#Mainstay Ministries

[qqueenofhades]

-Runs back into the room from having been wrapped up in the Sub Shitshow- context PLEASE on what’s up with Putin!?

Lol okay buckle up:

Yevgeny Prighozin is (well, as of now) one of Putin's closest allies. He is Putin's former chef and now the CEO of Wagner Group, the Russian private army of mercenaries who have spent a decade plundering Africa and destroying Syria in the employ of various terrible local dictators. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Wagner has become one of the Russian army's mainstays, mostly because they're the only ones who seem able to actually do anything. Of course, it did still take them nine months to take Bakhmut, Ukraine's *checks notes* 53rd largest city with very little strategic value, but given what a shitshow the regular Russian army has been, that's good. Or something.

The Russian army is mostly good at destroying dams and bombing civilians, which are obviously terrible for many reasons, but not that useful in the military scheme of things.

However, Wagner are also -- I hasten to stress -- thoroughly terrible people. Aside from all the shit in Africa and Syria, they've done likewise in Ukraine and will continue to do so. Legally speaking, they technically "don't exist," which has allowed them to get around a lot of the usual rules and regulations that are supposed to "bind" (ha) the Russian army. They are obviously in Ukraine directly at Putin's behest and doing Putin's bidding, but it turns out that giving an ambitious and amoral psychopathic warlord his own private army of criminals, rapists, killers, and whoever else they can dredge out of Russia's prisons to throw at the front line and die en masse may not be a good idea?

Shocking, I know.

Anyway, Prigozhin has spent months ripping into the Russian Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, for what a whole shitshow clusterfuck this whole stupid war patently is. (Not, however, that this has stopped him from continuing to eagerly carry it out, since he's just as much or indeed even more of a zealot as the rest of Putin's government.) This has included blaming Shoigu for equipment losses, underprovisioning of Wagner troops, general strategic numbnuttery, etc. Prigozhin has not, however -- again, until now -- attacked Putin directly, or backed off from getting his losers killed in Bakhmut and/or wherever else. One suspects that Putin has been perfectly happy to let Prigozhin scapegoat Shoigu for the war's failures, since this means Shoigu can always just conveniently fall out a window or something if it gets too necessary to make a public show of displeasure, and not Putin.

HOWEVER, things took a turn VERY FAST today, within about 12 hours. Prigozhin has, as noted, spent months tearing the Russian military leadership a new asshole -- not because he's a good guy (he's a fucking war criminal on like, 10 different levels), but because it is plainly obvious what a shitshow this is and even a war criminal has his limits as to how much totally pointless murderous bullshit he wants to go through, I guess. (That includes telling the truth about why the war started -- i.e. to steal Ukrainian stuff/land for the oligarchs, and not any of Putin's other stupid excuses.)

Today (June 23) Prigozhin accused the Russian Ministry of Defense of orchestrating a rocket attack on Wagner's camp in eastern Ukraine (near the Russian border) and causing massive casualties;

We don't have proof of this yet, or indeed much else of what Prigozhin is talking about, BUT he finally decided to put his Coup Hat On and get serious about "punishing" Russian military leadership, i.e. presumably Shoigu, declaring that "there are 25,000 of us [Wagner soldiers] and we're coming into Russia to sort out this chaos"

So -- again, according to Prigozhin, who is not the world's most reliable source on anything -- he turned his army of yoinks around, left Ukraine, and marched into the southwestern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, where the Russian military command in charge of the assault on Ukraine is headquartered;

For a while, there was nothing but Prigozhin's various unhinged rants on Telegram to prove any of this, but it's now early tomorrow morning in Russia and there are indeed a lot of videos of what DOES IN FACT LOOK like Wagner mercenaries rolling into Rostov and storming Ministry of Defense buildings;

Firm information on what is going on is almost nonexistent, even for Russia, but Putin is clearly taking this seriously; Moscow is shut down, there are armored vehicles on the streets, Google is down in Russia, and Russian newscasters are interrupting their broadcasts to insist Don't Look, Everything Is Fine Here, Totally Fine, Do You Hear Swan Lake? I Don't Hear Swan Lake!

Nobody can find Putin either, allegedly, but don't worry! He has been "briefed on the situation and everything is under control!"

The Russian FSB (successor to the KGB) has meanwhile issued a warrant for Prigozhin's arrest, said they'll charge/prosecute him for treason and armed rebellion against the state, and ordered him to stand down/his own men to arrest him

This, uh, does not appear to be working

ANYWAY, Putin's basically fucked no matter how this ends. Wagner literally just led an armed mutiny, he can't feel good about sending his ex-bestie Prigozhin back to Ukraine with any confidence that his orders will continue to be obeyed, it's Russian-on-Russian open war in the streets of Rostov and God knows where else, he's totally lost control of the narrative, the war, the domestic political situation, Wagner, probably good chunks of the Russian military command/elite establishment, etc., and we all know what happens to dictators in Russia who can no longer dictate

(And yet the Russian army is still finding time to lob some missiles at civilian buildings in Kyiv tonight, because they suck).

This is obviously a huge lucky break for Ukraine as well, since if the Russians are busy fighting each other, they can continue to push for a big breakthrough on their counteroffensive.

So yeah. Pride Month really wheeling out the big guns here, after Putin was the top option picked for Lady Karma to do her thing on in my poll a few weeks ago.

Stay tuned.

[usafphantom2]

Finland approves deployment of the F-35A assembly line at Patria

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 04/03/2024 - 23:18in Military

The company Patria, in collaboration with the Finnish Ministry of Defense, is prepared to build an assembly facility in Finland for the production of F-35 Block 4 fighters.

The recent approval by the Ministerial Finance Committee of the Ministry of Defense's proposed lease of land and facilities is a significant milestone in the $9.6 billion acquisition agreement between Finland and Lockheed Martin, covering the delivery of 64 F-35A jets to the Finnish Air Force.

