Military Madness > France Gunning for #2 Arms Exporter; Suu Kyi gets token pardon for a few charges

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France may soon overtake Russia as the world’s No. 2 arms exporter

Reports of new deals to sell French arms to India and Qatar are just the latest sign that France’s defence industry is gaining pace. The news comes as Russian arms exports decline in the wake of the war in Ukraine, leading to speculation that France could soon take its place as the world’s second-largest weapons exporter after the United States.

Issued on: 02/08/2023 - 18:56, 5 min

Text by: Gregor THOMPSON

French President Emmanuel Macron and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands prior to attending a meeting at the Foreign Affairs ministry in Paris, Friday, July 14, 2023. © Julien de Rosa, AP

At this year’s Bastille Day military parade on July 14, French President Emmanuel Macron was joined by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was also not just French forces on display. On the ground, Macron and his guest of honour watched as the Indian Tri-Services contingent made their way up the Champs-Élysées. In the air, the Indian Air Force performed a fly-past in French-made Dassault Rafale fighter jets.

To anyone closely following the international arms trade, this will not have come as a surprise. The day before, New Dehli gave initial approval for an order of six Scorpène submarines and 26 Rafale jets for the Indian Navy. Two weeks later on July 25, France’s La Tribune newspaper reported Qatar is considering adding another 24 Rafales to their stockpile.

Between 2018 and 2022, France’s share of the global arms trade increased to 11 percent compared with 7.1 percent over the previous four-year period, according to an annual Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report published in March. In the same period, the Russian share of the international arms trade declined from 22 to 16 percent.

A review of orders late last year and so far in 2023 indicates this pattern is set to continue. “The trends are very clear for France,” said Pieter Wezeman, the author of the SIPRI report.

Even before India’s Rafale order in July, SIPRI’s assessment of outstanding orders for the most valuable weapons systems suggested France was making gains on Russia’s market share. 

“For France, we have a total number of 210 combat aircraft [currently on order] and for Russia we only have 84,” Wezeman said. “These numbers can change, of course, but they do indicate that for sure France will remain a major arms exporter.”

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The UAE signed a record 14-billion-euro contract for 80 French-made Rafale warplanes and committed billions of euros in other agreements on December 3, 2021. © Ammar Abd Rabbo, AFP

The reasons for the decline in Russian arms sales are varied, although many are linked to the war in Ukraine. Countries naturally aim to diversify their suppliers. But Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 means it is now dedicating more of its arms supplies to the front line, holding on to certain arms systems and focusing on replacing weapons destroyed in battle.

Multiple rounds of international sanctions on Russia may have also affected its ability to secure the materials it needs for arms production, undermining its export capacity. Reports from the front lines in Ukraine have also damaged the reputation of Russia-built armaments.

The war has been “a humbling showcase for Russian military technology”, wrote Cullen Hendrix, an international affairs professor at the University of Denver, in a May contribution to Foreign Policy magazine. “Images of ‘headless’ tanks and reports of high failure rates for Russian missiles may be part wartime propaganda, part reality … Whatever the reasons, the war in Ukraine has not been a particularly compelling advertisement for Russia’s leading-edge military technology."

Some clients have also been disappointed with Russian products in recent years. As the world’s largest arms importer, India has a decades-long relationship with Russian arms suppliers. “India is not particularly happy with what they have received, in technical terms, from Russia,” Wezeman said. “So they have turned to France.”

Political considerations are also important, said Wezeman. “Since the beginning of the war [in Ukraine] India has been reluctant to increase or sustain military relations on a high level” with Moscow.

Moreover, the US “exerts a lot of power” on countries that procure their weapons from Russia, even before the Ukraine war, Wezeman said. Indonesia, for example, abandoned a Russian aircraft purchase in 2021, opting instead for US and French options.

But Russia still holds the lion's share of arms deals in Africa and with countries like Iran and China.

The Rafale: Is France a one-trick pony?

