Iranian Spy Ship MV Behshad Returns Home
After 3 Years At Sea After Regional Tensions Escalate
Posted By: sunset, 4/19/2024 12:48:56 PM
The MV Behshad, a suspected Iranian spy ship, has returned to its home port in Bandar Abbas after three years at sea. According to tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, the vessel left its position near the Yemeni coast on April 4, 2024, and reappeared near the Strait of Hormuz on April 18, 2024. Iran characterises the MV Behshad as an intelligence and logistics vessel. It is scheduled to arrive at Bandar Abbas port later Thursday. US analysts and authorities have long suspected the MV Behshad, a cargo ship, of providing information and assistance with targeting to the Houthi Rebels,
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sunset"
The Biden administration is slated to announce sanctions against the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion for alleged human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank, the Axios news site reported on Saturday. It would be the first time the US has ever taken such a step. The battalion has been at the center of several controversies in the past connected to right-wing extremism and violence against Palestinians, notably including the 2022 death of Omar As’ad, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American who died after being detained, handcuffed, blindfolded, and later abandoned in near-freezing conditions by soldiers of the battalion.
The reported US plan drew a scathing response from Israeli officials
Supreme Court to weigh whether bans targeting
homeless encampments run afoul of the Constitution 4 replies
homeless encampments run afoul of the Constitution 4 replies
The Supreme Court on Monday will weigh arguments in a case involving the homeless and bans on where they may sleep, the most significant one on the issue in decades. The dispute involves whether laws that punish homeless people with civil citations for camping on public property are outside the bounds of the Constitution. Cities have been searching for ways to address homeless encampments that they say threaten public health and safety. A decision will shed light on how far city and state officials can go to address homeless encampments and is likely to reach beyond the borders of the Oregon city at the center of the dispute.
Senators on both sides of the aisle are banding together to try and kill a House-passed addition to the bill reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that they argue would force more businesses to aid in government surveillance of foreigners.
An amendment from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and others would strike from the bill a House provision that redefines what types of communications companies would have to comply with the law. The House amendment from Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) was intended to address a mysterious battle by the government to get one unnamed communications company to aid in overseas surveillance, with the FISC
Iranian Spy Ship MV Behshad Returns Home
After 3 Years At Sea After Regional Tensions Escalate 3 replies
After 3 Years At Sea After Regional Tensions Escalate 3 replies
The MV Behshad, a suspected Iranian spy ship, has returned to its home port in Bandar Abbas after three years at sea. According to tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, the vessel left its position near the Yemeni coast on April 4, 2024, and reappeared near the Strait of Hormuz on April 18, 2024. Iran characterises the MV Behshad as an intelligence and logistics vessel. It is scheduled to arrive at Bandar Abbas port later Thursday. US analysts and authorities have long suspected the MV Behshad, a cargo ship, of providing information and assistance with targeting to the Houthi Rebels,
The U.S. Navy has spent approximately $1 billion countering missile and drone attacks from Iran and the Tehran-backed Houthis in the Middle East, as detailed by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro. This expenditure has been incurred over six months due to direct attacks on U.S. Navy and merchant ships, with air defense missiles like SM-2s, SM-6s, and SM-3s being used extensively. Del Toro highlighted the financial strain this has placed on military resources, emphasizing the urgent need for supplemental funding of $95 billion to replenish munitions.
Venezuela closes its embassy in Ecuador
to protest the police raid on the Mexican
Embassy there 4 replies
to protest the police raid on the Mexican
Embassy there 4 replies
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered the closure of his country’s embassy and consulates in Ecuador on Tuesday in solidarity with Mexico in its protest over a raid by Ecuadorian authorities on the Mexican Embassy in Quito. Maduro and other presidents participating in a virtual meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States expressed their support for Mexico’s request to have the United Nations suspend Ecuador from the world body over the April 5 raid. But Maduro was the only one to announce the closure of diplomatic outposts and recall of personnel.
A challenge by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to dismiss an open records lawsuit about her office has attracted the scrutiny of one of Donald Trump's co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case.
Willis is leading the case against the former president, who is accused in an indictment of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. [snip] In the latest development on the open records complaint, Willis' office said in court papers that it is "an entity not capable of being sued" and has immunities under Georgia law that make it "exempt from disclosure under the Open Records Act."
