Taliban leaders went along.

Since the Taliban wanted talks to pick up where they left off last time, they are likely very close to finalizing the deal, though the US temporarily paused it to protest an attack on Bagram.

https://news.antiwar.com/2019/12/22/taliban-elders-agree-to-a-short-term-ceasefire-with-us/

Navy, Marine Corps Ordered to Review Insider Threat Training After Attacks

In the wake of three recent incidents on military facilities that resulted in the deaths of six, the Navy and Marine Corps must complete servicewide reviews of the security measures that protect troops and their families.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly directed the top Navy and Marine Corps leaders to conduct a "security stand-down."

"Execution of the Security Stand-Down is directed to ensure that all of our Sailors, Marines, and Civilians across all of our installations and commands are best postured, trained, and informed to prevent future incidents of this nature," a Marine Corps-wide message announcing the order states.

Modly gave the Navy and Marine Corps until Jan. 10 to finish the reviews. The order follows a series of fatal incidents, including two shootings, at three Navy facilities in Virginia, Hawaii and Florida that left four sailors and two Defense Department employees dead.

Master-at-Arms 3rd Class Oscar Temores was killed Nov. 30 at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia when his patrol car was struck by an alleged gate runner. On Dec. 4, Defense Department employees Vincent Kapoi and Roldan Agustin were shot and killed by a sailor at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii. Two days later, Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, Airman Mohammed S. Haitham and Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters were killed at Florida's Naval Air Station Pensacola when a Saudi officer opened fire on a classroom there.

The deadly incidents have reignited the debate on whether troops should be permitted to carry weapons while on base. The attack in Florida has also raised serious questions about how the government vets international troops who train on U.S. military bases.

At a minimum, Modly told service leaders, the security stand-down should focus on three areas.

The first is a review of physical security measures at bases and the posturing of Random Anti-Terrorism Measures, known as RAM. Those are unpredictable security measures that keep would-be perpetrators guessing about safety inspections and other checks.

Secondly, the Navy and Marine Corps have been ordered to review training on insider threats and what's needed to deter them. The military's insider threat training has generally been focused on overseas deployments after Afghan and Iraqi personnel have turned against U.S. troops downrange.

And last, Modly also wants the services to review their active-shooter pre-planned responses, and whether drills or tabletop exercises are needed to support them.

Commanders, commanding officers and officers-in-charge are ordered to execute the security stand-down.

A Navy official last week declined to say whether any new security measures are in place at bases and other facilities after the attacks.

"We will not speak to any specific security measures or procedures employed on our installations/activities/units," said Lt. Brittany Stephens, a Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon.

In a previous message to sailors and Marines, Modly praised the heroism displayed during the attacks.

"I learned about countless acts of heroism from the first responders, and many of the victims themselves, which will come to light as the facts of these tragedies are revealed. I assure you that we will all be proud of these heroes and what they did in moments of terror and extreme danger," he said.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/12/23/navy-marine-corps-ordered-review-insider-threat-training-after-attacks.html

Court orders settlers to evacuate Hebron home after purchase invalidated

Firm that bought Bakri family home from third party did not do so ‘in good faith,’ judges rule, allowing Palestinians to return to compound after 18 years

The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Monday that an Israeli firm did not legally purchase a disputed home in Hebron from its original Palestinian owners and ordered that the settlers living inside since 2005 evacuate within 45 days.

The panel of judges determined that the “Tal Construction and Investment in Karnei Shomron” firm did not prove good faith in its purchase of the home, belonging to the Bakri family in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood.

The rejection of an appeal by Tal Construction was the latest ruling in a legal battle that started shortly after the Palestinian family left its home in 2001. It was in the midst of the Second Intifada, when the flashpoint city of Hebron saw daily violence and the family said it planned to return when the situation calmed down.

The Bakri House in Hebron. (Peace Now)

The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Monday that an Israeli firm did not legally purchase a disputed home in Hebron from its original Palestinian owners and ordered that the settlers living inside since 2005 evacuate within 45 days.

