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Taliban storm Afghanistan's Farah city near Iranian border


aa.com.tr
Sun, 08 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
taliban fighter
© screenshot
The Taliban on Tuesday entered Farah city in western Afghanistan, making it the ninth provincial center to be partly or fully captured by the insurgents.

Acknowledging coordinated Taliban assaults on the city which serves as the capital of Farah province, local police spokesman Farooq Khalid told Anadolu Agency that intense clashes between government forces and the Taliban fighters were underway. He claimed that over 80 advancing Taliban insurgents were killed by security forces.

The Taliban, however, claimed to have reached the city center. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed tweeted:
"Two checkpoints were captured near the intelligence and police command center a moment ago, and the 'Mujahideen' launched their attacks on the intelligence and police command center. The battle continues and the 'Mujahideen' advance."
In a major push to repel advancing Taliban from urban centers, the Afghan forces claimed to kill 361 insurgents in air and ground offensives in the past 24 hours.

The Defense Ministry said the operations were conducted in the Nangarhar, Kunar, Logar, Paktia, Paktika, Maidan Wardak, Kandahar, Sar-e Pol, Helmand, Kunduz, and Baghlan provinces.

Farah became the ninth provincial capital after Qala-e-Nau, Lashkargah, Zaranj, Sheberghan, Kunduz, Taluqan, Aybak, and Sar-e-Pul to have been at least partly overrun by the Taliban.

Comment: See also:



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Chess

Thousands of Russian, Uzbek & Tajik troops rehearse turning back enemy offensive on Afghan border amid fears of Taliban incursions


RT
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 20:04 UTC
russian tank
Large-scale wargames have been held in Tajikistan, bringing together soldiers from three former Soviet republics to practice targeting enemy combatants and securing the border with neighboring Afghanistan, as the US withdraws.

On Tuesday, the commander of Russia's Central Military District, which helped to organize the drills, told TASS that the battle simulations were an important part of "protecting our countries from military aggression" in an increasingly unstable part of the world.

"We are completing joint exercises of the armed forces of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation," he said, adding that "for the first time, the use of multiple service branches with massive aviation, reconnaissance and artillery support is being conducted, based on the experience we have gained from the conflict in Syria."
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Quenelle - Golden

US has NO mandate in Syria & America's interpretation of international law is 'ridiculous,' says Russian ambassador

Jonny Tickle
RT
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 09:27 UTC
US soldier Syria
© AFP / Delil SOULEIMAN
FILE PHOTO. A US soldier in the Syrian village of al-Hashisha on the outskirts of Tal Abyad town.
Washington has no legal mandate to keep its armed forces in Syria, and the presence of American soldiers in the country contradicts the 2015 UN Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire and a political settlement.

That's according to the Russian embassy in Washington, which responded to a tweet by Wayne Marotto, the official military spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the American campaign in the Middle East to defeat ISIS.

Writing on social media, Marotto said that the US has a "clear mandate under international law" to keep boots on the ground in Syria.

Comment: See also:

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Light Saber

Twitter suspends Rep, Marjorie Taylor Greene for saying COVID-19 vaccines are 'failing'

Nihal Krishan
Washington Examiner
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 17:17 UTC
marjorie taylor greene
© CNN
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)
Firebrand Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been suspended from Twitter for a week for spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, marking the latest battle between Big Tech platforms and politicians over public health related censorship.

Twitter has a five strike policy on COVID-19 misinformation, and Greene is on her fourth strike, which results in a seven-day account lock. The Georgia Republican frequently tweets controversial and misleading anecdotes regarding the coronavirus and vaccines.

"These vaccines are failing & do not reduce the spread of the virus & neither do masks," Greene said in a tweet on Monday night.
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Star of David

IDF restricts activation of reservists to COVID-vaccinated or recovered only

Emanuel Fabian
Times of Israel
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 16:56 UTC
IDF israel reservists training
© IDF Spokesperson Unit
Reservist soldiers take part in an IDF drill on March 21, 2017.
Amid surge in coronavirus cases in the military, reserve troops must present Green Pass when arriving for operational activity or training

The Israel Defense Forces will only bring in reserve duty troops who are vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, according to updated guidelines published by the military on Saturday.

