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Tuesday, 11 July

01:24

How Artificial Intelligence, Data And Analytics Are Transforming Formula One In 2023 "IndyWatch Feed Tech"

Formula One (F1) has always been a technology-driven sport. Behind every car tearing up the circuit at 250 mph is a team of engineers and scientists competing to wrangle every advantage, leveraging the latest innovations in data, analytics and high-performance computing.

Right now, as is the case in every industry, artificial intelligence (AI) is driving a wave of disruption, transforming car design, race performance and fan experience alike.

As Christian Horner, CEO of Oracle Red Bull Racing, says, Data is in the teams lifeblood. Every element of performance how we run a race, how we develop a car, how we select and analyze drivers its all driven by data.

Read more

00:46

Journalists assault in Chechnya follows revenge campaign against my family "IndyWatch Feed Politics.eu"

Chechen activist speaks to openDemocracy after his mother was imprisoned and the reporter covering her case attacked

00:14

Stop Biden from Sending Cluster Bombs to Ukraine "IndyWatch Feed War"


Photo credit: AP

By Medea Benjamin and Marcy Winograd, World BEYOND War, July 10, 2023

President Biden may have crossed a new red line for the Democratic Party when he announced he would send banned cluster munitions to shore up Ukraines slow counter-offensive against Russian troops.

On Friday, 19 House Democrats, led by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-7), signed a letter to Biden warning that his decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine severely undermines our moral leadership.

This time its not just left-leaning activists in CODEPINK and the Peace in Ukraine Coalition who recoil in horror at Bidens escalation in Ukraine, but congressional Democrats who previously stood by their President. These are the same Democrats who voted to approve over $100 billion in Ukraine spending, an estimated half for weapons and military assistance for which there is no accountability.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN-4),  ranking member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, told Politico: The decision by the Biden administration to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine is unnecessary and a terrible mistake The legacy of cluster bombs is misery, de...

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Monday, 10 July

23:09

Burning the Quran and the Counter-Offensive: Why the West Is Panicking "IndyWatch Feed World"

Desecrating, then burning the Holy Quran in Sweden has, once again, raised a political storm of condemnation but also of justification, if not outright approval.

Such acts are protected by law, top Swedish and EU officials have declared.

But why are the rights of those who oppose Western agendas, colonialism, imperialism, Zionism and military interventions not equally protected by law?

Fundraiser

The Palestine boycott movement, BDS, for example, is constantly fighting in Western societies and institutions for the right to use certain language or merely challenge, though non-violently, Israeli occupation and apartheid.

Iranian media offices were shut down in some Western countries, and various Western-operated satellites removed Iranian Press TV, Lebanons Al-Manar TV and other anti-Israel occupation media outlets from their line-ups.

Thousands of Palestinian activists have been banned or censored on Western social media platforms for daring to criticize Israeli war crimes in Palestine. The writer of this article is one of many others.

More. As soon as the Russia-Ukraine war began, western governments were asked to completely block Russia Today and other Russian media channels from operating in Western capitals, leading to the shutting down of offices, and social media channels, removal from YouTube, Google and other search engines and so on.

In February 2022, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said: We will ban the Kremlins media machine in the EU.

For some odd reason, all this censorship is, somehow, morally and legally defensible from the viewpoint of the West.

...

23:00

Libya's Haftar 'rerouting' supplies to Sudan's Rapid Support Forces "IndyWatch Feed War"

Libya's Haftar 'rerouting' supplies to Sudan's Rapid Support Forces

Sources in southern Libya say the commander is helping the Sudanese paramilitary group - and that supply lines have changed
Samira Elsaidi Mon, 07/10/2023 - 14:00
Goats walk by a surface-to-air missile (SAM) near the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk, in 2011 (AFP)

International monitoring has pushed Khalifa Haftar into changing the routes his forces use to supply Sudans Rapid Support Forces (RSF), local sources close to the eastern Libyan commander have told Middle East Eye. 

Politicians, analysts and intelligence sources from southern Libya confirmed to MEE that Haftar is involved in the supply of arms and fuel to the paramilitary group, which has been at war with the Sudanese army since 15 April. 

While pictures of shipments of weapons being transported from military bases in eastern Libya were published early in the conflict, the sources also revealed the names of airbases they said are now being used as launching points for cargo. 

In an exclusive interview, Saad Bou Shradah, a member of Libyas state council from the countrys south, told MEE that Haftars Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) is flying military supplies from its territory to the Central African Republic, from where they are driven by car across the border into the Sudanese interior.

Sources inside Haftar's operation, who spoke anonymously because they are not authorised to talk to the media, confirmed this. Opposition sources in CAR have previously told MEE that the government there is working with the Wagner Group to supply the RSF. 

...

22:58

Left with few tanks and ammunition, Ukraine puts its hope in cluster munitions "IndyWatch Feed War"

By Ahmed Adel | July 10, 2023

The Ukrainian military lacks tanks, armoured vehicles, and ammunition to dislodge Russian forces from their well-entrenched positions, demonstrating that over half a year of planning and training for the current counteroffensive has dissipated into complete failure. The situation for Ukraine is so bad that it was even forced to withdraw its German-made Leopard 2 tanks from the front lines so they could be preserved for the future. This revelation comes as the Biden administration announced on July 6 that it would send cluster munitions to Ukraine.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ukraine is now attempting to dislodge an entrenched enemy, one of the most daunting operations any military can undertake. Russian troops have spent months building physical defences that include bunkers, tank traps and mine fields.

The same outlet quoted Lt. Col. Oleksiy Telehin of Ukraines 108th Territorial Defence Brigade as saying that it was not only impossible to destroy well-prepared positions before advancing but that Ukrainian forces were suffering from a shortage of armoured vehicles, with infantry forced to advance on foot, which makes it vulnerable to flanking manoeuvres.

The Ukrainian military has only managed to capture a few villages in Zaporozhye and the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR). A month of fighting has resulted in only the capture of some villages and failure to reach Russias first defensive line, and more disturbingly, at the cost of thousands of deaths and hundreds of destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles.

Ukrainian personnel admit to horrific losses, with soldiers presumably in Zaporozhye, saying they could have lost dozens of men in a single attack.

We had to evacuate the evacuation team, said a 19-year-old combat medical professional, according to the US outlet. The teenager also recalled a case where a mortar hit his vehicle during an evacuation of the wounded.

According to reports, Russian helicopters fly less than 8 kilometres from Ukrainian positions, which should ordinarily make them vulnerable to air defences, but as a platoon commander from the 108th Brigade said, We dont have proper air defence systems to deal with the threat. When were warned that an enemy plane has taken off, the only way to deal with it is to take cover.

The Russian Defence Ministry reported on July 9 that since the beginning of the special military operation, their forces have destroyed from Ukraine 453 planes, 241 helicopters, 4,948 unmanned aerial vehicles, 426 air defence missile systems, 10,604 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,137 fighting vehicles equipped with MLRS, 5,396 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 11,547 special military motor vehicles.

......

22:30

22:00

Turkeys Erdogan Betrays Putin "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"

On the cusp of the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Turkeys President Erdogan dropped a couple of turds in the Russian punch bowl he broke the agreement he made with Russia to imprison AZOV leaders who were taken prisoner at Mariupol in May of 2022, he endorsed immediate membership in NATO for Ukraine and he signed a deal to expand drone production in Ukraine.

Erdogans moves have been greeted with anger in Moscow and strengthened the position of hardliners who have long insisted that Erdogan is not to be trusted. It does make Putin look both foolish and weak for trusting Erdogan to uphold his side of the bargain to keep the AZOV leaders penned up until the war in Ukraine ends. This is not going to galvanize Putins opponents to force his removal, but it does bring glee and merriment to Western leaders eager to see Putin damaged.

What the hell was Erdogan thinking? Lets start with the ridiculous agreement to expand drone production in Ukraine. This is typical Erdogan corruption. His son-in-law controls the production of these drones and stands to benefit financially if Ukraine is able to build more Bayraktars. Only a couple of problems. First, the drone sucks. It has been proven to be a tactical flop on the battlefield of Ukraine. Second, who in their right mind believes that the Russian military will allow those factories to operate? If production facilities, through some miracle, are erected then Russian hypersonic missiles and FAB glide bombs will be sure to make a visit. The only value of this agreement is the optics it is a tacit vote of approval for Zelensky just when the Ukrainian military offensive is sputtering towards oblivion. Erdogan can show up in Vilnius as claim, hey, Im helping our little cocaine sniffing comedian, what are you doing?

Major Serhii Volynskyi

Then there are the AZOV commanders that Erdogan cut loose. Major Serhii Volynskyi, pictured above, claims that he wound up in Turkey, after surrendering at Mariupol, because of a secret deal negotiated between Russia and the United States that allowed high-ranking US officers to escape capture.

...

21:22

For Queen & NATO: Listing Denmarks Recent Weapons Purchases "IndyWatch Feed War"


By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
Much attention has been devoted to Poland's defence spending boost (not the least through our dedicated article) that is set to provide the country the largest army in the European Union. [1] Other NATO members are making an attempt to follow suit, with Romania currently embarking on a smaller but similarly ambitious rearmament programme. The combined efforts of these countries will ultimately see the acquisition of thousands of MBTs and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and more than a thousand self-propelled guns (SPGs) and multiple rocket launchers (MRLs). Considering these impressive numbers, it is perhaps easy to forget the efforts of smaller nations like Denmark, the Baltic States and the Netherlands at significantly modernising and expanding the capabilities of their armed forces.

Denmark in particular has sought to expedite the process with which it acquires military equipment, accelerating to a pace previously unthinkable for defence projects in Europe. Though the number of weapons systems acquired is anything but spectacular especially compared to countries like Poland they remain vital for the security of NATO in their own right. Several of these acquisitions introduce new capabilities entirely, while others make up for capabilities lost since the conclusion of the Cold War. For Denmark, this has included its submarine service (2004), MRLs (2004), SAM systems (2005) and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (2006). In order to pay for the new acquisitions, Denmark has significantly increased its defence budget and even abolished a public holiday to boost military spending. [2] [3]

In service of a population of just under six million, the Danish Armed Forces are comparatively small. As a seagoing nation that also bears the responsibility for the def...

20:20

Flash floods batter Sochi, Russia - cars washed away and houses submerged - 2 months rain in a day "IndyWatch Feed World"

Devastating flash floods have hit Sochi, Russia's top resort from where Vladimir Putin rules the country in summer. Remarkable footage shows how multiple cars were washed away as the Matsesta River burst its banks. Washed away cars even formed a dam on a submerged street which became a torrential river in the sudden deluge. Houses were also flooded with a storm warning in place until the end of the day on Monday. The Black Sea port Sochi, Putin's favourite summer hideaway, suffered two months of rainfall in one day, according to reports.

17:15

Biden admin: Child-killing cluster bombs are only used by war criminals, until theyre used by us "IndyWatch Feed War"

Leo Hohmann leohohmann.com July 8, 2023

The Biden regime has approved cluster bombs for Ukraine, under the justification that but Russia used them first.