The panel of judges determined that the “Tal Construction and Investment in Karnei Shomron” firm did not prove good faith in its purchase of the home, belonging to the Bakri family in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood.

The rejection of an appeal by Tal Construction was the latest ruling in a legal battle that started shortly after the Palestinian family left its home in 2001. It was in the midst of the Second Intifada, when the flashpoint city of Hebron saw daily violence and the family said it planned to return when the situation calmed down.

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A 2002 Defense Ministry report documented how “Jews broke into the house, emptied it of its contents and stored everything in one room, destroying the balcony at the entrance to the house, and damaging the windows and doors.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/court-orders-settlers-to-evacuate-hebron-home-after-purchase-invalidated/

Craig Wright Reveals Document Claiming Origin Of Satoshi Nakamoto Name

Self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator Craig Wright, showed what he claims is a document that explains the origins of the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym.

In an interview published by industry news outlet Modern Consensus on Dec. 19, Wright has shown to his interviewer a document representing an article from digital database of an academic journals JSTOR, dated Jan. 5, 2008.

The article is about a person named Tominaga Nakamoto, who lived between 1715 and 1746 in Japan. The document also contained the following handwritten notes:

“Nakamoto is the Japanese Adam Smith. Honest Ledger + Micro Cash. Satoshi is Intelligent History. Not too hard.”

Nakamoto: the Japanese Adam Smith

According to Wright, he has chosen the name Nakamoto in honor of Tominaga Nakamoto. The handwritten note compares him to Adam Smith, who is by many regarded as the father of modern economics. When asked whether Nakamoto’s economic ideas were the reason why he has chosen his name, he answered:

“In part, yes. He wrote about money and honest money and the rational nature of things. The shogun [feudal ruler] at the time was in financial crisis, and economic austerity. […] I like the description of him, and I got into his brother, Tōka. ‘Nakamoto was upright and quiet but impatient in character’ and I thought: ‘That sounds like me.’”

When it comes to the first word of the pseudonym, Satoshi, Wright says it means “intelligent learning.” This, he explained, refers to one having access to the knowledge conquered by his ancestors.

While Wright claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, in November he also informed the plaintiff that he could not finance a 500,000 BTC ($3.7 billion) settlement in the case that the Kleiman estate initiated against him. Dave Kleiman was a cyber-security expert, whom many believe to have been one of the first developers behind the Bitcoin and blockchain technology who died in April 2013.

Kleiman’s estate, led by David’s brother Ira Kleinman initiated the case in February last year, accusing Wright of stealing hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins — worth over $5 billion — after the developer’s death.

Satoshi Nakamoto is known to have mined the origin blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain, the so-called Satoshi blocks and consequently should own a significant number of coins on his/her address.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/craig-wright-reveals-document-claiming-origin-of-satoshi-nakamoto-name

The Valley of Death: the Saudi Coalition is Creating a Living Nightmare for African Migrants in Yemen

Ahmed AbdulKareem recounts the story of Heramala and thousands of African migrants like him who make the harrowing journey across wartorn Yemen in hopes of a better life in Saudi Arabia.

YEMEN-SAUDI BORDER — Hoping for a better life, 32-year-old Hermala left Jimma, a poor farming district in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, and set out towards Saudi Arabia. He faced unspeakable dangers along the journey, including death at sea, torture, and abuse in chasing what would ultimately remain an unfulfilled dream.

Over the course of the nearly five-year-long war in Yemen, U.S. bombs and shells in the hands of the Saudi-led coalition have not only devastated the lives of many Yemenis but have dashed the dreams of migrants from the Horn of Africa who have been stranded in Yemen’s nightmare since 2015, when the war began.

Hermala was initially hoping to emigrate to the United States, but given the Trump administration’s slew of new anti-immigrant policies, he chose instead to take his chances on a perilous journey that would see him crisscross mountains, ravines, jungles, swamps and the sea. His final destination, he hoped, would be the oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by way of war-torn Yemen.