The automaker, a crucial component of the initial phase of the contract, will be located near the city of Nokia, with the beginning of the construction of the engine assembly building scheduled for the second half of 2024. The lease agreement for the site was signed in January between the Finnish Defense Forces and Defense Properties of Finland.

The Finnish Minister of Defense, Antti Häkkänen, emphasized the contribution of industrial cooperation to the defense industry of Finland, stating: “The F-35 agreement will generate critical experience in maintenance and repair, including reliability of maintenance, promoting significant know-how in Finland for the assembly and testing of F-35 engines.”

The assembly factory will collaborate closely with the regional aircraft center of Patria's aviation division in Tampere, with about 100 employees involved in various assembly functions at the facilities. Patria, in which the government holds a 50.1% stake, will work alongside the Norwegian company Kongsberg, which controls the remaining stake. In addition, Patria owns half of the Norwegian defense contractor Nammo.

The F-35s are scheduled to replace the former McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet jets of the Finnish Air Force, with retirement scheduled for 2030. The first batch of F-35 is expected to be delivered and deployed in the Arctic air bases in the regions of Lapland Finland by 2026.

The industrial cooperation component is expected to gradually expand by 2030, potentially covering the production or assembly of specific aircraft parts and systems in Finland. The Finnish Air Force has already carried out tests to evaluate the suitability of the F-35 to operate in extreme climatic conditions in the Arctic, with recent exercises including maneuvers on stretches of "closed road" in the Arctic and subarctic regions.

The ongoing exercises, such as the one-week Hanki 24 workouts in the northern part of the country, aim to better evaluate the adaptability of the F-35 to the challenging winter conditions of Finland, characterized by limited daytime light.

Tags: Military AviationF-35 Lightning IIIlmavoimat/Finnland Air ForceLockheed MartinPatria

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[collapsedsquid]

The extraordinary violence unleashed by Hamas on October 7 exposed the horrifying reality of deep antisemitic and anti-Israeli hatred bred by the prevailing regime. It made unmistakably clear how hollow are the promises of security offered by the status quo. As cool-headed strategic analysts have pointed out, the threat is not that of 1973. Egypt and Syria, once Israel’s main enemies, pose no threat to Israel. Egypt’s decline was the subject of Ones and Tooze a couple of weeks back. But the sheer nightmarish violence of the Hamas attack induced an existential shock and not only in Israel. That shock has been compounded by the scale of the Israeli reaction. Israel has conducted a mobilization that at least according to The Economist is larger in quantitative terms than 1973 - 360,000 reservists, or 8% of the country’s workforce. Even assuming the possibility of a Hezbollah assault this seems hard to justify in purely military terms. One wonders whether beyond military necessity it is designed to recreate a sense of a “nation in arms” - a solidaristic national militarism that has become attenuated in recent years. Whatever the motivation the impact on the economy is so serious that it has been compared to that of the COVID pandemic. The tech lobby in Israel estimates that a tenth of its workforce has been mobilized. Construction is paralyzed by the quarantining of the Palestinian workforce in the West Bank. Consumption of services has collapsed as people stay away from restaurants and public gatherings are limited. Credit card records suggest that private consumption in Israel fell by nearly a third in the days after the war broke out. Spending on leisure and entertainment crashed by 70%. Tourism, a mainstay of the Israeli economy, has come to an abrupt halt. Flights are cancelled and shipping cargo diverted. Offshore the Israeli government ordered Chevron to halt production at the Tamar natural gas field, costing Israel $200 million a month in lost revenue. In response to this real economic dislocation, the finance ministry outlined plans to ramp up defence spending and provide for those pushed out of work. Meanwhile, in the markets, the blue-chip TA-35 index of Israeli shares has sold off and the shekel has fallen to the lowest level since the last major confrontation over Gaza in 2015.

[osrphotography]

Happy 100th birthday, Y 542!

100 years ago to the day Y 542 [Hunslet 1444/1923] was built for the Ministry of Works (known colloquially as the Public Works Dept, PWD) as № 542 where she was involved in various projects surrounding the construction of the East Coast Main Trunk Line with sister engines 543 and 544.

542 spent her working life first at the Tauraroa Ballast Quarry, between Portland [NB: not to be confused with Portland on the North Island Main Trunk, near Whangārei] and Huarau before being sold to New Zealand Railways in 1930.

As an NZR loco, she was transferred to the Mechanical Branch and made part of the newly minted Y Class, which consisted of 542, 43, and 44. She was posted to the Auckland Locomotive Sheds where she was used as a coal shunter, moving coal to be used as fuel.

In 1957 she was sold to Wilson's Portland Cement Co (becoming their №3), where she shunted cement waggons to Portland Station on the NZR network (this is the Portland near Whangārei) or to the wharf for coastal ships. She was donated to MoTaT in 1985 after being deemed surplus to requirements and has been a mainstay since then. Very little in the way of restoration work has been done on Y 542, owing to how well Hunslet built her.

[apenitentialprayer]

Edward Caswall, circa 1860.

