Fallout shelter wer ist der berühmteste reporter

in memory of Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin

"Killed in Russia's war against Ukraine,

remembered by history, friends and family:

On Friday, April 8, Vitsche and the Pilecki Institute are organizing an exhibition of Maks Levin's works. Photos and videos of the famous photojournalist will be presented during the event which Colleagues and friends of the journalist will join remotely.

Max Levin's work had appeared in, amongst others, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, LB.ua and hromadske.

On March 13, Max drove his car to photograph the fighting in the Kyiv Region. At about 11:30, the contact with Maks was lost and he never appeared online after. It later became known that in the area the intense fighting had begun. The body of the photojournalist was found on April 1. The prosecutor's office is investigating his death. According to the investigation, the unarmed Maks Levin was killed by the Russian military with two shots from a fire weapon. He has left behind four sons, his partner and his elderly parents."

www.facebook.com/levin.maks

The Cross of Remembrance

On the Sixth of February 1958 the plane carrying the Manchester United football team back to Manchester crashed on take-off from Munich airport.

They were known as the ‘Busby Babes’ because of their youth and from their manager’s name, Matt Busby.

Fatalities

Manchester United players

Geoff Bent

Roger Byrne

Eddie Colman

Duncan Edwards

Mark Jones

David Pegg

Tommy Taylor

Liam "Billy" Whelan

Manchester United staff

Walter Crickmer - club secretary

Tom Curry - trainer

Bert Whalley - chief coach

Crew

Captain Kenneth Rayment

Tom Cable

Journalists

Alf Clarke

Donny Davies

George Follows

Tom Jackson

Archie Ledbrooke

Henry Rose

Frank Swift

Eric Thompson

Other passengers

Bela Miklos

Willie Satinoff

Celia Farber claims to be an investigative *ahem* journalist. Really she is nothing more than a person who gets paid for spreading HIV denialist propaganda. Every cause has their mouthpiece. Celia Farber is an expert. Not in HIV or AIDS. No Celia is an expert in very publicly stitching herself up! The following extracts from an interview are taken from bookslut all comments in bold are my own observations:

BS:You are constantly described as an AIDS dissident that does not believe HIV causes AIDS -- but nowhere in your book is this explicitly stated. So how would you describe your views?

CF: Thank you for noticing that critical detail. I have never written that HIV does not cause AIDS. I don’t think I’ve ever said that HIV does not cause AIDS. I took one semester of journalism in college. Thanks Celia. Good to see that you spent a hell of a lot of time earning the title of journalist!!!

CF: It is not for me to say as a journalist -- as a nonscientist -- what causes or doesn’t cause AIDS. Great Celia. You are off to a blinding start. Not only do you admit to having no substantial education as a journalist but you make it perfectly clear that you are not a scientist...

BS:Do you wish you had taken a different approach reporting? Is there anything you would have done differently?

CF:My quick answer is usually yes, of course. But it’s unanswerable… What I wish I had done differently, in retrospect, was to calculate the damage and the blight, both on myself and on my family and ask myself, “Is it fair to do to others?” Because what you actually do is you invite financial ruin. The damage and the blight Celia? Oh poor you and your poor family! How many of your denialist chums have died? How many people who have listened to your warped rhetoric are now dead because they did not access the treatments that could have prolonged their life? That is the damage and that is the blight Celia. NOT the fact that you did not earn more money. But I think that is more to do with just the one semester at journalist school than anything else...

BS:As a non-gay male AIDS reporter and Westerner investigating Africa, did you have to deal with identity politics?

CF: I never got that kind of guff from any Africans, [but] certainly from the gay community. Those that were opposed to what I was doing -- that was one of the charges: that I wasn’t gay and how the hell could I know what I was doing and what right did I have to say anything? But that’s inconsistent with the core belief system, which is that AIDS is everybody’s disease... Yes darling but you started spouting your denialist crap in 1988. Do you also have selective amnesia? Of course the Gay community were going to take exception to your denialist crap because Gay men were bearing the brunt of the numbers of deaths and the social stigma. The last thing they would have wanted when they were dying would be for someone like you to add more bulshit to the fire...

I would go to AIDS conferences and go through an immense crisis each time, “Am I crazy or are they crazy?” Answers on a postcard...

BS: Do you think The Constant Gardner was able to voice political dissent as it is shielded as fiction?