Watch below as former White House press secretary Jen Psaki condemns the use of cluster bombs as war crime in 2022. The overall thrust of her comment suggests that only the bad guys would use these little bomblets that tend to be left lying on the ground, unexploded, until little children come along and pick them up, blowing their little bodies to smitherines.

Cluster bombs are widely banned around the world.

Sarah Yager, the Washington director at Human Rights Watch, called the U.S. decision devastating.

They are absolutely awful for civilians, Yager told Al Jazeera in a television interview. I think when legislators and policymakers here in the United States see the photos coming back of children with missing limbs, parents injured, killed by our own American cluster munitions, theres going to be a real awakening to the humanitarian disaster that this is.

Remember, this is the same wicked administration that has recently approved radiological depleted uranium shells to be used in Ukraine, potentially poisoning some of the worlds most fertile black soil for decades to come.

Revelation 18 speaks of the great Harlot, modern Babylon, being destroyed in the latter days, smashing its ability to traffic in all manner of luxury products including the bodies and souls of men, which I explored in my previous article about the story of Tim Ballard in Sound of Freedom.

But another characteristic of the end-times revived Babylonian system, which the Bible says in Revelation 18 will be destroyed in one hour is that it wreaks havoc...

17:13

Ukraines Failed Counter Offensive Paints NATO Into A Corner "IndyWatch Feed War"

Larry Johnson The Gateway Pundit July 9, 2023

Ukraines attempt at a Hail Mary (the football play not the Catholic prayer) victory by seizing swaths of territory from the Russians is a failure. The Russians have intercepted every move and Ukraines negligible advances are counted in single-digit kilometers along with piles of Ukrainian corpses and burned-out hulk of Western-supplied tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Yet the West is struggling to come to grips with the reality and persists in peddling the delusion of a stalemate. Samuel Charap, a senior Political Scientist at Rand Corporation, wrote a piece published in Foreign Affairs on June 5 that grudgingly conceded the war in Ukraine is Unwinnable. But he only got it half-right. He wrote:

Russias invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was a moment of clarity for the United States and its allies. An urgent mission was before them: to assist Ukraine as it countered Russian aggression and to punish Moscow for its transgressions. While the Western response was clear from the start, the objective the endgame of this war has been nebulous.

But it is now time that the United States develop a vision for how the war ends. Fifteen months of fighting has made clear that neither side has the capacity even with external help to achieve a decisive military victory over the other. Regardless of how much territory Ukrainian forces can liberate, Russia will maintain the capability to pose a permanent threat to Ukraine. The Ukrainian military will also have the capacity to hold at risk any areas of the country occupied by Russian forces-and to impose costs on military and civilian targets within Russia itself.

Charap is a prime example of the failings of political science as a science. He ignores the evidence that Russia, unlike Ukraine, has enormous capacity to achieve a decisive military victory over not only Ukraine, but NATO. Ukraine and NATO are running out of artillery shells, cruise missiles, tanks and combat aircraft. More importantly, Ukraine is drained of competent, trained soldiers that can operate those weapon systems.

The situation for Russia is the exact opposite. With each passing day Russias trained manpower increases along with soaring production of tanks, hypersonic missiles, artillery shells, mortars and drones. Russia is degrading Ukraines combat capability and has not yet launched its own offensive using the full weight of the Russian ground and air forces.

NATO has no stomach to let Ukraine join its club. Germany, along with denouncing Bidens decision to supply cluster munitions to Kiev, declared that any decision about Ukraine joining should be postponed. Hungary and Bulga...

17:10

CIA Running Ukraine Exposes Bidens Bluster of No U.S. Boots on the Ground "IndyWatch Feed War"

Strategic Review July 7, 2023

Ukraine is ground zero for the CIAs fascist origins

The American magazine Newsweek published a big exclusive report this week purporting to reveal the extent of CIA involvement in the Ukraine proxy war against Russia. It hardly merits the billing of exclusive since it is well known that the U.S. spy agency is up to its neck in orchestrating the conflict.

In truth, the CIAs nefarious role in Ukraine goes back decades to the end of World War Two. More on that further down.

Nevertheless, the Newsweek article provides a useful admission that Washington is recklessly and criminally fueling hostilities towards Russia, the worlds biggest nuclear power in terms of its arsenal. The Biden administration and its military-intelligence apparatus are risking an escalation of the proxy war to an all-out nuclear conflagration.

The Newsweek report remarks on the contradiction between President Joe Bidens public vow to not put American boots on the ground and the undeniable heavy presence of U.S. clandestine forces in Ukraine helping (more precisely, directing) the war effort. Instead of contradiction, a plainer, more fitting word is lie.

Recall, too, Biden previously said he doesnt want to start World War Three with Russia. Thats about as believable as an alcoholic saying he doesnt want another drink.

The Biden administration is engaged in gross deception of the American public by absurdly pretending that U.S. military personnel are not in Ukraine and that Washington is not directing a war against Russia. Bidens policy of pumping weapons into Ukraine ($40 billion so far) is inexorably leading the United States and its NATO allies deeper into an all-out war against Russia. Yet this mentally challenged president somehow maintains there are no U.S. boots on the ground and that the U.S.-led NATO alliance is not at war with Russia. Such blatant lies should be grounds for his impeachment.

Apart from the admission that the Newsweek article provides, the otherwise banal reporting is a whitewash of the CIAs pivotal and pernicious role in the Ukraine conflict.

Laughably, the article portrays the CIA as trying to ensure the war does not spin out of control. Thus, the agency is presented as a moderating, restraining influence on the Kiev regime and its military conduct. The reader is led to believe that Washington is endeavoring to prevent the Ukrainian military from launching direct attacks on Russia. It is claimed that the CIA is struggling to control the operations of the Kiev regime which has at times gone rogue against Bidens rules of engagement. Examples of rogue conduct, it is claimed, are the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, the bo...

15:51

The European Patent Offices War of Disinformation Against Patent Examiners (and Mindless Promotion of Microsoft Vapourware) "IndyWatch Feed Tech"

Video download link

Summary: Under the title Examiners Wars (see video above) the European Patent Office (EPO) now insults its own productive workers, looking to harm their image and their reputation instead of actually fixing the EPO crisis, including all the corruption at the top

JUST when you thought youve seen it all

The European Patent Offices (EPO) fucking president Antnio Campinos (thats what he calls himself) along with his propaganda minister are pulling a Putin, much like Benot Battistelli compared examiners and union leaders to nazis.

What were dealing with here is very childish and highly corrupt management disparaging people who worked for the Office about TEN TIMES longer, not imported by the dictator from Alicante to help cover up criminal activity for about 300,000 euros per year.You might be interested in having a look at this EPO video made by the Communications Department together with Young Professionals and Examiners from Spain, one source has told us. The video shows EPO employees just being lazy and using ChatGPT instead of doing their work. Its the perfect management campaign to justify that EPO Examiners are just overpaid.

What were dealing with here is very childish and highly corrupt management disparaging people who worked for the Office about TEN TIMES longer, not imported by the dictator from Alicante to help cover up criminal activity for about 300,000 euros per year.

If EPO management reckons this video is going to help its objective, guess again

How much money was wasted on the pinkwashing video that hardly...

14:59

Speaker of the Mongolian khural in Moscow an unusual but revealing visit "IndyWatch Feed Asia"

Speaker of the Mongolian khural in Moscow

On June 22, the visit of the Speaker of the Parliament (State Great Khural) of Mongolia to the Russian Federation ended.

It is important to note that this is the first top-level Mongolian visit to Russia since the start of the Special Military Operation; the countrys president last visited Russia on an official visit in December 2021, the foreign minister in the summer of the same year, and Parliament Speaker Gombojavyn Zandanshatar himself in 2019. Even though there was no meeting between the speaker of the parliament and the Russian president and foreign minister, the visit can be considered one of the most significant events in Russian-Mongolian ties in the last year.

Gombojav Zandanshatar is a member of the Mongolian political elite who has personal memories of Russia; he was educated at Baikal State University and became an honorary professor there in 2012. He is fluent in Russian.

The Speaker of the Mongolian Parliament met with his Russian counterparts, the spokespersons of the Federation Council and the State Duma of the Federal Assembly, during his official visit to the Russian Federation. On his trip from Moscow to Ulaanbaatar, Gombojav Zandanshatar addressed issues of inter-regional cooperation between the two countries and met with the Irkutsk regions leadership.

The ceremonial part of the visit included laying of flowers by Gombojav Zandanshatar at...

14:02

Pence Promises War if Elected "IndyWatch Feed World"

Mike Pence is chomping at the bit to invade Russia. He became the first GOP presidential candidate to travel to Ukraine to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump, DeSantis, and Kennedy have all stated that they want to end the war immediately. No one is as EAGER to involve themselves as Mike Pence, who all but guaranteed World War III under his rule.

I have no doubt that if (Russian dictator) Vladimir Putin overran Ukraine, it would not be too long before the Russian military crossed a border where we would have to send our fighting men and women to fight against them, the Republican presidential candidate said. Pence has even condemned Biden for his slow reaction, despite sending so much money to Ukraine that the Pentagon cannot keep track. I mean, President Biden said in his State of the Union address that were there as long as it takes. But I want to say to all your listeners, it shouldnt take that long, Pence said.

BUT WHAT WOULD REAGAN DO? Every GOP candidate channels his name and pretends the ghost of Reagan would back any policy they put forth. Look, Ronald Reagan said in 1985 words in his State of the Union address that were later called the Reagan Doctrine. It was this idea that if youre willing to fight the communists in your country, with your soldiers, well give you the means to fight them there so we dont have to fight them here. And that was part of the philosophy of American leadership in the world that set into motion the forces that brought the collapse of the Soviet Union map. And I think this is just the same fight, Pence said.

The conflict in Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with communism. Pence claiming we need to fight the Russians in Ukraine to prevent a conflict on US soil is ignorant at best. There is no threat of Russia invading America or Europe. Russia put forth multiple peace treaties, but the West continued to fuel the flames of war. Ukraine is a NATO leech, no...

14:01

CIA Running Ukraine Blows Bidens Bluster About No U.S. Boots on the Ground "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"

Ukraine is ground zero for the CIAs fascist origins

The American magazine Newsweek published a big exclusive report this week purporting to reveal the extent of CIA involvement in the Ukraine proxy war against Russia. It hardly merits the billing of exclusive since it is well known that the U.S. spy agency is up to its neck in orchestrating the conflict.

In truth, the CIAs nefarious role in Ukraine goes back decades to the end of World War Two. More on that further down.

Nevertheless, the Newsweek article provides a useful admission that Washington is recklessly and criminally fueling hostilities towards Russia, the worlds biggest nuclear power in terms of its arsenal. The Biden administration and its military-intelligence apparatus are risking an escalation of the proxy war to an all-out nuclear conflagration.

The Newsweek report remarks on the contradiction between President Joe Bidens public vow to not put American boots on the ground and the undeniable heavy presence of U.S. clandestine forces in Ukraine helping (more precisely, directing) the war effort. Instead of contradiction, a plainer, more fitting word is lie.

Recall, too, Biden previously said he doesnt want to start World War Three with Russia. Thats about as believable as an alcoholic saying he doesnt want another drink.