The move comes amid a sharp rise in cases among soldiers and employees of the IDF. As of Sunday morning, 637 people in the military, including conscripted soldiers, officers, NCOs and civilian employees, were infected with COVID-19, the IDF said.

That number has nearly doubled since last week when there were just 364 active coronavirus cases in the military.

Comment: With one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, Israel has (unwittingly?) served as one of Big Pharma's test labs, not only for the jab itself, but for testing the imposition of social restrictions. It's not going well. The IDF may yet find itself short-staffed. What a pity . . . . .

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Ice Cube

DeSantis suggests freezing pay of school officials who mandate masks for students

Tim Pearce
The Daily Wire
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:01 UTC
ron desantis
© Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' office suggested withholding the paychecks of school administrators that force students to wear masks Monday.

The Republican governor's office said that the State Board of Education had the authority to withhold the paychecks of any school administrators that choose to buck DeSantis' order against school mask mandates. Doing so could avoid harsher financial penalties for those schools, such as stripping entire districts of state funding.

"With respect to enforcing any financial consequences for noncompliance of state law regarding these rules and ultimately the rights of parents to make decisions about their children's education and health care decisions, it would be the goal of the State Board of Education to narrowly tailor any financial consequences to the offense committed," the governor's office told CBSMiami. "For example, the State Board of Education could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members, as a narrowly tailored means to address the decision-makers who led to the violation of law."

Comment: DeSantis means business!

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Magnify

US military 'makes history' with landing of modern military aircraft on civilian road on US soil

Justine Lofton
Michigan Live
Fri, 06 Aug 2021 12:18 UTC
US jet highway
Aircraft from the US Air Force and Michigan Air National Guard trained on a highway near Alpena, Michigan, on August 5, marking the first time modern military aircraft had intentionally landed on a civilian road on US soil.

Four A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and two C-146 Wolfhounds took part in the training exercise, which involved the aircraft taking off and landing from the closed stretch of highway.

In this footage, Lt Col Brian Wyrzykowski, the commander of the exercise, said it "represents a new capability...for the United States military. Our adversaries have advanced weapon systems and advanced technology that they can immediately put our forces and our bases and our personnel at risk...we need to be able to operate from austere, unpredictable locations."

Comment: Rather strange claims considering an American highway is not exactly comparable to an 'austere and unpredictable' location, nor how this ability is any match for advanced weapon systems.

MLive reported on August 2nd with more details on the preparations building up to the event:
Crews from several military units will land six aircraft on M-32 near Alpena on Thursday, Aug. 5, according to a news release from the Michigan Department of Military and Veteran Affairs (DMVA). The highway will be closed for the exercise from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. from east of Herron Road to west of King Settlement Road; traffic will be detoured on M-65, Werth Road, US-23 and Ripley Street.

"This is believed to be the first time in history that modern Air Force aircraft have intentionally landed on a civilian roadway on U.S. soil," U.S. Air Force Col. James Rossi, Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center commander, said in a statement. "Our efforts are focused on our ability to train the warfighter in any environment across the continuum so our nation can compete, deter, and win today and tomorrow."

The exercise is part of the annual Northern Strike war-readiness training event happening through Aug. 14 at the National All Domain Warfighting Center (NADWC), which encompasses the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center and Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center.

Units participating in the highway landing are the Michigan Air National Guard's 127th Wing from Selfridge Air National Guard Base, the Air Force's 355th Wing from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona and the Air Force Special Operations Command from Duke Field in Florida. They will land four A-10 aircraft and two C-146 aircraft on M-32 near the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center.

The exercise is meant to "demonstrate how active duty and reserve-component units can integrate to project combat airpower in austere environments," according to the release.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft is specifically designed to operate in this kind of location and the ability has already been demonstrated, the release said. In June 2018, A-10s from the Michigan Air National Guard conducted highway landings in Estonia as part of the multinational exercise Saber Strike.


