Right back to where we started from
“We’ve got to get right back to where we started from.” – Maxine Nightingale, 1976 There’s an old saying on Capitol Hill. When you have the votes, you vote. You do not vacillate. You do not dither. You do not tarry. You vote. That said, it’s unclear whether the bipartisan coalition of Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., James Lankford, R-Okla., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., ever had the votes for their border security plan. We may never know. But one thing is for sure: it appears that their bill – even though it wasn’t finished – appeared to have a lot more votes and maybe could have passed in early January compared to February. This is not to project blame on the trio who negotiated the bill. There are only so many factors the senators can control. Writing legislation is an arduous, tedious process. Murphy was a congressman and Senator-elect when a gunman shot up Sandy Hook Elementary School in his district in late 2012. He’s a veteran of punishing, laborious fights and debates over gun control. At one point during the border bill negotiation, Murphy declared that legislating about firearms was easy compared to grappling with legislation to fix the border. But there were delays in releasing the bill text. Lankford speculated on Fox in early January that the release was days away. He was only off by a month. Two weeks ago, Sinema reiterated to reporters in a Senate hallway that they were very close to finishing the bill. But the senator said they were still pouring over the legislation, trying to make everything just so. “We don’t like to have mistakes,” she said. That’s understandable. Border security and immigration occupy a complex, arcane province of the U.S. code. The negotiators commented many times that changing just a word here or there might trigger profound, unintended consequences. So one can also understand the need to work diligently to get things right. Time was not on their side. By contrast, time was on the side of the bill’s opponents. And they worked the clock to their advantage. The interregnum between when negotiators started crafting the bill and when they finally released legislative text created a narrative chasm for those intent on killing the bill. Opponents filled the vacuum with their own talking points about the then-unfinished legislation. They focused on a provision which they said would allow a minimum of 5,000 people to illegally enter the country per day. Lankford said that wasn’t true at all. Still, the allegations fired up the right-wing outrage machine. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wasn’t privy to the negotiations, but the Speaker declared the bill “dead on arrival” in his chamber long before anyone ever saw the text. You must define yourself or be defined in politics. The same is true with legislation. The Senate’s foot-dragging over the legislation enabled conservatives to define what the bill was – long before the bill’s authors could say what it wasn’t. Dead on arrival? Hardly. This bill was doomed before departure. A handful of Democrats would likely oppose the bill. But the goal was to earn the support of half of all Senate Republicans. In other words, at least 25 of the 49 Senate GOPers. Lankford and others contended they were in that ballpark the day before the bill dropped. But hours later, Republican support dwindled to just a few senators. The bill tanked. This is ironic – because it was Senate Republicans who demanded Democrats prepare an earnest border security measure before they would even consider helping Ukraine. A bipartisan negotiation commenced. And then Republicans euthanized the effort. Murphy was exasperated. “The Republicans are a nightmarish mess right now,” lamented Murphy. “I have no idea whether Republicans want to vote on Ukraine. Border and Ukraine. Neither. This is not a great place for the Senate to be when the Republican caucus can’t figure out what they want.” Certainly Democrats were willing to engage on border security. But the whole point of the supplemental spending request from President Biden last fall was to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. So while Democrats may find the state of affairs maddening, an international aid bill was what they always wanted. Meantime, everything on the Republican side of the aisle went haywire. And don’t forget that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is perhaps the biggest advocate in either body for Ukraine. But McConnell uncharacteristically found himself in an awkward position. He failed to read the temperature of his conference. Moreover, there is arguably no Republican lawmaker who has more antipathy for former President Trump than the Minority Leader. Yet it was the efforts of the former president to undercut the border plan which prevailed. McConnell lost. It may be surprising that it’s taken this long for MAGA-aligned senators to start to rip their leader. But this is what McConnell now faces. Conservatives – from old tea party loyalists to those linked today to former President Trump – long made things difficult for former House Speakers John Boehner, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy. Now McConnell faces the same issues. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., has fought publicly with McConnell over the years. Cruz told Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie it was time for McConnell to go. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., leveled even more specific criticisms about McConnell when also speaking with Hasnie. “He doesn’t talk to his members. He doesn’t listen to his members. He doesn’t talk to his members. He’s so focused on (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy,” said Hawley. “Is it any wonder that Republicans are up in arms and they finally see it? It’s an interesting leadership style. I’ll tell you that.” McConnell owes much of his success as the longest serving Senate party leader in U.S. history to holding his cards close to his vest. But the hand McConnell is now playing may not work in his favor. McConnell suffered multiple health episodes last year. Former President Trump would love to dump McConnell if he returns to the White House. Another