French-built Rafale fighter jets from Dassault Aviation have played a vital role in France’s recent success, says Olivier Gras, general secretary of EuroDéfense-France, a Paris-based association of civil and military officials.

In service as early as 2002, it took until 2015 before the Rafale was first exported. The twin-engine jets are now owned and operated by Greece, Qatar, India and Egypt and are soon expected to land in Croatia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates – which ordered 80 Standard F4 Rafales in 2021.

Rafale deliveries and orders globally have reached nearly 500, around half those of its main American competitor, Lockheed Martin’s F-35. 

The more unstable the world is, the easier it is to sell war machines. Is this why France and other European countries are so enthusiastic about keeping the war in Ukraine going? 

There is more on this story at France24

Myanmar's Suu Kyi has some of her prison sentences reduced

Jailed Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been pardoned in five criminal cases, although she still faces 14 others, state media said Tuesday.

Issued on: 01/08/2023 - 09:46, 3 min

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Myanmar nationals living in Thailand hold a picture of former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest marking the two-year anniversary of the country's military coup, on February 1, 2023. © Sakchai Lalit, AP

A military coup in February 2021 plunged the Southeast Asian nation into chaos and widespread violence as the military junta launched a bloody crackdown on dissent.

"Chairman of State Administration Council pardoned Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced by the relevant courts under five cases," a state media broadcast said.

The broadcast said the 78-year-old Nobel Peace laureate still faces 14 other cases.

Tuesday's announcement was part of an amnesty of more than 7,000 prisoners to mark Buddhist Lent.

The junta announced on Monday it would extend Myanmar's state of emergency by six months, state media said, which is likely to delay elections promised for August.

Suu Kyi, who has been in detention since 2021, has been sentenced to 33 years in jail for a clutch of charges, including corruption, possession of illegal walkie-talkies and flouting coronavirus restrictions.

"She couldn't be freed completely, although some sentences against her were pardoned. She still has to face 14 cases. Only five cases out of 19 were pardoned," a legal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

Former Myanmar president Win Myint, who was also removed in the 2021 coup, would also be pardoned in two cases, the broadcast said.

The announcement said 125 foreign prisoners would be released and pardoned.

An unspecified number of prisoners facing the death penalty also had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment, it said.

AFP

Germany - Population statistics are very concerning as Germans decrease and Muslims increase

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One would think that the German Government and media would read the writing on the wall, but they seem mindlessly oblivious to the fate that is befalling them.

In Germany, A Relentless Rise in Muslim Immigration as

the German Birth Rate Falls to a Ten-Year Low

AUG 2, 2023 10:00 AM BY HUGH FITZGERALD

In Germany, figures for the first six months of 2023 are now out, and the number of young Muslim men who have requested asylum – though they are in fact economic migrants, seeking to take full advantage of all the benefits the German welfare state provides – has risen, year-to- year, by nearly 80%. Despite the clear alarm expressed by the German public about these Muslim migrants in opinion polls, despite the steep rise in popularity of the anti-immigrant party, the Alternative für Deutschland, despite the rise in antisemitic attacks by Muslim migrants on Jews in Germany, the German government appears unwilling to halt, much less reverse, the relentless rise in Muslim economic migrants. More on this catastrophic situation can be found here: 

Asylum applications by young, Muslim men soar in Germany, surpassing last year by 78%

by Thomas Brooke, Remix News, July 25, 2023:

Germany experienced a dramatic rise in asylum applications in the first six months of the year, with a significant increase over the figure recorded for the same period last year.

According to the biannual report from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), a total of 162,271 migrants applied for asylum in Germany from January to June, up 77.5 percent from the 84,583 applications made in the first six months of 2022.

Germany recorded 244,132 asylum applications in all of 2022, and 190,816 in 2021, suggesting this year’s figure will far exceed the figures the country has experienced in the post-pandemic years.

The figures related solely to asylum applications and do not factor in legal or illegal immigrants who have failed to declare themselves to authorities.