The Biden administration is engaged in gross deception of the American public by absurdly pretending that U.S. military personnel are not in Ukraine and that Washington is not directing a war against Russia. Bidens policy of pumping weapons into Ukraine ($40 billion so far) is inexorably leading the United States and its NATO allies deeper into an all-out war against Russia. Yet this mentally challenged president somehow maintains there are no U.S. boots on the ground and that the U.S.-led NATO alliance is not at war with Russia. Such blatant lies should be grounds for his impeachment.

Apart from the admission that the Newsweek article provides, the otherwise banal reporting is a whitewash of the CIAs pivotal and pernicious role in the Ukraine conflict.

Laughably, the article portrays the CIA as trying to ensure the war does not spin out of control. Thus, the agency is presented as a moderating, restraining influence on the Kiev regime and its military conduct. The reader is led to believe that Washington is endeavoring to prevent the Ukrainian military from launching direct attacks on Russia. It is claimed that the CIA is struggling to control the operations of the Kiev regime which has at times gone rogue against Bidens rules of engagement. Examples of rogue conduct, it is claimed, are the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, the bombing of the Kerch Bridge to Crimea, drone attacks on Moscow and several mysterious a...

12:25

An Accident Waiting to Happen: NATO Looks to Asia "IndyWatch Feed Africa"

Since the end of the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has distinctly strayed from its original purpose.  It has become, almost shamelessly, the vessel and handmaiden of US power, while its burgeoning expansion eastwards has done wonders to upend the applecart of stability.

From that upending, the alliance started bungling.  It engaged, without the authorisation of the UN Security Council, in a 78-day bombing campaign of Yugoslavia at least what was left of it ostensibly to protect the lives of Kosovar Albanians.  Far from dampening the tinderbox, the Kosovo affair continues to be an explosion in the making.

Members of the alliance also expended material, money and personnel in Afghanistan over the course of two decades, propping up a deeply unpopular, corrupt regime in Kabul while failing to stifle the Taliban.  As with previous imperial projects, the venture proved to be a catastrophic failure.

In 2011, NATO again was found wanting in its attack on the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.   While it was intended to be an exemplar of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine, the intervention served to eventually topple the doomed Colonel Gaddafi, precipitating the de-facto partitioning of Libya and endangering the very civilians the mission was meant to protect.  A continent was thereby destabilised.  The true beneficiaries proved to be the tapestry of warring rebel groups characterised by sectarian impulses and a voracious appetite for human rights abuses and war crimes.

The Ukraine War has been another crude lesson in the failings of the NATO project.  The constant teasing and wooing of Kyiv as a potential future member never sat well with Moscow and while much can be made of the Russian invasion, no realistic assessment of the wars origins can excise NATO from playing a deep, compromised role.

The alliance is also proving dissonant among its members.  Not all are exactly jumping at the chance of admitting Ukraine.  German diplomats have revealed that they will block any current moves to join the alliance.  Even that old provoking power, the United States, is not entirely sure whether doors should be open to Kyiv.  On CNN, President Joe Biden expressed the view that he did not think its ready for membership of NATO.  To qualify, Ukraine would have to meet a number of qualifications from democratisation to a whole range of other issues.  While hardly proving very alert during the interview (at one point, he confused Ukraine with Russia) he did draw the logical conclusion that bringing Kyiv into an alliance of obligatory collective defence during current hostilities would automatically put NATO at war with Moscow.

With such a spotty, blood speckled record marked....

08:17

Military Situation In Syria On July 9, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"

Military Situation In Syria On July 9, 2023 (Map Update)

Click to see full-size image

  • On July 9, the Russian Ministry of Defense recorded no cases of hostilities and ceasefire violations in Idlib region in the past 24 hours;
  • On July 9, three people were killed in a car bomb explosion in Manbij city;
  • On July 9, SAA artillery shelled positions of Turkish-backed forces in Barah;
  • On July 9, SAA artillery shelled positions of Turkish-backed forces in Kafr Amma.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

The post Military Situation In Syria On July 9, 2023 (Map Update) appeared first on South Front.

03:06

The CIAs Blind Spot About the Ukraine War "IndyWatch Feed Africa"

We bring to the attention of our readers this important article by William M. Arkin published by Newsweek.  Our thanks to Newsweek  One of the biggest secrets of the Ukraine war is how much the CIA doesnt know. The Agency is as uncertain about Volodymyr Zelenskys thinking and intentions as it is about Vladimir Putins. And as the Russian leader faces []

01:14

Linux Mint Was Right About Snaps and It Should Make LMDE the Default (Better Yet, Base It on Devuan) "IndyWatch Feed Tech"

Plan for Ubuntu Snaps
Even the foremost booster of Ubuntu, Joey, called this meh (in the URL), as hes not happy about this general direction

Summary: The direction taken by Canonical in recent months has upset a lot of people, and rightly so; we kindly remind people that alternatives exist and Linux Mint already explores some of them

OVER a decade ago Canonical boasted about having a community because it did, partially, have its share of slaves volunteers, working for free to enrich an already-affluent South African. The community was being policed (managed) and occasionally threatened/censored by Jono Bacon, who nowadays does gigs for Microsoft. Like Sheela Zemlin, he brings home the bacon from Microsofts bank accounts. Canonical is also being paid by Microsoft to no longer pursue its original mission.

As noted earlier today, both IBM and Canonical are turning from mostly passive to evil. Evil means actively pursuing monopolies and promoting proprietary software, even for Microsoft. Passive means doing nothing at all about Microsofts attacks on the GNU/Linux user pool, e.g. UEFI secure boot. They could at least file an antitrust complaint or merely join one. Instead they swam in Microsoft clown computing money. Way to betray your slaves volunteers they supported your users (clients) for free and now you empower Microsoft?

On the positive side, these dick moves from Canonical will quite likely motivate people to explore truly community-led distros.A couple of weeks ago we learned about a vision or plan of a Snap-only Ubuntu (this will, eventually, become the only option) and days ago a person close to Canonical said they were demoting the roots of Ubuntu (Debian). He seemed rather displeased about the move and years ago he started a...

01:13

CIA Running Ukraine Blows Bidens Bluster About No U.S. Boots on the Ground "IndyWatch Feed War"

Ukraine is ground zero for the CIAs fascist origins The American magazine Newsweek published a big exclusive report this week purporting to reveal the extent of CIA involvement in the Ukraine proxy war against Russia. It hardly merits the billing of exclusive since it is well known that the U.S. spy agency is up to []

00:49

The Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov on Leave "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"

Kadyrov announced his departure
9.07.2023, 8:27 28,036 https://charter97.org
The head of Chechnya decided to rest.
This week, the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov announced his vacation. The order on this is published on the website of the head and government of the country.

Im going on annual paid leave from July 3, the order says. Until what date Kadyrov will rest is not reported.

His duties at this time will be performed by the Chairman of the Government of the region Muslim Khuchiev. https://charter97.org/ru/news/2023/7/9/555130/

July 9, 2023, 14:31 Kadyrov is suspended from the management of Chechnya: he went on indefinite leave amid rumors of illness
The head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, about whose serious illness there are persistent rumors, suddenly went on vacation
Author: Tatiana Shevchenko https://www.dialog.ua
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov stepped aside from the leadership of his republic. He went on indefinite leave, transferring power to his right hand Muslim Khuchiev. The corresponding statement was published on Kadyrovs official channel, Dialog.UA reports. Judging by the report, the head of Chechnya has been resting for a week. However, the population was notified only now. Im going on annual paid leave from July 3, 2023, the message reads. The dates of rest have not been announced. The republic will be headed by Muslim Khuchiev, who holds the post of Prime Minister of Chechnya, instead. The news caused a stir in Russian media and social networks. The fact is that recently there have been many rumors about Kadyrovs sudden serious illness. They first appeared back in March 2023, when the heavily overweight head of Chechnya appeared in public.

Russian-Israeli entrepreneur Leonid Nevzlin assured that the official practically does not visit Chechnya, but is undergoing treatment in the UAE. https://www.dialog.ua/russia/269132_1677911237 He allegedly has severe kidney problems, possibly due to poisoning. The head of the military intelligence service of Ukraine Kirill Budanov said later that Kadyrovs problems are related to his passion for drugs. https://www.dialog.ua/russia/273668_1684324962 In early July, rumors intensified once again. It was rumored that the state of health of the head of Chechnya deteriorated sharply, and he was allegedly on his deathbed. Kadyrovs son also made a statement calling on Allah to keep his father....

00:23

Moment woman is struck by lightning as massive storm and flash flood engulfs Russian city "IndyWatch Feed World"

This is the shocking moment a bolt of lightning struck down near a group of people as torrential flash flooding plummeted down in a Russian city. The blinding flash left one woman with severe burns, officials said, during a sudden thunderstorm over Kolomna, 75 miles southeast of Moscow. Footage showed people wading through a deluge of rainwater before an immediate bolt appeared to shoot down, visibly terrifying those in the vicinity and causing some to fall over in shock. The bolt is said to have hit an electric scooter first before the woman was also struck after standing nearby. She was seen being carried through the floodwater with clear signs of blackening from the lightning. The distraught woman was rushed to intensive care at a nearby hospital. She is in a stable condition.

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Sunday, 09 July

23:39

Cluster Bombs for Ukraine? A Warning From Kosovo "IndyWatch Feed War"

By Phil Miller | Declassified UK | July 6, 2023

Gracanica, Kosovo  In the village where we lived, there were nine bombs dropped by NATO in the space of two minutes, Dzafer Buzoli recalls, as we discuss his traumatic childhood in Yugoslavia. A leading member of Kosovos Roma, his community went from pillar to post.

Many were dragooned into Slobodan Milosevics Serb-dominated Yugoslav army or targeted by Albanian rebels as suspected collaborators, before Bill Clinton and Tony Blair launched their humanitarian intervention in 1999.

When the first bomb fell, we were just confused and wondered what was happening, he reflects. But after the second bomb I felt the hot air and fell down from the pressure of the blast.

Ever since then Ive had a heightened sense of hearing. When theres a loud noise or people yelling I have to really back up, because its too much for me.

Buzoli was lucky to survive the airstrike. Two soldiers and a five year old boy were killed in the attack on his village of Laplje Selo, which was hit with controversial cluster munitions.

These scatter a blizzard of ball-shaped bomblets over target areas, like a minefield falling from the sky. Human Rights Watch said NATO killed between 90 and 150 civilians with this weapon across Serbia and Kosovo.

Thousands of bomblets failed to detonate on impact, posing a hazard to children who mistook their little yellow parachutes for toys. In the decade after the war, these remnants claimed another 178 casualties in Kosovo.

While this war might seem like a distant memory for those beyond the Balkans, it offers a cautionary tale to Western states now assisting Ukraines fight against Russia.

US officials are said to be seriously considering supplying Kyiv with cluster bombs, possibly as soon as next month.

Thats despite the weapon being banned by more than 120 countries including the UK, following a UN treaty in 2008.

The US refused to sign up to the ban and there are suspicions it uses a loophole to store them at its air bases in Britain.

