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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 19 days ago

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The Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization Hezbollah has already begun rebuilding its military capabilities and financial operations, just over a week since a ceasefire with Israel went into effect after 13 and a half months of war.

While the IDF’s aerial and ground offensives severely degraded the Iranian proxy’s terrorist infrastructure and forces, according to U.S. intelligence estimates, Hezbollah has started recruiting new fighters, boosting domestic weapons production and looking for ways to continue smuggling arms in via Syria.

Reuters cited a senior American official, an Israeli official, and two U.S. lawmakers briefed on the intelligence in its reporting published on Wednesday.

According to the terms of the Nov. 27 ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah is prohibited from rearming.

Hezbollah lost more than half of its weapons stockpiles and thousands of fighters during the war with Israel, according to American assessments. However, it has not been destroyed, with the sources saying that it still has thousands of short-range rockets and will try to rebuild using weapons factories in neighboring countries with transportation routes into Lebanon.

One of the lawmakers told Reuters that Hezbollah has been “temporarily weakened” and its command-and-control capabilities diminished. However, the lawmaker notes, “This organization is built to withstand disruption.”

Washington is particularly concerned about Syria, where Turkish-backed jihadist terrorist groups recently launched offensives in Aleppo and Hama, in a major challenge to the Assad regime and its Iranian and Russian backers. Israel continues to target Hezbollah smuggling routes in Syria and at the Syrian-Lebanon border and to disrupt Iranian weapons shipments via Syria.

A senior U.S. official revealed that Washington is urging Syrian President Bashar Assad to restrict Hezbollah’s activities, with other regional countries being enlisted to assist in this effort. Reuters reported earlier this week that the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates discussed the possibility of lifting sanctions on the Assad regime, provided, among other conditions, he halts the weapons supply routes to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah officials assert that the group will maintain its “resistance” against Israel. However, sources in Lebanon indicate that Hezbollah’s primary focus at the moment is on rebuilding and restoring homes damaged by Israeli airstrikes in Southern Lebanon and Beirut.

Hezbollah’s financial system

Meanwhile, Saudi-owned, London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Hezbollah has begun assessing repairs to its financial arm, Al-Qard al-Hassan, which was heavily damaged by Israeli attacks during the war.

The Iranian proxy plans to pay housing grants through the bank to repair the homes of families impacted by the war. Each family may receive $12,000 for rent and home repairs.

Despite, suffering severe blows in an Israeli aerial operation on Oct. 21, the bank resumed operations a week after the ceasefire.

The Saudi newspaper highlighted that “the announcement of the bank’s resumed operations contradicts Israeli claims of its destruction.” However, a source close to Hezbollah confirmed that the group had suffered significant financial losses during the war. The source further explained that the funds for rehabilitation will not come from Al-Qard al-Hassan’s resources, but from recent financial transfers from Iran to Hezbollah.

Iran transferred $1 billion via a regional intermediate on the first day of the ceasefire, which Hezbollah plans to use for its rehabilitation efforts.

#lebanon #hezbollah #iran #rebuilding

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workersolidarity · 7 months ago

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[ 📹 Appalling scenes from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, after the Israeli occupation army launched a surprise assault, including occupation helicopters and warplanes which bombed and fired on civilians, on the Central Governate of the Gaza Strip, resulting in the murder of hundreds of Palestinians and wounding hundreds more. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

DAY 246: ISRAELI OCCUPATION LAUNCHES SURPRISE ASSAULT ON CENTRAL GAZA KILLING AND WOUNDING HUNDREDS OF PALESTINIANS, "ISRAEL" BLACKLISTED BY UNITED NATIONS FOR CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN, US REJECTS ARAB PEACE PROPOSAL, OUTLINES ITS OWN DRAFT, FOUR HOSTAGES RECOVERED BY THE OCCUPATION ARMY, CHILDREN IN GAZA FORCED TO WORK AS UNEMPLOYMENT REACHES 80%, MASS MURDER CONTINUES UNABATED

On 246th day of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 5 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 70 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 150 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands, of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

The American Biden administration is pressuring Arab countries not to present a "far-reaching vision for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement" following an end to the Gaza War.

