#43 students of Ayotzinapa

[pendulum-sonata]

When 43 Students Go Missing...

I’m quoting this from the comments:

“It has to be an international YouTuber talking about this on detail, if this was uploaded by someone in my country that person would be dead, thanks for talking about Ayotzinapa.”

[radicalgraff]

"It was the army"

Huge roller graffiti for the 43 Ayotzinapa student activists who were disappeared by the Mexican state on the 26th of September, 2014.

[magicalpoisonouspotato]

I feel like y'all should know what's going on here today.

Today is election day in Mexico, it's also the day we'll probably get our first woman president (the first one in all northamerica actually) Claudia Sheinbaum, yet it isn't exactly something to celebrate. Yes it's groundbreaking to have a woman as president, however she is not a good woman. She was essentially handpicked as a successor by AMLO, our current president from within his political party, Morena.

Morena was the driving force behind the Tren Maya (a train running all the way through southeastern Mexico, an area full of indigenous territories, archeological vestiges, protected ecosystems and species, that he been negatively affected if not destroyed by this project. The Asamblea Maya is heavily against it), the Felipe angeles airport (an airport settled over an area full of paleontological remains, and a huge disruptor to migratory bird routes, so yknow another ecological disaster, plus it endangers the preservation of the Teotihuacán archeological zone due to its closeness, as well as being a nuisance for the people of San Juan Teotihuacan), plus many other megadevelopments in the name of "progress" and the "people first", most of which have actually made life worse for people or have been directly opposed by indigenous communities. It's also important to point out that AMLO and Morena used the grieving families of the Ayotzinapa 43 (forcibly dissappeared students, a tragedy committed by the army and covered up by the government) and promised the army and everyone involved wouldn't go unpunished and then betrayed the families by painting them as opportunistic sell outs to the opposition, never actually releasing the information or punishing the people involved in the disappearance of the students, and giving more and more power to the army, effectively militarizing the country.

While Sheinbaum was head of government in Mexico City there were a lot of protests, most of which were confronted by a lot of police brutality condoned by her government for example they gassed feminist protesters and escalated violence against propalestine protesters, among others. Her government was also bad for the infrastructure of public transportation in the city, with these last few years having been some of the worse for the Mexico city subway in recent history. She also spearhead "mobility projects" to allegedly help the flow of the city traffic and maintain our environment, all she did was destroy wetlands to make more roads, which have had horrible consequences for the biodiversity of the city (destruction of the original ecosystem and disruption of migratory bird routes) while suppressing and intimidating the originary people of the area that rightfully questioned this projects, that not only hurt the ecosystem, but actively took water sources away from their communities.

She is also a zionist and has filled her party with terfs and a known rapist.

This election was unfortunately another choose the lesser evil election in Mexican history, since the other two presidential candidates are also a terrible choice (Xochitl Gálvez is the representative for the conservative paty in Mexico and Jorge Álvarez Maynez is very similar), and the fact that very single politician is trying to distance themselves from PRI the most prominent party in Mexican history and also the orchestrator of a lot of the bad things in our country, however most of them worked in or with the PRI at some point, including most of Morena's representatives. This has lead to most people not wanting to vote, annuling their vote, or voting for missing people to visibilize them and the incompetence of the authorities.

So yeah, I guess finally having a woman as a president is something good, but it is definitely not a good thing, don't let the media fool y'all into thinking this is some "socialist" or "leftist" win for Mexicans, when at best it won't change anything.

https://www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2021/05/07/la-desigual-batalla-contra-cdmx-para-salvar-los-humedales-de-xochimilco-uno-de-los-ultimos-cuerpos-de-agua-prehispanicos/

https://www.radioformula.com.mx/nacional/2024/5/31/caso-ayotzinapa-no-esperamos-novedades-dice-abogado-sobre-reunion-de-padres-con-amlo-818334.html

https://elpais.com/mexico/2024-03-06/los-normalistas-de-ayotzinapa-echan-abajo-una-de-las-puertas-del-palacio-nacional-para-presionar-a-lopez-obrador.html

https://asambleamaya.wixsite.com/muuchxiinbal

https://etcetera.com.mx/nacional/metro-denuncian-falta-mantenimiento-irregularidades-contraloria/

https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/estados/2024/05/31/tren-maya-transformo-el-paraiso-en-infierno-rios-subterraneos-tienen-un-color-turbio-por-el-metal/?outputType=amp

https://la-lista.com/mexico/2024/05/29/policias-agreden-a-manifestante-durante-protesta-a-favor-de-palestina-en-cdmx-esta-grave

https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/8m-minuto-minuto-de-la-marcha-por-el-dia-internacional-de-la-mujer/