For Edward Caswall, a Church of England vicar who went over to Rome in the mid-19th century, and subsequently achieved minor fame as a hymn-writer, the fateful moment of his life came on 14 September 1849. He was holidaying at Torquay with his 28-year-old wife Louisa, England being then in the grip of a severe cholera epidemic. In the morning Edward went out to Mass, leaving Louisa seemingly in good health. On his return, he found her critically ill with cholera. By 11 o’clock that night she was dead, leaving Edward a widower at the age of 35. He was devastated, but the blow transformed his life. It was three-and-a-half years earlier that, beset with doubts whether the Church of England was the true Catholic Church in the land, and, if not, whether his ministry to the souls in his care might therefore be worthless, he had resigned his living of Stratford-sub-Castle, Wiltshire, and, in January 1847, been received (with Louisa) into the Church of Rome. As a married man, he would, of course, have been ineligible for the Roman Catholic priesthood; as a widower, he was no longer affected by this veto. Like the future Cardinal Manning in similar circumstance, he could and did become an RC priest. But he may well have suffered guilt at the thought that, had he remained in his Stratford cure, Louisa might still have been alive. In this, the first full-length biography of Caswall, an American academic, Nancy Marie de Flon, tells his story with a wealth of fascinating period detail. Caswall was to achieve distinction in the second half of his life in two entirely different ways. As a friend and admirer of J. H. Newman, he was the financial and administrative mainstay of Newman’s Birmingham Oratory and its acting Superior during Newman’s frequent absences elsewhere. As a minor poet, he developed into an accomplished writer and translator of hymns, some of which can still be found in hymnals today. Dr de Flon bases her scholarly but readable study on Caswall’s unpublished journal. She paints a picture of a man of exemplary piety who was content to stay out of the theological limelight and instead to apply his energies to developing both the work of the Oratory and his talents as a writer of devotional poetry and prose. Caswall, in Newman’s words, became “half a saint, or almost a saint” by his extraordinary attention to going “through the ordinary day’s work well.”

Bernard Palmer, on Nancy Marie de Flon’s Edward Caswell: Newman’s Brother and Friend

[thebrownbuddha]

The Reset

Other than doing some help at Komyoji Temple with ceremonies every few months, doing Komuso is the mainstay of my Buddhist Practice. Getting out and sharing Musical dharma breath is my ministry. There was once a famous Japanese monk who was called the leaf Whistling Monk . He would sit in the park and play tunes for people on a tree leaf, then sometimes engage with them in a talk with whoever…

[samssn]

D9: 40 day prep time

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted (tested) by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. -Matthew 4:1,2

Prior to Jesus starting his ministry, he first got baptized, and then followed up with a 40 day fast in the wilderness, and then a test of will, his exam proctor was none other than the devil.

Before we take a test, we usually have to put in the work. Hours of study and review. And we often need to employ various tactics to hone our study. Finding a quiet place, like a library, or specific study area to keep distractions down. Late night sessions, are especially good for focus. Also, the night before the test adds that element of last second urgency which also can be helpful.

Jesus' prep work involved fasting, which may have been used to enhance mental and spiritual focus, with the primary cost of leaving him physically weakened. Also, the wilderness would have allowed him to be isolated from others, which could have distracted him from the peak spiritual form he was striving for.

How much spiritual preparation we we take before taking on any important effort? We are used to putting in all the stops for things like applying for college, or a job interview. Is prayer a mainstay in these efforts? And what about preparation for evangelism or acts of service?

[arclantis-blog]

Kingdom Tales Trilogy, 30th Anniversary Edition by David R. Mains & Karen Mains

All three anniversary books are in stock for immediate delivery! Each book in this 30th Anniversary Edition of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy is published with superior specifications, including: Smyth-sewn bindery; 4mm front and back covers; high-quality paper; end sheets and end caps. In addition, each comes hand-signed by David & Karen Mains, and embossed, to validate its authenticity as a long-lasting, collectible, keepsake edition. In the tradition of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien come these heartwarming allegories of good and evil from best-selling authors David and Karen Mains. Your entire family will be entranced as Scarboy and his friends boldly follow the one True King to overcome the evil Enchanter and his tenacious hold on the residents of Enchanted City. These books are Gold-medallion award-winners and we’re the only place where you can receive “signed” autographed copies of these beautiful picture books, featuring multi-ethnic illustrations by Bulgarian artist Zhivko Zhelev that reflect the cultural diversity so evident in our world today. Plus, when you order a complete trilogy from Mainstay we include bookmarks for each book and a free copy of our newest Discussion Guide giving you followup questions to spark family conversation about all 36 chapters found in the three storybooks of the Tales of the Kingdom Trilogy. If you want to order the Tales of the Kingdom Trilogy as gifts for those you love this Christmas season, we have a BUY 4 GET 1 FREE option, which means you receive 4 complete Trilogies for the price of 3, each with bookmarks and bonus Discussion Guides. Your total purchase price will equal $270, making each Trilogy just $67.50. You can't find that deal anywhere else online! Add 4 to your shopping cart, then add promo code BUY4GET1FREE during checkout. The Tales of the Kingdom Trilogy - 30th Anniversary Edition - includes three complete books: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration, by authors David and Karen Mains. Each book in its 30th Anniversary format is enhanced with 18-20 beautiful full-color illustrations…has twelve chapters your entire family will thoroughly enjoy…plus these three titles are all autographed by the authors. This series has been the honored recipient of two Gold Medallion awards.

[odinsblog]

ANTIVAXXERS LIE. EVERY TIME.

Australians have been subjected to a flood of COVID-related disinformation since the pandemic began.

In January 2022, vaccine skeptics and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists argued over the authenticity of a widely shared Facebook post that made angry claims about the supposed vaccine-induced death of a 7-year-old boy in Sydney, Australia, named “Lachlan Leary.”

Screenshots of the message, written by a poster with the username “Steve Leary,” emerged on Jan. 15. The full message can be viewed here and below, but the poster claimed to be mourning the death of his 7-year-old son Lachlan, who he said had died from a “massive heart attack” caused by his having received a COVID-19 vaccine.

(In the Australian state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital and largest city, COVID-19 vaccination became available to children ages 5 to 11 in January 2022).

In the post, Leary stated that his son had become sick and suffered a fever on the night of “Wednesday” (understood to be Jan. 12), before his parents brought him to “Westmead Hospital” the following morning, from which he was purportedly discharged several hours later. Leary claimed that on Friday morning (understood to be Jan. 14), his son collapsed at home and stopped breathing. An ambulance came within seven minutes, but according to Leary, he died in transit, having suffered a “massive heart attack.” The poster clearly attributed the boy’s death to a COVID-19 vaccination, writing that he had “lost [his] son Lachlan…to the vaccine.”

