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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Fire breaks out on Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, 2 people unaccounted for

Admiral Kuznetsov

Screenshot of the fire on Admiral Kuznetsov
A blaze has broken out during repair works on the Russian Navy's sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. Two servicemen have been injured, while two more people are reportedly missing.

The ship was undergoing repairs while docked at the Barents Sea port of Murmansk when fuel caught fire.

The blaze was sparked by welding in the first power section on the ship's deck, after which the fire spread to a space of 600 square meters (6,460 square feet), according to emergency services sources.

The Northern Fleet's press office later clarified that there was "a release of smoke into one of the compartments during welding works," and the source of the smoke was "localized." It added that there were no munitions on board.

Bomb

2019 was a year of global unrest — and 2020 is likely to be worse

protests 2019

2020 is probably going to be bloodier than 2019.
2019 may well go down as the most disrupted year in global politics since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the subsequent implosion of the former Soviet Union.

However, the likelihood is that 2020 will be worse, and bloodier.

Conditions that spawned global unrest on every continent in 2019 are unlikely to recede. Rather, they are likely to worsen in the face of a slowing global economy and little sign of causes of disaffection being addressed.

Washington as Disruptor

Comment: See also: World in Flames: Why Are Protests Raging Around The Globe?

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Bizarro Earth

Opium production in Afghanistan up 50-fold since US Invasion

opium afghanistan
Secretary General of Iran's Drug Control Headquarters Brigadier General Eskandar Momeni said that opium production in Afghanistan has undergone a 50-fold increase since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

"Production of opium in Afghanistan has 50-folded since the US occupation of the country and it has increased from 200 tons to 9,000 tons," General Momeni said in the Central city of Qom on Tuesday.

He described cultivation of opium in Afghanistan as one of the most important reasons for drug addiction in Iran, saying, "650 tons of narcotics have been discovered in Iran since the start of the current year (March 21)."

Comment: The US' involvement in drug trafficking and profiteering leads one to think that this, and the related fall out, is just one the intended consequences of its war on the Middle East:


Red Flag

What could go wrong? GEDMatch genetics database sells out to FBI-linked forensic firm that mines data for law enforcement

DNA testing for law enforcement
A controversial genetics database has turned over 1.3 million customer profiles - believed to overlap with 60 percent of white Americans' DNA - to a forensics firm that mines genetic data for law enforcement. What could go wrong?

GEDMatch, one of the world's largest repositories of genetic data, has been purchased by Verogen, an FBI-linked forensic genetics firm dedicated to exploiting the crime-solving potential of biological evidence. While GEDMatch was founded in 2010 as something of a hobby site for amateur genealogists to upload the results of personal DNA tests (the company does not conduct its own tests) and uncover unknown family relations, it has become better known in recent years for its role in solving the Golden State Killer case - which earned plaudits from law enforcement but excoriations from privacy advocates. Jumping into bed with Verogen - a company founded specifically to weaponize genetic data for law enforcement - indicates GEDMatch is going long on the genealogical panopticon.

It isn't just the 1.3 million individuals - reportedly increasing by 1,000 every day - who have profiles on GEDMatch who are potentially imperiled by the Verogen acquisition. A 2018 study found that the same DNA search that nabbed the Golden State Killer could serve up data on some 60 percent of white Americans through distant relatives (third cousins or further), with that proportion increasing exponentially as more users sign up to the database. Only about 0.5 percent of US adults are currently subscribed to GEDMatch; when that number surpasses 2 percent, the DNA dragnet will be capable of ensnaring upwards of 90 percent of white Americans.

Comment: See also:


Attention

Pakistani lawyers storm cardiac hospital, clash with riot police & doctors, leaving 3 patients dead

Pakistan
© Reuters / Mohsin Raza
A lawyer throws an object towards police near a vehicle set on fire outside the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore, Pakistan December 11, 2019.
At least 3 patients were killed after scores of lawyers clad in business suits besieged a hospital in Pakistan, storming the building and attacking staff and patients alike. The crowd was eventually dispersed by police tear gas.

The angry mob descended upon the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore on Wednesday, attacking just about everyone in sight as the lawyers ransacked hospital wards, which forced staff to leave patients unattended, some in critical condition.

The number killed in the brawl could increase from the three officially acknowledged casualties - with Pakistan's Young Doctors Association claiming that up to 12 people might have lost their lives.

Bizarro Earth

Andre Vltchek: I Never Saw a World So Fragmented!

protestors
It is amazing how easily, without resistance, the Western empire is managing to destroy "rebellious" countries that are standing in its way.

I work in all corners of the planet, wherever Kafkaesque "conflicts" get ignited by Washington, London or Paris.

What I see and describe are not only those horrors which are taking place all around me; horrors that are ruining human lives, destroying villages, cities and entire countries. What I try to grasp is that on the television screens and on the pages of newspapers and the internet, the monstrous crimes against humanity somehow get covered (described), but the information becomes twisted and manipulated to such an extent, that readers and viewers in all parts of the world end up knowing close to nothing about their own suffering, and/or of the suffering of the other.

For instance, in 2015 and in 2019, I tried to sit down and reason with the Hong Kong rioters. It was a truly revealing experience! They knew nothing, absolutely zero about the crimes the West has been committing in places such as Afghanistan, Syria or Libya. When I tried to explain to them, how many Latin American democracies Washington had overthrown, they thought I was a lunatic. How could the good, tender, 'democratic' West murder millions, and bathe entire continents in blood? That is not what they were taught at their universities. That is not what the BBC, CNN or even the China Morning Post said and wrote.