In an article published by the Times of Israel, the English-language newspaper says the Biden administration rejects the Arab proposal, and is instead advancing a more limited framework for a long-term solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict that the newspaper says is "still certain to be rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government."

According to documents leaked by the United States and obtained by the Times of Israel, since the start of 2024, the Biden administration has been leading a "contact group" of high-ranking ministers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to advance plans for the post-war management of the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, Arab countries have been meeting regularly to coordinate their own post-war vision, independent of the United States, which includes plans for the recognition of the State of Palestine, the establishment of a peacekeeping force in the occupied West Bank and East Al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the arrangement of peace talks between the Israeli occupation authorities and the Palestinian Authority to be completed within two years, resulting in an eventual transfer of control over the West Bank crossings to the PA.

While the United States claims to support a broader two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, it has determined the Arab proposal "completely unrealistic," according to an anonymous "senior Arab official" quoted by the Times.

Out of concern that rejecting the Arab proposal outright without an alternative could become a political liability, the US State Department has layed out a draft outline for a series of principles to be used as the basis for "continued talks" with America's Middle East partners.

Titled the “Joint statement on principles to support a future of peace for Israelis and Palestinians," the State Dept. proposal was met with approval by the Biden White House, which outlines the following set of principles:

🔸 A call for the international community to support the reconstruction of Gaza, with the opening of crossings into the Strip to ensure an unimpeded flow of aid.

🔸 A rejection of Gaza’s continued governance by Resistance groups. “All terrorist organizations and armed groups must disarm and renounce violence. A disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration mechanism will facilitate this process in Gaza,” the document states.

🔸A full withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from Gaza without any reduction in its [Gaza's] territory, military occupation or forced displacement of Palestinians, who will be allowed to return to the communities in the enclave they fled from during the war.

🔸 A reunification of Gaza and the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, which will receive assistance from the international partners during a transitional period after the war until it is ready to fully resume governance in the Strip.

🔸A call for the resumption of final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization under the premise that “an enduring end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and end to the occupation can only be achieved through direct negotiations.”

🔸 Support for an “independent, contiguous, and viable” Palestinian state “on the basis of the June 4, 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps and a just and agreed solution for Palestinian refugees, as envisioned in the Arab Peace Initiative.” (US President Joe Biden has previously expressed his support for the 1967 lines, but this appears to be the first time that the US is also backing the Arab Peace Initiative. However, the Arab proposal envisions a two-state solution that leads to the Israeli occupation receiving normalized relations with its Arab neighbors, while the US document presents a reverse approach.)

🔸 “The possibility of normalization between Saudi Arabia and other Arab states and Israel with concrete progress toward a two-state solution is a promising avenue to achieving peace, security, and regional integration that will benefit all,”

🔸 A rejection of unilateral actions by both sides, “including the expansion of settlements and outposts and the glorification of terrorism and violence.” The sides are also called to uphold the rule of law and reject incitement by officials and members of the public.

🔸 A call to abide by commitments reached during summits last year in Aqaba and Sharm al-Sheikh, which also rejected the advancement of unilateral actions. The US document also urges the upholding of the status quo at the Temple Mount, “recognizing the deep connection of people of many faiths to Jerusalem and that the boundaries in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations.”

🔸 An appeal for the PA to implement far-reaching reforms “focused on good governance, transparency, fighting corruption, education and welfare reform.”

Finally, the US document concludes by saying, "We agree to focus our diplomatic efforts on advancing these principles, setting the conditions for durable peace and security in the region."

Meanwhile, in other news today, June 8th, 2024, the Israeli occupation army was able to recover four Israeli prisoners being held by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.

According to statement issued by the occupation army, the Zionist forces were able to liberate four prisoners who remain in good health: Noa Argamani (25 years old), Almog Meir (21 years old), Andrei Kozlov (27 years old), and Shlomi Ziv (40 years old).

The statement confirms that "Israeli prisoners were liberated by the Shin Bet and the Special Police Unit from two separate areas in the heart of Nuseirat (Central Gaza Governate).