[mariacallous]

There are more than 114,000 missing persons in Mexico, and that number is continuing to rise. Criminal violence in the country is at a record level, largely driven by gangs and drug cartels. Many of those missing are buried in clandestine graves all across the country.

To contribute to the solution of this complex problem, a group of scientists from the Center for Research in Geospatial Information Sciences (CentroGeo) put technology and data analysis at the service of the searches.

"I never thought I would have to work on this, but if this knowledge is of any use, now is the time to show it," says José Luis Silván, a geographer at CentroGeo. Years ago, as part of his doctoral work, he specialized in measuring forest biomass and human populations through satellite information. At that time, he was far from imagining the scientific work he is doing today: investigating the potential of drones, hyperspectral images, and protocols to detect clandestine graves.

In a recent article published in the International Journal of Forensic Research and Criminology, Jorge Silván and researcher Ana Alegre insist that studying the geographical environment is very important to understand in depth a crime such as disappearance. Thus, “due to its context and diversity of climates, the case of Mexico may represent an opportunity for the development of investigations.”

Finding burials requires hard work. All available information and resources must be optimized. Therefore, scientists have evaluated the use of remote sensing tools and have systematized information from previous findings. They seek to discover patterns in the behavior of the perpetrators and, with this, to find burials.

According to Red Lupa, 88% of the 114,000 cases of disappearances in Mexico occurred between 2000 and May 2024. 10,315 were registered in 2023, the most on record. This represents an average of 29 people per day. Jalisco, Tamaulipas, State of Mexico, Veracruz and Nuevo Leon are the entities with the highest incidences.

Justice is almost non-existent, with 99% impunity for this crime. For this reason, since 2007 alone, civil society has formed more than 300 search groups, mostly made up of family members who scour the land guided by witness statements or organized in general brigades. These groups have detected most of the 5,696 clandestine graves reported on Mexican soil.

The association United for Our Disappeared searches in the north of the country, in Baja California. One of its members, who preferred to remain anonymous, has been searching for his son for 18 years. He says they have been using pointed rods to detect graves for more than 10 years. This is one of the most widely used tools in Mexico for this purpose. "We fit the rod in where we suspect the earth was removed, insert it, pull it out and smell it. If there are bone remains or tissue, you can tell by the smell. It is a strong odor, easy to detect. It smells like organic matter in the process of decomposition."

Before, he says, they used a georadar—a device similar to a pruning shear that detects inconsistencies in the ground—but they abandoned this practice because it was not very useful. The radar responds to almost any kind of object, from chips to boats. The last time they used it, it returned 40 suspicious spots, but none were positive. In Mexicali, another group uses a drone to fly over areas and detect changes in the terrain. Others have used machines to dig holes instead of shovels. Some innovations are abandoned over time, but the use of rods remains.

In 2014, after the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa normalistas in Mexico, Silván and other CentroGeo professionals joined the scientific advisory board on the case. During the search for the students, different civilian groups and government brigades detected dozens of illegal graves. In less than 10 months, the Mexican Attorney General's Office counted 60 sites and 129 bodies in the state of Guerrero. As a result of the raids, 300 illegal graves were revealed. Since then, the number of clandestine graves has only grown.

No one anticipated the size of this horror. The report "Searching between pain and hope: Findings of clandestine graves in Mexico 2020 - 2022", exposes with hemerographic data that in those two years, 1,134 clandestine graves were registered, with 2,314 bodies and 2,242 remains. In proportional terms, Colima reported the highest rate of illegal graves, with 10 per 100,000 inhabitants. It was followed by Sonora, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Sinaloa and Zacatecas.