Trump credits himself for making Taylor Swift ‘so much money,’ claims Biden ‘didn’t do anything for Taylor’
Former President Donald Trump took to social media on Superbowl Sunday to claim some responsibility for Taylor Swift’s financial success and praise Travis Kelce, despite stressing that he and the music industry-meets-NFL power couple might not be politically aligned. “I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists. Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will,” Trump wrote on TRUTH Social. “There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money. Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!” Swift endorsed Biden for president in 2020, and his aides are reportedly courting another possible Swift endorsement in the 2024 race. ADELE TELLS TAYLOR SWIFT HATERS TO ‘GET A F—ING LIFE,’ ADDS THAT SHE’S MADE FOOTBALL ‘MORE ENJOYABLE’ The 14-time Grammy winning artist has been acknowledged by Republicans and Democratic players alike for her potential political influence on the race. Kansas City Chiefs’ Kelce, currently one of the most celebrated tight ends in the NFL with two Super Bowl wins already under his belt, has received criticism from fans and conservatives for a reported multi-million deal to appear in a Pfizer commercial for the COVID-19 vaccine. He and Swift have reportedly been dating since at least September. LAS VEGAS CHAPEL OFFERING FREE WEDDINGS TO COUPLES NAMED TAYLOR AND TRAVIS ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY In 2018, Trump signed the Music Modernization Act into law, enacting sweeping new reform to U.S. copyright law in the digital streaming era. “They’ve been working on this for years and years and years,” Trump said in a prepared statement at the time from the White House, according to Forbes. “(The MMA) closes loopholes in our digital royalty laws to ensure that songwriters, artists, producers and providers receive fair payment for the licensing of music.” Trump’s post came hours before the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers will go head-to-head in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Majority of Americans believe both Biden and Trump are too old for another term: poll
A large majority of Americans believe both President Biden and former President Trump are too old to serve another term in the White House. Eighty-six percent of Americans think Biden, 81, is too old to serve another term as president, while 62% think the same of Trump, 77, according to the results of a new ABC News/Ipsos poll. Concerns about the ages of Biden, who is seeking a second consecutive term as president, and Trump, the Republican frontrunner looking to return to the White House after losing his 2020 re-election bid, have been growing. An ABC report on the poll notes, citing an ABC News/Washington Post poll in September, that 74% believed the president was too old to service another term and 49% believed the same about the former president. BIDEN LEAD OVER TRUMP SHRINKS WITH THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES ADDED That trend became even more clear in the most recent ABC News/Ipsos poll, which found that 59% of Americans believe both candidates are too old, the report notes. But there was also a partisan difference in how voters viewed candidates from their own party, with 73% of Democrats believing Biden is too old to serve another term compared to just 35% of Republicans who believe the same thing about Trump. Trump bested Biden on which candidate was better suited to handle immigration and the border, with 44% of respondents favoring Trump, compared to 26% who believe Biden is more trustworthy with that task. Voters also gave the edge to Trump in handling crime (41%-28%), the economy (43%-31%), and inflation (41%-31%). HALEY ARGUES TRUMP AND BIDEN ARE ‘GRUMPY OLD MEN’ Meanwhile, Biden had an edge over Trump when it comes to which candidate respondents trust more with issues such as abortion (37%-28%), health care (38%-28%), and climate change (39%-22%). Neither campaign immediately responded to a Fox News Digital request for comment. The poll was conducted between Feb. 9-10 and surveyed a random sample of 528 U.S. adults, with a margin of sampling error of 4.5 points.
Haley calls for ‘diminished’ Biden, Trump to take mental acuity tests
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Sunday said President Biden and former President Trump should take mental acuity tests to show the American people whether “they’re at the top of their game,” adding that she’d have “no problem” taking such a test herself. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former United Nations ambassador, made the remarks during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” when asked when she planned to take a cognitive assessment after she made mental fitness a signature issue of the 2024 presidential election. “I have no problem taking it,” Haley responded. “And what I’ve said is we need to have mental competency tests for anyone over the age of 75. I don’t care if we do it for 50 and up.” Haley said Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, and his blunders that followed in the wake of the report suggest that the president is “diminished.” Haley suggested Trump has had similar memory issues but did not give any specific examples. BIDEN’S BRUTAL WEEK: PRESIDENT BATTERED BY GAFFES, DAMAGING SPECIAL COUNSEL REPORT “But what happened with Joe Biden this week, and what we’ve seen with Donald Trump is another example of why we have to face the reality of the fact that when you get to those ages, you get diminished,” she said. “These are people making decisions on our national security. These are people making decisions on the future of our economy. We need to know they’re at the top of their game.” Biden, who is America’s oldest sitting president, is 81 years old and Trump is 77. NIKKI HALEY CALLS ROBERT HUR REPORT ‘UNBELIEVABLY DISTURBING’ According to Hur’s report released Thursday, Biden could not remember key details of his own life – such as when he was vice president – during interviews with investigators. The investigators, who regarded Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” recommended no criminal charges against the president. Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Joe Schoffstall contributed to this report.