"The prisoners' health condition is good and they were transferred for medical examinations to Tel Hashomer Hospital," the statement added.

In other news, the United Nations has informed the Israeli occupation that the "State of Israel" has been added to a blacklist of Child Rights violators, as result of its campaign in Gaza, which has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian children and babies.

According to a piece published in the Israeli online newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, or Ynet, the paper writes that "the report accuses Israel of recruiting children as informants. [In] the draft received by Israel a few months ago, the UN blamed Israel for actions that constitute violations of international law regarding harm to children," adding that "allegations were raised about the wide-scale use of bombs in populated areas; imposing a severe siege on Gaza; and allegations that Israel attacked critical infrastructure for humanitarian purposes, including UN facilities, schools, hospitals, water, and sanitation facilities."

Additionally, in an article published by the Palestinian media outlet WAFA News, the media outlet writes that the International Labor Organization (ILO) has warned families in Gaza are now sending their children to work to survive as unemployment in Gaza reaches unprecedented levels, now approaching 80%.

The organization expressed "this unprecedented development and destruction to the Palestinian labor market and the broader economy outside the Gaza Strip and the West Bank" in a new report issued by the group on Friday.

The labor organization's report, published in conjunction with the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, states that the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has now reached 79.1%, and further indicated that about one in three Palestinians in the West Bank are unemployed as well.

The group also noted that economic output in the Gaza Strip has fallen by 83.5%, while in the occupied West Bank, economic output has fallen by 22.7%, adding that Palestinian workers are currently experiencing “the most difficult year since 1967,” noting that the situation “has never been this dark before.”

The World Food Programme (WFP) also issued warnings today that 9 out of 10 children in Gaza are suffering from "severe food poverty."

In a series of posts to the social media platform X, the WFP warned that "the hostilities and restrictions imposed on aid have led to the collapse of food and health systems," adding that displaced Palestinian families in Gaza are now in areas suffering from a lack of potable water, medical supplies and fuel, and are also living with limited food aid.

At the same time, the bombing, shelling and mass murder in Gaza continues as the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) ramp up their attacks in central Gaza and across the various axis of the enclave.

According to report in the Palestinian news outlet, SAMA News, and confirmed in reports published by Palestinian news outlets WAFA News and MAAN News, the Israeli occupation army has launched a surprise attack on areas of the Central Gaza Governate.

For more than two hours, the occupation army's artillery forces and warplanes "carried out violent and intense raids on various areas of the Central Governate, west and east of the Nuseirat Camp," resulting in the deaths of 210 Palestinians, and wounding more than 400 others.

The news outlet warned that the dead and wounded are flooding Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, located in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, which has become a "catastrophic and dangerous situation, due to its inability to accommodate such large numbers of martyrs and wounded."

Witnesses stated that Zionist military vehicles "suddenly penetrated the areas east and northwest of the Nuseirat camp, coinciding with violent artillery shelling that targeted large areas of the camp."

Occupation military vehicles also invaded near the Wadi Gaza Bridge on Salah al-Din Road, near the center of the enclave, while expanding its incursion into neighborhoods east of Deir al-Balah, and into the Bureij and Al-Maghazi Camps, while occupation drones buzzed overhead in the Nuseirat Camp, opening fire on anything or anyone "moving on its roads, resulting in hundreds of martyrs and wounded."

According to local medical staff, “The ambulance and emergency system is unable to respond to all calls to transport the wounded from the places that were bombed in the Central Governorate and the Nuseirat camp.”

The medical sources added that dozens of wounded civilians are lying on the floor in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, while medical teams work to try to save as many lives as possible with the limited and simple capabilities afforded to them.

Simultaneously, as the Zionist army launched incursions into central Gaza, occupation warplanes intensified its raids on Rafah in the south, and Gaza City in the north.

In the early morning hours of Saturday, occupation fighter jets bombed a residential home belonging to the Tafesh family in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, obliterating the citizen's house, murdering at least 4 Palestinian civilians, and wounding another 10 others.