By number of cases, Guanajuato, Sonora and Guerrero stand out. These three entities account for 42% of the records. By April 2023, a journalistic investigation by Quinto Elemento Lab reported that the number of illegal burials reached 5,696 clandestine graves, and that more than half of them were detected during the current federal administration.

Employing his field of study, remote sensing, José Luis Silván uses images captured with satellites, drones or airplanes, from which he extracts geospatial information using knowledge of the physics of light, mathematics and programming. Multispectral and hyperspectral images capture subsurface information using sensors that record wavelengths of light imperceptible to the human eye, making them useful for searching.

In 2016, during a first study by CentroGeo researchers, they simulated burials with pig carcasses to evaluate the potential of using hyperspectral cameras in searches and learn what information from the sensors was useful to them. The Mexican researchers knew from research in other countries that successful detection with these techniques depends, in part, on being able to recognize how carcasses (and their spectral images) change in different soils and climates.

The experiment was carried out on rented land in the state of Morelos. There they buried seven animals and evaluated the light reflected by the soil at different wavelengths for six months. They concluded that a hyperspectral camera, which provides more than a hundred layers of data, has the potential to detect clandestine burials, although the technique is only effective three months after burial. They tried to arrange for the acquisition of a camera and drone (valued at 5 million pesos) through the National Search Commission, but were unsuccessful.

Faced with this, they began to evaluate more affordable alternatives, such as multispectral devices. Today, despite the fact that spaces such as the Commission for the Search for Disappeared Persons of the State of Jalisco (COBUPEJ—-with which they have a partnership—has acquired this equipment, no national strategy exists to deploy these technologies systematically.

Some time later, the scientists took on a bigger challenge. When they briefed the National Search Commission on the usefulness of remote sensing for locating burials, officials told them that in some regions of the Northwest, the greatest need was to locate substances used to conceal crimes. "They dispose of them in caustic soda or with chemicals, char them and incinerate them in the open air or in crematoria; they throw the remains away or bury them," the researcher says.

So, in 2021, Silván's group did another experiment, this time in Hidalgo and with a spectroradiometer, which measures how different substances reflect light. For that study, they tested the trace of substances used in crimes. They found that diesel, muriatic acid and blood treated with anticoagulants require more precise imaging to be located, but that most substances, such as caustic soda, lime, blood and those resulting from open burning could be detected with multispectral sensors, which are less expensive.

CentroGeo has also participated in the development of complementary strategies to identify areas with a high probability of harboring clandestine graves. One example is the training of mathematical models with the coordinates of previous findings and the characteristics of the sites preferred by criminals, which they call clandestine spaces and which define as those which are easy to access for perpetrators and of low visibility to the population.

In addition, they have been using the signs that decomposing bodies leave on the vegetation for years. As a corpse decomposes, it releases nutrients into the soil, in particular increasing the concentration of nitrogen. In plants, this element is linked to chlorophyll, which gives them their greenness. In experiments with buried pigs, they have observed that a chlorophyll indicator can be quantified through satellite images. They measure how fast this index grows to detect sites with anomalies. This tool is available on the "Clandestine Space" platform.

Silván says that to interpret the nitrogen signal, they must consider that the gas signal can also vary due to the use of fertilizers or rains that carry nutrients. The presence of nitrogen, then, is not definitive proof of the existence of trenches, but it provides indications that justify paying attention in certain regions. The National Search Commission has been trained to use this indicator.

In Baja California, a northern state with 17,306 missing persons cases, these strategies have already been used. They first analyzed 52 locations of known graves and deduced that, because of the way they were distributed, there was a high probability of finding more graves at a distance of between 18 and 28 kilometers from those already known. They also looked for possible "clandestine spaces" and identified that 32% of the territory of Baja California had the potential to be used for that purpose. Finally, they reviewed the concentration of chlorophyll in satellite images. The result was a useful accompaniment for some family brigades.