Biden allies go on defense blitz following Hur report: ‘Bucket of BS’
Allies of President Biden joined Sunday morning shows to defend the commander in chief following Special Counsel Robert Hur’s months-long report on classified documents that characterized Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory.” “He’s smart. He’s on his game,” Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “And as Secretary Mayorkas said a minute ago, when you go in to brief the president, you better have your big boy pants on. And this kind of sense that he’s not ready for this job, it’s just a bucket of BS that’s so deep, your boots will get stuck.” Landrieu and Biden’s personal attorney Robert Bauer joined morning shows on Sunday to defend the president’s mental clarity following Hur’s report. The report, released Thursday, described the president’s memory as “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor,” and suggested Biden did not remember when his son Beau Biden died. The report ultimately decided against criminally charging the president for the possession of classified documents after he served as vice president. CONGRESSMAN, ARMY VET SAYS BIDEN BEING ‘USED,’ FEARS OTHERS ARE MAKING DECISIONS: ‘IT’S ABUSIVE’ “We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter,” the report, released Thursday, states. “We would reach the same conclusion even if the Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president.” Bauer, who appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” described Hur’s report as “shoddy” and riddled with “factual misstatements.” Following the report’s public release, the White House counsel’s office requested Hur revise some of the language in the report. CONSERVATIVES RIP BIDEN AFTER CLASSIFIED DOCS PROBE DOESN’T CHARGE HIM, CITING ‘POOR MEMORY’: ’25TH AMENDMENT’ “The investigation could have been concluded in two or three months. It went on for over 15 months. And so, along with the legal conclusion comes this flood of characterizations, factual misstatements, pejorative comments about the president that are inconsistent with DOJ policy and norms. And that, as you see over the last 48 hours, have been widely criticized by legal experts. This is not what prosecutors do. It is shoddy work product,” Bauer said Sunday. Biden held a press conference Thursday evening where he fielded questions from the media regarding his mental clarity, memory and age following Hur’s report. Amid Biden defending his mental state, he confused Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi as the “president of Mexico,” sparking concern stateside as well as abroad. Critics lampooned the president for the gaffe, as some called for the invocation of the 25th Amendment, which stipulates the presidential order of succession if a commander in chief is unable to fulfill their duties, dies, resigns or becomes incapacitated. Bauer doubled-down throughout his interview Sunday that the Hur report was “shoddy” and “shabby,” and detailed that he was in the room when Biden answered the special counsel’s questions across two days and that the president was “engaged” during the interview and answered to his “best recollection.” FOREIGN OUTLETS PULL NO PUNCHES OVER BIDEN ‘CONFUSION’ AND ‘RAGE’ AFTER SURPRISE PRESS CONFERENCE “I recall from that interview a president who engaged with the questions very directly and gave his best recollection. And in fact, I think was quite helpful to the special counsel,” Bauer said, adding that Hur decided to “cherry pick in a very misleading way” when he wrote the report. Bauer said Biden “does not” have any issues with his memory, and provided a “vignette from the interview room.” “There were a couple of occasions when the special counsel, who had flagged at the beginning that sometimes he asks imprecise questions, asked questions that the president picked apart as a matter of logic. He showed that the questions didn’t have a logical underpinning. Now, everybody in the room recognized that was the case. That showed the president was listening carefully and understood precisely what was wrong with those questions,” Bauer said. ‘BIDEN SEEMS LIKE THE DANGER,’ SAYS LIBERAL PROTESTER OUTSIDE PRESIDENT’S ELITE NYC FUNDRAISER Landrieu in his remarks Sunday slammed Hur’s “ad hominem attack” within the report that questioned the president’s mental capacity, calling it “egregious.” “This ad hominem attack questions the president’s capacity and I want to speak to that very clearly because I can testify because I’ve been working very closely with this president for the past two years. I’ve been knowing him for 30 years. I have met with him personally. I’ve met with him with two people, five people, 10 people. I have been on trips with him crisscrossing the country, rebuilding America based on this incredible infrastructure bill that was passed. And I’m telling you this guy is tough,” he said. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas also joined “Meet the Press” on Sunday, arguing the president is “sharp.” “The most difficult part about a meeting with President Biden is preparing for it because he is sharp, intensely probing and detail-oriented and focused,” Mayorkas said. The secretary also said that he and other Cabinet members have “not at all” considered invoking the 25th Amendment to remove and replace the president. BIDEN LASHES OUT AT REPORTERS ASKING ABOUT AGE CONCERNS AFTER SPECIAL COUNSEL REPORT: ‘THAT IS YOUR JUDGMENT!’ “I don’t engage in politics. I’m responsible for governing and following the president’s agenda, which I scrupulously do,” he said. The White House released a memo Saturday, titled “We don’t blame Republican officials for their desperation to forget the Biden presidency,” which detailed Biden’s successes as president, including helping “secure the release of over 100 of the hostages taken by Hamas,” and how Republicans and Democrats have previously lauded Biden for his mental sharpness. “President Biden’s experience, character, and drive have made him the most successful president in modern history, getting the country back on its feet after inheriting a nation in crisis and going on to achieve goals that eluded his predecessors for decades,” the memo reads.