Similarly, another civilian was killed in an occupation airstrike targeting citizen's homes north of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

In another horrific crime against humanity, several Palestinian children were playing in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City when a Zionist drone dropped a bomb on them, wounding many of the children.

Local medical sources also say that bodies now litter the streets of Rafah, while many of the wounded could not be reached by paramedic crews due to continued Israeli occupation bombing.

The Zionist army also launched attacks on the Kuwait Specialized Hospital in Rafah City, which was previously evacuated of patients and staff, resulting in fires that broke out in large areas of the hospital.

Local civil defense crews also managed to recover the decomposing bodies of two Palestinians from the Abu Afana Junction in the Brazil neighborhood of Rafah.

In another assault, at dawn today, IOF warplanes bombed a residential house belonging to the Muhanna family, in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of four civilians and wounding 14 others, the majority of whom were children and women.

The bombing and shelling continued when Zionist fighter jets bombed a civilian residence belonging to the Shaheen family on Block-12 of the Bureij Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, killing 6 Palestinians and wounding a number of others, which coincided with occupation artillery shelling and gunfire from Israeli armored vehicles east of the Bureij Camp.

Zionist forces also targeted several areas of the city of Rafah, with bombing and shelling that targeted the Al-Hashash neighborhood of the Oreiba area, north of the city.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the infinitely rising death toll in Gaza now exceeds 36'801, including over 15'000 children and upwards of 10'000 women, while another 83'680 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

June 8th, 2024.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

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entheognosis · 2 years ago

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For 13 thousand dollars, Englishman Brendon Grimshaw bought a tiny uninhabited island in the Seychelles and moved there forever. When Grimshaw was under forty, he quit his job as a newspaper editor and started a new life. By this time, no human had set foot on the island for 50 years. As befits a real Robinson, Brendon found himself a companion from among the natives. His name was René Lafortin. Together with Rene, Brendon began to equip his new home. While René came to the island only occasionally, Brendon lived on it for decades by himself, never leaving. For 39 years, Grimshaw and Lafortin planted 16 thousand trees with their own hands and built almost 5 kilometers of paths. In 2007, Rene Lafortin died, and Brendon was left all alone on the island. He was 81 years old. He attracted 2,000 new bird species to the island and introduced more than a hundred giant tortoises, which in the rest of the world (including the Seychelles) were already on the verge of extinction. Thanks to Grimshaw's efforts, the once deserted island now hosts two-thirds of the Seychelles' fauna. An abandoned piece of land has turned into a real paradise. A few years ago, the prince of Saudi Arabia offered Brendon Grimshaw $50 million for the island, but he refused. “I don’t want the island to become a favorite vacation spot for the rich. Better let it be a national park that everyone can enjoy.” And he achieved just that. In 2008 the island was indeed declared a national park.

#ecology

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girlactionfigure · 5 months ago

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🇮🇱 THURSDAY morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🔹UK ISSUES LEBANON AIR WARNING.. Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), from Aug. 7 (yesterday), risk of military activity.

🔹FRENCH PRESIDENT SCHEDULED TO COME TO LEBANON.. suddenly cancelled.

🔹CLARIFICATION.. Canada evacuates diplomatic families from Israel, not their diplomats. And UNIFIL evacuated families of deployed personnel, not the UNFIL operators.

🔹OFFSHORE INTELLIGENCE PLANES.. US, UK, and now French have been cruising along Israel - Lebanon - Syria.

🔹A diplomatic source to the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awast: "International contacts have not yet succeeded in reducing the escalation between Israel and Iran and Hezbollah. Difficult and fateful days are expected

▪️SIREN TESTS.. today in Tiberius at 14:05. Steady sound - it’s a test. Rising falling sound, it’s real. If sirens go off or a red alert app goes off and no siren, call Home Front Command 104 to let them know there is a siren issue.

▪️US CONGRESSWOMAN RASHIDA TLAIB.. shared a screenshot of this survey from News 12 and claimed that it was Israeli support for committing acts of rape against Palestinians. What she lied about - is was from two-years ago, from the previous government, and a completely different issue.