Recently, Ana Alegre and José Silván analyzed geospatial models that could explain the distribution of graves in 10 states. They found that the travel time it would take an offender to get from urban streets to the grave is the factor that most influences the location of graves. "The secrecy sought by perpetrators seemed less important than reducing the effort they invest in creating the grave," their article says.

In addition to collaborating with the government, CentroGeo researchers work with civil associations such as Regresando a casa Morelos and Fuerzas unidas por nuestros desaparecidos en Nuevo León (FUNDENL). Some time ago, the former asked them to survey a site. "We collected thermal images and three-dimensional models to provide information," says Silván. In addition, they gave a workshop for visual interpretation. Silván describes the members of "Returning Home Morelos" as dedicated people. "They want to find their loved ones, they are willing to learn anything, to analyze an image or fly a drone. To everything."

With information from the FUNDENL collective and support from the American Jewish World Service, CentroGeo created "Huellas de vida", a platform that crosses the information of unfound persons and unidentified bodies with data from objects found in clandestine burial sites in Nuevo León. The intention is to detect coincidences that will help solve cases.

The geographer points out that the investigation is advancing, while the forms and numbers of disappearances are multiplying. Other countries, he says, are installing ground penetration radars on drones, or are planning to use electronic noses as indicators of methane, an element that corpses release at a certain stage of decomposition. To search for missing persons from the Spanish Civil War, for example, patterns in geographic data were tracked to narrow down search sites.

The big pending issue is to evaluate the real contribution that geographic information has had in uncovering crime scenes. "It is complicated to have feedback, even with the National Commission, because they are not obliged to tell us where they have findings." It will be until they have the new reports when they will be able to collate the results and measure the impact of their contributions. For now, "it is complicated to attribute the findings to our tools and information".

For his part, the member of United for our Disappeared assures that the search groups are the ones who have found most of the clandestine graves currently located. The usual thing, he says, is that the governments do not have departments for this work and only search when they have declarations that oblige them to do so. With the collectives it is different, because "we receive anonymous information, and even if we have no information, we still schedule searches and go out".

Finding graves is the beginning of another loss. When they have reason to excavate, they use picks and shovels and, if they find human remains, the authorities (who usually accompany them) cordon off the area and proceed with their work. If they are not present, they call them. "From there, many times we don't know what's going on, we don't get feedback from the authorities. We say that the person we found is lost again." The problem is general, "the collectives complain that people get lost in the bureaucratic process". In few cases, they say, the Prosecutor's Office restores the identity of the disappeared.

While technology is integrated into the systematic searches, collectives such as United for our Disappeared ask society to share the information they have on missing persons. "We only want to find them, all the information that reaches the collectives is anonymous," says the interviewee whose identity we reserve. The authorities have accepted this, he assures.

For his part, José Silván comments that, as a result of the collaboration with COBUPEJ and other institutions, they are about to publish a book to disseminate techniques for the detection of graves that they tested during their work.n de fosas que probaron durante un año en dos sitios de inhumación controlados en Jalisco, así como otras experiencias recogidas a nivel nacional a través de la ciencia ciudadana que hacen las madres buscadoras. The book is entitled Interpreting Nature to Find Them and is coordinated by Tunuari Chavez, head of the COBUPEJ context unit, and Jose Silvan under the direction of commissioner Victor Avila.

[namorailecec]

“Duelo,” as the exhibition was called, was inspired by the disappearance of 43 students from a rural teachers college in Ayotzinapa in 2014. The show, whose title means “Mourning,” was a funereal collection of ceramic urns, decayed heads and disconcerting arrangements of body parts — all crafted in a way that seemed to evoke the color and texture of flayed skin.

Francisco Toledo

[junawer]

Claudia works in the interest of the cartels, is involved in the Ayotzinapa 43 student disappearance, in the Pegasus use at the border, her family is in the Panama papers and and and…

Only recently people in Mexico were clashing with police and trying to light the Zionist embassy on fire. The situation there is incredibly dynamic rn which zionists will try to infiltrate, co-opt and subdue with normalizers and libzios.

