LIVE: Pentagon press briefing - YouTube

The Pentagon spokesperson is already managing expectations about the pier: "You have to remember, this is a temporary pier. This is not the best way to get humanitarian aid into Gaza."

It's a Bluesky post. He must have transcribed what she said.

On Thursday in Amsterdam thousands came to protest against Dutch support of Israel and police violence. In Utrecht hundreds of people came together with the same message.

Amsterdam protest organisers have decided to de-escalate due to increased violence by police and lack of medics in the organisation. They made a gofundme to cover legal help and (medical) supplies for future protests. Protests will continue but less disruptive. Utrecht has made no such statement (yet). A few Amsterdam protesters that were arrested will have hearings today that will be accompanied by a support protest.

An organisation of Dutch scholars for Palestine shared a petition to stop academic support for Israel by Dutch universities and a message to all students and staff at all universities to walk out on Monday at 11am. Huge protests are expected that day in remembrance of the Nakba.

Important instagram accounts for information: @amsterdam.encampment @encampent.uu @dutchscholarsforpalestine

Good read here if you want to be cheered up a bit. Tweet thread from a zionist blob ghoul who does Middle East policy and analysis for Breaking Defense, the Jerusalem Post, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

https://twitter.com/sfrantzman/status/1788623358097068147

TLDR - Zionists blob member admits Hamas is not weakened in any meaningful way and is basically holding all of the cards. They have shown back up in areas previously cleared by Israel because Israel is not willing to commit to an extended military occupation of Gaza. Or rather, as probably all of us could have imagined, Israel is actually being held back by Joe Biden and not being allowed to "take the gloves off" in Gaza. It's so funny that they are going to try and deal with the internal contradictions of this war by doing the "stabbed in the back" routine to Biden, after all he did for them. Serves you right, Genocide Joe.

Select quote:

Hamas is not weakened. There is no evidence that it is. It hasn't lost control of parts of Gaza and seen other polities rise in its place. It's true that it doesn't have the "infrastructure" it had before. But it can rebuild this. Labor costs are cheap in Gaza, that is how Hamas built the tunnels before.

In today's edition of wtf are the DA (white liberal political party in South Africa, the official opposition to the ANC) doing in South African elections, the DA had an advertisement which depicted the burning of the South African flag 🇿🇦. This is extremely inflammatory as the flag 🇿🇦 is a symbol of national unity and healing post apartheid. It's a symbol of freedom from oppression and racism. Given senior DA officials recent racist statements, such as Hellen Zille saying that colonialism had positives, burning the flag of post apartheid South Africa did not go down well. As a result, the public broadcaster in the SABC has removed the advert from it's channels.

Ms USA resigned recently, something that's never happened before. Her resignation letter contained a coded message reading I AM SILENCED HIP.

HIP are the initials of the director of the pageant.

A few months ago, control of the Ms USA Instagram account was taken from her, also atypical.

Something is up, is she anti-zionist?

Continuation of student protests in The Netherlands:

Amsterdam: Hundreds of Amsterdam students, staff and concerned citizens occupied a university (UVA) building on Tuesday afternoon. Representatives had a conversation with the UVA board on Wednesday with no results. UVA has said that they would meet one of the demands by publishing a list of Israeli institutions they work with, they are legally required to do this and still haven’t. Demands of breaking all ties with Israel and allowing peaceful protest on campus were ignored. Instead the board decided to order the police to remove the protesters from the building. Around 5pm riot police violently infiltrated the building. Some protesters threw rocks at the police and there is a video of a protester spraying the police with fire extinguisher. A few protesters ended up with very serious injuries because of the police beatings.

In The Netherlands it’s common for public transport busses to be used at illegal protests to remove the protesters. While one group of protesters was still occupying the building, another group of protesters went elsewhere to the city for the support protest (support protests consists of those protesters who do not want to risk violent altercations with the police). The support protesters saw empty busses that were probably going to be used to arrest the occupant protesters. So they blocked these busses from getting to the occupied building. With no means to arrest hundreds of people, the riot police at the occupied building decided to only arrest a few protesters while letting the rest run away from their beatings.

The situation in the city was very chaotic that evening, with protest groups emerging and fleeing whenever the police would show up. During the night the protests stopped because the police destroyed all encampments.