▪️US PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OPEN TO ARMS EMBARGO ON ISRAEL? New York Times: Kamala Harris expressed willingness to discuss imposing an arms embargo on Israel.

♦️IDF ELIMINATES.. another freed terrorist from the Gilad Shalit deal who became a Hamas terror commander. Terrorist Nail Sachel, who served as a senior member of Hamas was involved in directing terrorist activity, financing and supplying IMD to terrorist squads.

♦️GAZA FORCED EVAC.. “Urgent: we call for the evacuation of the Beit Hanun area, Manashia and Sheikh Zayed neighborhoods and shelters” as the IDF has moved to attacking any area from which rockets are fired.

♦️AMBUSH DISCOVERED - BEKAOT, JORDAN VALLEY.. Monday terrorists fired at Bekaot. It emerged that the terrorists tried to draw our forces to a side axis from which they fled. Enemy shooters were found positioned, and a later scan found 4 targeted bombs. IDF forces eliminated the terrorists, discovered the bomb, cleared the area.

♦️Reports of a particularly powerful attack by the Air Force in the city of Nabatia, South Lebanon.

♦️US in the RED SEA.. destroyed 3 anti-ship missiles, 2 suicide drones, and a ground control stations of the Houthis.

🔸DEAL NEWS.. The Qatari newspaper "Al-Arabi Al-Jadid" reported that officials in the West are trying to convince officials in the Middle East to accept a new proposal for a comprehensive settlement in the war.

In the last four days the proposal was distributed among Western and Arab parties and it includes "an integrated agreement for a ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from the Strip, achieving stable peace, ending the hostage deal, expanding humanitarian aid to Gaza and developing an overall picture of the restoration of the Strip."

.. An opposing report: The Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper: senior officials in Egypt, the US, Qatar and Israel discussed the possibility of reaching a six-week truce, which would NOT include the release of hostages. (( WHAT? ))

( DOTS: 🔹blue - Iran war news. ♦️⭕red - Gaza & Hezbollah active war news. ▪️black - general Israel news. 🔸yellow - hostage deal news )

#Israel #October 7 #Hamas Massacre #Israel/HamasWar #Gaza #IDF #ISRAEL REALTIME #Hezbollah #Iran #Lebanon

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bdgainoffers · 2 years ago

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Wednesday, Feb 01, 2023, 13:50 Live T20 Cricket - India vs New Zealand - 3rd T20

#team india #india news #news today #new zealand #saudi newspaper #united arab emirates

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eretzyisrael · 19 hours ago

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by Shachar Kleiman

Sources within Hamas admitted Sunday that Israel Defense Forces operations have successfully neutralized most of their military capabilities in Gaza, forcing the Palestinian terrorist organization to adopt alternative tactics.

Speaking to the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Hamas sources revealed that fighters on the ground are now making decisions independently without receiving direct orders from senior command. While they still attempt to update higher-ranking officials about their plans, these communications can take hours or even days to reach what remains of Hamas’s leadership in Gaza.

Among the surviving senior Hamas commanders in Gaza are: Mohammed Sinwar, brother of Yahya Sinwar, who has reportedly taken command of the military wing; Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, responsible for terrorists in northern Gaza; Mohammed Shabana, who served as commander of the now-disbanded Rafah Brigade; and Tawfiq Abu Naim, head of the internal security apparatus of Hamas.

The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said over the weekend that Hamas is spreading falsehoods to maintain its fighters’ morale.

“Hamas and its minions are spreading news and rumors about fake heroic acts and operations in Jabalia, including claims about the use of knives and explosive belts, to boost the morale of their collapsing members. Don’t believe these rumors and lies from the defeated,” Adraee stated.

In another post on X, he declared that the “East Jabalia Battalion has collapsed” and that all Hamas can do now is spread false information.

According to Gazan sources, after 15 months of war, the terrorists have lost most of their capabilities, which has occurred alongside the elimination of key Hamas figures involved in weapons production and engineering.