As someone from Mexico I feel deeply obligated to let the US left know that Claudia Sheinbaum is neither of these things and while having a women rule the country for the first time is a historic achievement it is not the win you think it is

She is of jewish descent and made one statement for Palestine but never pressured the mexican goverment to break ties with Israel and one of her proposals as a president is to give the military here ( that btw is trained by the Isr*eli army) more power

As the mayor of Mexico City she constantly used the riot police against protestors and allowed the use of tear gas ( which she later claimed wasn't true)

She calls herself a feminist but always refused to acknowledge the wave of violence Mexico faces against women ( 11 women dissapear every day in Mexico) She has also knowingly made men accused of SA part of her campaign team

She also supports "Tren Maya", a project that caused massive ecological devastation in the mayan jungle and facilitated military violence against indigenous communities

You don't live here, you don't know shit so please don't push this kind of narrative idolizing these people

this is not a win for us

[marederia]

☞De 10 años de un crímen de estado coludido con el narco

Los 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa siempre será una herida abierta para México y un crímen terrible que hasta ahora el gobierno no le ha podido dar justicia ni claridad. Algo de lo que poco se habla es de las 21 víctimas que sobrevivieron, que aunque esten vivos, siguen sufriendo consecuencias por lo que tuvieron que vivir.

The Missing 43: Mexico's Disappeared Students

AYOTZINAPA, El paso de la tortuga

[eobardthawneallen]

Every time a reporter comments about the prev president's promise of the Ayotzinapa case I can only think:

There is not going to be an Ayotzinapa investigation you stupid slut

Poor of the 43 missing* students, their familiars and friends, but the old man did nothing for 6 years, well that's a lie, when they (the family and friends) finally got clues and guy said u_u not gonna see that and we're all going to ignore it and proceed to say we didn't find shit (because it involved militars), and the woman now won't do anything either. There is not going to be a president who is gonna search for the responsible of that case. (I hope I'm wrong with this)

*they're dead and burnt, but familiars still protest they want them back alive and search for the bodies that doesn't exist anymore

[swldx]

BBC 0406 27 Sep 2024

12095Khz 0358 27 SEP 2024 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from TALATA VOLONONDRY. SINPO = 55434. English, dead carrier s/on @0358z then ID@0359z pips and newsday preview. @0401z World News anchored by David Harper. § Hurricane Helene is one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States with wind gust speeds of 140 mph (225 km/h) and heavy rain. The storm made landfall in Florida overnight on Thursday as a category four hurricane but was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved rapidly more inland. It was the strongest storm on record to hit Florida's Big Bend, and it moved north into Georgia and the Carolinas. At least 45 people have died and millions have been left without power. § The Foreign Minister of Lebanon on Thursday said that the crisis in his country demanded urgent international action as Israeli attacks threatened to set off “a domino effect”, turning the entire Middle East region into “a black hole” of endless conflict. § Japan’s scandal-hit ruling party has elected Shigeru Ishiba as its new leader, positioning the former defence chief as Japan's next leader. Ishiba, 67, said he would clean up his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), revitalise the economy and address security threats after winning Friday's party election. § The head of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said on Thursday that the faction remained ready to implement a nationwide ceasefire in its war with the army and allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, made the comments in a recorded message addressed to the United Nations General Assembly, following a speech to the body by the head of Sudan’s army. § More than half of Argentina's 46 million people are now living in poverty, new figures indicate, in a blow to right-wing President Javier Milei's efforts to turn around the country's beleaguered economy. § The U.S.'s steep tariff hikes on Chinese goods took effect on Friday after Beijing criticized the move as mutually destructive protectionism. China-made solar cells, semiconductors, and medical supplies such as masks and surgical gloves are now subject to 50 percent tariffs, up from 25. Tariffs on lithium-ion batteries have been raised from 7.5 percent to 25 percent. Duties on Chinese electric vehicles, a sector China now dominates but has a negligible market share in the U.S., have been quadrupled from 25 percent to 100 percent. § The parents of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College who went missing in Iguala, Guerrero in 2014, allegedly disappeared by security forces and a local drug gang, descended on Mexico City for an annual march to demand justice for their children. § Water levels in many of the rivers in the Amazon basin have reached their lowest on record amid a continuing drought, the Brazilian Geological Service (SGB) says. The Madeira river, a major tributary to the Amazon, had fallen to just 48cm in the city of Porto Velho on Tuesday, down from an average of 3.32m for this day, official data showed. The Solimões river has also fallen to its lowest level on record in Tabatinga, on Brazil's border with Colombia. Brazil's natural disaster monitoring agency Cemaden has described the current drought as the "most intense and widespread" it has ever recorded. @0406z "Newsday" begins. 100' (30m) of Kev-Flex wire feeding "Magic Wand" antenna hanging in backyard tree w/MFJ-1020C active antenna (used as a preamplifier/preselector), JRC NRD-535D, 250kW, beamAz 315°, bearing 63°. Received at Plymouth, MN, United States, 15359KM from transmitter at Talata Volonondry. Local time: 2258.