A year-over-year rise of nearly 80% in the number of Muslim migrants seeking asylum is without precedent in the annals of German immigration. It means that more than 700,000 migrants will have asked for asylum in 2023. And to that figure we have to add many hundreds of thousands more, who are now in Germany, legally or more often illegally, who have chosen not to ask for asylum. Some analysts suggest that there may be a total of a million new migrants this year, between those who have asked for asylum and those who are trying to stay beneath the government’s radar. 86% of these economic migrants come overwhelmingly from Muslim countries – Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey — and their chosen destination is Germany, for the large amount of benefits it lavishes on migrants: free or heavily subsidized housing, free medical care, free education, unemployment benefits (even without a work history in Germany), family allowances, and more.

Ever since Angela Merkel allowed one million Muslim migrants into the country in 2015, the country’s officials have not figured out how to undo the damage her unhinged policy has already done, and while the numbers of Muslim migrants have dipped after that all-time high, they have never returned to pre-2015 levels. Except for those in the AfD party, German politicians, idiotically afraid of being called “racists” and “Islamophobes,” remain fearful of calling for an end to Muslim migration. The German voters, who have no such qualms, are increasingly turning to the only party willing to deal properly with the Muslim migrant population – the Alternative für Deutschland. For now, the country’s political and media elites do not know where to put their feet and hands.

Meanwhile, Remix has the story of the drop, far below replacement level, in fertility rates of German women. 

German birth rate falls to 10-year low

by Thomas Brooke, Remix News, July 21, 2023:

The number of births registered across Germany last year was the lowest in 10 years, German newspaper Die Welt reported on Friday.[July 28]

Registrations of newborns dropped in every federal state in the country, according to the Federal Statistical Office. Its data showed there were 738,819 registered births last year, down 7 percent versus 2021.

Germans are now only having 1.46 children on average, an 8 percent decrease from the 1.58 average recorded in 2021 and the lowest figure reported since 2013.

A birthrate of 2.1 per family is needed to maintain a stable population.

The birth rate “fell particularly sharply in Hamburg and Berlin,” noted the Federal Office, revealing it dropped by 10 percent in both regions.

Why has the birthrate for the indigenous Germans fallen so low? It’s a loss of confidence in the future of the country. And that loss of confidence has most to do with the failure of the government to deal with the Muslim economic migrants who over the past decade have been streaming into Germany, legally and illegally, and claiming falsely to be “asylum seekers.” These economic migrants are now costing the German government close to $16 billion a year in benefits, having doubled since 2010. Their presence has also led to a rise in criminality, from street robberies and house burglaries to rape and murder; Muslim migrants have made it dangerous for single women to be out alone at night, increased attacks on Jews, and turned Muslim-dominated neighborhoods into No-Go Zones, akin to those in the UK, France, and Sweden, where ordinary kuffar fear to enter and representatives of the state, including firemen and policemen, enter only in force. Meanwhile, one group in Germany – Muslim migrants who are married – have a birth rate that far exceeds that of the native Germans. No wonder so many Germans are disheartened, are losing faith in their nation’s future, and as a consequence, decide to have far fewer children than their parents.

So, as native Germans decrease in number, Muslims increase in numbers both by immigration and by birthrates. Yet, after understanding these data, Mainstream Media still don't see a problem on the horizon. I think they should all be sent for a year to Pakistan to find out what living in Islam is like.

Ozzone 8-17 > Has God ever spoken a hard word to you? I hope so.

 

If you are really listening, you have probably heard Him speak a hard word. Once, when my wife was sick, in bed; we had 3 teens in the house and a 10-year-old with multiple handicaps. After 3 months I was exhausted and angry at God. I shook my fist at Him and asked why. He said very plainly, “You have not yet suffered unto blood!” 

Have you ever been slapped across the face with a cold, wet towel? I knew I was in for a very long haul in my striving against sin. 24 years later, I am still striving but grateful that God is doing such a work in me. 