In recent days, Hamas released footage of a drone launch toward the western Negev. According to Hamas, the drone, which was intercepted, was launched from eastern Khan Younis. Other footage this month showed cells of four to five terrorists planting explosive devices in shafts. These videos appear intended to signal that Hamas retains limited capabilities.

#israel #hamas #gaza #mohammed somwar #avocjau adraee

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originalleftist · 2 months ago

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Musk hired spies to surveil his critics and girlfriend.

Highlights:

"One of those critics is Vernon Unsworth, who sued Musk in 2018 for calling him a "pedo guy" on Twitter. A new Tortoise investigation reveals that the scale of surveillance used against Unsworth was greater than previously known: Musk used at least two sets of private investigators, both of which used deception to try to gather information."

"Musk deployed private investigators to follow a Tesla employee "24 hours a day". A former security operative at Tesla alleges the company also hacked into the employee's phone. Other whistleblowers also allege that they were followed."

"Unbeknownst to Unsworth, Musk's tam then paid about $50,000 to a private investigator called James Howard-Higgins to dig up dirt on Unsworth. Howard-Higgins promised that he would go through Unsworth's bins, pose as a charity worker to get information, and infiltrate his partner's Facebook page.

No due diligence. A Google search would have revealed that Howard-Higgins was a fraudster, jailed in 2016 for stealing from his own company. As the US trial, which Musk won by portraying his Twitter comments as a joke, his team portrayed Howard-Higgins as a one-off. In fact another investigation firm called Orion was also tasked with getting information on Unsworth. Emails show how Orion emailed one of Unsworth's friends, telling him, incorrectly, that they were "working on behalf of Vernon"."

"Musk allegedly placed his former partner Amber Heard under surveillance in Australia having become suspicious that she was cheating on him.

Around the same time a local newspaper received an anonymous tip that an Aussie Rules footballer was "spending many nights at Amber Heard's house" and "leaving early in the morning looking like the cat that swallowed the canary".

The paper traced the message to SpaceX, one of Musk's companies.

When one of its reporters spoke to Musk, he accepted that someone close to him had sent the tip but claimed it was done without his knowledge.

"My personal belief is that [Musk] definitely sent it," says the reporter, Sally Coates."

I've seen other outlets claim that Musk used infrared technology to spy on Heard's home and detect any movement inside, but can't confirm this from a source I consider credible.

Anyway, reminder that Muskrat is a serial domestic abuser and sexual predator as well as a fascist, that his supposed support for "free speech" (as always with the Right) just means "freedom for me to say whatever I want with no consequences, and no one else has freedom to disagree with or criticize me", and that how he conducts himself in his private life and in his businesses is mirrored in his goals for society as a whole.

Also, that this "genius" is so incompetent that he couldn't even use Google for two minutes before hiring a convicted con man.

(Addendum: I know a lot of people have accused Tortoise Media of being part of some grand Right-wing/transphobic conspiracy, but so far as I've found that's mostly desperate Neil Gaiman fans trying to make out that the accusations against him by multiple unconnected women, that he partly admitted to and others in the industry corroborated, are a vast Conservative conspiracy to frame him for being pro-trans. In other words- ridiculous and misogynist. Tortoise has some credibility issues of being fairly new, without much of an established track record and, like many major media outlets, having big business money behind it. But also, far Right psy-op outlets probably aren't inclined to write detailed exposes on Elon Musk and the Saudi Royals.)

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03josten · 1 year ago

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Some of my favourite terminology for sex, sexuality, and gender that have mostly fell out of use:

Sapphist: Similar to the term Sapphic which is still in use, derived from the woman loving Greek poet Sappho. The -ist has implications of doing rather than being. A Sapphist is a woman who has romantic and sexual relationships with other women. It was commonly used in the 19th and early 20th century, eventually replaced by lesbian in common usage. Some famous historical figures who used this term include Vita Sackville-West, who also used the terms lesbian and homosexual.