[newstfionline]

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Angelenos Shrug at Recent Quakes, Decades After the Last ‘Big One.’ (NYT) Los Angeles, in all its glory, is a wonder to behold. Its finest days (high 70s, sunny, breeze whispering through the palm trees) can make one believe it is impervious to disaster. The unfortunate truth that lurks below the earth is thus easy to gloss over or even forget. Until it reminds you with a jolt. Suddenly there is no denying the shaking, the rattling, the swaying—and one’s memory is jogged. In recent months, Los Angeles has experienced a smattering of earthquakes that were just powerful enough to make residents stop in their tracks. One morning last week, a 4.7-magnitude earthquake was felt across all corners of the city. For some, the recent quakes have amplified the underlying dread of “the big one” and prompted many to wonder if the shaking is a prelude to a disaster. (The short answer is: it’s up for debate.) But for much of Los Angeles, the general response after being jostled awake, after floors and shelves have vibrated, is apathy.

America’s Oil Country Also Runs on Renewables (NYT) During the scorching summer of 2023, the Texas energy grid wobbled as surging demand for electricity threatened to exceed supply. Several times, officials called on residents to conserve energy to avoid a grid failure. This year it turned out much better—thanks in large part to more renewable energy. The electrical grid in Texas has breezed through a summer in which, despite milder temperatures, the state again reached record levels of energy demand. It did so largely thanks to the substantial expansion of new solar farms. And the grid held strong even during the critical early evening hours—when the sun goes down and the nighttime winds have yet to pick up—with the help of an even newer source of energy in Texas and around the country: batteries. The swift growth of battery storage as a source of power for the electric grid, along with the continued expansion of large-scale solar farms, could not have come at a better time. Texas, like many other states, is facing a surge in its power needs from data centers, new manufacturing plants, cryptocurrency mines, growing residential demand and increasingly intense summer heat. Officials estimate that Texas, already the nation’s largest electricity consumer, could roughly double its demand in just a few years.

It’s been a decade since 43 students disappeared in Mexico. Their parents still fight for answers (AP) Clemente Rodríguez has been documenting the long search for his missing son with tattoos. On Sept. 26, 2014, Christian Rodríguez, a tall boy who loved to folk dance and had just enrolled in a teachers college in the southern state of Guerrero, disappeared along with 42 classmates. Every year since, on the 26th of each month, Clemente Rodríguez, his wife, Luz María Telumbre, and other families meet at the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa and take a long bus ride to the capital, Mexico City, to demand answers. They will do so again next week, on the 10th anniversary of their sons’ disappearance. Rodríguez and the other parents are not alone. The 43 students are among more than 115,000 people still reported as missing in Mexico, a reflection of numerous unresolved crimes in a country where human rights activists say violence, corruption and impunity have long been the norm.

Firefighters quell most of Portugal's worst wildfires, fight still on (Reuters) Firefighters tackling deadly wildfires in central and northern Portugal had doused the flames in the Aveiro district, one of the worst-hit, as of Thursday, and were focusing on eight large blazes still raging elsewhere. After five days of ravaging tens of thousands of hectares of forest and farmland, destroying houses and claiming seven lives, the fires in Oliveira de Azemeis, Albergaria-a-Velha and Sever da Vouga, in the northwestern district of Aveiro, were no longer listed as active on the civil protection service's fires portal.