Both Russia and Ukraine, fellow non-signatories, have already fired cluster bombs in their current conflict and supplies from America could further complicate the situation.

Lessons from Kosovo

Unexploded cluster munitions remain a hazard in Kosovo long after NATOs 11 week air war ended in 1999.

Goran, a Kosovo Serb, recalls how the weapon almost killed a farmer in a vineyard near Gracacinas orthodox monastery, a world heritage site.

He drove his tractor straight over the bomb, Goran tells me. He was......

20:30

10 Sunday Reads "IndyWatch Feed Economics"

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:

Lessons From the Catastrophic Failure of the Metaverse: Did the creative class learn anything from buying into a product that was obviously destined to flop? (The Nation)

How China Came to Dominate the Worlds Largest Nickel Source for Electric Cars: Chinese firms mastered a process that unlocked Indonesias ore for use in making EV batteries. (Wall Street Journal)

Those 10,000 5-star reviews are fake. Now theyll also be illegal. The FTC has proposed new rules that clarify what is and isnt a deceptive online review and would give it the power to fine $50,000 for each fake. (Washington Post)

A Drug for Itchy Dogs Costs $1,200. Why Is the Human Equivalent $43,000? What a shot that treats pet eczema reveals about how pharma companies actually price their drugs. (Barrons)

New York State Built Elon Musk a $1 Billion Factory. It Was a Bad Deal. New Tesla facility in Buffalo was supposed to house a huge solar-panel operation, but the project hasnt turned out as planned. (Wall Street Journal)

David Zaslav kills everything he touches, including GQ: Zaslav is the man in charge of frankencorp Warner Bros. Discovery and, in an impressively short period of time, has managed to fk up nearly everything within its considerable portfolio. Freelance writer Jason Bailey attempted to note all of those fk-ups for posterity just this week, when he wrote an article for GQ excoriating Zaslav for his pathetic stewardship of WBD. It noted all of Zaslavs lowlights, which I will repeat here for reasons that will soon become evident. SFGATE columnist Drew Magary unpacks the latest in the saga of the HBO-slayer. (SF Gate)

What Makes Putin and the Worlds Autocrats So Resilient? Regimes are cooperating more closely to withstand diplomatic pressure from the West. (Wall Street Jour...

18:05

Hal Turner: Russia Confirms BRICS To Launch Gold-Backed Currency "IndyWatch Feed War"

Hal Turner The Hal Turner Show July 7, 2023

According to state-run Russian Television (RT), the Russian Government HAS CONFIRMED Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, known as the BRICS nations, will introduce a new trading currency backed by Gold.

The official announcement is expected during the upcoming BRICS Summit in South Africa, this August.

If this takes place, it will likely mark the end of fiat currencies like the US Dollar, which is backed by nothing.

How fast nations around the world switch to using this new gold-backed currency for their foreign trade, is anyones guess.

The more countries that choose to use this new currency, the more foreign-held US Dollars will come rushing back to the USA from those countries, which no longer need to hold US Dollars for their foreign trade.   As those Dollars come back to the USA, it will cause inflation to spike in ways never-before seen here in America.

The US manufactures almost nothing here anymore.  Almost everything we buy and sell in the USA is made overseas.   As US dollars come flooding back from overseas, the value of the US dollar will plummet versus other currencies, which means it will take many more US Dollars to buy goods from foreign countries.

Hence, sudden and dramatic inflation here at home.

It is worth pointing out that the US has, on more than one occasion, gone to actual WAR to stop this exact thing from taking place in the past.   Two recent examples would be Libya and Iraq.

In Libya, Mohamar Qadaffi wanted to create a gold-back Pan-African currency.   Within a month of his announcement, there were riots and uprisings in Libya that ultimately resulted in Qadaffi being mobbed and brutally killed in the streets.

Iraq made a similar effort under Saddam Hussein.    He announced that Iraq would begin selling oil in currencies OTHER THAN the US Dollar, which sent the US to Iraq War 2, toppling Hussein from power.  Ultimately, Hussein was found hiding in a hole in the ground, was arrested, tried, and HUNG BY HIS NECK until dead.

The US takes it ___ V E R Y ____ serious when anyone around the world tries to do anything that would unseat the US dollar as the worlds defacto Reserve Currency.

The US is already itching to go to war with Russia over the Ukraine conflict.   With todays announcement about a Gold-Backed BRICS trading currency, it seems logical that the US gloves will come off.

If Russia and the BRICS Nations do what they have announced, it would mean the total collapse of US world dominance.  There are many people inside the US Government that would rather burn the entire world to the ground, rather than lose control of it.  Put simply, they will stop at NOTHING to maintain their financial control power; an...

18:00

17:55

17:50

Americans Who Fought Putin Share Horrifying War Surprises "IndyWatch Feed War"

Shannon Vavra The Daily Beast July 1, 2023

In the days preceding Russias invasion of Ukraine, David Bramlette found himself in a classroom in Washington, D.C. discussing whether Russia might invade Ukraine. He was in the middle of earning a masters degree from Johns Hopkins in international affairs. At the time, he admits, he found the prospect of a Russian invasion implausible.

But when Russia eventually pulled the trigger and invaded Ukraine in February last year, David, who had previously completed stints working for the U.S. military as a Green Beret on a counter-Russia mission and as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan, felt compelled to go fight the Russians.

Its good and evil in my mind, Bramlette told The Daily Beast in an interview from Kyiv this week.

Im sitting in class, and Im like, I could sit here and finish my degree and go work in some office job, and have a tiny iota of impact on the world working in some government office, right? Bramlette recounted. I have the knowledge and the skills and abilities to go help. So I basically took a leave of absence from my masters program and went over.

By early March Bramlette, who goes by Bam, was en route to Warsaw, Poland to get his bearings before joining the foreign legion in Ukraine. While boarding the plane to Poland, Bam said he sent his parents a quick email explaining why he was going to war for another country.

I sent my parents an email that says like This is the most righteous war that I think my generation will see in our lifetime. This is straight up good versus evil, Bramlette told The Daily Beast. Thats why I went. I was like, I cant put up with this shit.

Like Bramlette, former Marine Troy Offenbecker was compelled to join the fight against Russias invasion early on in the war. He told The Daily Beast that Russian atrocities against Ukrainians reported in the news were part of the final straw that got him geared up to go to war.

Theres a lot of really dumb-ass volunteers over here who have no business being in a war.

Last March Id seen everything that was happening, and when I heard about the international legion, I knew I was going to come, Offenbecker told The Daily Beast in an interview from Kyiv. But at the time I had some obligations that were holding me there. It took me two months I had to sell my house, I sold my vehicles.

Offenbecker spent tim...

17:00

The ultimate technocratic fantasy: a winnable nuclear war. "IndyWatch Feed Pacific"

The Era of Nukes and No Diplomacy: Crossing a Rubicon to Armageddon byEDITORJuly 7, 2023,  https://scheerpost.com/2023/07/07/the-era-of-nukes-and-no-diplomacy-crossing-a-rubicon-to-armageddon/

Professor Jackson Lears warns the Ukraine war has wrought the ultimate technocratic fantasy: a winnable nuclear war.

he Doomsday Clock continues to tick toward nuclear war, but at its fastest pace ever. Professor Jackson Lears, a former naval officer serving on a U.S cruiser carrying tactical nuclear weapons, considers the current moment more frightening than at any time during the Cold War. Then, there was intense alarm for the fate of the earth and the survival of the human race. Today, rather than diplomacy or negotiation, talk revolves around new weapons shipments, disappointment in Ukraines counteroffensive failures, and even drone strikes in Moscow. But far less attention has been paid to the prospect of nuclear war between Russia and the U.S that threatens to end all life on this planet as we know it. That is the alarm sounded by cultural historian and author Jackson Lears who joins host Robert Scheer to discuss Learss essay for Harpers Magazine, Behind the Veil of Indifference.

Learss piece warns that despite the public indifference, a winnable nuclear war has entered the minds of American strategists and politicians once again, undermining years of work towards nuclear disarmament. Lears tells Scheer that it is similar to the attitudes from the Cold War, yet this time, there is an eerie disinterest from the American side about even talking to someone like Vladimir Putin. [T]his is, in a sense, a return to the worst kind of confrontations of the early 1960s but theres a big difference because even Kennedy and even Reagan, cold warriors that they were, were eager to create common ground ultimately between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. And that common ground no longer exists between the U.S. and Russia, and there is no interest in diplomacy at all, Lears said.

Scheer and Lears highlight a critical factor in shaping public perception: the Russiagate controversy and the medias role in complying with government demands for secrecy, beginning in  the late 1970s, while also promoting narratives that fostered consent for war with Russia. Scheer...

13:54

A Bankrupt Calculus: Sending Cluster Munitions to Ukraine "IndyWatch Feed War"

There is a certain desperation in the logic of those who argue that a depraved solution has merit because its only slightly less depraved than that of the opponent.  Torture is bad but should still be used because your adversary feels free to resort to it. Only do so, however, via judicial warrant.  Bombing hospitals is terrible, but when done, select those with military personnel.  Before long, ones moral compass does not so much adjust as vanish into a horizon of relativist horror.

Much of this is evident in the Ukraine War, notably regarding weapons supply and deployment.  Ukraine, the Biden administration has announced, will receive cluster munitions, despite their appalling record as, in the words of a coalition of civil society organisations, indiscriminate weapons that disproportionately harm civilians, both at the time of use and for years after a conflict has ended.  Some detail of this was provided in a July 7 White House press briefing by the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan.

According to Sullivan, Washington based its security assistance decision on Ukraines needs on the ground, and Ukraine needs artillery to sustain its offensive and defensive operations.  It all came down to the sustained use of artillery in the conflict.  Ukraine is firing thousands of rounds a day to defend against Russian efforts to advance and also to support its own efforts to retake its sovereign territory.

Preference shown by Sullivan for the they do it, so we can argument, a vagabonds reasoning.  In an effort to minimise culpability, he reasons that the US has better cluster munitions than those of the Russian military.  (Such a marvellous difference and bound to excite those keen on flimsy moral calculi.)  First, Sullivan makes the claim that Russia had been using cluster munitions since the start of this war to attack Ukraine.  No mention is made of claims by Human Rights Watch that Ukraine has already deployed cluster bombs, notably on Russian-controlled areas in and around Izium in 2022.

A point is also made that Russian forces had been using munitions with a failure rate of between 30 and 40 percent.  In this environment, Ukraine has been requesting cluster munitions in order to defend its own sovereign territory.  The cluster munitions that we would provide have dud rates far below what Russia is doing is providing not higher than 2.5 percent.  The admission is telling, if only because US law and regulations prohibit the transfer of cluster munitions with dud rates higher than 1 percent.

Kyiv has also wo...

13:47

Russian military responds to US drone harassment complaints "IndyWatch Feed War"

RT | July 9, 2023

The Russian Air Force is conducting joint exercises with its Syrian counterparts, so part of the countrys airspace remains off-limits to the US-led forces, the Defense Ministry reiterated after the Pentagon accused Russia of harassing American drones for the third time this week.