CF:I would caution people against assuming that John le Carre is writing fiction. Let me make a generality: fiction writers today like John le Carre are doing journalism, and the journalists are writing fiction. Thanks again Celia.... i didn't need to read this interview with you to know that you talk a pile of stinking shit! But thanks for the clarification!

I do wish that I could crawl away, quietly and turn up on some completely other part of the beach. So do we Celia, so do we... and take your denialist chums with you...

Celia worked as a researcher on the BBC documentry "Guinea Pig Kids" This is what the BBC had to say about the programme in question:

ECU ruling: Guinea Pig Kids, BBC2, 30 November 2004 and related websites

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/news/2007/11/30/51154.shtml

Publication date: 30 Nov 2007

Complaint

The Director of Planning and Policy Research of the New York-based Center for HIV Law and Policy, supported by several academics and other agencies involved in HIV research and treatment, complained that the programme unfairly claimed that New York City's Administration for Children's Services, together with a number of medical and child care institutions, "effectively conspired to force helpless children of colour into inappropriate and sinister 'experiments' when in fact they made life saving drugs already approved for adults available to children living with HIV/AIDS who were in the foster care system", that it gave a misleading impression of the effects of anti-HIV medication, and that it falsely claimed that "denying medication to children with AIDS will improve their health while appropriate treatment will kill them".

BBC Editorial Complaints Unit's ruling

The programme explored legitimate concerns about a research project involving the testing of anti-HIV drugs on children in the care system, where (it had emerged) there had been a failure in some cases to provide independent advocacy as required by the research protocols. However, the programme portrayed this failure as being the more serious because the drugs being trialled were, it claimed, both "lethal" and ineffective. In support of these claims, the programme interviewed an expert witness who was, though the audience was not told, a leading advocate of the propositions that HIV is unconnected with AIDS, that anti-retroviral drugs do not work in the treatment of AIDS and that they are, in fact, responsible for deaths attributed to AIDS. The audience was not told that his was a minority and controversial view which would be challenged by mainstream medical opinion. No other medical opinion was heard on this subject.

The programme also gave the false impression that parents or carers who objected to their children being placed in the trials risked losing custody of their children. In fact, the three case studies which created this impression did not involve children connected with the trials. Though there was no explicit claim that "denying medication to children with AIDS will improve their health while appropriate treatment will kill them", the treatment of case studies in the programme contributed to that impression. This complaint has been partly upheld.

Further action

A correction will be published on bbc.co.uk, as part of the pages on which the material complained of appears, with a link to this summary. In addition, the ECU will contact other websites featuring the material in order to draw their attention to its ruling. The management of BBC News is addressing the issues arising from the ruling for the commissioning and supervision of independent productions of this kind.

Celia Farber: An AIDS Denialist Masquerading as a Journalist

www.aidstruth.org/folly.php

Celia Farber, the author of the March 2006 Harper's Magazine article attacking HIV clinical research, misrepresents herself to the popular media as a legitimate journalist and science writer, interested only in doggedly covering a good story. She is in fact an AIDS "dissident" who has been publicizing and extolling the claims of AIDS denialists and attacking scientific research on HIV/AIDS since the late 1980s. Farber has signed the two defining petitions of HIV denialism and she co-authored with members of the denialist group HEAL a core tract of the denialist movement called "HIV: Against Science." She described herself in the subtitle of one of her articles as "an AIDS Dissident" and she is a prominent member of the denialist "Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis." Her denialism is well documented, but she conceals her beliefs in order to fool the mainstream media into allowing her to promote them in print.

Farber's main contribution to the AIDS denialist movement is to broadcast their views to the general public in the disguise of objective journalism. In her writing for the popular press, she has consistently and deceptively refused to fully disclose her deep involvement with, and her role as a spokesperson for, the denialist camp. She has also evaded explaining clearly her own understanding or beliefs about HIV and AIDS. Instead, she allows other denialists to make the case for her in extended, laudatory quotes, while maintaining the pretense that she is just an objective reporter asking honest questions, and one who is unfairly abused for her honesty:

All I ever did was follow and report, with what some may consider excessive attention, the vital debate about whether HIV is the cause of AIDS. And whether AZT is a viable therapy for those who are HIV antibody positive. And whether being HIV antibody positive is the same as "having" HIV. And whether "having" HIV necessarily means your immune system is decaying. Etc. I consider all of these questions to be very straightforward, logical, and of obvious importance. I simply picked up a thread and followed it. (Farber , "AIDS Inc." 1994).