Violence rocks France overseas territories in challenge for new PM Barnier (Worldcrunch) France’s territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific are facing a new wave of unrest with security forces killing two men in New Caledonia and a curfew imposed after rioting in Martinique. The uptick in violence poses a challenge for new centre-right Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who has struggled to form a government following snap parliamentary elections in June, when no party won an absolute majority. The curfew in Martinique comes amid protests against the high cost of living on the island of 350,000.

The EU is trying to help Ukraine prepare for winter (AP) European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Ukraine on Friday focused on helping the country to repair and reconnect its war-damaged electricity grid and boost its heating capacity as winter approaches. Around half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed during its war with Russia, and rolling electricity blackouts leave parts of the east in darkness for four hours at a time. Von der Leyden said it was as though all of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had lost electricity. Meanwhile, winter is approaching. The Europeans have already sent more 10,000 generators and transformers, and they’re supplying small and more mobile gas turbines too. These types of electricity-providing equipment is harder to hit and easier to repair. Ukraine’s winter runs from late October through March, with January and February the toughest months. The Europeans hope to help supply around 25% of the 17 gigawatts of power that the country is likely to need this winter.

Putin wants Russia’s youth to become patriots. Many are all in. (Washington Post) At age 25, Maryana Naumova is a regular speaker at youth forums, universities and talk shows across Russia. Naumova is one of thousands of young Russians who have inserted themselves into their country’s new wartime system, adopting Kremlin spin as their own beliefs and ensuring that Putin’s core ideology, of ultranationalist patriotism and Orthodox Christian values, will be carried forward by a new generation. This includes the idea that the United States wants to destroy Russia and that Russia is a peace-seeking victim rather than an aggressor. Like Naumova, they see themselves as patriotic truth-tellers, not instruments of spin. About 7 in 10 Russians between ages 18 and 24—69 percent—support Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to an August poll conducted by the Levada Center, an independent polling group. But 66 percent of young Russians also support moving toward peace talks, according to the poll—a higher proportion than the overall population, of whom only 50 percent support moving toward such talks.

Pagers attack brings to life long-feared supply chain threat (Washington Post) The deadly attack that caused thousands of pagers used by members of Hezbollah to explode Tuesday shines a spotlight on an inconvenient truth: It is virtually impossible to secure the modern electronics supply chain against a determined and sophisticated adversary. Experts call the Israeli attack unparalleled in the history of spycraft in its scale and casualty count, and believe the risk is low that other governments will follow suit in rigging consumer electronics this way. But the Lebanon attack brings to life a long-theorized, worst-case scenario that has troubled governments including the United States as electronic devices have grown more complex and global supply chains more convoluted. The incident may add momentum to political efforts from the U.S. and others to localize more production of critical technologies at home or with trusted allies. However, construction of the typical modern gadget involves dozens of countries, with a dizzying number of component suppliers, contractors and subcontractors.

Why Israel’s pager attack in Lebanon is a war crime (Daraj/Lebanon) The idea is truly terrifying. In its gravity, it even exceeds the casualties—at least 12 dead, 3,000 wounded. To plant explosives in pager devices of more than 5,000 Hezbollah members and detonate the explosives remotely is beyond a security breach. Whoever pressed the detonation button, did so with the knowledge that the target was not going to be limited to those who carry the devices. He must have been aware that most Hezbollah members spend their days with their families or work colleagues, or they are walking in markets, stores and streets, along with civilians who have no idea what is going on. The decision was made to detonate about 5,000 small explosions. Benjamin Netanyahu approved the operation, so we can indeed say that he pushed the button himself. From what moral ground did this act originate? The majority of targeted Hezbollah members lived outside the trenches of war, and the decision to liquidate them all means that the goal was not to kill just them, but to expand the circle of death to their hometowns. Thus this new attack aimed at their “hometown” qualifies as a war crime, because the target goes beyond the fighters, down to their families and children. The individual targeted explosions are a kind of retaliatory act, and the pain they inflict goes beyond the death count. The tearing out of the eyes is a kind of torture, and the amputation of the fingers that the bombs caused hit not just the fighters, but their families and relatives.