Close race to replace Santos heats up ahead of Election Day snowstorm
The battle to replace ousted former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., is heating up even as a snowstorm threatens to pummel voters in the Northeast, on Election Day, with up to a foot of snow. Former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi and Republican Mazi Melesa Pilip are coming down the stretch of a campaign with potential national implications, with Republicans looking to hold on to a key suburban New York City district amid a trend of Democratic gains in the suburbs in recent elections. Polling from both public outlets and internal campaigns has remained close throughout the race, with the latest Newsday/Siena College poll released last week showing Suozzi with a 4-point lead over Pilip, within the poll’s margin of error. NEW YORK SPECIAL ELECTION CANDIDATES CLASH OVER BORDER CRISIS, ABORTION: ‘YOU CREATED THIS ISSUE’ The poll came the same day as the lone debate between the two candidates, which became heated as both shouted over each other in a back-and-forth battle. “She has no solutions whatsoever,” Suozzi said of his GOP rival during the debate, according to a report from Politico. “Just there’s a problem, there’s a problem, oh, by the way, it’s a really big problem. That’s not enough. That’s not how you govern.” Pilip, on the other hand, sought to paint her opponent as a party insider who would toe the line for Democrats. “You know the difference between me and you?” she said. “You are a talker. I am the person who will deliver.” Despite gains in suburban support in recent years, Democrats have struggled to loosen the tight GOP grip over this affluent Long Island district, which has seen voters express concerns over growing crime and increased illegal immigration. The immigration issue has taken on even more prominence over the last year as migrants from the southern border have been bussed to New York City and the surrounding area by the thousands. DEMOCRAT SUOZZI RUNNING FOR GEORGE SANTOS SEAT TAKES HEAT FOR 2019 POST ON ICE AMID NEW YORK’S MIGRANT CRISIS While Republicans have typically had an advantage with voters concerned about immigration and border security, Suozzi attacked Pilip’s opposition to a bipartisan Senate border bill that he claimed would “close the border.” “She says she’s concerned about the border, but she opposes the bipartisan solution that would actually close the border,” Suozzi said during the debate, according to Politico. The debate jabs come as some voters have already made their way to the polls for early voting, with that data seemingly backing polling data that called for a close race. According to early voting data release by the New York City Board of Elections Thursday, a total of 29,913 voters have already cast their ballots. Broken down by party affiliation, 12,767 of those voters were registered Democrats, while 10,434 were registered Republicans. Another 5,636 were unaffiliated with either party, while over 1,000 more were classified as other. Meanwhile, a winter storm is bearing down on the Northeast and could hit hard right before voters head to the polls on Election Day. According to a report from the New York Times, the storm could bring up to a foot of snow to some areas in the region, with the storm starting Monday night ahead of the election slated for Tuesday.
Week in pictures: From turmoil in DR Congo to a climate protest in Jakarta
[unable to retrieve full-text content] A roundup of some of last week’s events.