A combination of factors has driven hundreds of thousands like Hermala to travel through some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth in hopes of crossing the sea into war-stricken Yemen and eventually Saudi Arabia after the United States and Europe closed their doors to migrants and refugees.

This past November, Hermala traveled more than 1,000 kilometers from his home through one of the busiest maritime mixed migration routes in the world. First on buses and then later on foot, jumping the border into Djibouti, he trekked through mountains, sandstorms, and high temperatures, surviving on crumbs of bread and unclean water.

After paying his traffickers, Hermala, along with a group of seven other migrants, eventually made their way to the southern coast of Yemen on a journey that took somewhere between 12 and 20 hours through the turbulent Bab al-Mandab Strait on a severely overcrowded wooden boat. They, however, were very lucky.

The journey from the Horn of Africa to Yemen’s coast by way of the Gulf of Aden or the Red Sea is perilous. Migrants and refugees face difficult situations as smugglers sometimes force them to swim for several kilometers to avoid being captured by Saudi authorities or because the overcrowded boats are unable to traverse the turbulent waves.

More

https://www.mintpressnews.com/saudi-arabia-creating-living-nightmare-african-migrants-yemen/263691/

Israel starts to implement ‘racist’ Jewish Nation-State Law

The Israeli Ministry of Education has started to implement the terms of the Jewish Nation-State Law, which was adopted by the Knesset (parliament) in 2018 and has been described as “racist” by critics, Quds Press reported on Monday. The ministry ordered civil studies teachers to impress on students that Hebrew is the only official language in Israel.

AN official with responsibility for the subject, published a document last week breaking down the answers for general secondary school examinations this year and providing model answers. One of the questions asked about the status of Hebrew, and that confused the students.

“The model answer was made prior to ratifying the nation-state law,” explained the official, “but according to the basic law, the answer in the next exam will be that Hebrew is the only official language in Israel.”

According to one teacher, said Haaretz, the education ministry is undermining the concept of “plurality” being taught to students in Israel. “The next step is cancelling the recognition of the rights of minorities in the country.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191223-israel-starts-to-implement-racist-jewish-nation-state-law/

Mail disorder: Amazon is shipping to Israel free, but Israel Post can’t keep up

Israelis have rushed to take advantage of Amazon’s introductory free delivery offer over the past 6 weeks. Trouble is, the local postal service is proving unable to handle the pace

https://www.timesofisrael.com/mail-disorder-amazon-is-shipping-to-israel-free-but-israel-post-cant-keep-up/

Free = US tavpayer funded???

Mossad, the CIA, MI6 implicated in bugging of Ecuador Embassy to Spy on Assange

The Julian Assange drama drags on. Though he continues to sit in a top security British prison awaiting developments in his expected extradition to the United States, the Spanish High Court has been given permission to interview him. Assange is claiming that the Spanish company contracted with by the Ecuadorean government to do embassy security in London spied on him using both audio and video devices.

The recordings apparently included conversations with Assange’s lawyers outlining his defense strategies, which is an illegal activity under Spanish law. The prosecution has also indicted the company director, former military officer David Morales, on associated criminal charges of bribing a government official and money laundering. Morales has said that he is innocent.

Aware that he might be monitored by the British government as well as by other interested parties, Assange would often meet his legal team using a white noise machine or in women’s bathrooms with the water running, but the firm, UC Global, anticipated that and planted devices capable of defeating the countermeasures. It planted microphones in the embassy fire extinguishing system as well as in numerous other places in the building.

The recordings were reportedly streamed, undoubtedly encrypted, to another nearby location, referred to in the trade as a listening post. The streamed material was also reportedly transcribed and copied at the UC Global offices in Andalusia, but hard copies of the material were made as well on CDs and DVDs to be turned over directly to the client.

https://russia-insider.com/en/mossad-cia-mi6-implicated-bugging-ecuador-embassy-spy-assange/ri28011

Hungary Axes World's Largest Song Contest Because It Is Too Gay (Eurovision)

Hungary has pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest amid speculation that the annual competition is too queer for the country’s pro-family government. Hungary has not given an official reason for the withdrawal. However, a source at Hungary’s broadcaster, MTVA, reportedly said staff believed the move was about Eurovision’s association with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transvestite (LGBT) decadence and degeneracy.