Farber's disingenuous claim to "follow and report" on an issue in which she is deeply committed to one side is one she has tried to maintain even as the Harper's Magazine piece brought new attention to the denialist clique. She is reported in The New York Times as saying that she "does not endorse [denialist Peter] Duesberg's position but is simply reporting on an unpopular view. 'People can't distinguish, it seems, between describing dissent and being dissent [sic],'" she wrote in an email to the reporter, Lia Miller. But in fact, people can distinguish between reportage and the party line, and Farber has always toed the latter. She has for two decades consistently attacked medicine, belittled scientific research and enthusiastically promoted denialists and their various claims. There is nothing even remotely balanced in her work.

Despite the denialist motive that drives her writing, Farber lacks the courage of her convictions and won't publicly stand behind the denialist ideology she promotes so relentlessly. She even cravenly disclaims her own positions when cornered. In a recent email she sent to a wide circulation list, she wrote of her Harper's Magazine article, "It does not, for example, say that all AIDS drugs are ghastly, or worthless." No, perhaps not in those exact words, but Farber is being disingenuous. What her article does say is "Duesberg thinks that up to 75 percent of AIDS cases in the West can be attributed to drug toxicity. If toxic AIDS therapies were discontinued, he says, thousands of lives could be saved virtually overnight." In the same email, she asserted "In each article [in the past] where I have addressed HAART I have included, clearly, the fact that the regimens have absolutely helped people who are very sick." That statement's as absolutely false as it is hypocritical. For example, in an article about HAART published in 2000, she made two comments about the benefits of antiretroviral drugs:

There are facts and figures, studies and counter-studies, a virtual blizzard of data that could be arranged to show any number of things. The new AIDS drugs have saved people's lives: that's one piece of truth. The new AIDS drugs have killed people: that's another. The new AIDS drugs have damaged and deformed some people so badly that although they are alive, they wish they were dead.

And:

Precisely what it means for a life to be "saved" is complicated, especially when the patient was not sick to begin with. As [German denialist Claus] Koehnlein wryly commented, "If you treat completely healthy people you can claim great therapeutic success."

Both of these statements, spun by sarcasm, are in effect claims that no people with HIV/AIDS have benefited from HAART, which is a blatant lie.

Farber has tried to portray herself as a neutral observer to The New York Times and critics by claiming she merely presents the contradictory views of others for the edification of the reader. But when we reviewed 34 articles about AIDS by Farber, we found that the clear thesis and topic of every single one was some variant of AIDS denialism--HIV does not cause AIDS; AIDS doesn't exist; there is no heterosexual AIDS; there is no AIDS epidemic in Africa; HIV is not transmitted by sex or by semen or by breast milk; HIV does not exist...

Farber's writing style typically highlights extensive quotes from denialists, whom she describes in warm, laudatory and respectful terms and whose claims are given great credence. By contrast, she consistently attacks legitimate HIV science, medicine, researchers and AIDS activists. Occasionally, she takes the words of legitimate doctors and advocates out of context to support the denialist argument. All of this is held together with her grandiose narrative of her Quest for The Truth: This, she says, "is my private hell, but also my great Sisyphean challenge. My labyrinth…" (Berkowitz: "Interview" 2000).

Celia Farber wants the world to regard her as a courageous and objective investigative journalist, but in reality she's nothing more than a lying propagandist for the denialist mini-movement. What is shocking is that Harper's Magazine's editors fell for this scam.

Roger Hodge: In Cahoots or Just Incompetent?

Roger Hodge, Farber's editor and, sadly, the man replacing Harper's Magazine's legendary editor Lewis Lapham, has defended his ignominious debut by claiming that he is merely airing an important controversy. It is not yet clear if he actually shares Farber's denialism or was, by failing to exercise due diligence, merely deceived by her masquerade as a journalist. Quite possibly, both of these things are true. On the question of HIV as the cause of AIDS, he told Gay City News "I don't feel like I am qualified to judge it"-a dodge similar to Farber's feints when she's in the headlights. The New York Times reported that "Mr. Hodge said the magazine stood behind the article and Ms. Farber. 'The fact that she's been covering this story does not make her a crackpot - it makes her a journalist. She's a courageous journalist, I believe, because she has covered the story at great personal cost.'"