Western narcissism and support for genocidal Israel go hand in hand
For more than four months now, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western countries have been staunchly supporting Israel’s war on Gaza. As of now, the Israeli army has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, including more than 12,000 children. On January 26, the International Court of Justice ruled that “at least some of the acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the [Genocide] Convention,” and that South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing genocidal acts is “plausible”. Nevertheless, the West continued to stand by Israel. Then when Israel alleged that employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) were linked to Hamas, the US, the UK, Germany, and more than a dozen other countries suspended their funding, as Palestinians in Gaza faced starvation. Despite Western complicity in actions the world’s top court is recognising as genocidal, the West still assigns itself all manner of superiority in civilised societal behaviour. Western countries still honour themselves as “the good guys”. “I got in trouble many times for saying you don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist. I make no apologies for that. That’s a reality,” President Joe Biden said in a speech at a private campaign reception in Massachusetts in early December, when the death toll in Gaza already stood at 16,200. “We’ve [Americans] never thought anything is beyond our capacity, from curing cancer this time around to everything we’ve ever done. I really mean it,” he added. It takes a special kind of narcissism for a world leader to declare himself a 50-year-long adherent to a white supremacist ideology that excuses apartheid, settler-colonialism, and genocide and then to turn to the greatness of the US and all its “possibilities”, as if the US has only been sprinkling pixie dust around the world and not intervening with brutal military and economic power over the past 130 years. But the US president is not alone in his self-delusion. At the Conservative Friends of Israel gathering in London last month, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak showed unwavering support for Israeli attacks on Gaza and the West Bank. “There is a horrific irony in Israel, of all countries being accused of genocide,” Sunak said, labelling South Africa’s case against Israel “completely unjustified”. The “horrific irony” is that Israel, as a Western ally, cannot be accused of genocide because it is one of “the good guys”. The “bad guys” can only be non-Western (really, non-white) nations, such as South Africa. Biden, Sunak et al still believe that as the leaders of the developed world, they are making understandable rational choices when they are fighting wars and killing people in the name of self-defence or under the guise of fighting “terrorism”. Despite the protest of tens of millions people around the world and the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians, the razing of Gaza and other crimes against humanity, the disregard for the ongoing war in Sudan and the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Western leaders still believe Western capitalism and democratic institutions will save the world. In his book The Clash of Civilizations (1996), the late political scientist Samuel Huntington warned about the dangers of the Western delusion that the rest of the world should embrace its purported values. “The survival of the West depends on Americans reaffirming their Western identity and Westerners accepting their civilization as unique not universal,” he wrote. But what Huntington didn’t understand about the West’s quest for a one-world civilisation is that today’s resentments toward it didn’t start in the post-Cold War era of the 1990s. They are a response to the trail of death, destruction, and devouring of resources that Westerners have left behind ever since Christopher Columbus made his way to the Western Hemisphere and Vasco da Gama found a route around Africa to South Asia, both in the 1490s. The rest of the world has been the West’s source of plunder, first through the pillage of gold, silver, and gems from newly invaded lands, then through the enslavement of millions of Indigenous, African, and Asian peoples, and finally through the conquest of the old empires of the East. This belief in Western civilisation as superior and righteous because of its whiteness is so ingrained in its culture that young people in the West grow up without anyone in their lives ever questioning it. That is, until someone like me as a history professor comes along and confronts this fundamental belief. In my many years of teaching history, my own students have often gotten into it with me over my supposition that “Western civilisation” is a contradictory term. “But the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice!” one student yelped, while a calmer student, with a raised hand, said, “It’s unfortunate that atrocities happened to the natives, but it’s insulting to compare what the Spanish did to what happened to Rome.” That was the strong pushback I received from a few students in one of my world history courses a few years back when I spoke of the barbarity of the Spanish conquests of the Aztecs and the Inca in the 16th century and the similarities between those invasions and the Vandal and Visigoth tribes who helped end the Western Roman Empire. I pointed out the achievements of the civilisations destroyed and the conquistadors and the Spanish priests burning nearly all Mayan writings, desecrating Mexica, Mayan, and Inca temples, and forcing the population into slavery and Christianity. I have also endured vitriol from students unwilling to even consider the possibility that the US and the West, having engaged in barbaric behaviour with their own populations and across the globe, might do so in the near future. “It isn’t possible, because…no civilised society wants it happening to them,” one student said years ago. “Americans would never take up arms against the