Utrecht: Following Amsterdam’s example, Utrecht University students and staff organised a protest on Wednesday against the police violence from the previous day. In the evening they managed to occupy a university building and set up another encampment. The president of the university visited the encampment two times to tell the protesters to leave the building, but refused to talk about the demands of the demonstrators. At 1am the police was instructed to remove the protesters. Riot police entered the building and began violently rounding up the protesters. They used pepper spray on non-violent protesters and caused many injuries. There are reports that there were some undercover police at the encampment as well.

Utrecht University is closing all buildings for the rest of the week to prevent other buildings from getting occupied by protesters.

You can follow the Amsterdam and Utrecht encampments on instagram: @amsterdam.encampment @encampment.uu The Utrecht encampment also has twitter/X account: @UU_encampment

Zionist businessman with Mossad connections after getting owned by a new Egyptian resistance group:
https://twitter.com/revolutionaryem/status/1787965717188427901

Shalom from the children of Gaza

https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1clfyjk/ru_pov_ukrainian_unmanned_boat_is_destroyed/

In new wacky events in the Ukraine war, a very cute Russian Ka-29 helicopter destroys a Ukrainian naval drone... with an anti-air missile strapped to it?

So is Macron actually starting World War 3?

followup to my previous comment thread

Comparing Chinese versus Amerikan diplomacy

Sanctions imposed last year on four Malaysia-based companies accused of helping Iran’s production of drones have been impactful, a top US Treasury official said today.

Brian Nelson, the department’s under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, also said that the sanctions were still in place.

He said they were aimed at “encouraging behaviour change”, and that once the department saw such change, the companies involved would be struck off the list.

Nelson said sanctions would see money in US accounts or accounts with a US correspondent blocked or frozen, thereby preventing these companies from accessing funds.

“And it’s very disruptive to your ability to do business that is cross-border because it is very, very difficult to avoid a touch point with the US financial system,” he said in an interview with several media outlets.

Nelson said that sanctions were a powerful tool, and that the department had found them effective in the context of disrupting activities meant to drive profit or provide capital.

MODS!!!!? DISRUPTING THE FREE MARKET?? MARKET DISTORTING PRACTICE??? MOOOODS!!

“From that perspective, we think, of course, that they are impactful.

“But I think the more impactful thing at the end of the day is the partnership with jurisdictions and the capacity to make anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism ‘regimes’ more resilient.”

…Washington recently imposed further sanctions targeting Iran, including over Iranian drones used by Russia in the war in Ukraine, as the US seeks to increase pressure on Tehran after its attack on Israel.

Nelson is in Malaysia to advance the Treasury’s work in countering terrorist financing and revenue generation for Iran and its proxies.

but Malaysia does not recognise Hamas or Iran as terrorist organizations?

It’s literally the meme

Reuters previously reported that there had been an uptick in money moving to Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, through the Malaysian financial system.

Malaysian Islamic Finance helping the mujahideen fight against their oppressors. Mashallah.

He is also in the country to discuss ways to disrupt Russia’s ability to sustain its war in Ukraine.

Malaysia has conveyed to the US that Kuala Lumpur does not recognize sanctions imposed by individual nations, a minister said Thursday.

The US talking about sanctions:

“I emphasized that we will only recognize sanctions if they are imposed by the United Nations Security Council,” the Southeast Asian nation’s Interior Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said.

“The delegation from the US respected our stance,” said the minister.

Saifuddin added that Kuala Lumpur was committed to combating terrorism financing with a “clear strategic plan in place to tackle illicit funding and money laundering.”

However, Saifuddin said Malaysia’s policies and strategies “comply with international standards.”

Washington also said Iran's capacity to move its oil was due to service providers based in Malaysia.

The minister, however, said his meeting with Nelson was “productive” and that Malaysia was “always open to engaging with the US.”

Productive = nothing happened

“always open to engaging” or Amerika will conduct financial warfare to crash the economy again

Compare this to how Chinese and Malaysian officials speak to eachother

Xinhua - Strength of China-Malaysia ties built on common values: Malaysian official

"In partnership with China, Malaysia is leading the way in promoting renewable energy. Both countries are heavily investing in clean technologies including solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. Our joint efforts aim to lead the global transition to sustainable energy," he said.

"Our relations have grown from strength to strength over these past 50 years in not just covering diplomatic and political ties but also business partnerships, tourism, education and cultural ties and exchanges," he said.