Screenshots of that post were shared widely, particularly among online vaccine skeptics and conspiracy theorists, in the days after Jan. 15. However, even those aligned with the anti-vaccine sentiment expressed in the post were unable to find solid evidence to support its authenticity, as was Snopes.

The “Steve Leary” Facebook account behind the post was either deactivated, deleted, or suspended by Jan. 18, so it was not possible to gather details that might, in principle, corroborate the anecdote provided. Furthermore, we could not find any record of a Steve or Steven/Stephen Leary living in New South Wales with a son named Lachlan and daughter named Sammy (the latter mentioned in the post). The post did not specify the first name of Leary’s wife, so this potential verification method was also not available.

No reputable Australian news outlet has reported on the death of a young child in New South Wales due to a vaccine-induced heart attack in January 2022, but rather the Facebook post was regurgitated by conspicuously unreliable websites, many of them based outside Australia, one of which even added the laughable embellishment that Leary was “Australia’s prime minister.”

Snopes could find no obituary for any boy named Lachlan matching the description above, and funeral details were not publicly available. Nobody has produced any photographs of the boy — typically a mainstay of social media posts about the tragic death of a young child.

Although not definitive, the specific, local policy context surrounding the post also tended to arouse skepticism. In January 2022, the government of New South Wales extended the availability of COVID-19 vaccination to children between the ages of 5 and 11, prompting high-profile but unfounded claims of child mortality, in what appeared to be a deliberate effort to discourage Australian parents from having their children vaccinated.

While most of the details included in the post yielded no supportive evidence — the name of the boy, his sister and his father, the date of his death, and so on — one factual claim allowed for a vigorous refutation of the authenticity of the entire story: the name of the hospital where Lachlan Leary was supposedly treated.

Among several other duties and functions, the New South Wales Ministry of Health oversees a network of public hospitals in that state, including in the Western Sydney suburb of Westmead. If any 7-year-old child were brought to Westmead Hospital by ambulance, the youth would be treated at the adjacent children’s hospital.

On Facebook, the Children’s Hospital at Westmead strongly refuted the claims in “Steve Leary’s” post, writing: “There are many inaccurate posts currently circulating on social media. There is no record of any child having passed away following COVID vaccination at our hospital”:

In response to a detailed inquiry from Snopes, a spokesperson for Westmead Hospital wrote: “As Westmead Hospital is not a paediatric hospital, we did not treat any children with those symptoms in the time period indicated.” The hospital spokesperson also forwarded the following statement from the New South Wales Ministry of Health: “NSW Health has not been able to locate any record of any such incident.”

In summary: the hospital at Westmead; the children’s hospital at Westmead; and the government ministry that oversees the entire public hospital system for the state of New South Wales have each publicly refuted the authenticity of the incident described in that viral Facebook post in January 2022.

Those official, on-the-record refutations, combined with the total absence of corroborating evidence, and the presence of several misinformation “red flags,” are enough to warrant a conclusion that the “Lachlan Leary” story — a 7-year-old boy killed by a vaccine-induced heart attack near Sydney in January 2022 — was false.

👉🏿 https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lachlan-leary-covid-vax-rumor/

[mariacallous]

Mere weeks after Italy's right-wing coalition announced its victory in the general election, the first fault lines are appearing, meaning the three-way alliance could be over even before the government is formalised.

The resounding victory by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni in the 25 September vote is not sitting well with 86-year-old Silvio Berlusconi — the former three-time conservative prime minister who, four decades her senior, fancies himself the elder statesman of Italy's political right.

Meloni is expected to be asked next week by Italy's President Sergio Mattarella to try to create a governing coalition with campaign allies Berlusconi and right-wing leader Matteo Salvini and become premier. 

Behind-the-scenes divvying up of ministries in what would be Italy's first far-right-led government since the end of World War II started after her Fratelli d'Italia, or Brothers of Italy party took 26% of the ballots cast — more than those won by the forces of Salvini and Berlusconi combined.

The knives carving out those Cabinet posts are proving particularly sharp.

Salvini on Saturday issued a sort of call for a truce between Meloni and Berlusconi so that the three allies' bid to rule Italy isn't derailed.

"I am sure that even between Giorgia and Silvio that harmony, which will be fundamental to government, well and together, for the next five years, will return,'' Salvini said in a statement released by his anti-migrant League party about the escalating post-election tensions.

Adjectives on stationery spell discontent

A spat between Berlusconi and Meloni turned ugly when the former PM and a media mogul scrawled a list of derogatory adjectives about her on stationery emblazoned with the name of his villa near Milan. 

He positioned it in the Senate in plain view for photographers covering the election on Thursday of the upper parliamentary chamber's president.

"Giorgia Meloni," wrote Berlusconi, jotting down that her ways are "presumptuous, bossy, arrogant, offensive". 

A fifth adjective, "ridiculous,'' appeared to have been scribbled over, said Italian media, who magnified the image.

Some key political differences existed from the beginning — Berlusconi bills himself a staunch champion of the European Union, while Meloni has said national interests should prevail over any conflicting priorities in the bloc.

The octogenarian mainstay is also close friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meloni, on the other hand, openly pledged her full support to Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in early October.

Yet, their spat also seems patriarchal.

"In Berlusconi's etiquette, the woman is courted and maybe even venerated, but a true male cannot take orders from her, let alone accept that she says 'no,''' wrote Massimo Gramellini in the daily Corriere della Serra.

According to domestic accounts, Meloni had vetoed a ministry for a close political aide of Berlusconi, who is one of his several female political proteges.