The Russian side once again expresses concern about the systematic violations of deconfliction protocols related to the flights of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of the so-called international anti-terrorist coalition, the deputy head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, Rear Adm. Oleg Gurinov, said in a statement on Saturday.

On Friday, the commander of US Air Forces Central, Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, claimed that three MQ-9 drones were once again harassed by Russian fighter aircraft while flying over Syria, for the third day in a row. He shared no footage of the encounters this time, but accused Russian pilots of making 18 unprofessional close passes that caused the MQ-9s to react to avoid unsafe situations.

On Wednesday, Moscow and Damascus kicked off a joint air defense drill, which is scheduled to last until the middle of this month. Electronic warfare units are also involved in the exercise, preparing for joint action to counter enemy airstrikes.

Asked whether the US drones could have indeed flown into a restricted area, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder insisted at a press briefing on Thursday that it would be preposterous to suggest Washington was to blame.

You did you see the video?.. So to suggest that somehow, you know, this is our fault, its ridiculous. So okay?, he told journalists .

Ryder went on to say that US forces have very successfully deconflicted with the Russians over many years but refused to say whether the US was following deconfliction protocols this time.

08:10

Supplying cluster bombs an act of desperation by US Moscow "IndyWatch Feed Africa"

The escalatory move is also an admission of Ukraines failure, a senior Russian diplomat has said The US decision to include cluster munitions in its latest batch of military aid to Kiev is an admission of failure and a desperate attempt to stave off defeat, Russias ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Friday. Cluster []

08:05

Hell on Earth: A mercenarys life in Ukraine "IndyWatch Feed Africa"

Foreign fighters are expected to survive a mere four hours in battle The conflict in Ukraine has drawn in thousands of foreign mercenaries, motivated by glory and, in the Kremlins words, the chance to earn money by killing Slavs. However, those lucky enough to come out alive have described life on the front lines as miserable and []

07:51

Military Situation In Donbass On July 8, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"

Military Situation In Donbass On July 8, 2023 (Map Update)

Click to see full-size image

  • Russian artillery struck AFU positions near Nevskoye;
  • Russian artillery struck AFU positions near Dibrova;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue near Bakhmut;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue near Makarivka;
  • Clashes between Russian forces and the AFU continue in Mariinka;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue near Pervomaiskoye;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue near Avdiivka;
  • Up to 95 Ukrainian servicemen, 1 tank, 4 armored vehicles, 4 pickups, 2 howitzers were destroyed in Krasny Liman region, according to the Russian MOD;
  • Up to 420 Ukrainian servicemen, 3 tanks, 7 infantry vehicles, 4 pickups, 2 howitzers were destroyed in Donetsk region, according to the Russian MOD;
  • Up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers, 2 infantry vehicles, 2 armored vehicles, 3 motor vehicles, 4 artillery systems were destroyed in Zaporozhye region, according to the Russian MOD;
  • The AFU reportedly hit 2 control points, 1 ammo depot, 8 artillery units, 2 anti-aircraft systems, 2 radio stations of Russian Army in the past 24 hours.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

The post...

07:10

Military Situation In Syria On July 8, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"

Military Situation In Syria On July 8, 2023 (Map Update)

Click to see full-size image

  • On July 8, the Russian Ministry of Defense recorded no cases of hostilities and ceasefire violations in Idlib region in the past 24 hours;
  • On July 7, an unknown drone attacked a motorcycle near al-Bab city. One person reportedly was killed;
  • On July 8, unknown gunmen killed a bus driver in Daraa city;
  • On July 8, the US army carried out a patrol near the town of Darbasiya.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

The post Military Situation In Syria On July 8, 2023 (Map Update) appeared first on South Front.

07:00

Russia Truth "IndyWatch Feed War"

 

Russia Truth Russia Truth 
Pro Russia | Anti-NWO
...

06:56

Military Situation In Ukraine On July 8, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"

Military Situation In Ukraine On July 8, 2023 (Map Update)

Click to see full-size image

  • Last night, Russian strikes destroyed warehouses in Kryvyi Rih;
  • Last night, explosions thundered in Dnipro;
  • Russian artillery struck AFU positions near Sinkovka;
  • Russian artillery struck AFU positions near Kharkov;
  • Russian artillery struck AFU positions near Dibrova;
  • Russian artillery struck AFU positions near Yampolovka;
  • Russian artillery destroyed an ammo depot of the AFU near Orikhiv;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue near Orikhiv;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue near Bakhmut;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue in Mariinka;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue near Makarivka;
  • Russian forces destroyed 25 Ukrainian servicemen, 3 motor vehicles, 3 artillery systems, 1 D-20 howitzer in Kupyansk area;
  • Russian forces destroyed 95 Ukrainian servicemen, 1 tank, 4 armored vehicles, 4 pickups, 2 howitzers in Krasny Liman area;
  • Russian forces destroyed 420 Ukrainian servicemen, 3 tanks, 7 infantry vehicles, 4 pickups, 2 howitzers in Donetsk region;
  • Russian forces destroyed 80 Ukrainian servicemen, 11 motor vehicles, and 2 Akatsiya artillery system in Kherson region;
  • Russian air defense systems shot down 13 Ukrainian drones near Velykaya Lepetikha in the Kherson region, Pologi, Konovalova in the Zaporozhye region, Shipilovka in the LPR, Volodino, Valerianovka and Staromikhailovka in the DPR;
  • Russian air defense systems shot down 21 HIMARS and Uragan rocket-propelled projectiles during the past 24 hours;
  • Russian air defense systems shot down a Su-25 warplanes in Zaporozhye region;
  • The AFU reportedly hit 2 control points, 1 ammo depot, 8 artillery units, 2 anti-a...

06:18

Military Situation In Southern Ukraine On July 8, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"

Military Situation In Southern Ukraine On July 8, 2023 (Map Update)

Click to see full-size image

  • Russian artillery struck AFU positions near Lugovskoye;
  • Russian artillery destroyed an ammo depot of the AFU near Orikhiv;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue near Robotyne;
  • Clashes between the Russian Army and the AFU continue near Makarivka;
  • Up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers, 2 infantry vehicles, 2 armored vehicles, 3 motor vehicles, 4 artillery systems were destroyed in Zaporozhye region, according to the Russian MOD;
  • Up to 80 Ukrainian servicemen, 11 motor vehicles, and 2 Akatsiya artillery system were destroyed in Kherson region, according to the Russian MOD;
  • The AFU reportedly hit 2 control points, 1 ammo depot, 8 artillery units, 2 anti-aircraft systems, 2 radio stations of Russian Army in the past 24 hours;
  • Russian air defense systems shot down Ukrainian Su-25 near Odarovka.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

The post Military Situation In Southern Ukraine On July 8, 2023 (Map Update)...

04:49

Lukashenka claims Wagner boss Prigozhin is in Russia, not Belarus "IndyWatch Feed World"

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner -- who led a short-lived mutiny last month -- is in Russia and not in Belarus, the leader of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, claimed. Speaking to reporters in Minsk on July 6, Lukashenka also said that Wagner fighters have remained at the camps where they had lived before the rebellion on June 24. "As for Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus," Lukashenka said, without providing any evidence to support his claim. The whereabouts of Prigozhin have remained unknown since his fighters briefly captured a southern Russian city and marched toward Moscow last month, representing the biggest threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power. On June 27, Lukashenka said that Prigozhin was in Belarus.

03:49

US-backed militia abducts young men in recruitment campaign in eastern Syria "IndyWatch Feed War"

The Cradle | July 8, 2023

Militants of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched massive arrest campaigns targeting young men in the areas under the groups control in northeast Syria, immediately taking them to compulsory recruitment camps, Sputnik reported on 8 July.

Civic and local sources told the Russian news agency that SDF militants loyal to the US army, are launching, for the third day in a row, campaigns of mass arrests and kidnappings of young men born between 1998 to 2005 in all the cities and towns of Hasakah and Raqqa governorates, where more than 500 young men were forcibly conscripted.

The sources added that SDF forces set up permanent and temporary military checkpoints in the cities of Hasakah, Qamishli, and Shaddadi, and arrested large numbers of young men, including university and institute students.

The sources indicated that Hasakah residents demonstrated on 5 July in front of the local SDF recruitment headquarters demanding the immediate release of their conscripted sons. In response, the SDF called in military reinforcements, including US-made armored vehicles, to disperse the sit-in.

In Raqqa, local sources told Sputnik that SDF militants set up a checkpoint near the old bridge in the city to stop passing cars in search of young men to conscript and take to the groups military camps.

Last month, Arab News reported that 13-year-old Kurdish girl, Peyal Aqil, went missing on her way home from a school exam, after being approached by a recruiter for the Revolutionary Youth, a group connected to the SDF and its parent group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). She followed him to one of the groups centers in the city of Qamishli.

Her friends waited for her outside, but she never emerged.

Peyals mother, Hamrin Alouji, said she and her husband complained to local authorities, who refused to help.

The Revolutionary Youth group later said Peyal joined willingly, a claim her mother rejects. We consider that at this age, she cannot give consent, even if she was convinced by the groups program, Alouji said.

A month after her disappearance in May, Peyal managed to run away from one of the training camps and return home.

Arab News notes that according to a UN report issued....

03:31

US Congressman on Decision to Send Cluster Bombs: No One in Biden Admin Seeks Peace in Ukraine "IndyWatch Feed War"

Sputnik 08.07.2023

WASHINGTON Paul Gosar noted that Ukraines counteroffensive had gained little to nothing, as Russia had stopped the US weapon-backed Ukrainian troops.

The United States has no business to be involved in the Ukraine conflict, Republican Congressman Paul Gosar told Sputnik on Saturday, commenting on Washingtons decision to send cluster munitions to Kiev.

I condemn the ongoing war and [US President Joe] Bidens latest decision to escalate the conflict by sending cluster munitions to Ukraine. I continue to call for peace talks, as I have since March 2022, and I continue to maintain that the United States has no business in this war, Gosar said.

No one in the Biden administration or in NATO is seeking peace to resolve the Ukraine crisis, so the conflict is still ongoing, Gosar added.

Moreover, he noted that Ukraines counteroffensive had gained little to nothing, as Russia had stopped the US weapon-backed Ukrainian troops.

On Friday, the United States unveiled a new military assistance package for Ukraine that includes cluster munitions. The weapons are banned by the international convention, which has been ratified by 123 countries, excluding the US and Ukraine.

Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov warned on Friday that the decision by the US to deliver cluster munitions to Ukraine was a provocation pushing humankind closer to a new world war.

02:09

Straight Outta Riga: Latvias Military Support For Ukraine "IndyWatch Feed War"


By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
The following list attempts to keep track of military equipment delivered or pledged to Ukraine by Latvia shortly before and during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The entries below are sorted by armament category (with a flag denoting the country of origin). Due to the confidential nature of Latvia's arms deliveries they can serve only as a lower bound to the total volume of weaponry delivered. This list will be updated as further military support is uncovered or declared.
 