…For his part, Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Ouyang Yujing said the comprehensive and practical cooperation is the essential driving force upgrading China-Malaysia relations in all fields.

"China is now focusing on developing new quality productive forces which will provide Malaysia more cooperation opportunities in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data, digital economy, green development, new energy vehicles and other newly emerging industries. Fruits from the above cooperation will surely bring benefits to both peoples in a profound way," he said.

I wonder which country is a 5000 year old literary civilization and which one is a deformed culture-less genocidal state.

Ayyyyy lmaooo get

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProIran/s/TFgsXY4ANz

Destroying the energy sector, your research and losing energetic sovereignty to own the commies

Argentina’s pioneering nuclear research threatened by huge budget cuts

President Javier Milei is making moves to partially privatize the sector, but in the meantime, projects have paused.

Owing to massive budget cuts and lay-offs of government employees, Argentina’s nuclear sector — which includes power plants and research facilities — is at risk, scientists say. The country was the first in Latin America to adopt nuclear energy, has three operating plants that provide about 5–10% of the nation’s electrical energy and runs numerous reactors used for research.

But because Argentina’s current administration, led by far-right president Javier Milei, has held the federal budget flat compared with that in 2023, the sector is facing a financial crisis. Inflation reached more than 200% last year — meaning that, in real terms, a stagnant budget is equivalent to a funding drop of at least 50%. Milei, who took office in December after pledging to diminish the role of government in Argentina and bring the country’s debts under control, has also laid off 15,000 federal employees in the past five months.

With its current budget, the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) will be able to carry out its activities only “until May or June”, according to a statement published in March and signed by the agency’s leaders. The CNEA has been operating since 1950; it sets the country’s nuclear policy and carries out research to improve “the quality of life for society”, among other responsibilities.

“All these [activities] could be in danger,” Adriana Serquis, former head of the CNEA, tells Nature. On Friday, the Milei administration at last accepted Serquis’s resignation, which she had submitted before the president took office in December.

“We cannot operate with this budget,” she says. The agency has taken out loans with private firms in the past few months to keep working, she adds. CNEA authorities stressed to the Milei administration that the agency would need a 2024 budget of US$270 million to operate at a minimal level. The government guaranteed the CNEA only $100 million.

Milei has made moves towards at least partially privatizing Argentina’s nuclear sector. Yesterday, he appointed Germán Guido Lavalle, founder of candoit, an engineering and technology consulting firm based in Buenos Aires, to lead the CNEA — a move that aligns with that push.

The agency has had to pause construction on two projects that could have brought even more renown to Argentina’s nuclear sector: one is a ‘small modular reactor’ prototype that is among the first in the world to be built for electricity generation, and the other is a research reactor that might have produced enough of the radioisotope molybdenum-99, commonly used in medical diagnostic imaging, to meet 20% of global demand.

If this continues, Serquis says, “Argentina will lose its place in the ‘nuclear club’” — referring to the country’s prowess in nuclear research, a global status it has maintained among wealthy nations.

Projects stagnate

One of the stalled nuclear projects is the small modular reactor CAREM, intended to supply low-carbon electricity to rural areas where large power plants can’t be built. Nuclear scientists have been working for decades to create this type of reactor, and countries, including Argentina, have been in a race to get theirs fired up quickly. CAREM, a prototype, would use uranium fission to supply around 30 megawatts of electrical power. If successful, it could be scaled up to larger, commercial versions supplying 300 megawatts of electric power. More than $600 million has been invested into CAREM since construction began in 2014, but another $200 million to $300 million is needed to finish it.

“It has less electrical production capacity than a nuclear power plant, but it’s also cheaper and safer,” says Tomás Avallone, a chemist and nuclear-reactors operator at the CNEA. It could be installed anywhere, be used for high-energy-consumption activities such as water desalinization and bring power to 300,000 people, he says.

Another stagnating project is RA-10, a 30-megawatt reactor that would use neutron beams to produce medical radioisotopes. Scientists could also use RA-10 to conduct materials research. “It is a multipurpose reactor,” says Rodolfo Kempf, nuclear-waste manager at the CNEA. The main construction on RA-10 has been completed, Kempf says, but its instruments haven’t been installed.

Argentina has so far invested more than $400 million in building the reactor, and another $80 million is needed. The commercial sale of the reactor design should provide a significant return on investment, say researchers who spoke to Nature.