With his self-described weakness for young women, Berlusconi has launched the political careers of female lawmakers from Forza Italia, the centre-right party he created three decades ago.

He also gave Meloni her first shot at partaking in the government, appointing her as Minister of Youth during his third tenure as prime minister between 2008 and 2011.

Reflecting Berlusconi's aggravation, nearly all of his senators refused to vote for Meloni's pick for Senate president, Ignazio La Russa, a long-time fascist nostalgist who helped Meloni establish Brothers of Italy in 2012 as she forged her far-right political ascent.

The Forza Italia boycott delivered a stiff rebuke to her. Meloni, known for her frankness, did not budge.

"It seems like a point was missing among those listed by Berlusconi — that I can't be blackmailed,'' Meloni told private Italian TV La7.

Meloni pledges to 'unite the nation'

Meloni already stood her ground during the election campaign as well. 

When opinion surveys indicated that she was by far the front-runner over Berlusconi and Salvini, those two unsuccessfully tried to wiggle out of a long-standing pact that the top-getter in campaign coalitions would become premier should their forces prove victorious.

Together, the leaders' three parties command a comfortable majority in the newly seated Parliament.

Still, Meloni needs the forces of Berlusconi and Salvini for any viable coalition.

Salvini chafed for days when it appeared Meloni would not let him become interior minister, a post he held in 2018-2019 and used to crack down on migrants arriving by the tens of thousands on smugglers' boats or rescue ships. 

On Friday, Meloni's forces backed the election to the presidency of the lower Chamber of Deputies of a Lega, or League party lawmaker, Lorenzo Fontana — an ultraconservative who, like Salvini, has openly admired Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Late Friday, the five-pointed star symbol of the World War II antifascist movement was scrawled along with La Russa's name on a Brothers of Italy office in the Rome neighbourhood of Garbatella.

It is the very office where Meloni began her career as a teenager in the youth wing of a neo-fascist predecessor of her own party, MSI.

Meloni on Saturday retweeted her party's description of the act as "a clear reference to the dramatic years that we don't want to live through again" — referring to the so-called Years of Lead marked by political terrorism by the far-right and the far-left alike. 

She wants to "unite the Nation, not divide it as someone is trying to do," Meloni vowed in her tweet.

[usafphantom2]

Ukrainians claim they slated down two of Russia's best air-command planes

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 15/01/2024 - 08:26in Military, War Zones

In recent developments on the Sea of Azov, there are emerging reports suggesting that the Ukrainian military slaw down on Sunday a Russian A-50 Mainstay early air alert and control (AEW&C) jet and an IL-22M airborne command post.

This possible incident represents challenges for Russia, given the crucial roles that both aircraft play in the command and control functions.

The vice president of the Verkhovna Rada National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee, Yuriy Mysiagin, said on Telegram that Ukrainian units fired at the two Russian Air Force aircraft over the Sea of Azov around 9 p.m. The A-50 was reportedly targeted by the Patriot PAC-2 SAM system of the Ukrainian Air Force, falling into the Black Sea, while the IL-22M was attacked by a Russian S-400 SAM system, resulting in a forced landing in Anapa.

Ukrainian Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, commander of the Directorate of Defense Intelligence (GUR), confirmed that Ukraine fired and destroyed the A-50 and damaged the Il-22M. He refused to provide more details.

"There are no comments yet," Colonel Yuri Ignat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, told The War Zone website.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense did not officially comment on the claim and the Russian Ministry of Defense remained silent about the reported incidents.

Ukraine's RBC Radio published what it claimed to be an audio recording of the Il-22 crew transmitting an S-O-S by radio to the controllers apparently in Anapa, on the Russian side of the south coast of the Sea of Azov. “Requesting urgently ambulance and firefighters,” the crew said on the radio.

The Kyiv Independent stated that an A-50 was shot down “immediately after entering service in the Kyrylivka area of Zaporizhzhia”, in southern Ukraine. The alleged slaughter would have occurred only 10 minutes after the Il-22 was hit.

If verified, the loss of these two rare command and control aircraft would be a significant setback for Russia, considering their limited number. A small number of A-50 Mainstay AEW&C jets and IL-22M airborne command posts are currently operational, making their replacement a slow and challenging process.

The A-50s are recognized as low-density and high-demand assets, providing critical capabilities, such as aerial images that deeply reach the territory controlled by Ukraine. These aircraft are vital for detecting threats, including cruise missile and drone attacks, as well as low-flying fighter missions. In addition, they offer command and control functions for Russian fighters and SAM batteries.

The potential fall of these aircraft may have consequences beyond the immediate loss. Denying reconnaissance aircraft access to critical areas of operation can move them away from Ukrainian territory, degrading the quality of the intelligence and command and control they provide. This situation can also pose risks to Russian fighters in the area, potentially disrupting their operations away from the front lines.

If the Ukrainians actually shooted both the Il-22 and the A-50, Sunday records the worst day for the Russian air force in the 23 months since Russia intensified its war against Ukraine. Worse than the day in December, when the Ukrainians shot down three Russian Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers in a complex missile ambush over southern Ukraine.

Tags: Military AviationBeriev A-50UIl-22RFSAF - Russian Federation Aerospace Force/Russian Aerospace ForceWar Zones - Russia/Ukraine

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[oh-no-eu-didnt]

Hammerhead-class cruisers were frigates used by the Old Republic. As the mainstay of the Republic Navy, Hammerheads were used as command ships in larger fleets and were capable of independent missions as well. Their legendary design inspired starship design thousands of years in the future.

Source: GameSpot’s Knights of the Old Republic Concept Art Gallery

First Appearance: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)

Specifications: Class 2.0 hypderdrive, shielding

Armament: 4 dual light turbolaser batteries, 2 medium turbolaser batteries, 2 point-defense light laser cannon batteries, 1 tractor beam battery

Complement: 300 crew, 400 passengers, 12 Aurek-class tactical strikefighters, 2 Ministry-class orbital shuttles.