Iran's unprecedented missile and drone strike on Israel is unlikely to prompt dramatic sanctions action on Iran's oil exports from the Biden administration due to worries about boosting oil prices and angering top buyer China, said analysts.
Shortly after Tehran launched its weekend attack - retaliation for Israel's suspected April 1 strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus - House Republican leaders accused President Joe Biden of failing to enforce existing measures and said they would take up this week a series of bills to sharpen sanctions on Iran.
Tensions between Hamas and Jordan have soared in recent days, with officials in Amman suggesting that the Jordanian citizenship of the terror group's leaders be revoked. Raising Amman's ire was an incendiary speech by Hamas leader Khaled Masha'al. Speaking in Amman on March 27, Masha'al called on Jordanians to "mix Arab blood with Palestinian blood." The speech sent shockwaves through the kingdom, sparking demonstrations and clashes, particularly in the vicinity of the Israeli embassy in Amman's Al Tla'a Al Sharqi neighbourhood.
Liad Gross visits "Hostage Square" every week to remember. During Purim, a usually joyful Jewish holiday that celebrates survival and continuity, she took the unusual approach of dressing up covered in makeup to look bruised and beaten, as if a victim of assault. Six months from Hamas' attack, the deadliest single assault against Jews since the Holocaust, there isn’t much celebrating going on in Israel. On Oct. 7, about 1,200 people were killed and 240 more were dragged to the Gaza Strip as hostages. More than 100 have been released and about 100 are believed to be still alive in captivity.
US concerned over South Africa's growing
ties with Russia, Iran and Hamas: 'Fallen'
for propaganda 10 replies
ties with Russia, Iran and Hamas: 'Fallen'
for propaganda 10 replies
South Africa's economic struggles may have pushed it to explore alternative partnerships. South Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause is the culmination of a confused and increasingly troubling diplomatic trend for a country with whom the U.S. now questions its bilateral cooperation, critics have claimed.
"The South African government has fallen hook, line and sinker for Russian propaganda," Peter Doran, an adjunct senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and former president of the Center for European Policy Analysis, told Fox News Digital. "Russia has proposed to all African countries that the United States and Western powers are colonialists, whose interests are not aligned with theirs,
Late last year, the Spanish government fined 25 Spanish-flagged fishing ships that had been operating near Argentina's territorial waters.
The financial penalties were imposed because the vessels had illegally turned off the GPS-based automatic identification systems (AIS), which were transmitting their positions. This is often a sign that a vessel is engaged in illegal fishing. "It's estimated that illegal or unregulated fishing is as much as 20% of what's caught," says David Kroodsma, head of the research team at Global Fishing Watch.
Such illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing may catch as much as 26 million tonnes of fish every year, or one in every five fish.
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Democrats want Trump dead.
House Democrats on Friday moved to strip President Trump of his Secret Service protection if he is convicted.
Democrat Rep. Bennie Thompson introduced a resolution that would terminate Trump’s Secret Service protection. The legislation dubbed the “Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act would apply to all Secret Service protectees convicted and sentenced under felony charges.
Chinese hackers preparing to ‘physically
wreak havoc’ on US critical infrastructure:
FBI director 21 replies
wreak havoc’ on US critical infrastructure:
FBI director 21 replies
Chinese hackers are developing the "ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing," FBI director Christopher Wray said this week. He added that the hackers are waiting "for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow."
The hacking campaign, known as Volt Typhoon, has embedded itself successfully in several American critical infrastructure companies that include telecommunications, energy and water, and others, he said.
Democrat members of Congress waved Ukrainian flags on the House floor after voting to give them another $60.8 billion in taxpayer funds.
The $95.3 billion foreign aid package funds Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan — with nothing for Americans. (X Video) On Saturday, the package was approved 311-112 with all of the “nay” votes from Republicans.
“Ukrainian flags fly in the chamber of the UNITED STATES House of Representatives as they vote to send more of your hard-earned money to a corrupt foreign regime. And just like that they shout ‘UKRAINE! UKRAINE!’ while happily working to secure Ukraine’s in a post on X.borders, not ours,” Senator Rand Paul wrote
The White House dodged questions Thursday after Joe Biden made the startling claim that his uncle was eaten by cannibals during World War II.