So the only novelty here is that it landed on a US, civilian highway?


Civilians should not gather near the closed roadway and should avoid the landing zones.

Northern Strike is an annual training exercise hosted by the Michigan National Guard since 2012. This year, there are about 5,100 participants from three U.S. Army components, U.S. Air Force active duty and guard, U.S. Marine and U.S. Navy components, plus units from the United Kingdom, Latvia and Liberia.

The yearly training exercise simulates "a realistic wartime environment" and focuses on expeditionary skills, command and control, sustainment and joint-integrated fires, according to the DMVA. The program includes exercises that require units from different military branches, and even different countries, to work together in complex, time-sensitive scenarios.
One wonders just why this ability and its demonstration was suddenly deemed necessary?

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Snakes in Suits

Russian MP calls for gays to be 'sterilized' & kept in 'shelters' like cats, warned by nation's Human Rights Council

Jonny Tickle
RT
Mon, 09 Aug 2021 10:53 UTC
Vitaly Milonov
© Sputnik / Vladimir Fedorenko
Member of the Committee on the Development of Civil Society, issues of public and Religious Associations of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vitaly Milonov at the plenary session of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
A notorious Russian MP, known for making inflammatory remarks, has dubbed gay people the "lowest stage of development of the animal world" and called for the country's homosexual population to be "sterilized" like stray cats.

Answering a journalist's question on his TikTok account, Vitaly Milonov also proposed opening shelters for gay people, where they would be housed and fed. The video now appears to have been removed.

"We have to be humane," Milonov said. "How do we fight stray cats? We sterilize them. And gays should be sterilized, too."

Comment: Note that his statements are considered newsworthy because they are not representative of those that back the anti-LGBT propaganda laws which seek to protect children from an increasingly warped school curriculum:

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Target

Twitter partners with UK govt-backed, CIA-linked Reuters to censor alternative views

Ben Norton
The Grayzone
Wed, 04 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
Twitter
© Unknown
Social media giant Twitter has announced that it will work with Reuters and the Associated Press to censor supposed "misinformation" on the platform, while actively promoting news stories that they deem to be "credible."

Both of these media outlets are reliable mouthpieces of Western governments, but Reuters takes the cozy relationship a step further.

During the first cold war, Reuters was funded by the British government to spread anti-Soviet propaganda and to disseminate misinformation that served UK foreign-policy interests in the Middle East and Latin America.

Today, Reuters still works closely with the British government. Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal revealed how the media company has participated in a covert UK Foreign Office information warfare program aimed at creating "attitudinal change" in Russian journalists, "weakening Russia," and advancing NATO geopolitical goals.
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Clipboard

Coming soon: America's own social credit system

Kristin Tate
The Hill
Tue, 03 Aug 2021 09:00 UTC
personal scores
© Skorzewiak/Shutterstock
Social Credit System
The new domestic "War on Terror," kicked off by the riot on Jan. 6, has prompted several web giants to unveil predecessors to what effectively could become a soft social credit system by the end of this decade. Relying on an indirect hand from D.C., our social betters in corporate America will attempt to force the most profound changes our society has seen during the internet era.

China's social credit system is a combination of government and business surveillance that gives citizens a "score" that can restrict the ability of individuals to take actions — such as purchasing plane tickets, acquiring property or taking loans — because of behaviors. Given the position of several major American companies, a similar system may be coming here sooner than you think.

Last week, PayPal announced a partnership with the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center to "investigate" the role of "white supremacists" and propagators of "anti-government" rhetoric, subjective labels that potentially could impact a large number of groups or people using their service. PayPal says the collected information will be shared with other financial firms and politicians. Facebook is taking similar measures, recently introducing messages that ask users to snitch on their potentially "extremist" friends, which considering the platform's bias seems mainly to target the political right. At the same time, Facebook and Microsoft are working with several other web giants and the United Nations on a database to block potential extremist content.

Comment: The pack has gathered and the wolves are nearing our door. Are 'we the people' already too late to this game?

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