Read more on Wookieepedia.

[canaryrecords]

The Metropolitan label was, like Nick Doneff’s Kaliphon label, an offshoot of Adjin Asllan’s Balkan label. It released some of the most niche releases of the Near Eastern immigrant community in the 1940s-50s, including the five discs made by Victoria Hazan in Ladino, nine discs in Armenian by Edward Bogosian (see the Canary album Everything is Fake), and about 26 discs in Turkish. Of the Turkish-language releases, the first eight were by Greek-speaking Balkan-roster mainstays Marko Melkon (including two sides sung by Victoria Hazan; see the Canary releases I Go Around Drinking Raki, No News From Tomorrow, and Don’t Let Me Be Lost To You B-Sides) and Virginia Magidou (see the Canary release I Was Born a Badass Chick) plus one additional disc - her only release - by one Sarah Behar (see the Canary album No News From Tomorrow).

The remaining 17 known Metropolitan discs in Turkish were credited to five performers who appear not to have recorded either before or after, all of whom have Turkish names - not Armenian, Greek, Jewish, or Albanian as all of the other artists on Balkan, Metropolitan, and Kaliphon were. Turks represented a small minority of those who emigrated from Ottoman territories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Frank Ahmed's Turks in America: The Ottoman Turk's Immigrant Experience (Columbia International, 1993) and subsequent research by his student Işil Acehan indicate that Turks tended not to immigrate through New York due to discrimination against Muslims. They generally opted instead to enter the U.S. through Providence, Rhode Island. Only single men were admitted, the vast majority of whom were rural villagers who settled in the Massachusetts towns of Peabody, Salem, and Lynn where they worked primarily in the leatherworks, the population peaking shortly before WWI at just over 2,000 individuals. Nearly all of them returned to Turkey by 1930.

We have no immigration details or press references for any of the individuals on the Metropolitan label recordings, and there is no ore from within the community of those who remember stories of the music of that time and place. With once exception, the violinist Yekta Akinci (b. 1905; d. 1980) who was the son of the musician Ahmet Mükerrem Akinci, we have not been able to trace biographical data for them. They were certainly not part of the immigrant population.

Accompanied by the core Balkan-label accompanists Marko Melkon, Nick Doneff, and Garbis Bakirgian, they recorded a total of 34 sides. My first guess was that they were immigrant musicians performing, for reasons I could not begin to explain, under Turkish pseudonyms. It was the researcher Harry Kezelian who proposed that that they were touring musicians.

Near Eastern musicians (Greek, Armenian, Lebanese, etc.) who toured the U.S. during the 1940s-50s were generally “name” players who had records out, not only in the homeland but also issued in the U.S. - Rosa Eskenazi, Sami el Chawwa, Giannis Papaiouannou, Udi Hrant, etc. The mystery of how and why these Turkish performers could have shown up without some extant biographical data might be explained by an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in November, 1951 titled “Turkey Today,” presented in cooperation by Turkey's Ministry of Information. The exhibition included Turkish handicrafts and photos as well as watercolor painting by Turkish children. A press release for the show’s opening states:

On Saturday November 17th at 3:00 PM, the Brooklyn Museum will present a program of Turkish Folk Music and Songs in connection with the exhibition. Admission to the public is free.

It is our speculation at present that these five Turkish musicians (or some of them) may have been sent by the Turkish Ministry of Information to play at this Brooklyn Museum exhibition opening. (Kezelian has pointed out that Turkey was admitted to NATO only three months later; the exhibit was likely part of a goodwill campaign to strengthen ties with the West under the third president Celâl Bayar’s administration.) Whether Melkon or Doneff attended the event and met the performers there or whether Adjin Asllan’s brother Selim knew them from Istanbul, where he had lived and made recordings for the Balkan label a couple years earlier, enters into the realm of fantasy. We don’t know.

The performances themselves are stylistically typical both of Turkey's urban nightclubs of the late 40s and early 50s as well as the "oriental" nightclubs around New York's 8th Avenue, Port Said and the Brittania in particular where Doneff and Melkon worked regularly. It is easy to imagine that Melkon and Doneff relished the opportunity to exchange tunes and jam with players from the current scene of Turkey’s metropolis and took advantage of the opportunity to play with musicians who had their fingers close to the pulse of modern Turkey. The only other two immigrant players on the session were Garbis Bakirgian (b. 1884; d. 1969), a classically trained native of Istanbul, and the pianist and bandleader T. Agabey who was himself a mysterious figure on the New York scene. Agabey’s discs for Doneff’s Kaliphon label sold well enough to indicate that he was a New Yorker with a following, and his style was a unique synthesis of Turkish popular melodies with the kind of small-group pop-jazz combo format that was ubiquitous around New York bars before the advent of commonplace jukeboxes sent low-paid, union-card-holding musicians searching for work as studio sidemen or with wedding bands.

We can say with certainty that the 17 discs made by this circle of Turks did not sell well. The Turkish-speaking immigrant population of the U.S., although accustomed to buying discs on the Balkan-Kaliphon-Metropolitan circle of labels through the 1940s, being largely Armenian and Greek, did not respond enthusiastically to buying discs by these unknown Turkish performers recorded in New York even with familiar names listed on the labels as their accompanists. It seems reasonable to suppose that each of the discs was given only a single pressing of 500 copies. Surviving copies turn up infrequently, and there is marginal interest in them when they do. In the history of Near Eastern music in the U.S., they are marginalia to a footnote.