** Donated by Latvians and Latvian companies to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
 
(Click on the vehicle or equipment type to get a picture of them)
 

Transport And Utility Helicopters (6)

  • 2 Mi-2s [August 2022]
  • 4 Mi-8/17s [Two delivered in August 2022. Two more pledged in January 2023]

Reconnaissance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

  • ...

01:47

01:44

00:54

Zelensky Cancels All Elections Becomes Dictator for Life "IndyWatch Feed National"

QUESTION: Is it true that Zelensky is canceling elections?

HZ

ANSWER: On June 22, 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a dictator installed by the West to create World War III against Russia. Zelensky told the BBC that Ukraines scheduled 2023 parliamentary and 2024 presidential elections would occur only if martial law had ended by that time, as reported by the New Voice of Ukraine. Hence, he has a personal reason not to seek any peace whatsoever.

There is NO WAY Zelensky is fighting for democracy -0 this is all propaganda. He hates Russians and refuses to allow them to separate as per the Mink Agreement and, at the same time, refuses them to vote in any Ukrainian election, no less for their independence. Zelensky is an outright war criminal, and over 8 million Ukrainians have now fled their own country because he refuses to end the war and is destroying his own country all for Blackrocks investment scheme. His own people would remove him from office, so he cannot allow any election, and there is no way NATO or the USA will allow free elections in Ukraine.

 

 

There is no way this war will end without the Donbas destruction and Russias fall. It is a proxy war that the United States started. CIA chief John Brennan traveled to Kiev in 2014 and instructed them to begin the civil war. Kiev called the Russians of the Donbas terrorist because they sought independence from LKiev just as Kiev sought independence from Moscow.

...

00:33

SOTT FOCUS: Dmitry Medvedev: The Age of Confrontation "IndyWatch Feed World"

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, on how the tectonic civilizational rift can and should be resolved Comment: This article has been translated from the original Russian. The translator has offered alternative renderings of some passages in square brackets. When it seems that the whole world is against you, remember that the plane does not take off in the wind, but against it. source unknown, but attributed to Henry Ford and mentioned by Ayn Rand. Once again, the West has raised a white noise and continues to pour accusations against Russia with all its might. Everyone is trying - from the [senile] senators in the U.S. Senate, sick with heavy Russophobia, to the unstable old men in the White House. It would seem that everything has long been said and done. Why are Western politicians again spouting nonsense about the need for a "strong signal" about Kiev's protectorate's participation in the North Atlantic Alliance? Why do they continue to conjure...

00:25

Biden Admin Lying to Americans About Everything to Do With Ukraine RJK Jr "IndyWatch Feed War"

Sputnik 08.07.2023

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the present 2024 presidential hopeful and nephew to assassinated former US President John F Kennedy, previously said at a town hall event that the Ukraine crisis had been turned by Washington into a proxy war between Russia and the United States.

The federal government under the Joe Biden administration has been blatantly lying to the Americans about everything to do with Ukraine, said Robert F Kennedy Jr, in an interview for Judge Andrew Napolitano on his Judging Freedom podcast.

This was a sell job that they gave us on Ukraine, insisted the 2024 Democratic candidate for US President.

The Russians tried to avoid a war wanted to sign the Minsk Accords a reasonable document to keep NATO out of Ukraine, with Ukraine remaining neutral That [US] remove the Aegis missile systems from Romania, Poland, and that the murder the wholesale killing of ethnic Russians in the Donbass by the Ukrainian government that America put in power stop. Those are all things that we should have agreed to, stated the nephew of assassinated former US President John F Kennedy.

He added that Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky won in 2019 by promising to sign the Minsk accords. The complex series of measures negotiated by Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine in 2014-2015 in a bid to put an end to the armed conflict between the Kiev authorities and the breakaway region of Donbas. Moscow repeatedly stated that Kiev was not fulfilling the deal, for example not granting self-government to the Russian-speaking region of Donbass. In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted he never intended to implement the Minsk agreements, with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Former French President Franois Hollande, who participated in the Normandy format, admitting the same.

It is existential for the Russians they have a legitimate national security interest, Robert F Kennedy Jr pointed out, referring to Moscows ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.

[The US] wanted the war, for the reasons that Biden has said The real reason for the war in Ukraine is regime change in Russia, Kennedy emphasized in the interview on the Judging Freedom podcast.

Kennedy previously slammed decades of policy conducted by the US and NATO toward Ukraine and Russia for fueling the current conflagration.

We have neglected many, many opportunities to settle this war peacefully, Kennedy said in June during a live town hall event with NewsNation. He added that Washington had turned the ongoing conflagration in Ukraine into a proxy war waged by the United States against Russia....

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23:32

UK requests for taking extreme care of Challenger 2 tanks make them useless for Ukrainian army "IndyWatch Feed War"

By Drago Bosnic | July 8, 2023

It has been only a few weeks after the entire world saw the absolute debacle of NATOs much-touted heavy armor. The event was accurately predicted by various independent experts and analysts mere days before the wanton counteroffensive. At that point, it became obvious that decades of close cooperation between the former Ukrainian military and NATO were effectively pointless. This also includes nearly a decade of much more intensive cooperation between the belligerent alliance and the (then newly installed) Neo-Nazi junta that focused on interoperability and the implementation of NATO standards.

However, the Kiev regime forces performance against even the conscripted (although battle-hardened) Donbass militias within the Russian military has not only left much to be desired, but is essentially quite poor in comparison to the massive amount of funds the Neo-Nazi junta is getting. And although the counteroffensive is still ongoing, resulting in largely insignificant gains (that are still firmly under Russian fire control), the results for heavy armor have been catastrophic, to say the least. The mainstream propaganda machine initially kept trying to conceal the horrible losses of NATO-sourced tanks and armored vehicles.

However, ample battlefield footage published by alternative platforms (particularly those on Telegram) made this an impossible task. As a result, the delivery of Western-made weapons, munitions and other equipment that was previously spearheaded by countries such as the US, UK, Poland, the Baltic states, etc. seems to be slowing down. Although London was the first to pledge heavy armor and long-range missiles, as well as banned depleted uranium munitions that can leave disastrous consequences, it is now quietly backing down from its commitments to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.

Namely, the UK command is now seeking guarantees from the Kiev regime forces that will ensure no UK-supplied Challenger 2 MBTs (main battle tanks) are destroyed or captured by the Russian military. Apart from the effectively impossible ROE (rules of engagement), London wants the Neo-Nazi junta to follow other strict requirements that also apply to their every movement even in western parts of Ukraine, which is hundreds of kilometers away from the frontline. This includes special requests for storage to prevent long-range strikes, which effectively makes the Challenger 2 the most...

23:28

Erdogan tells Zelensky Ukraine deserves Nato membership "IndyWatch Feed War"

Erdogan tells Zelensky Ukraine deserves Nato membership

Turkey's president offers Ukraine backing over membership of military alliance following meeting in Istanbul
MEE staff Sat, 07/08/2023 - 14:28
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, followed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arrives to deliver a joint press conference at the Vahdettin Mansion in Istanbul on 7 July 2023 (AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has backed Ukraine's bid to join Nato, following a meeting in Istanbul with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky's visit to Turkey on Friday was part of a tour of other Nato nations ahead of the North Atlantic alliance's two-day summit next week, at which the Ukrainian president hopes to get clarity on his country's bid to join. 

At a televised press conference on Saturday morning, Erdogan said that "Ukraine deserves Nato membership with no doubt". But the Turkish leader also said he would be hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin in August.

Ukraine applied to join Nato last September, seven months after Russia launched its invasion of the country. The alliance has as its bedrock a commitment to mutual defence, which means that, if Ukraine were admitted as a member, Nato would be pulled into an active war with Russia. 

In an interview to be broadcast by CNN on Sunday, US President Joe Biden said that he did not think "there is unanimity in Nato about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the Nato family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war".

...

22:47

The Ever Widening War "IndyWatch Feed Economics"

The Ever Widening War

If the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is destroyed, it will be a disastrous consequence of Putin permitting the conflict to continue

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/07/michael-snyder/dont-look-now-but-utter-chaos-is-being-unleashed-all-over-the-world/ 

22:02

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence from Ancient Imagination to an Interconnected Future "IndyWatch Feed Tech"

Between at least 1995 and 2010, I was seen as a lunatic just because I was preaching the Internet prophecy. I was considered crazy!

Today history repeats itself, but Im no longer crazy we are already too many to all be hallucinating. Or maybe its a collective hallucination!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a novelty I even believe it may have existed in its fullness in a very distant and forgotten past! Nevertheless, it is now the topic of the moment.

Its genesis began in antiquity with stories and rumors of artificial beings endowed with intelligence, or even consciousness, by their creators.

Pamela McCorduck (19402021), an American author of several books on the history and philosophical significance of Artificial Intelligence, astutely observed that the root of AI lies in an ancient desire to forge the gods.

Hmmmm!

Its a story that continues to be written! There is still much to be told, however, the acceleration of its evolution is now exponential. So exponential that I highly doubt that human beings will be able to comprehend their own creation in a timely manner.

Although the term Artificial Intelligence was coined in 1956(1), the concept of creating intelligent machines dates back to ancient times in human history. Since ancient times, humanity has nurtured a fascination with building artifacts that could imitate or reproduce human intelligence. Although the technologies of the time were limited and the notions of AI were far from developed, ancient civilizations somehow explored the concept of automatons and automated mechanisms.

For example, in Ancient Greece, there are references to stories of automatons created by skilled artisans. These mechanical creatures were designed to perform simple and repetitive tasks, imitating basic human actions. Although these automatons did not possess true intelligence, these artifacts fueled peoples imagination and laid the groundwork for the development of intelligent machines.

Throughout the centuries, the idea of building intelligent machines continued to evolve, driven by advances in science and technology. In the 19th century, scientists and inventors such as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace made significant contributions to the development of computing and the early concepts of progra...

20:10

Dirty Bomb Attack Articles Have Already Been Written by British Press Blaming Russia "IndyWatch Feed War"

John Pilger was right. The killing fields of Ukraine are the setting of an even greater war, one of propaganda. It is quite extraordinary how so much of what we read in the UK press originates from a U.S.-funded propaganda bureau in Kiev so much so that it has become the norm for an event Continue reading Dirty Bomb Attack Articles Have Already Been Written by British Press Blaming Russia

19:22

Encoding integers and rationals on neuromorphic computers using virtual neuron "IndyWatch Feed Tech"

Neuromorphic computers perform computations by emulating the human brain1. Akin to the human brain, they are extremely energy efficient in performing computations2. For instance, while CPUs and GPUs consume around 70250 W of power, a neuromorphic computer such as IBMs TrueNorth consumes around 65 mW of power, (i.e., 45 orders of magnitude less power than CPUs and GPUs)3. The structural and functional units of neuromorphic computation are neurons and synapses, which can be implemented on digital or analog hardware and can have different architectures, devices, and materials in their implementations4. Although there are a wide variety of neuromorphic computing systems, we focus our attention on spiking neuromorphic systems composed of these neurons and synapses. Spiking neuromorphic hardware implementations include Intels Loihi...