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he and his wife Sophie are separating

 

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he and his wife

Sophie are separating

By Reuters

August 2, 2023 12:33pm  Updated

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie are separating and have signed a legal agreement, his office said in a statement on Wednesday that appeared to mark the end of the couple’s 18-year marriage.

“They have worked to ensure that all legal and ethical steps with regards to their decision to separate have been taken, and will continue to do so moving forward,” it said.

Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau announced that he and his wife are separating.

WireImage

Trudeau, 51, and Sophie, 48, were married in late May 2005. They have three children.

“They remain a close family and Sophie and the Prime Minister are focused on raising their kids in a safe, loving and collaborative environment,” said the statement. “The family will be together on vacation, beginning next week.”

Reporting by David Ljunggren and Ismail Shakil in Ottawa Editing by Marguerita Choy

Rumours have been circulating for several months about a possible affair between Trudeau and the rather attractive Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly. They have traveled together quite recently on a few business trips. We will have to watch to see if Joly and her husband separate any time soon.

Will Trudeau be the first Prime Minister to separate from his wife while in office? Or, was his father?

Canadian Justice > Resembling Far-left Scandinavian Justice more than the English Justice of its Heritage

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LOOKING INTO THE BLACK MIRROR 

This morning I was reading the news from a far-off, little-known country with a brutish right-wing government. One of the local rags gives a hair-raising account of developments in policing as the country faces theft, violence and urban disorder problems like those which are spreading fast in happy, civilized Canada.

The headline is: “Build prisons to fit shoplifters, minister suggests.” 

 

The minister in question is a mere undersecretary for transport, but he came out swinging in a radio interview, warning that his government intends to require mandatory prison sentences for repeat offenders who commit shoplifting, burglary, theft or assault.  

These crimes, our rabid authoritarian friend insists, inflict enormous harm if they’re allowed to spiral out of control: “If people are persistently breaking the law, then they should go to jail. And if we need to build more prison places for them, then so be it.” 

Chilling words indeed. Our story then turns to the country’s minister responsible for prisons, who is busy with other dystopian law and order measures this week. On Monday, plans were leaked to have police chiefs throughout this country explicitly promise to investigate every property crime for which a reasonable lead exists “after years of overlooking lower-level offences such as criminal damage, shoplifting, car and bike theft.”  

Meanwhile, the prisons boss has ordered regional cops to make much heavier use of facial-recognition software — which, in turn, turns out to be pervasively used already in large retail stores, with the approval of the country’s information commissioner. (When a “known” shoplifter is caught on camera in these places, a staff member politely approaches and asks if they need any help. This turns out to reduce not only shoplifting itself, but violence against store employees.) 

You’ve probably figured out that this wretched land is none other than the United Kingdom — or, strictly speaking, since we’re mostly talking about criminal justice, England and Wales. The striving, humble local newspaper reporting on murmured ministerial thoughts is the Times of London.  

England is the place we imported our entire constitution from, and we did it wholesale, but almost every sentence of the Times story makes you suddenly conscious of our frantic flight toward Scandinavian justice policy and away from our own past. 

Could a politician here state flatly that “Persistent lawbreakers should be jailed” without raising howls of outrage? Probably not, but what’s truly uncanny is the assumption by an elected official — transport undersecretary Richard Holden — that criminal sentencing is within his government’s control and can be adjusted to address innovations and changes in crime.  

Moreover, he takes the deterrent function of incarceration — an idea that Canadian law has substantially disavowed — for granted. Can these monsters really be our cousins? 

Holden does what no Canadian can anymore, as we observed last week: he considers pervasive urban property crime as an economic problem with a “huge impact.” And he seems willing to consider a long rap sheet to be an indication of a convict’s devotion to criminal behaviour, rather than a signal of morally elevating victimhood or eligibility for reparations.  