Death toll rises to 54 in southern Philippines landslide
Authorities say 63 people remain missing as rescue efforts are hampered by heavy rain, thick mud and the threat of further landslides. The death toll from a landslide that hit a gold-mining village in the southern Philippines has risen to 54 people and 63 others are missing, authorities have said. The landslide hit the mountain village of Masara in Davao de Oro province on Tuesday night after weeks of torrential rains. Davao de Oro’s provincial government said in a Facebook post that 54 bodies had been recovered, raising its previous death toll of 37 earlier in the day as rescue workers found more bodies. At least 32 residents survived with injuries but 63 remained missing, it said. Among those missing were gold miners who had been waiting in two buses to be driven home when the landslide struck and buried them. Edward Macapili, an official from Davao de Oro, said more than 300 people were involved in the rescue, but operations were being hampered by heavy rain, thick mud and the threat of further landslides. Rescue work resumed on Sunday morning, Macapili said. Asked if there were still survivors, he said it was already “unlikely”, but the search would continue.”The rescue team is doing its best, even if it’s very difficult,” he told the Reuters news agency. Rocks, mud and trees slid more than 700m (2,300 feet) down a steep mountainside near the Apex Mining Co concession, burying an 8.9-hectare (22-acre) section of the Masara community. A three-year-old girl was pulled alive from under the rubble on Friday, in what rescuers described as a “miracle”. More than 1,100 families have been moved to evacuation centres for their safety, disaster response officials said. Rain has pounded parts of the southern region on and off for weeks, triggering dozens of landslides and floods that have forced tens of thousands of people into emergency shelters. Earthquakes also damaged houses and buildings in the region in recent months, officials said. Landslides are a frequent hazard across much of the archipelago nation due to the mountainous terrain, heavy rainfall and widespread deforestation from mining, slash-and-burn farming and illegal logging. Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine intelligence ‘confirms’ Russian forces using Starlink
Starlink terminals, which provide high-speed communications, have been vital in giving Ukraine’s military an edge over invading Russian troops. Ukrainian intelligence said it has confirmed that Russian forces are using satellite internet service Starlink on the battlefield in occupied areas in the east of the country. Releasing what it said on Sunday was proof, Ukraine’s military intelligence said it has confirmed earlier reports that of the “systemic” use by Russian troops of terminals of Elon Musk’s satellite communications system. Starlink systems have been vital for Ukraine‘s battlefield communications in Russia’s nearly two-year-old invasion as Kyiv has faced a larger and better-equipped military. The personal control of Starlink by the US billionaire, who has regularly repeated Kremlin talking points regarding the conflict, remains a concern for Kyiv and its allies. The terminals were rushed in to help Ukraine after Russia’s February 2022 invasion and have been vital to Kyiv’s battlefield communications. Following reports in Ukraine, Space X said last week that it “does not do business of any kind with the Russian government or its military”. However, the Ministry of Defence’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) posted an audio clip on Telegram which it said featured Russian troops discussing setting up the terminals in eastern Ukraine. “Cases of the Russian occupiers’ use of the given devices have been registered. It is beginning to take on a systemic nature,” GUR quoted spokesman Andriy Yusov as saying. In a statement, the agency said the terminals were being used by units like Russia’s 83rd Air Assault Brigade, which is fighting near the embattled towns of Klishchiivka and Andriivka in the partially-occupied eastern region of Donetsk. Reports from Ukraine last week claimed that Russia has been sourcing Starlink equipment in spots such as Dubai. Western tech components have regularly been found among Russia’s arsenal as Moscow has become more skilled at evading sanctions, often importing goods via third countries. Mass barrage Russian forces launched 45 drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv reported on Sunday. The five-and-a-half-hour attack targeted agricultural facilities and coastal infrastructure, officials for Ukraine’s southern defence forces wrote on Telegram. They added that a strike in the Mykolaiv region had injured one person, sparking a fire and damaging nearby residential buildings. Another person was injured in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region when a blaze broke out due to falling debris from a destroyed drone, said the head of the region’s military administration, Serhiy Lysak. The strikes come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues his shakeup of military commanders in a bid to maintain momentum against attacking Russian forces. Kyiv announced that former Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Pavlyuk would become the new commander of Ukraine’s ground forces. The post was previously held by Oleksandr Syrsky, who was named Thursday as the replacement for Ukraine’s outgoing military chief, Valerii Zaluzhny. New presidential decrees also named Yurii Sodol, the former head of Ukraine’s marine corps, as the new commander of Ukraine’s combined forces; Ihor Skibiuk as commander of Ukraine’s air assault forces; and Ihor Plahuta as commander of Ukraine’s territorial defence forces. Incoming commander-in-chief Syrsky has signalled that his immediate goals include improving troop rotation at the front lines and harnessing the power of new technology at a time when Kyiv’s forces are largely on the defensive. Adblock test (Why?)