19:16

Putin Predicts Bidens Defeat in Ukraines War "IndyWatch Feed Asia"

Russias President Vladimir Putin, delivering the keynote address at the June 16th opening session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Conference, after being introduced by the Plenary session moderator Dimitri Simes, said that (and these are highlights from that address): Our economy and Russian businesses faced the biggest challenges during []

The post Putin Predicts Bidens Defeat in Ukraines War   appeared first on OrientalReview.org.

18:12

CIA Director William Burns Presents . A World Transformed and the Role of Intelligence "IndyWatch Feed Enviro"

A bicyclist rides near the Potomac River on June 7 in Washington as skies are hazy from Canadian wildfire smoke. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Annual Ditchley Foundation Lecture in Oxfordshire, England

Excerpt from Speech of William Burns on July 1, 2023

My job now is to help President Biden and senior policymakers understand and shape a world transformed. And as the president reminds us, we are at an inflection point.

The post-Cold War era is over. Our task is to shape what comes next investing in our foundational strengths and working in common cause with our unmatched network of alliances and partnerships to leave for future generations a world that is more free, open, secure and prosperous.

That is a very tall order. Our success will depend on our ability to navigate a world with three distinctive features.

1. First is the challenge of strategic competition from a rising and ambitious China and from a Russia that constantly reminds us that declining powers can be at least as disruptive as rising ones.

2.:Second are the problems without passports, such as pandemics and the climate crisis, which are beyond the reach of any one country to address and are growing more extreme and existential.

3. And third is the revolution in technology, which is transforming how we live, work, fight and compete, with possibilities and risks we cant yet fully grasp.

Those singular challenges sometimes conflict with one another, with cooperation on shared global problems both more vital and more difficult, too often the victim of strategic competition. And the revolution in technology is both a main arena for that competition and a phenomenon in which some basic partnership is crucial to set rules of the road.

The most immediate and acute challenge to international order today is Vladimir Putins full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

+++++*****+++++*****+++++

Whats more, we do not have the option of focusing on a single geopolitical pacing threat. We face an equal threat to international order and indeed to the lives and livelihoods of our people from shared or transnational challenges, of which the climate crisis poses the most clear and present danger. We can no longer talk about tipping points and cata......

17:44

Despite Zelenskys claims, theres no evidence that Russia has rigged Ukraines Zaporizhzhya plant with explosives, nuclear watchdog says "IndyWatch Feed Pacific"

Business Insider, Charles R. Davis , Jul 8, 2023

  • The IAEA said Friday theres no sign Russia plans to destroy the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
  • Inspectors have not seen any mines or explosives, according to the head of the nuclear watchdog.
  • However, the IAEA said its experts have not been provided full access to the facility.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog said Friday that it has seen no evidence that Russia intends to blow up the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, a finding that comes after the head of Ukraines military intelligence walked back an earlier warning of impending disaster.

In a status report on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which Russian forces occupied soon after last years full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said inspectors were recently provided some additional access to the facility after Ukraine claimed it had been rigged with bombs..

Russia has repeatedly denied it has any intention of causing a nuclear disaster. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov this week argued that the real threat is Ukrainian sabotage..  https://www.businessinsider.com/no-sign-russia-has-mined-zaporizhzhya-plant-nuclear-watchdog-says-2023-7

15:16

NATO plans escalation against Russia at Vilnius summit "IndyWatch Feed War"

Andre Damon World Socialist Website July 7, 2023

Next week, on July 11-12, NATO will hold a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the military alliance is expected to announce plans to rapidly expand military spending, surge troops to Russias borders, and dramatically increase its involvement in the war in Ukraine.

At the last NATO summit in June 2022, the alliance pledged to deliver the full range of forces needed for high-intensity, multi-domain warfighting against nuclear-armed peer competitors.

Under conditions in which the much vaunted counteroffensive by the Ukrainian military has turned into a protracted debacle, NATO is under pressure to directly intervene in the conflict to ensure its goal of, in the words of a former NATO commander, breaking the back of Russia.

Against the backdrop of this supercharged climate, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of mining the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) with the aim of blowing it up.

In a video address published Tuesday, Zelensky said that every day, we are adding content to the NATO summit that will take place in Vilnius next week, which will ensure security in Europe, before turning to the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Zelensky claimed that Russian troops have placed objects resembling explosives on the roof of several power units of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. He accused Russia of aiming to commit new evil at the plant, adding, It is the responsibility of everyone in the world to stop it.

Contrary to Zelenskys statements, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement that no visible indications of mines or explosives have been observed at the plant, which is under monitoring by the organization.

The framing of Zelenskys comments make clear that they are an effort to use any potential incident or provocation at the plant as a pretext for more direct military involvement by NATO in the conflict.

In an article published last week in Politico, Ivo Daalder, former US ambassador to NATO, called for the alliance to respond to any deliberate nuclear incident with direct intervention into the conflict.

In case of any deliberate nuclear incident, the US and key NATO allies need to intervene directly and bring the war to a swift and complete end by helping Ukraine restore control over all its territory, Daalder wrote.

In an article in February on the revelation by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh that the United States and Ukraine had direct involvement in the bombing of the German-Russian Nord Stream pipeline, the World Socialist Web Site warned that the Unit...

15:12

Ukraine Biden Again Escalates "IndyWatch Feed War"

Moon of Alabama July 7, 2023

The Washington Post says that the U.S. will now give cluster munition to Ukraine.

Biden approves cluster munition supply to Ukraine

President Biden has approved the provision of U.S. cluster munitions for Ukraine, with drawdown of the weapons from Defense Department stocks due to be announced Friday.

The munition will be 155mm grenades, Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM), that can be fired by western provided artillery.

bigger

The decision, likely illegal, was made because the U.S. and its allies have run out of other 155mm munitions:

The move, which will bypass U.S. law prohibiting the production, use or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1 percent, comes amid concerns about Kyivs lagging counteroffensive against entrenched Russian troops and dwindling Western stocks of conventional artillery.

It is accompanied by false statements that Russia has used such ammunition in Ukraine:

Cont. reading: Ukraine Biden Again Escalates

15:00

Is Challenging the Governments Building 7 Narrative Going Mainstream? "IndyWatch Feed War"

Armageddon Prose via Blacklist News July 6, 2023

Disputing the strictly enforced false consensus surrounding the events of 9/11 has long been a third rail in American politics.

Anyone who broaches the topic with even the mildest skepticism of the governments mythology about that day immediately disqualifies himself from polite society.

There is almost no narrative, save for perhaps the one related to the Holocaust, that is more strictly enforced through social pressure, shaming, and, of course, outright censorship.

But, long overdue as it is, it appears the dam may be breaking.

I reported previously at Armageddon Prose on Tucker Dark Carlso crossing the 9/11 Rubicon by speculating about what may have actually caused the freefall collapse of Building 7 that looked very much like a controlled demolition but which the authorities insist was the result of a structure fire, despite the odd fact that all of the foundation appears to have failed at exactly the same time.

Now Kim Iversen admittedly not as huge of a figure as Tucker Carlson has followed in his footsteps, inviting onto her show executive director of the International Center for 9/11 Justice Ted Walter to make the case, based on empirical observations about the many anomalies of the buildings collapse into its own footprint at freefall speed, that Building 7 did not come down organically.

.

Call it the Alex Jones-ification of the independent, populist media.

One of the net benefits of the now universally debunked Public Health  COVID-19 lies that surgical masks prevent transmission, that the vaxxes prevent transmission and contraction, that mass vaccination would end the pandemic, etc....

10:59

Trkiyes Support for Ukraines NATO Membership Outlines a Dangerous Scenario Worldwide "IndyWatch Feed Africa"

Yoselina Guevara Lpez On July 7, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said we are the country that has made the most important efforts to end the war through negotiations based on international law between Moscow and Kiev, adding Ukraine deserves to join NATO. These statements of the Turkish leader were made during a press conference on...

Read More

10:37

Pan-African News Wire "IndyWatch Feed Africa"

GT Voice: China Relies on its Advantages to Break US Containment on AI

By Global Times

Jul 06, 2023 11:03 PM

AI Photo:VCG

While China's artificial intelligence (AI) development may be facing headwinds from a US crackdown in terms of AI chip restrictions, the enthusiasm of Chinese companies for AI applications is likely to lead the country's AI development down a different path. 

With the theme of "Intelligent Connectivity, Generating Future," the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2023 is being held in Shanghai from Thursday to Saturday, covering the four sections of core technology, intelligent terminals, application enablement and trending innovations. The sixth WAIC features more than 400 exhibitors showcasing their products in a 50,000-square-meter exhibition area, both hitting record highs in terms of the number of exhibitors and exhibition area, according to official sources.

It is true that there is still a gap between China's basic algorithms and the world's top level. This may be because China's AI industry is based on the internet industry, which is characterized with huge market data and various commercial application scenarios. These advantages may also determine that China doesn't necessarily follow the US path of AI development and play catch-up in specific sphere as if it's the only way. The key for China's AI development is to integrate its market and application advantages with Chinese manufacturing. 

The industrial conference comes at a time when the US is reportedly preparing to step up the curbs on China's AI computing power. For instance, a report from The Wall Street Journal said this week that the Biden administration is preparing to restrict Chinese companies' access to US cloud-computing services. Last week, the US is reportedly considering new restrictions on exports of AI chips to China.

There is no denying that as AI development has become a key competitive field as AI technology is bound to point to more diverse application scenarios and possibilities bas...

10:03

Russias Indigenous Heartland "IndyWatch Feed War"

Oleg Yasinsky Oleg Yasinsky and Jos Salcedo (Image by Pressenza) My friend, the Ecuadorian anthropologist Jos Salcedo, a researcher of shamanic cultures and civilisational crises, had a dream: he wanted to get to know the ancestral Siberian cultures and be able to compare their oral creation myths and healing ceremonies with those of the indigenous...

Read More

04:45

U.S. Considering Sending Cluster Munitions to Ukraine "IndyWatch Feed War"

Update: U.S. to Send Ukraine Cluster Munitions, NATO Makes Membership Pledge: The United States announced on Friday that it would supply Ukraine with widely banned cluster munitions for its counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces, and NATOs leader said the military alliance would unite at a summit next week on how to bring Ukraine closer to []

03:24

Fake News from NBC on US-Russian talks about an off ramp to the Ukraine war in April 2023 that never took place "IndyWatch Feed War"

By Gilbert Doctorow July 6, 2023

News portals in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe were quick to pick up a feature item today on NBCNews.com entitled Former U.S. officials have held secret Ukraine talks with prominent Russians. The subtitle goes on: The aim of the discussions is to lay the groundwork for potential negotiations to end the war, people briefed on the talks tell NBC News.

The very notion that such talks could have taken place elicited disparaging comments from the usual suspects who would not miss a chance to be in the public eye: former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, and Matt Dimmick, a former Russia and Eastern Europe director at the National Security Council. Said comments form part of the NBC report.

This news item also surfaced on Russian state television in the early evening edition of Sixty Minutes under the heading Fake News. Their panel discussion opened with an announcement from the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responding to what is said in the second paragraph in the NBC article, which reads:

In a high-level example of the back-channel diplomacy taking place behind the scenes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with members of the group for several hours in April in New York, four former officials and two current officials told NBC News.