England already has a “two strikes” law for knife crimes, which is something it is hard to imagine passing muster in Canadian courts: indeed, the English judges, as if to remind us of our lingering family connection, are doing their best to ignore it. But they haven’t done what Canadian appellate courts would almost certainly do — devise a hallucinatory pretext to declare the whole law “cruel and unusual” or otherwise contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

One keeps reading the Times piece waiting for someone to swoop in and warn of disproportionate racial impacts from these policies. Even the people who recommend them might be expected to add a little woke boilerplate to their law-and-order snarling, but it doesn’t happen. And while Britain already has a reputation for tolerating high levels of technological surveillance, it doesn’t seem to discourage its leaders from doubling down and embracing the use of automated facial recognition. 

Of course this is all coming from a desperate Conservative government facing electoral annihilation, but the politicians aren’t saying these things because they expect the measures and the trial balloons to be unpopular or to generate indignant liberal reaction. They expect them to appeal to the law-abiding working poor who are directly in the line of fire from low-level violence and unchecked criminal predation.  

We are, I think, well overdue to have such a political dialogue — but, then again, it is not clear that a Canadian government of any stripe could actually enact any of these measures if it wanted to. 

— Colby Cosh

NP Platformed

We certainly couldn't enact such measures as long as the Mainstream Press is owned by the Liberals.

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Islam - Current Day > Iraqi Refugees burn another Quran in Stockholm; Hizballah threatens war on Sweden; Sunnis Murder Shi'ites; 32 Dead in Nigeria; 6 Israelis wounded near Jerusalem

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Sweden: Iraqi refugees set fire to Qur’an outside

Parliament Building in Stockholm

JUL 31, 2023 3:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

Once again, no one seems curious in the slightest degree about why a couple of Iraqi refugees would want to burn the Qur’an in the first place. Might it have something to do with their experience with those who believe in its contents? That’s a question that no one dares ask.

Iraqi refugees set fire to Quran outside Swedish Parliament in Stockholm

Euronews, July 31, 2023:

Two men set fire to a copy of the Quran on Monday in front of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm, in a rally similar to previous events that provoked a diplomatic crisis between Sweden and the Muslim world.

Smiling wryly, Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi refugee, and Salwan Najem trampled on a copy of the Koran before setting fire to it, as they had done at the end of June in front of the Swedish capital’s largest mosque.

The rally went off peacefully, with a handful of counter-demonstrators chanting “Allahu-Akbar!”.

Previously, the men had organised another rally on 20 July, in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm, during which they desecrated the sacred book of Islam without burning it.

Both Momika and Najem have repeatedly stated that they want the Quran banned completely in the Nordic nation, which has broad free speech laws which make it possible for people to burn a Quran, or Christian Bible or Jewish Talmud without it necessarily being a crime.

The two men applied to police to stage the event, and said they wanted to “demonstrate in front of parliament and demand the banning of the Quran”.

These desecrations, which have multiplied in recent months in Sweden, have caused tension in the Muslim world.

The Swedish police, who grant permits for gatherings, always insist that they are given in the name of freedom of assembly, stressing that this is not tantamount to approving what might happen there….

Hizballah top dog Nasrallah: ‘If Swedish government continues

on this path, it will be a country at war with Islam’

JUL 31, 2023 5:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

Always, whether one is dealing with a jihadi or an Islamic apologist in the West, the tactics are the same: threats, intimidation, bluster, bullying. And why? It’s in the Qur’an:

“Make ready for them all that you can of force and of warhorses, so that by them you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy…” (Qur’an 8:60)

Hizbullah Secretary-General Nasrallah On Quran-Burning Incident: Like Imam Khamenei Said, Sweden Has Gone Into ‘Battle-Array For War’ With The Islamic Nation; Swedish Government Should Consult With Shari’a Expert On What That Entails

MEMRI, July 22, 2023:

Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a July 22, 2023 address posted on the Newsgate YouTube channel that in a recent communiqué, Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei said that by supporting the “criminal” responsible for the Quran-burning incidents in Sweden, the Swedish government “has gone into battle-array for war against the Islamic world and has brought upon itself the hatred and enmity of the Islamic nations and many of their governments.” Nasrallah elaborated that if the Swedish government “continues on this path, it will be categorized as a country at war with Islam and the Muslims,” and he advised Sweden to consult with experts in Islamic law to understand what this truly means. Nasrallah also said that the U.S. has a “shameful project” to spread homosexuality around the world, adding that there would be no theft or murder if Islamic punishments such as executions and chopping of hands were implemented.