Look, I am serious. I showed them photos from Afghanistan and Syria; photos stored in my phone. They must have understood that this was original, first hand stuff. Still, they looked, but their brains were not capable of processing what they were being shown. Images and words; these people were conditioned not to comprehend certain types of information.

But this is not only happening in Hong Kong, a former British colony.

Smiley

#fridgegate: All the best reactions to British PM Boris Johnson hiding from questions in a fridge

Boris Johnson ducking into a milk storage unit has been gleefully mocked on social media
© ITV
Boris Johnson ducking into a milk storage unit has been gleefully mocked on social media.
Nobody woke up this morning expecting to tweet about the prime minister leaping into a milk fridge, but thanks to Boris Johnson's cowardice around journalists we now have the hashtag #fridgegate with less than 24 hours before the nation goes to the polls.

Boris Johnson had been hoping for some positive press from his latest stunt, assisting on a milk round - but that all unravelled when his aide swore at the Good Morning Britain team on live television and the PM ducked into a nearby milk refrigerator in efforts to get away.

Twitter did what it does best and roundly mocked the prime minister.

CityMetric editor Jonn Elledge kicked things off by saying: "A senior Tory source tells me that, outside the liberal metropolitan bubble, the people of Britain hide in fridges all the time."

Jeremy Corbyn, campaigning in Middlesbrough, had his say - pointing out that he wasn't participating in staged photo-ops, nor hiding in fridges - and even did a passable impression of Johnson.


Comment: Two months ago at the Tory party conference, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised UK's Good Morning Britain viewers that he would appear on the show to be interviewed by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid. During the last day of campaigning for the party leaders ahead of the general election, correspondent Jonathan Swain attempted to talk to Boris:


It wasn't the first time the PM had avoided potentially awkward interviews during the election campaign. Here's what BBC presenter Andrew Neil had to say about Bojo's avoidance of his show:


'Where's the grilling you gave Corbyn?' UK TV breakfast show hosts slammed online for giving BoJo easy ride with 'cosy chat'


Take 2

Anti-Assad propaganda film 'For Sama' is beautifully made and very deceptive

For Sama
The documentary movie "For Sama" has won a host of awards in Europe and North America. Its producers and protagonists, Syrians Waad Kateab and her husband Dr. Hamza Kateab plus English film-maker Edward Watts, have received gushing praise. And the awards will probably keep coming.

Unfortunately, behind a human interest story, the movie "For Sama" is propaganda: biased, misleading, and politically partisan.

Hiding Basic Facts about Aleppo

"For Sama" is a full length documentary with a moving personal story. It combines a story of young love and the birth of a child - Sama - in the midst of war. That makes it compelling and personal. But the movie fundamentally distorts the reality of east Aleppo in the years 2012 - 2016. While the personal narrative may be true, the context and environment is distorted and hidden. The viewer will have no idea of the reality:

* Most residents of east Aleppo did not want the militants to take over their neighborhoods. The short video, Nine Days from my Window, shows the takeover in one neighborhood. Many civilians fled the east side of Aleppo after the "rebels" took over. Those who stayed on were mostly militants (and families) plus those who had nowhere else to go or thought they could wait it out.

Comment: If this film reminds you of the propaganda piece about the White Helmets that Hollywood was championing some months ago, that it because it is probably paid for by the same Western interests for the same purpose of deceiving the Western public into demonizing the legitimate and democratically elected government of Syria.

See also:


Propaganda

The woke mainstream media are apologists for far-left authoritarian rule and the Security State

the new york times
In an earlier article, I looked at the rise of "Woke Capitalism" and the challenges that this development presents for a free society (or, to be accurate, a somewhat free society). For the time being we probably do not need to worry about the establishment of the People's Republic of Google, but a much greater problem than left-wing business corporations has invaded our body politic: The Woke Mainstream Media.

It is one thing for Nike to discontinue a line of sneakers because the Betsy Ross flag offended someone or for PayPal to refuse to serve as a pay conduit for a conservative organization. One may decry the narrow-minded thinking from company executives, but they are private outfits that have — and should have — the privilege of refusing to do business with certain people — and if they make a bad economic choice, the company will pay financially. And, as I pointed out in the article, corporations are not governments, which really can kill and cage people who are helpless against state-sponsored predations.

Private sector Wokeness is not limited to profit-making businesses, however, as the giants of American media now are subscribing to the same hard-left political and social theories, and this development has become a much greater problem to American society and American liberty because of the symbiotic relationship between media and government. While Google's squelching of libertarian speech within its ranks might make it unpopular with libertarians, nonetheless, the company has taken no one's freedom away.

#woke

Yellow Vest

France's nationwide strikes enter 7th day, protesters not ready to back down in the face of Macron's controversial pension reform

Edouard Philippe
© Reuters / Vincent Kessler
Striking French rail workers watch as PM Edouard Philippe outlines pension reform plans
With mass protests against Emmanuel Macron's pension reform plan entering their seventh day, French workers and unions signaled that they are not ready to back down in their efforts to have the new scheme completely scrapped.

In a much-anticipated speech on Wednesday, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe resisted protesters' demands and said he was "totally determined" to implement the "fair" plan which would replace a fragmented, but generous, system of more than 42 separate state pensions with a new universal points-based scheme.

What's in the plan?

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