“I was not surprised. It comes from the institutionalised culture of MTVA,” the anonymous source told a British newspaper in a report published Wednesday. The source said no explanation had been provided internally, but that positive coverage of queers issues was discouraged in the newsroom. The Budapest situated broadcaster declined to reply to questions raised.

Also, the Hungarian website index.hu quoted MTVA sources as speculating that the government thinks Eurovision is too gay to participate in.

When an opposition lawmaker last week asked a government minister why Hungary was withdrawing from Eurovision, he was told that the nation’s broadcaster was responsible for the decision.

Pro-government commentators have cheered the withdrawal as a win for opponents of the LGBT movement. Magazine editor András Bencsik said Eurovision has “been reduced to a homosexual flotilla. He said staying out of the contest was good for Hungary’s mental health.

“Many young people thought that this is something for people under 18, but at this event, the destruction of public taste takes place with screaming transvestites and bearded women,” Bencsik added.

In 2014, Austrian singer and drag queen Thomas Neuwirth, whose stage name is Conchita Wurst, won Eurovision with the song Rise Like a Phoenix. The victory made him an international shirt-lifting LGBT icon.

Hungarian officials have lately sent other signals of opposition to the queer’s agenda. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has repeatedly said that marriage is between a man and a woman, recently launched a Family First policy aimed at helping traditional families and boosting birth rates.

In August, István Boldog, a member of parliament from the ruling Fidesz party leader called for a boycott of Coca-Cola over an ad campaign featuring queers kissing. And in May, the speaker of the Hungarian parliament, László Kövér, said same-sex adoption is morally equivalent to paedophilia.

https://russia-insider.com/en/hungary-axes-worlds-largest-song-contest-because-it-too-gay-eurovision/ri28005

>>7600951

LNA Extends Deadline for GNA’s Withdrawal from Tripoli and Sirte

On December 22nd, the Libyan National Army extended the deadline it gave to the National of Government Accord’s forces by another 3 days.

The LNA spokesperson Ahmed al-Mismari announced the extension in a video, published on Facebook.

Posted by ‎ ‎ on Sunday, December 22, 2019

The deadline for the withdrawal of all GNA forces from Tripoli and Sirte was due on mid-day December 22nd, but was later extended until midnight on December 25th, giving the troops and militias on the side of the UN-assigned government more time to presumably withdraw.

This announcement came just 1 day after the LNA spokesperson said that the deadline wouldn’t be extended.

On December 21st, US State Department expressed its concern over the escalating conflict in Libya.

State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement that the US was “concerned” by a request for military support by the GNA. The US is also concerned about the LNA “threat to use foreign-supplied air assets and mercenaries.”

“External military intervention threatens prospects for resolving the conflict. We deplore attacks on innocent civilians and call on all sides to refrain from escalation,” Ortagus said.

https://southfront.org/lna-extends-deadline-for-gnas-withdrawal-from-tripoli-and-sirte/

Hunter Biden Baby Mama Drama Heats Up – Lunden Roberts Releases Her Tax Returns, Accuses Hunter of Refusing to Come Clean About His Burisma Money

The Hunter Biden baby mama drama is heating up.

Hunter had a child with 28-year-old Lunden Roberts after meeting her at a DC strip joint where she worked as a stripper and she is demanding a hefty child support payment!

Ms. Roberts dragged Hunter Biden into a nasty court battle after he has ‘refused to pay child support for over a year’ and refused to pay her $11,000 legal bill.

Roberts is turning the screws on Biden and demanding to know how much Burisma Holdings paid him.

Robert released the last five years of her tax returns and she’s accusing Hunter of refusing to come clean about his dirty Burisma money.

The financial documents released by Roberts revealed she actually worked for Hunter Biden for about 7 months in 2018 and she showed pay stubs as proof; Hunter even provided her with an insurance card.