Does that mean there are no thefts or murders in Islamic countries?

Hassan Nasrallah: “I would like to quote from the communiqué published by Imam Khamenei today. One sentence in the communiqué is extremely important, and I advise the Swedish government to consult experts in Islamic law and jurisprudence, and ask them about this sentence, in order to know where it is heading. This applies also to the government of Denmark, if it insists on not dealing with the situation.

“Imam Khamenei says in his communiqué: ‘The Swedish government should also know that by supporting the criminal’ – he means the man who attacked the Quran – ‘it has gone into battle-array for war against the Islamic world, and has brought upon itself the hatred and enmity of the Islamic nations and many of their governments.’

“The expression ‘battle-array for war’ does not need a long explanation. It means that if the Swedish government continues on this path, it will become categorized as a country at war with Islam and the Muslims. I advise the Swedish government to make consultations and ask what it will mean for Sweden to be categorized as a country at war with Islam.

“The United States has announced a clear and shameful project, which it embraced and is promoting day and night. It has to do with spreading homosexuality around the world. It calls for abnormal, deviant, and depraved relations between two men or two women.

“If Islamic punishments were implemented in human society, many tragedies would be eradicated. If a thief’s hand was chipped off, there would be no theft. But they do not chop off a thief’s hand. Rather, they put him in prison, where he eats and drinks for two, three, or four years, until he comes out with more experience, having learned from others, and he is more hateful of society and the country. Instead of being a means of deterrence, prison is a place that cultivates criminals in most cases. If murderers were killed, there would be no murders, and so on.”

And if all radical Muslims were segregated from society, there would be no terrorism.

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Syria: Sunni Muslims murder six Shi’ite Muslims with bomb

near Shi’ite shrine

AUG 1, 2023 12:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

“Make ready for them all that you can of force and of warhorses, so that by them you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy…” (Qur’an 8:60)

Death toll rises to 6 in attack on Shia pilgrimage site in Syria

EFE, July 28, 2023

Beirut, July 28 (EFE).- An explosion near a Shia Muslim shrine, south of the Syrian capital Damascus, has killed at least six people, as reported by the state-run news agency on Friday.

The explosive device was hidden in a motorcycle and detonated near al-Sudan Street in the al-Sayeda Zainab suburb on Thursday, the eve of the Ashura festival, when Shia Muslims remember the killing of Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Imam Hussain.

The suburb is a prominent town for the Shia minority in Syria and houses the tombstone of Hussain’s sister, Sayeda Zainab.

According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), 23 people were injured in the explosion.

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in the United Kingdom, stated that at least eight people, including two foreigners, died in the attack.

The NGO, with a wide network of collaborators on the ground, said the explosive-laden vehicle blew up in front of a hotel near a barracks of the pro-Iranian militias allied with the Syrian government….

Nigeria: Muslims murder 32 people in two jihad attacks in Borno state

AUG 1, 2023 1:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER

In their ongoing pursuit of their goal of establishing a caliphate in West Africa.

ISWAP Fighters Kill 32 In Borno

by Soonest Nathaniel, Channels TV, July 27, 2023

Suspected Islamic State-affiliated jihadists have killed 32 people, including 25 herders, in two attacks in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state, anti-jihadist militia told AFP Thursday.

The attacks happened on Tuesday in the Lake Chad area, where the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) controls swathes of territory.

In the first attack, ISWAP fighters riding in pairs on more than a dozen motorcycles killed 25 Fulani herders who were grazing their cattle in Gudumbali forest, 95 kms (60 miles) from the regional capital Maiduguri, the sources said.

“The terrorists… left without taking anything” from the dead herders, said militia leader Babakura Kolo.