Privatization push

The Milei administration has been advocating for the privatization of science and education in Argentina. In April, it sent a bill to Congress that includes a list of state companies to be fully or partially privatized. Nucleoeléctrica Argentina, a state-run firm based in Buenos Aires that oversees the country’s three nuclear plants, is on the list to be partially privatized. If this comes to pass, the government would maintain the majority of Nucleoeléctrica shares, and its vote would be needed for actions including expanding the capacity of a power plant, building a new one or adding shareholders to the company.

Alfredo Caro, a nuclear physicist and former director of the CNEA’s Bariloche Atomic Centre, estimates that a 30% stake in Nucleoeléctrica would be worth between $700 million and $1 billion. If that stake were sold, it might allow the government to finalize the construction of CAREM and RA-10, as well as to complete a planned upgrade of the Atucha I power plant, located about 120 kilometres northwest of Buenos Aires, to extend its lifetime, he says. “A partial privatization could help the sector carry on,” Caro says, “but only if the funds that are raised remain in the sector and are not spent on other areas of the state” — a big ‘if’, given the financial crisis in Argentina. The country’s gross domestic product is expected to drop 3.3% this year, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Officials at Argentina’s Secretariat of Energy and Nucleoeléctrica didn’t respond to questions from Nature about their plans for the nuclear sector. Meanwhile, the bill to privatize state companies has been approved by the lower chamber of Argentina’s Congress, and will now be considered by the Senate.

Welcome to libertarianism, where all your achievements are destroyed in the name of market fundamentalism and foreign interests. I was told by someone who knows much more about this that the request to defund and privatize (in other words, destroy) this program comes exclusively from abroad. It is a request "several US-based nuclear firms" made because the Argentinian reactors and research are "way too competitive", so it must be pushed aside. I cannot prove this, but it wouldn't surprise me.

🟢 Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades: — Watch: We continue to pick off the heads of your criminal officers.

Al-Aqsa Flood — Note: 0:05 - Piercing eyes. 0:11 - Calm breaths. 0:16 - One bullet. 0:20 - A confirmed end. 0:37 - “They’re pulling them while they’re dead.” 0:40 - “Allah is the Greatest and praise be to Him.” 0:47 - We continue to pick off the heads of your criminal officers.

Cw death, obviously https://streamable.com/60r9z1

Call me crazy but a pointless purely performative "red line" is ridiculous. Biden might as well call it the pointless purely performative pline. The "p" is silent. Or not.

The White House thinks the Israeli operation to capture the Rafah crossing doesn't cross President Biden's "red line" that could lead to a shift in U.S. policy towards the Gaza war.

https://www.axios.com/2024/05/07/us-israel-rafah-red-line

https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1cpk8uz/ru_pov_russian_forces_have_entered_sumy_region/

Russian forces are reportedly now pushing into Sumy region as well.

Aurora Borealis will be visible in the high north of the planet during night for the next day or so

Biden Admits That U.S. Bombs Were Used by Israel Against Gaza

"I made it clear that if they enter Rafah, I will not supply the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities".

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said that Israel uses US bombs to commit genocide in Gaza and reported that if Tel Aviv invades Rafah, it will stop sending weapons to the Zionist state.

Although Israel has only sent troops, Biden said Israel is warned of the consequences if it openly invades the southern city of Rafah.

"I made it clear that if they enter Rafah, I will not supply the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities," the US president told CNN.

The current White House resident warned that the first shipments to stop would be those of the famous 900kg bombs.

On these shells, Biden said, "civilians have been killed in Gaza as a result of these bombs and other attacks on population centers".

The president also specified that the Israeli presence in the surrounding areas of Rafah has triggered conflicts with countries such as Egypt, a state with which the US maintains diplomatic relations.

Joe Biden claimed to have warned of Washington’s refusal to support with weapons of any kind against population centers.

"I have made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They will not have our support if, in fact, they attack these population centers," Biden also underlined.

No real source on this but there's some posts going around the telegrams claiming that foreign british mercs are training anti-government forces in Myanmar along with these pics. My guess is that it's true and they're easily deniable special forces sent to train whoever the west thinks will end up being a problem for China if they win.

Sun is having a fart because it can, a G4 solar storm, nothing to be too concerned about but if you work retail good luck, last time we had one of those in big flare ups back in April some banks had issues running credit, and a few customers lost their last braincell over it.