Biden suggested his relative had met a grisly end at the hands of flesh-eating savages after his plane was shot down by the enemy over New Guinea.
The president made the assertion, apparently for the first time publicly, during a trip to his birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Ihe White House dodged questions Thursday after Joe Biden made the startling claim
Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers, becoming the first Southern autoworkers outside of the Big Three to do so in a region long resistant to unionization, the labor group announced late Friday.
The UAW declared victory as votes continued to be tallied, with its unofficial count at 2,628 for joining the union and 985 opposed, or 73% to 27%.
"Volkswagen thanks its Chattanooga workers for voting in this election," the company said in a statement acknowledging that workers had voted in favor of union representation. "We will await certification
Is Biden’s Poll Surge for Real?
17 replies
We are now roughly six and a half months from election day or election month, depending on your state’s election laws.
Today, we’ll focus on Joe Biden’s recent polling surge, as shown in the Real Clear Politics Poll Average of Trump vs Biden. You will note Trump is up over Biden by a whopping 0.4 percentage points. If we remove the possible outlier Rasmussen survey from the average, showing Trump at +8, Joe Biden would be ahead by 0.4. Republicans might be dismayed by this, and Democrats encouraged.
In January of this year, Trump was ahead of Biden by +4. Since then, the poll average
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D. Miss.), who chaired the House J6 Committee, introduced legislation that calls for President Donald Trump to lose his Secret Service protection if he’s convicted and sent to prison. Thompson fully understands that there is a strong likelihood that the current Manhattan hush money trial or the upcoming Georgia RICO trial, both of which are open partisan lawfare rather than justice, will see at least one felony conviction and prison sentence for Trump. In other words, this legislation is an almost explicit call for Trump’s assassination.
It’s been apparent since the get-go that the myriad criminal actions against Trump are a form of election interference. Each case
Barack Obama set the stage in 2015 for the student loan forgiveness fiasco when he announced the 'America's College Promise' proposal to make two years of community college free. On the proposal's web page is this: "Students should be able to get the knowledge and the skills they need without taking on decades worth of student debt." (emphasis mine)
Obama's idea has now been extended to include four-year colleges. His lackey, that joke who currently occupies the Bully Pulpit, is simply forwarding his boss' idea. The problem for Biden is that Obama's idea is neither legal nor morally acceptable.
An article in The Conversation makes a good moral case for not
The Senate passed a controversial extension of the federal government’s warrantless spying powers just after a midnight deadline on Friday over objections from Democrats and Republicans who opposed the incidental collection of US citizens’ data as part of the authority.
In a 60-34 vote, Democrats and Republicans voted to reauthorize Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) until 2026, sending the legislation to President Biden’s desk for a signature. The White House issued a statement in strong support of the legislation, called the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, before it passed the House last week in a 273-147 bipartisan vote.
Federal officials have sued the Sheetz convenience store chain, claiming the company discriminated against job applicants who were Black, Native American and multiracial.[SNIP] “Federal law mandates that employment practices causing a disparate impact because of race or other protected classifications must be shown by the employer to be necessary to ensure the safe and efficient performance of the particular jobs at issue,” EEOC attorney Debra M. Lawrence said in a statement.
“Even when such necessity is proven, the practice remains unlawful if there is an alternative practice available that is comparably effective in achieving the employer’s goals but causes less discriminatory effect,” Lawrence said.
The Biden administration is slated to announce sanctions against the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion for alleged human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank, the Axios news site reported on Saturday. It would be the first time the US has ever taken such a step. The battalion has been at the center of several controversies in the past connected to right-wing extremism and violence against Palestinians, notably including the 2022 death of Omar As’ad, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American who died after being detained, handcuffed, blindfolded, and later abandoned in near-freezing conditions by soldiers of the battalion.
The reported US plan drew a scathing response from Israeli officials
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn't have the easiest time discussing matters related to Israel during Friday's press briefing, as Spencer covered earlier. When it comes to the related topic of pro-Hamas chants going on across America, Jean-Pierre response on that topic was also lacking, as she brought up the August 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville.At Columbia University this week, pro-Hamas agitators were declaring disturbing statements such as "we are all Hamas" and "long live Hamas" in reference to the October 7 attack that the terrorist group perpetrated against Israel.