The jihadists had ordered them to vacate the area, accusing them of passing information about militant activities to the military, Kolo said.

The anti-jihadist militia are semi-official paramilitary units that work with the army.

“Most of the 25 victims were shot while a few of them were hacked to death,” said militia member Umar Ari who took part in the evacuation and burial of the dead on Wednesday….

At least 40,000 people have been killed and around two million displaced in the 14-year-old jihadist conflict, which has spread into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Six Israelis wounded in attack outside of Jerusalem, 2 seriously;

terrorist killed, had work permit

August 1, 2023

Six Israelis wounded in attack outside of Jerusalem, 2 seriously; terrorist killed, had work permit.

Police and rescue personnel at the scene of a terror attack in the Judean city of Ma’aleh Adumim,

outside of Jerusalem, August 1, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Off-duty policeman shot and neutralized the assailant, a construction worker, in the Judean city of Ma’ale Adumim. 

By World Israel News Staff

Six Israelis were wounded on Tuesday in a terrorist attack near a mall in Ma’ale Adumim, located seven kilometers (4.3 miles) east of Jerusalem in Judea.

The Palestinian assailant, reportedly armed with an M-16 rifle, was shot by an off-duty Border Policeman and died. He reportedly had been working on a nearby construction site before perpetrating the attack.

“The terrorist is a Palestinian who is here with a work permit,” Benny Kashriel, mayor of Ma’ale Adumim, told Channel 14: “He has been working in cleaning for several years. We are checking with the police as to how he obtained the weapon.”

According to MDA EMT David Turjeman, “When we arrived on scene we saw two males near the mall, fully conscious with gunshot wounds to their bodies. We provided initial medical treatment including stopping the bleeding, and they were evacuated in moderate but stable condition to hospital.

“We received further reports of another two victims at a nearby location. Further MDA teams also on scene provided treatment to a 40-year-old male in serious condition and a 28-year-old male in moderate condition.”

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Meir Bogot said: “When I arrived at the scene, I found several people who were injured with gunshot wounds. Together with additional first responders, I provided them with initial treatment which included bleeding control and bandaging, after which they were all transported to the hospital.

“Due to the nature of the incident, the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit is also active at the location.”

“We commend the heroic commando operation that was carried out by a heroic Palestinian resistance fighter in the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement built on our occupied land, east of Jerusalem,” the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group said in a statement.

Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanou stated: “The strikes of the revolutionaries and resistance fighters will not stop in defense of our land and sanctities and to thwart the settler government’s plan to build the alleged Temple on the ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Of course, the al-Aqsa mosque hasn't been ruined yet. But the Bible prophecies that it will be, and it probably will be soon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were briefed on the incident.

Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai was touring the scene.

Palestinian terror attacks are at an all-time high. In the first six months of 2023, the emergency service recorded 3,640 acts of terror throughout Israel, including 2,118 cases of rock-throwing, 799 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 18 attempted stabbings and six car-rammings.

Climate Change > G20 Too Busy making War to 'Save the World'; UK to issue hundreds of new oil-drilling licenses for North Sea

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G20 meeting fails to agree on climate policy, EU says 'we are simply nowhere'

By Doug Cunningham

 

G20 nations wrapped up their climate meeting in India without reaching agreement on renewable energy and fossil fuel emissions. EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius said "we are simply nowhere" on real commitments to address climate change. Phot courtesy European Union

July 28 (UPI) -- G20 nations made no progress on climate policy Friday, failing to agree on renewables and fossil fuel, even as the world suffers the hottest temperatures on record driven by human-induced climate change.

The G20 Environment and Climate Minister's Meeting issued a long "outcome" document full of language about commitments "to pursue environmentally sustainable and inclusive economic growth and development."

But the document recognized that no actual agreements were reached that rise to the level of the climate changes the world is experiencing.

"We acknowledge the existing gap between current levels of adaptation and levels needed to respond to impacts and reduce climate risks," the document said.