Roberts said she never received a tax document for the money he paid her ‘from a company he owned’ from May of 2018 to November 2018.

The Daily Mail reported:

The financial information for Hunter Biden’s baby mama has been released exclusively to DailyMail.com, just days after he was found hiding out in Los Angeles.

Hunter ducked out of his home on Friday afternoon, wearing a blue suede jacket, skinny jeans and boots. He has been laying low during his bitter paternity dispute with Lunden Roberts.

On Sunday, Roberts’ financial information from the last five years was obtained by DailyMail.com. In the documents, the Lancaster & Lancaster Law Firm, which represents Roberts, reveals that the 28-year-old received money from a company owned by Hunter from May 2018 to November 2018.

‘She never received a tax document for these payments,’ her attorneys wrote, adding that the undisclosed amount of payments are reflected on her bank records.

According to the documents, Roberts also worked for Hunter and submitted pay stubs as proof of employment along with a health insurance card that he reportedly provided her.

Hunter is scheduled to give a deposition on December 23 (today) and his legal team, after requesting the judge quash the deposition, is fighting to keep it sealed.

Lunden Roberts’ lawyers said in court filings that Hunter Biden is refusing to answer any of their discovery questions and interrogatories and asked the Court to force him to do so.

‘The defendant has provided no support for this child for over a year.

‘The Court should not let the defendant continue to avoid his natural and legal duty to support his child by failing to provide basic information about his income, finances and lifestyle.

‘This Court should compel the defendant to answer the interrogatories and requests for production documents in time for the January 7, 2020 hearing in this case.’

To add to the baby mama drama, it was recently revealed that Hunter Biden’s wife Melissa Cohen, 32, is pregnant.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/12/hunter-biden-baby-mama-drama-heats-up-lunden-roberts-releases-her-tax-returns-accuses-hunter-of-refusing-to-come-clean-about-his-burisma-money/

China’s Huawei to create alternative to Google services in India by year’s end

Huawei is offering Indian developers cash for playing a part in building its own app service to replace the one developed by Google, as the Chinese company continues to battle against US sanctions.

Being included on the US government trade blacklist has created uncertainty over the functioning of Google’s essential Android apps on Huawei products. In response, the Chinese tech giant has been working on the alternative to Google Media Services (GMS), which customers are used to. The company has its Huawei Mobile Service (HMS), a suite of apps required for smooth functioning of mobile phones such as messaging and navigation, similar to Gmail, Google Maps and other programs.

Now Huawei’s sub-brand Honor is in talks with some top 150 apps in India to get them integrated to the platform, according to Economic Times. The firm is offering to pay up to $17,000 from its massive $1 billion fund to the developers if their programs get published on HMS.

“We have our own HMS and are trying to build a mobile ecosystem. Most of the key apps such as navigation, payments, gaming and messaging will be ready by the end of December,” Charles Peng, CEO of Huawei and Honor India, told the Economic Times.

Peng promised that users will not feel the difference between the two app services and added that Huawei could offer up to 150 apps to customers through HMS in every country.

Earlier this year, Huawei released Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro smartphones with its own app store, switching GMS to HMS. The manufacturer also promises that its iPhone killer, Huawei P40, is set to be launched in March 2020. It will also feature its own platform for apps.

https://www.rt.com/business/476669-huawei-google-services-india/

Afghan Papers Inadvertently Document WaPo’s Role in Spreading Official Lies

The Washington Post’s publication of the “Afghanistan Papers” (12/9/19) unveiled over 2,000 pages of unpublished notes of interviews with US officials involved in the Afghanistan War, from a project led by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) to investigate waste and fraud. Hailed by some as the “Pentagon Papers of Our Generation” after the Post won access to those documents under the Freedom of Information Act in a three-year legal battle, the Post’s exposé found that

senior US officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.

The paper published direct remarks on the war by US officials who assumed that “their remarks would not be made public”:

“Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible,” Bob Crowley, an Army colonel who served as a senior counterinsurgency adviser to US military commanders in 2013 and 2014, told government interviewers. “Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right and we became a self-licking ice cream cone.”