Israel says it killed senior Hezbollah members (BBC) At least 14 people have been killed and 66 injured after Israel's military said it carried out a "targeted strike" on Beirut—its third attack on the Lebanese capital this year. Israel says it killed Hezbollah's operations commander Ibrahim Aqil in the strike. We are in Dahieh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut, and the streets around the site of the airstrike have been closed. There’s a heavy security presence of Hezbollah members stopping journalists from getting close to the location, a densely populated area. The atmosphere, unsurprisingly, is very tense. This latest Israeli attack, which the IDF says killed senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, is another sign of the precise intelligence Israel has about the group. In July, another airstrike in Dahieh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut, killed Fouad Shukr, a right-hand man to the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah who was responsible for its military operations. He was the most-high profile Hezbollah member to have been killed in the current conflict. Today's attack is another humiliation for Hezbollah, in a week when hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the group exploded, causing chaos and panic across Lebanon. It was an unprecedented security breach that indicated how Israel had managed to penetrate the group’s communication system.

Sword with pharaoh’s mark found in Egypt, still shimmering 3,000 years later (Washington Post) More than 3,000 years ago, a long bronze sword emblazoned with the insignia of Ancient Egypt’s Ramses II—the most powerful pharaoh of the era—was set down in a mud hut somewhere in the Nile Delta. A team of archaeologists digging up an ancient fort in the area spotted the bronze blade and cleaned it, revealing this month they had found a shimmering blade with the intricacies of an ornamental cartouche—the personal emblem used by the pharaohs—still visible. It had not lost its reflective shine under the layers of rust and grime accumulated over millennia. Ramses II, the second-longest ruling pharaoh in Ancient Egypt, reigned from 1279 to 1213 BCE, a period marking the final peak of Egypt’s military power. Many scholars believe he was also the pharaoh reigning over Ancient Egypt during the time of Moses.

Book sales (Publishers Weekly) Total book sales were up 5.6 percent year over year in the first half of 2024, hitting $6.3 billion. That’s fueled by a 6.7 percent increase in sales of books for adults, as well as hot markets in the religion section (up 15.6 percent in the first six months) and the higher education book market (up 8 percent). Fiction for adults was up 11.3 percent, and sales of digital audiobooks were up 20.4 percent. The only areas where sales slipped were in children’s and young adult fiction and nonfiction.

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Protest in Mexico City for the 43 Ayotzinapa student activists who were disappeared by the Mexican state on the 26th of September, 2014.

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Parents of the missing students from Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, continue to seek answers after a decade of their disappearance., Authorities offered various explanations for the disappearance, including an attack by security forces linked to a local drug cartel and incineration of the bodies in a dump, but the families await solid answers., Parents took it upon themselves to search for their missing children in gang-controlled mountain towns, discovering displaced individuals and numerous other missing persons., The parents of the missing students had to drastically alter their lives after the disappearance, abandoning livelihoods and responsibilities to focus on the search for their children., The Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa is a symbol of resilience for the parents, offering them solace and a platform to continue their fight for justice, with a history of radical activism and support for the families.

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Protesters tore down door of Mexico’s presidential palace

A group of protesters have kicked down the door to Mexico’s presidential palace during a demonstration demanding justice for 43 students who disappeared in 2014.

On Wednesday, local television stations showed footage showing several dozen demonstrators using a pickup truck to smash down the entrance to the National Palace while President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was holding a news conference inside.

Law enforcement set up barriers on the palace grounds to prevent protesters from getting inside. Police fired tear gas to disperse the group. López Obrador called what happened “a very clear plan of provocation.” He told reporters:

They would like us to respond violently. We’re not going to do it. We’re not repressors. The door will be fixed, and there’s no problem.

The students, known as “Ayotzinapa 43,” were from the rural Ayotzinapa Teachers College in the southern state of Guerrero.

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