While words alone won't impact the climate crisis without actual agreements on concrete policies, the G20 meeting outcome document say the member nations recognize the strong need for strong policies.

"We acknowledge the urgent need to strengthen policies and mobilize financing, from all sources in a predictable, adequate and timely manner to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation including significantly increasing support for developing countries, and work together on scientific knowledge-sharing, raising awareness, and capacity building," the document's preamble said.

No agreements were reached for increasing the scale of renewable energy and there was no consensus on global emissions, according to the meetings' outcome document.

"We note with concern that global ambition and implementation to address climate change remain insufficient to achieve the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels," the document said.

In closing remarks EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius condemned the lack of progress.

"At the end of our meeting today, is the glass half full or half empty? It is certainly empty when we look at where we stand on G20 commitments to address climate change - we simply are nowhere," he said.

G20 Countries have far more concerns about making, selling, and using military hardware to be concerned about climate change. 'The end of the world' (tic) should never get in the way of the business of war.

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Britain unveils controversial plan to issue hundreds of new

North Sea drilling licenses

By Paul Godfrey

 

Britain announced Monday the first of several rounds of new oil and gas drilling licenses for the North Sea

along with two new Carbon Capture Usage Schemes. File photo by Carina Johansen/EPA-EFE

July 31 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans Monday to grant hundreds of fresh oil and gas licenses for companies to prospect for new reserves in the North Sea as part of a drive to make the country more energy self-sufficient and boost growth.

The plan is part of a commitment to several licensing rounds beginning with 100 licenses to be issued in the fall all of which will be subject to a "climate compatibility test," Downing Street and the North Sea Transition Authority said in a news release.

Simultaneously announcing billions in funding for two new Carbon Capture Usage and Storage schemes by 2030 to capture carbon dioxide from power plants and store it in spent oil and gas fields beneath the North Sea -- one in north-east Scotland and the other in the Humber estuary -- Sunak said home-produced fossil fuels had a much smaller carbon footprint than imported fuels.

He said that events of the past 18 months had shown it was more important than ever for Britain to beef up its energy security by slowing the rapid decline in domestic oil and gas production and build on that independence to deliver cheaper, clean energy to British homes and businesses.

"Even when we've reached net zero in 2050, a quarter of our energy needs will come from oil and gas. But there are those who would rather that it come from hostile states than from the supplies we have here at home," said Sunak during a visit to Aberdeenshire.

"We're choosing to power up Britain from Britain and invest in crucial industries such as carbon capture and storage, rather than depend on more carbon-intensive gas imports from overseas -- which will support thousands of skilled jobs, unlock further opportunities for green technologies and grow the economy."

The government claims the plans will also protect more than 200,000 jobs and sought to link the exploration licenses to future energy security options, unlocking carbon capture usage and storage and hydrogen opportunities -- "offshore energy hubs" that would make the best use of existing infrastructure.

The two new CCUS projects are in addition to two industrial CCUS clusters set to come on stream by 2025 -- "Hynet" in North West England and North Wales and the "East Coast Cluster" on Teesside and the Humber -- part of a $26 billion carbon capture spending commitment.

The opposition Labor Party, which has said it would halt issuing of all new drilling licenses as part of a commitment to bring forward net zero to 2030, accused Sunak of pandering to the right of his party who oppose efforts to tackle climate change.

"One can't help but feel this is a smokescreen," Scottish Labor economy spokesman Daniel Johnson told the BBC, adding that what was needed was a clear plan to make the changeover to net zero.

"We can't keep extracting more oil and expect to achieve our climate targets."

Friends of the Earth responded by urging the government to step up efforts to tap the country's considerable renewable energy potential.

"The U.K. is blessed with huge renewable energy resources, offshore and onshore. It's time we made better use of these to cut emissions and lower bills!" the group said in a Twitter post.

Friends of the Earth was one of 50 groups that wrote Sunak on Friday to express their disquiet over the government's apparent walking back on its commitment to tackling climate change including a plan to halt the sale of all petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030.

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