While more explicit admissions of deception on the part of US officials involved in wars are always appreciated, one question rarely discussed among the reports and opinion pieces praising the “Afghanistan Papers” is what this scoop says about the Washington Post.

If the Post is now publishing material demonstrating that US officials have been “following the same talking points for 18 years,” emphasizing how they are “making progress,” “especially” when the war is “going badly,” shouldn’t the paper acknowledge that it has been cheerleading this same line for all of those 18 years? Doesn’t it have a responsibility to examine how it served as a primary vehicle for those officials to spread these same “talking points” to spin the coverage in the desired fashion?

FAIR has been tracking the Post’s coverage of the Afghanistan War from the very beginning, when the paper—along with the rest of corporate media—was actively following the Bush administration’s “guidance” on how to cover the war. In 2001, a FAIR survey (11/2/01) of the Post’s op-ed pages for three weeks following the September 11 attacks found that

columns calling for or assuming a military response to the attacks were given a great deal of space, while opinions urging diplomatic and international law approaches as an alternative to military action were nearly nonexistent.

Eight years later, FAIR (3/1/09) found that the Post’s cheerleading coverage didn’t change much from 2001, as 7 out of 9 Post op-eds and 4 out of 5 editorials supported some kind of military escalation from the day Barack Obama was elected president (11/4/08) through March 1, 2009, as the US was debating a “surge” of additional troops in Afghanistan later that year.

Another study (Extra!, 11/1/09) of the first ten months of the Post’s opinion columns that same year found that

pro-war columns outnumbered antiwar columns by more than 10 to 1: Of 67 Post columns on US military policy in Afghanistan, 61 supported a continued war, while just six expressed antiwar views. Of the pro-war columns, 31 were for escalation and 30 for an alternative strategy.

The Post offered this lopsided coverage even though there were several polls at the time showing a majority of the US public opposed the war, because they believed that the Afghan War was “not worth fighting.”

The Post also has a history of facilitating official spin for the war. When WikiLeaksposted tens of thousands of classified intelligence documents related to the Afghanistan War, FAIR (7/30/10) found that the Post either dismissed them as not being as important as the Pentagon Papers (7/27/10), or absurdly spun the leaks as good news for the US war effort (7/27/10) because the “release could compel President Obama to explain more forcefully the war’s importance,” and because they “bolstered Obama’s decision in December to pour more troops and money into a war effort that had not received sufficient attention or resources from the Bush administration.”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/afghan-papers-document-wapo-role-spreading-official-lies/5698364

France kills 7 in first armed drone strike as anti-jihadist mission in Mali drags on

France’s ministry of defense said it has carried out its first armed drone strike, killing seven suspected militants in Mali, in what is an increasingly problematic mission for the European state.

Jihadist militants aligned with Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and Al-Qaeda, among other groups, have been carrying out a series of major attacks and kidnappings in the Sahel region for years. The fighters have also used the area as a staging ground to prepare for attacks elsewhere, including Europe.

According to a statement from the French defense ministry on Monday, the drone strike was launched on Saturday; French commandos came under attack from a group of terrorists on motorbikes, and the Reaper drone was sent in to support them. Confirmation of the drone strike comes just days after the ministry confirmed its testing of armed drones at the Niamey air base in Niger.

President Emmanuel Macron was visiting neighboring Ivory Coast at the time of the strike. In Abidjan on December 21, he announced French troops had that day killed 33 terrorists and taken one prisoner in central Mali, while also freeing two Malian police officers who were held hostage.

France began deploying troops in the Sahel region back in 2013 and, out of a 4,500-strong force, 41 French soldiers have died. Last month, 13 were killed in a single incident when two helicopters collided during a combat mission. It was the single greatest loss of French military lives in over 35 years.

https://www.rt.com/news/476692-france-first-drone-strike-mali/

Boy who was missing for years has been found alive in a suspected paedophile’s cupboard

Police have found a 15-year-old boy alive in the cupboard of a suspected paedophile’s flat, years after he disappeared.