The twelve sides presented here include all four by Caylani Instanbuli Anemde, one of two unaccompanied improvisations by violinist Yekta Akinci, three of the ten sides by Ali Fasih Tekin, four of fourteen by Zeki Arikan, and, unfortunately, none of the four by Vahit Artan. The remaining sides represent not only gaps for the discographies of the obscure primary performers but also missing pieces of the work of their accompanists who are among the most significant immigrant musicians of the middle of the 20th century in New York. We hope to add to the the collection over time.

[manar-2323]

Future planning fir Hajj hospitality:

Openings duplicate for inn financial backers and administrators in the most flawless corners of the earth, Makkah Al-Mukarramah, when the Kingdom focuses on expanding the quantity of pioneers every year until 2030.

Hajj is one of the five mainstays of Islam, in which Muslims rehash a progression of ceremonies that the Prophet Muhammad, harmony and endowments arrive, performed hundreds of years prior. This five-day custom is a significant otherworldly encounter that all Muslims long for. The Hajj season is the biggest social affair of individuals on Earth. At the point when a great many Muslims from everywhere the world accumulate yearly in the holiest of Islamic spots - the Holy Kaaba in Makkah Al-Mukarramah.

As per the General Authority for Statistics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2.35 million Muslims visited Makkah Al-Mukarramah in 2017 to play out the Hajj, of whom 1.75 million were travelers from outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Travelers show up in Makkah a couple of days before the Hajj, and regularly stay for up to seven days, while pioneers coming from outside the nation stay in the Kingdom for around two months during the Hajj season to visit different authentic locales as a feature of their strict customs. In this way, the Hajj creates around $ 8 billion in income yearly, making it the second biggest kind of revenue for Saudi Arabia after the hydrocarbons field.

The consolidated pay of Hajj and Umrah is required to reach $ 150 billion for the Kingdom during the following five years, as indicated by the projections of the National Real Estate Committee in the Council of Saudi Chambers.

Hajj season is an incredible business opportunity for lodgings:

For the lodging area in Makkah, the Hajj season is the busiest consistently, as inns accomplish 100% inhabitance during this period.

The Hajj season starts on the eighth day of the period of Dhu al-Hijjah, which falls on August 19, 2018, and closes on August 24. Numerous inns force a base length of stay during that period, and taking into account the referenced Hajj ceremonies; Pilgrims stay for as long as 20 days, and now and then more. Numerous new lodgings were opened before the Ramadan and Hajj seasons in 2018 to oblige the expanding number of guests during and after these seasons.

The authority numbers that decide the quantity of pioneers this year have not been uncovered at this point. However, seven days before the beginning of the Hajj, more than 1.3 million individuals showed up in Saudi Arabia, and in excess of 200,000 explorers from inside the Kingdom were enlisted in administrations that include: decreased Hajj, simple Hajj and an overall program, as indicated by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.

What's to come is splendid:

Both the National Transformation Program 2020 and the Kingdom's Vision 2030 focus on monetary broadening and build up a methodology for the improvement of the strict the travel industry area in the Kingdom. The drawn out arrangement is to encourage the exhibition of Hajj and Umrah for the biggest number of Muslims (Source 5), in accordance with the normal expansion in the quantity of Muslims on the planet from 1.8 billion Muslims to 2.76, or 29.7% of the total populace by 2050, as per For the Pew Research Center.

As indicated by the NTP, the quantity of pioneers is relied upon to arrive at 2.5 million continuously 2020, while the quantity of umrah is required to twofold from 7 million to 15 million. The Kingdom's Vision 2030 tries to expand the quantity of travelers to 5 million, and to build the quantity of umrah pioneers to 30 million.

To guarantee the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's capacity to retain this huge expansion in the quantity of strict travelers, the public authority is contributing more than $ 82.7 billion (identical to 310.16 billion Saudi riyals) in projects that will upgrade the limit of the Grand Mosque and the principle air terminal and to improve admittance to urban communities. Sacred.

The Grand Mosque development is in progress, at an expense of $ 26.6 billion, to expand the site's ability from 600,000 to 2.2 million, and empower 400,000 individuals to circumambulate the Kaaba each hour.

Notwithstanding the development of King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah at an expense of 93 million dollars (comparable to 348.78 million Saudi riyals), to expand its ability to 30 million travelers every year before the year's over. The Haramain high velocity train project connecting Makkah and Madinah, with an expense of 16.5 billion dollars (identical to 61.88 billion Saudi riyals), will likewise be opened soon.

Also, the Public Investment Fund reported toward the end of last year an enormous venture intended to build the ability to have the expanding number of pioneers and Umrah entertainers. The Grand Mosque in Mecca project, which incorporates 70,000 lodgings, is required to offer more than $ 2 billion to the public economy, as indicated by the JLL report on the Makkah Market during the main portion of 2018.

Plentiful venture openings:

The declaration of the continuous foundation projects in and around the Holy City, which prepares to oblige more travelers and Umrah entertainers, keeps on improving financial backers' feeling of the significance of the Makkah housing market, where the inn and neighborliness area is the primary recipient.

The estimation of inn projects under development in Makkah Al-Mukarramah is $ 10 billion, as per the US Department of Agriculture report coordinated at US organizations thinking about entering the Saudi market, while STR information showed that Makkah al-Mukarramah drives the Saudi market regarding the quantity of rooms under development with 25,619 rooms, for example This addresses 71.4% of the current aggregate.

Makkah Al Mukarramah has the second biggest number of inn projects under development in the Middle East, and Vision 2030 plans make more potential for adding new tasks altogether areas of the Makkah market. Makkah and Madinah have consistently been outfitted towards very good quality and lavish inns, yet with the variety of the source markets and socioeconomics, there is gigantic potential for different kinds of convenience.

As indicated by TRI Consulting, more youngsters travel to Makkah and Madinah to play out the Hajj than at any other time for a few elements, including the expanded accessibility of visas to improve availability and network, which requires the reception of inn ideas that meet the millennial attitude.