Mukhannathun: Translates roughly to "effeminate ones" or "ones who resemble women", typically refers to a feminine male, an intersex person, or one whose sex is indistinct. Modern scholars place the term Mukhannath in correlation with trans feminine. Mukhannathun traditionally took on the social roles of women in Saudi Arabia and feature in Ḥadīth Islamic literature. They were often musicians and entertainers, Abū ʿAbd al-Munʿim ʿĪsā ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Dhāʾib (or Tuwais) being perhaps the first famous Mukhannath musician. I could not find any depictions of Mukannathun.

Invert: Sexology in the early 20th century believed that same sex desire and cross gender identification were natural in some people. It was coined in German by Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal (1833-1890) and translated across Europe and eventually into English as sexual inversion by John Addington Symonds Jr. (1840-1893) in 1883. Inverts were people whose natural sex instinct (heterosexual, cisgender) were "inverted", causing a natural desire for the same sex or to live as the other sex. It was thought that most inverts desired a relationship with a "normal" member of their own sex, for example a masculine presenting woman would desire a feminine presenting "normal" woman, a feminine presenting man would desire a masculine or "normal" man. While most sexologists thought sexual inversion was natural, they worried about corruption of "normal" people by inverts. The writer 'John' Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943) identified as an invert and explored the life of inverts in her 1928 novel The Well of Loneliness.

Uranism: A Uranian was a man who was romantically or sexually interested in other men. One of the earliest records of the term comes from Friedrich Schiller's 'Sixth Letter' in the Aesthetic Education of Man in 1795. It is derived from the ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite Urania, a manifestation of Aphrodite who was free of physical desire and instead was attracted by mind and soul. Ancient Greek literature was very important in the early formations of queer identity and self-recognition. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was known to use the term Uranian.

Tribadism: Derived from the Greek "tribas" which means "to rub", tribadism denotes both a sexual position (now known as tribbing or scissoring) and a woman who seeks to sexual dominate and/or penetrate another woman. This term could also be used to describe an intersex person who lives as female and is the penetrating partner during sex with women. It became the most common word to describe any kind of sexual intimacy between women in English literature from the 16th to 19th centuries. Marie Antoinette, queen of France from 1773 to 1792 was "defamed" in many anti-monarchist newspapers as being a tribade.

Eonism: Eonism was coined by English sexologist Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) to describe cross gender identification and presentation. "Eon" after the French diplomat Charlotte-Geneviève-Louise-Augusta-Andréa-Timothéa d'Éon de Beaumont, who was assigned male at birth but lived as a woman from 1777 until her death in 1810. Eonism was later replaced by transvestism in popular usage in the early to mid 20th century, coined by Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) in 1910.

Eunuch: the term Eunuch has many connotations but the one common factor that almost all definitions share is that a eunuch is an intentionally castrated male. Eunuchs can also be uncastrated, but put into the social role as eunuch due to their 1) feminine presentation 2) inability to procreate 3) attraction to men. Eunuchs were not seen as men in most cultures, they were specifically chosen and castrated in order to fill a specific, separate social role from men and women. It was sometimes punitive, for example under Assyrian law men who were caught in sexual acts with other men were castrated. Eunuchs often had positions in royal households in the Ancient Middle East, their sexlessness was seen to enhance their loyalty to the crown as they were less likely to be distracted by sex or marriage, and it also allowed for jobs to be given on merit, and not inherited since Eunuchs could not reproduce. In Ancient Greece certain sects of male priests were eunuchs. China had Eunuchs who were fully castrated (penis and testicles) and high ranking in imperial service. In Vietnam, many eunuchs were self castrated in order to gain employment in the royal households.

Homophile: coined in 1924 by Karl-Günther Heimsoth (1899-1933) in his dissertation Hetero- und Homophilie. The term was in common use in the 50s and 60s in gay activism groups. It was an alternative to homosexual coined in 1868 by Károly Mária Kertbeny (1824-1882) which was thought to have pathological and sexual implications, whereas homophile prioritised love and appreciation over the sex act or pathology. It is still in use in some parts of northern Europe. The Homophile Action League was founded by lesbian couple Ada Bello (1933-2023) and Carole Friedmann (1944-?) in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. in 1968, a year before the Stonewall Riots.

#lgbt history #queer theory #gay #lesbian #transgender #bisexual #intersex #wlw

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