Geopolitical situation
Kim Yo Jong, the black sister of the dictator of the Shakorei Rouge, said yesterday that her country would stage more provocative demonstrations of military might. A new agreement between the US and South Korea to strengthen their nuclear deterrent shows their "extreme" hostility towards Pyongyang. In her speech, she also personally insulted US President Joe Biden. The latter said after a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday that any nuclear attack by North Korea against the US or its allies would "spell the end of any regime" that took such action.
Kim Yo Jong called Mr Biden "an old man who is too miscalculating and irresponsibly bold" and said that his words would not be dismissed simply as "a meaningless remark by an old man in his old age". The black sister's comments towards Mr Biden were reminiscent of when her brother referred to former US President Donald Trump as a "deranged US dupe".
In addition to the Russian-instigated war in Ukraine, Chinese pressure on Taiwan and, unfortunately, the pace of the weapons demonstrations and nuclear threats by Beijing's protectorate, known as North Korea, is increasing. With the clock striking twelve minutes after the nuclear catastrophe, mankind seems to be sliding deeper and deeper into madness.
Since the beginning of 2022, North Korea has tested around 100 missiles. These include several intercontinental ballistic missiles aimed at reaching the US, as well as numerous short-range missile launches, which Pyongyang describes as simulated nuclear strikes on South Korea.
In response to the threats and sabre-rattling, South Korea and the US last month staged the largest allied field exercise in years, involving a US aircraft carrier battle group and advanced warplanes, including nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and F-35 fighter jets.
Gensek Kim Jong Un is expected to further increase the pace of weapons demonstrations and provocations in the coming weeks or months, as US nuclear submarines are periodically moored in South Korea for the first time in decades, and as training between the two countries is intensified.
There is no doubt that Beijing is also contributing to the 'controlled' incitement to fire. And, to be precise, this whole nuclear madness is nothing more than a show put on by China, which is a second silent front to put pressure on the US and its allies and to promote the plan to occupy Taiwan.
Significant developments
On Friday, experts working for the United Nations condemned reports of human rights violations, including abductions of ethnic minorities, deportations and enforced disappearances in Russian-occupied Crimea. They called on Moscow to do more to protect the rights of Tatars and others.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, as part of its regular rotating review of UN member states, reviewed Russia and the territories under its control with five other countries this month. The impact of Moscow's war in Ukraine on rights and racial hatred was particularly closely examined.
According to the UN and other rights observers, the war has led to numerous other rights violations and abuses, including murder, executions, rape, arbitrary detentions and much more. The Committee cited reports of 'destruction and damage to the cultural heritage of the Crimean Tatars, including tombstones, monuments and temples', and pointed to the lack of information on efforts to protect such sites from vandalism. The Committee noted reports of obstacles to the use and learning of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages and called for the restoration of the Medjlis, the representative body of Crimean Tatars, which was disbanded in 2016.
My God, what pathetic naivety, which we dare to call a mockery. Putin and his entire clique are not only indifferent to calls and condemnations. They revel in the West's manifestations of impotence time after time, and the UN's whistle-blowing only gives the murderers and rapists even more energy and strength to continue their war crimes.
At the start of his three-day visit to Hungary, Francis set out his vision for the future of Europe. In a carefully considered speech, he demanded that the European Union adopts safe and legal entry routes for migrants and that the Hungarian government does not hold Europe "hostage" to its populist demands.
Francis did not mince his words when he addressed Hungarian President Katalin Novak and populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose tepid support for Ukraine has provoked anger in other EU countries. The Pontiff recalled the noble ideals of the bloc's founding and regretted that they had been replaced by rising nationalism and "adolescent belligerence".
"We seem to be witnessing the unfortunate sunset of that choral dream of peace, because the soloists of war are now in charge", Francis said. "At this historic moment, Europe is very important. <...> It is called upon to play its proper role - to unite those who are far apart, to welcome those other peoples and to refuse to see any man as an eternal enemy."
The occupiers continue to try to take Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said that the occupiers have made some gains. A new report says the Russians are increasing pressure on the T0504 Kostantynivka-Khasov Yar-Bakhmut. Geolocation material published on 27 April shows that Russian forces have advanced as far as the Bakhmut Industrial College on T0504 south-west of the town.
Other geolocation material shows Ukrainian forces making a controlled retreat from a building at T0504. At the same time, the Ukrainian General Staff reported for the first time on 27 April that Ukrainian forces had repelled an attack by Russian ground forces at Khasiv Yar, 9 km west of Bakhmut.
In brief
On the night of 29 April, an unidentified drone attacked the occupiers' fuel base in Crimea's Cossack Bay. "A fuel tanker is on fire in the Gulf of Kazok near Manganari Brothers Street. According to preliminary data, the fire was caused by a drone strike. All necessary special services are working at the scene. The area of the fire is about 1000 square metres, the fire is classified as class 4," said Mikhail Razvozzhayev, a collaborator, the so-called "Governor of Sevastopol".
At least 23 people, including three children, were killed in rocket attacks on residential houses yesterday.
Sudan's capital Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman have been rocked by heavy explosions and gunfire, despite the extension of a fragile truce between the country's two top generals whose power struggle has already claimed hundreds of lives.
The Democrats are demanding that Mr Biden provide Ukraine with F-16s and long-range missiles. According to the Democrats, F-16s and long-range missiles can form the basis of the defence and counter-attack of the Ukrainian armed forces. This proposal is said to have been endorsed by some US military leaders.
If one counter-attack is needed, there will be one; if two or more are needed, there will be more, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister A. Kuleba. "The decisive battle is the one that will mean the complete liberation of Ukrainian territories. This conclusion (about the decisive battle) can be drawn at the end of the battle, not at the beginning".
Lithuania
People are holding their breath as they follow the arbitrariness of local councillors in the looting of taxpayers' funds. One drove a petrol truck for a month, another sent terabytes of data from Cyprus, a third repaired his car every day, which he does not even own.
Ah, what fun it is to rummage through other people's pockets and purses. We caught the thief red-handed! On the scrap heap! Scrap them! The crowd is ecstatic, its ranks diverging towards the eschaphote, letting Mr Lynch do his black work.
But isn't the system designed to encourage us to abuse the child of the smoke merchant, with his claws curved in on himself? When benefits are paid quarterly in advance, human psychology resists any thought of having to pay back the 'uncovered' money. That is when one is scratching one's head, looking for accounts through relatives, friends and acquaintances, just so that the few hundred euros do not have to be "lost".
Is it not a Soviet remnant that a councillor has to carry 'cheques' like a slave with his hand outstretched in the pose of a supplicant? Is it not a humiliation for a dignified free man to have to justify why his work should be rewarded?
And what about filling in 'timesheets' with fictitious hours in order to scrape together a few more euros for a sausage on bread?
It seems to us that all these allowances should be abolished immediately and that there should be a single remuneration for councillors, based on the number of people registered with the municipality and the taxes they pay.
Then there would be no more embezzlement, no more lies and no more stupid excuses. Want a decent remuneration? Make sure that there are more direct "employers" in local government!
Photo 29 April 2023. Smoke rises in Sevastopol, Crimea, after a suspected drone strike (Stringer/Reuters)
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