Simultaneously, there is a requirement for more practical and medium-cost facilities and inn condos to serve longer-remain visitors of families and gatherings, notwithstanding particular neighborliness ideas that take into account the exceptional necessities of travelers.

A few organizations have known about these patterns and have effectively reacted to them, for example, Makarem, a Saudi brand made and planned by Dur Hospitality to serve strict the travel industry. Makarem works a few inns in Makkah and Madinah, and has some expertise in giving genuine Saudi accommodation administrations as per worldwide guidelines.

This idea draws in a different blend of neighborhood and global explorers. The 1.33 million explorers who went to the Kingdom during the Hajj time frame from 2016 have a place with eight significant business sectors: Indonesia positioned first with 178,000 pioneers, trailed by Pakistan with 143,368 travelers, at that point Bangladesh with 102,000 travelers, India with 98,820 travelers, at that point Nigeria with 76,000. Hajj, as per the report "Hajj and Umrah: Developments and Opportunities" distributed by Thomson Reuters and Dinar Standard in January 2017.

The report likewise shows how pioneers travel to Makkah looking for elective friendliness contributions, and Makarim impeccably fills this hole on the lookout. Offering Islamic accommodation administrations is one of the brand's essential objections, and these administrations incorporate giving an exceptionally prepared strict manual for help manage guests through their strict excursion.

The advancement of Hajj inns:

As per the General Authority for Statistics, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has invited around 54 million explorers in the course of recent years, of whom more than 23.83 million pioneers have been spotted in the course of recent years. While the biggest number of pioneers was enlisted in 2012 AD (1433 AH), with various 3.16 million explorers.

Given the projections of the quantity of travelers until 2030 AD, Makkah Al-Mukarramah should take into account around 5 million pioneers; This is encouraged by the incredible improvement in foundation, which makes the eventual fate of the friendliness area in Makkah promising.

We are currently encountering an ideal chance to put resources into the cordiality market in Makkah Al-Mukarramah, with promising circumstances expanding to present new convenience ideas that oblige the requirements of the up and coming age of explorers visiting the Holy City.

Inn financial backers and administrators should look to the arising Hajj markets, where new and arising ages anticipate that their hospitality offerings should meet their down to earth and otherworldly necessities later on.

Dur Hospitality anticipates that individual administrations, the reception of simple to-utilize innovation implies related with Hajj, and the responsibility of the administrator and proprietor to moral and feasible practices, will build their significance for youthful pioneers, their families and companions.

Lodgings that have accurately perceived these information will embrace these rules to guarantee that they give an extraordinary excursion beginning to end for their explorers.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil's crisis deepens as Bolsonaro holds on to the military for support

Brazil has kicked political drama to the curb. Between scandals, powerplay episodes, and a slew of surprising statements, the South American country has been a mainstay in news headlines recently. But now, COVID-19 is hogging the spotlight.

The virus is running rampant, causing over 27,900 deaths in Brazil. There's no health minister to take the lead in epidemic control efforts and a wave of resignations at the Health Ministry was followed by nominations of military officials to fill the gap. Now, questions are being raised about what this new arrangement means for a country that was controlled by the military for 21 years.

Since the virus hit the country, Justice Minister Sérgio Moro, the crown jewel of the government, resigned and accused the president of political interference. Culture Secretary Regina Duarte also left her post after a controversial TV interview downplaying the coronavirus deaths.

In between, two health ministers, Henrique Mandetta and Nelson Teich, have left their post, the latter just one month into the job. No replacement has been appointed. General Eduardo Pazuello is now acting interim minister, and President Jair Bolsonaro says he's not in a rush to appoint someone else, going back on initial plans to nominate another military official.

After the designation of General Pazuello, other nominations from the military followed. The ministry now has 20 military officials and only one is a doctor. According to the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, 20 more will be appointed to strategic positions. 

The increasing number of military officials in the administration and government ranks is nothing new. In February 2019, the president had 103 military personnel across ministries. 

"The high number of military officers is a result of the lack of support from other sectors that helped elect and used to support the president," Prof. Graziella Tiesta from the School of Public Policy and Government of Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil told CGTN Digital by email. 

Continue reading.

[southeastasianists]

All over the world, the term millennial – which Statistics Indonesia (BPS) defines as those born between 1980 and 2000 – elicits sighs and eye-rolls, conjuring up images of avocado toast, coworking spaces and hoverboards.

The much-vaunted Indonesian millennial, sought after by politicians for their votes and businesspeople for their cash, is a mainstay in the media – recent online news headlines about millennials range from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) launching a new app to appeal to millennials to the development of new houses for millennials, priced at Rp 200 million (US$14,567) to 500 million.

In January, the Education and Culture Ministry announced that the word, or the Indonesian equivalent milenial, was the most popular word in the country throughout 2019.

In general, the typical media conception of the Indonesian millennial is not that different from its global counterpart – that of an upper-middle class, highly-educated, latte-sipping, GoFood-ordering urban youth, probably employed in the technology or creative sector.

But the data shows that most of the country’s millennials only have a high-school level education, work in blue-collar or low-level service jobs, with an average monthly income of only around US$150.

Living with nine relatives in a small one bedroom house measuring about 25 square meters in Kampung Muka, North Jakarta, 22-year-old Tri Adhitia Diantomo, known to friends and family as Adit, is thus much more representative of the majority of millennials than the common media depiction might have you believe.

Adit stopped going to school after graduating from the local state junior high, because he was "naughty," by his own admission, and now earns a salary of Rp 1.5 million ($106) a month working six days a week as a driver for a forwarding agent, picking up packages from Senen train station in Central Jakarta and driving them as far away as Depok and Bekasi in the neighboring province of West Java.

Adit said he planned to pursue a Kejar Paket C, or senior high-school equivalency diploma, next year, which would allow him to seek a job at a bigger company, for bigger pay.