Per Lavrov, no such meeting ever took place and there are no back channels.

And then the Sixty Minutes panel was off to the races, as we say.

They listed the former U.S. officials who were said to have taken part in the meeting Charles Kupchan, Richard Haass, and Thomas Graham, all members of the Foreign Relations Council and, as they stressed with truculent humor, all are decidedly very former. Their heyday was decades ago and today none of them holds a rank that would justify Lavrovs spending any time with them, let alone discussing the basic principles for some negotiated settlement of the Russia-Ukraine war. They are just a bunch of old academics who get together to reminisce about the arms control negotiations of the distant past and similar issues long ago laid to rest.

After breaking its fake news story, NBC spent the greater part of its article talking about how back channel communications, dubbed Track Two talks, function and what utility they have in general.

To be sure, backchannels have served a constructive purpose in U.S. Russian relations in the not too distant past, though I doubt that journalist Josh Lederman has a clue about this. Thomas Grahams former mentor and associate, Henry Kissinger, had been an important initiator of such an outreach back in the sum.....

03:08

Biden in Trouble: Iran/ China Tighten the Noose "IndyWatch Feed Economics"

Glory Days Ahead

Most people will never know the real authors of the American victory over the Soviets, the Japanese and whoever comes next, should the U.S. prevail. Many, if not all of the best ingenuities and innovations come from employees at the Pentagon or the CIA, who have a high conviction idea and run with it.

In 2019, one such person, a strategist named Andrew Marshall, sometimes referred to as the Brain of the Pentagon, died.

When he theorized on how to beat the Soviets and crush communism, the USSR was at its peak.

Their military presence was tremendous and they had forces throughout Europe.

Their ability to manufacture vast and seemingly endless numbers of weapons and war machines was proving to be a great obstacle for the U.S. to contend with.

It was Andrew Marshall who came up with the idea, then described as pure science fiction, to shift the focus from beating the Soviets in massing of equipment and to completely turn the attention to precision.

Today, we cant even imagine a missile launched without a chip guiding it using satellite and GPS, assisted by remote-computing, straight to the target, but in Vietnam, the United States used 800,000 tons of bombs more than what they used in WW2 but most didnt hit the target!

If the U.S. was to win the fight over communism, Marshall reasoned, it had to do so on the technological front. This birthed the era of guided cruise missiles, which, ultimately, using the first Gulf War as an exhibition, showed the Soviets that if they were to aggravate the Americans, theyd see missiles over Moscow.

...

02:54

Vietnam makes pledge to 'always support' Russia "IndyWatch Feed World"

Vietnam is committed to preserving and developing cooperation with Russia regardless of changing international circumstances, Deputy Defense Minister Hoang Xuan Chien told senior Russian officials during his visit to Moscow this week. "Whatever difficulties Russia faces, Vietnam always supports Russia," the general told Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu on Thursday. Later in the day, he reiterated the message to Deputy Prime Minister for Tourism, Sport, Culture and Communications Dmitry Chernyshenko: "Vietnam will be with you under any circumstances." The senior Vietnamese military official was visiting Russia to update the strategic roadmap for long-term cooperation, which Moscow and Hanoi agreed to develop two years ago. According to Chernyshenko, the Russian government has almost completed its contribution for the comprehensive document and will soon deliver it to its Vietnamese partners.

02:28

Russian Troops Seize Near Intact UK Storm Shadow Missile, To Be Checked By Specialists "IndyWatch Feed War"

Sputnik 07.07.2023

On May 11, Ukraine affirmed that it had received the first, long-anticipated, British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which were sent by the United Kingdom. The weapon is designed to destroy bunkers and other rugged, hard-to-reach targets.

Russian servicemen from the BARS-11 volunteer unit and the Tsars Wolves captured an almost intact British Storm Shadow cruise missile from the line of contact and handed it over to specialists for examination, said Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Tsars Wolves military and technical center.

Im glad it was our unit that did it. Now our air defense will shoot this thing down, and it will gradually become useless, Rogozin stressed.

According to him, the missile was almost undamaged.

The missile was dismantled into several parts by our technicians right on the battlefield, the high-explosive and shaped-charge parts separately, and the control unit separately, while the wing was folded up for easy transportation, Rogozin clarified.

A functioning GPS tracker was there, which could have directed the strike team to the opponent. Even though we blocked it, our fighters had to relocate all the time and even engaged in battle the enemys sabotage and recon unit tried to catch the car with the rocket and an accompanying vehicle on the road, Rogozin added.

It took two days to evacuate the captured missile, but now it will benefit the Russian Armed Forces.

02:06

Keep Ukraine out of NATO, US experts argue "IndyWatch Feed War"

RT | July 7, 2023

Welcoming Ukraine into NATO would force the US to choose between nuclear war with Russia or abandoning its security commitments to Kiev, two American analysts claimed on Friday.

The security benefits to the United States of Ukrainian accession pale in comparison with the risks of bringing it into the alliance, Justin Logan and Joshua Shifrinson of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine.

If Ukraine were to join the alliance amid the ongoing hostilities, Logan and Shifrinson argued, the US and all of NATOs European members would immediately be pulled into open war with Russia, with the potential for a nuclear exchange. However, even if the conflict were to be resolved, Ukraine and Russia will still have competing territorial claims, and a membership offer would risk reigniting the conflict, this time with NATO as a direct participant, they added.

Under these circumstances, an American commitment to fight for Ukraine would be open to question, they continued. If Ukraine were a NATO member and US policymakers chose not to intervene on its behalf, the blocs entire collective defense principle would be undermined, resulting in a true credibility crisis for NATO.

Furthermore, with the US protected by its nuclear arsenal and the vast Atlantic Ocean, the two analysts argued that America faces no direct threat from Russia, while Ukraine due to its geography forms a bulwark between Western Europe and Russia irrespective of NATO membership.

American time, attention, and resources are needed elsewhere, Logan and Shifrinson wrote, concluding that the United States should accept that it is high time to close NATOs door to Ukraine.

Since the 2008 Bucharest Declaration, NATOs official policy is that Ukraine will become a member of the bloc at an unspecified future date. Kiev, however, is unhappy with this non-commitment, with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky reportedly threatening not to attend NATOs upcoming summit in Lithuania unless the US-led bloc offers concrete security guarantees or a roadmap to full membership.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has already ruled out a membership offer at the Vilnius summit. French President Emmanuel Macron, however, has called on the alliances leaders to offer Kiev bilateral or multilateral security guarantees, as well as a path to full-fledged membership. British Defense Minister Ben Wallace and a number of Eastern European leaders have called for Ukraine to be fast-tracked into the bloc without the usual membership action plan that prospective members must complete.

The White Ho...

02:04

Cluster munitions: What danger do these weapons pose to civilians? "IndyWatch Feed War"

Cluster munitions: What danger do these weapons pose to civilians?

As reports suggest the US plans to send cluster bombs to Ukraine, MEE breaks down where these munitions have been used and why they're banned in so many countries
MEE staff Fri, 07/07/2023 - 17:04
A man shows detonated cluster bombs in a field in the southern Lebanese village of Deir Qanun an-Nahr on 7 September 2006.
A man shows detonated cluster bombs in a field in the southern Lebanese village of Deir Qanun an-Nahr on 7 September 2006 (AFP)

The Biden administration on Friday announced it would be providing cluster munitions to Ukraine as Kiev continues to fight off an invasion by Russia, several US outlets have reported citing American officials.

The measure to send the bombs has been under serious consideration for at least a week, according to the reports. Sending cluster munitions would fulfil a long-held ask from Ukraine, which says they can be used to aid their campaign to push through a counteroffensive against Russia.

But the reports have been met with concerns, as the munitions have been used in previous conflicts around the world, leading to civilian casualties.

They have also been banned by more than 100 countries, including France and the United Kingdom.

"The Biden administration's decision to transfer cluster munitions will contribute to the terrible casualties being suffered by Ukrainian civilians both immediately and for years to come," Paul Hannon, vice chair of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition, said in a statement on Friday.

...

01:47

How So Many Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Nukes "IndyWatch Feed War"

Social psychosis is widespread.  In the words of the British psychiatrist, R. D. Laing, The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of ones mind, is the condition of the normal man.

He was not referring to raving, drooling, hitting-your-head-against-the-wall lunacy but a taken-for-granted acceptance of a world long teetering on the edge of nuclear extinction, to take the most extreme example, but surely only one of many.  The insouciant acceptance and support of psychotic rulers who promote first-strike nuclear war is very common.  First strike nuclear policy is United States policy.

I recently wrote an article about the dangers of the fourteen U.S. Trident submarines.  These subs constantly cruise under the oceans carrying 3,360 nuclear warheads equivalent to 134,400 Hiroshima bombs.  All are on first strike triggers.  And, of course, these are supplemented by all the land and air based nukes.  My point was not very complicated: now that the United States government has abrogated all nuclear weapons treaties and continues to escalate its war against Russia in Ukraine, we are closer to nuclear annihilation than ever before.

This conclusion is shared by many esteemed thinkers such as the late Daniel Ellsberg who died  on June 16, 2023 and whose 2017 book The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, makes clear that nuclear war, waged intentionally or by mistake or accident, is very possible. In the months before he died, he warned that this is now especially true with the situation in Ukraine and the U.S. provocations against China.

The Grayzones Max Blumenthal recently addressed the UN Security Council on the danger of U.S. actions in Ukraine and asked:

Will we see another Douma deception, but this time in Zaporizhzhia?

Why are we doing this? Why are we tempting nuclear annihilation by flooding Ukraine with advanced weapons and sabotaging negotiations at every turn?

Finian Cunningham has just raised the specter of a thermonuclear catastrophe initiated by a U.S./Ukrainian false flag attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.

So my article was in no way unusual, except for my concentration on the Trident submarines.

When, against my better judgment, I read some commentators responses to my piece at a few websites where my article was posted, I was taken aback when I read the following [all emphases are mine]:

  • Like many other boo...

Friday, 07 July

21:13

NBC reports US officials held secret Ukraine talks with top Russian diplomat in April - Zakharova immediately calls it 'fake news and disinfo' "IndyWatch Feed World"

The aim of the discussions is to lay the groundwork for potential negotiations to end the war, people briefed on the talks told NBC News. A group of former senior U.S. national security officials has held secret talks with prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin and, in at least one case, with the country's top diplomat with the aim of laying the groundwork for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, half a dozen people briefed on the discussions said. In a high-level example of the back-channel diplomacy taking place behind the scenes, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov met with members of the group for several hours in April in New York, four former officials and two current officials said. On the agenda were some of the thorniest issues in the war in Ukraine, like the fate of Russian-held territory that Ukraine may never be able to liberate and the search for an elusive diplomatic off-ramp that could be tolerable to both sides.

10:00

What Is at Stake for Africa in the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg? "IndyWatch Feed War"

Nicodemus Minde The idea of Africa as a global balancing power is entrenched in the notion of the balance of power, which in stricter terms refers to the distribution of power among states as the major actors in international relations in order to prevent any one state from becoming more dominant as the sole hegemon....

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