A teen who vanished two and a half years ago was found in a cupboard when police raided the flat of a suspected paedophile.

The 15-year-old, named Marvin K, was found in German town Recklinghausen wearing the same filthy clothes he went missing in, The Sun reported.

Neighbours in the town, about 60 miles north of Cologne, said they had not seen the teenager but had occasionally heard the screams of a man coming from the flat.

Police were last night holding a 44-year-old unemployed handyman called Lars H on suspicion of sharing images of child abuse.

They said there were no signs that Marvin had been held by force.

At the time he went missing he was in local authority care.

https://www.news.com.au/world/boy-who-was-missing-for-years-has-been-found-alive-in-a-suspected-paedophiles-cupboard/news-story/80cad900855f584177b94cac522e1287

The Lies That Are Used for Denying the Legitimacy of Crimea’s Breakaway

Crimea’s breakaway from Ukraine and rejoining Russia is treated in the US-and-allied world as being justification for the explosive re-emergence in 2014 of America’s Cold War NATO alliance as being a restored war against Russia; and, so, whether or not that ‘justification’ is truthful is the paramount geopolitical issue in our era; and it will therefore be discussed and (via the links here) documented in this article.

Though international law is generally an unenforced mess that is interpretable far more by partisanship than by any clearly applicable principles, the US Government does quite blatantly violate it on a routine basis, by means of coups and invasions against countries that never invaded nor threatened to invade the US; but, if anything at all is clear in international law, it is that Crimea’s breaking away from Ukraine and rejoining Russia in 2014 was entirely legitimate, as will be documented here, by exposing the lies that are adduced on the US side, in order to allege that it’s not legitimate.

First, however, will be a bit of essential historical background, which is commonly ignored in arguments by the pro-US-regime liars on this matter: From 1783 to 1954, Crimea was part of Russia. Crimea was arbitrarily transferred from Russia to Ukraine in 1954 by the dictator of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khruschev, who was a Ukrainian and didn’t consult the residents of Crimea about this handover of them to Ukraine. Crimeans were so opposed to being ruled from the foreign-language-speaking and largely pro-Nazi (and anti-Semitic and anti-Russian) Ukrainians to their north, so that as soon as the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, the only way that Crimeans would tolerate any continuation of their formal association with Ukraine was by being declared Ukraine’s “autonomous republic” (the only one) in Ukraine. This situation of partial Crimean independence continued until Ukraine was conquered (via coup) by the US regime, in order to be handed over first to the European Union, and then, after the EU would accept Ukraine, to NATO, which military alliance with the US was extremely unpopular in Ukraine until the American conquest and the immediately subsequent takeover of Ukraine by pro-US oligarchs, who were eager to buy more privatized and formerly Soviet state-owned properties, in basically insider deals with the now US-controlled Ukrainian Government. Those oligarchs’ ‘news’-media successfully propagandized most Ukrainians to switch from being anti-NATO to pro-NATO. However, right at the time of the coup, Crimeans demonstrated in Kiev against the CIA-organized Maidan demostrations, and on the day of the coup, February 20th, those Crimeans in Kiev were forced by the US-supported nazis to flee there, but the eight buses carrrying them were blocked en-route, and an unknown number of the fleeing Crimeans were killed. Many of the surviving ones were permanently injured. Crimeans were terrified and some of them wrote to friends in the West regarding the terror and their fears. All of this information is ignored by the proponents of the illegality of Crimea’s separation from Ukraine, because, clearly, the basic human rights of Crimeans were then under very palpable and severe threat by the US-imposed forces; and, so, any ‘legal’ argument for forcing Crimeans to remain Ukrainians was and is fake. But, still, legal arguments for forcing Crimeans to be Ukrainians again are presented; and, so, here is a quick intoroduction to those frauds.

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https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/12/23/the-lies-that-are-used-for-denying-the-legitimacy-of-crimeas-breakaway/

https://twitter.com/USMC/status/1209156719235874817