Hodge also continues to assert the accuracy of the article against the overwhelming evidence presented to him that the piece is a farrago of fabrications, errors and innuendo. Gay City News reported that he said: "It was very, very thoroughly fact-checked over the course of three months. … A lot of what people are describing as errors are differences of opinion about the data." But his fact-checkers were either biased or incompetent, because at least 58 scientific and non-scientific howlers made it into print (www.aidstruth.org). Did Farber provide Hodge with her own list of "experts" to consult as fact-checkers? Or did Hodge select them based on his own knowledge of science and medicine? In either case, this vital task in the editing of any article was thoroughly botched.

If all it takes to get a science-bashing article into the new, dumbed-down Harper's Magazine is to warm-over baseless conspiracy theories and wild speculation, then we can expect the next issue to feature a piece from the Discovery Institute that promotes Intelligent Design – let's teach the controversy, brave Sir Roger! And perhaps he'll offer space to the oft-maligned Holocaust denialists, too, who make the same claim that legitimate scholars will not pay attention to their theories.

Hodge's quotes in Gay City News reveal that he still sees AIDS denialism as something honorable, a case of the little guy taking on the big bad wolves of the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry, standing up to be counted, risking it all for the sake of the truth and freedom of speech. If this were true, Hodge would have the full support of all of us, for we share this predisposition. We, like most scientists and AIDS activists, are liberals and progressives. That's why it's so difficult for us to accept that Harper's Magazine, a journal aimed at liberal intellectuals, would print Farber's article. The AIDS denialists are not honest dissidents, and they tarnish the word by using it. In South Africa, they even have tried to link their dissidence to that of Nelson Mandela, as if the two positions could in any way be equated. And when it comes to craven profiteering and the unethical exploitation of people with HIV, the denialists' champions, such as Matthias Rath and David Rasnick, take the cake.

Where Roger Hodge got it so badly wrong was to allow such an obviously error-ridden and biased article into a once-reputable magazine. In the circumstances, Hodge should now do what is honorable and resign for the sake of his magazine's reputation. He's proven himself not up to the task of editing an article. He's proven unable to exercise intelligent judgment about scientific discourse, medicine, public health and the HIV epidemic. He's proven himself gullible and sloppy by being fooled by a writer he told Gay City News he's known for "many years." Perhaps you knew Farber both too well and not well enough, Roger? And perhaps, Lewis Lapham, you knew Roger both too well and not well enough when bequeathing your legacy to him?

Jeanne Bergman, PhD, Health GAP, New York, NY

John P. Moore, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York

Well done Celia... keep on digging.....

This image shows the wall of Ijen crater seen from Paltuding about 3 km.

The Ijen volcano complex is a group of stratovolcanoes in the Banyuwangi Regency of East Java, Indonesia.

The active crater at Ijen crater has a diameter of 722 ft (2,369 metres) and a surface area of 0.41 square kilometres (0.16 sq mi). It is 200 metres (660 ft) deep and has a volume of 36 cubic hectometres (29,000 acre·ft).

Ijen and its sulfur mining was featured as a topic on the 5th episode of the BBC television documentary Human Planet. In the documentary film War Photographer, journalist James Nachtwey visits Ijen and struggles with noxious fumes while trying to photograph workers. Michael Glawogger film Workingman's Death is about sulfur workers.

The Viking International Ladies Tennis Championship was in town for a week. This is the week before Wimbledon.

I was fortunate enough to be on the seafront when the BBC were filming an excerpt that was shown prior to the Finals on the Saturday (26th June 2021)

Celebrity Clare Balding the broadcaster and journalist was recording a piece to camera.

Clare was happy with me taking pictures.

So, the weather did make up its mind finally. And it snowed, quite a bit actually. So getting to college was fun this morning... it took an hour on the bus. Wahey! But today was a laugh, so it's all good :D The selective colouring is the feet of Mickey Mouse on my jumper :)

View On Black

And because both Tessa & Zack have tagged me...

1. I am obsessive about Disney Parks, its music and just everything. Hence the jumper... I'm so not cool :)

2. I play the sax-o-ma-phone, and have done for nearly 6 years now :O

3. I absolutely hate dogs, and they hate me.

4. I am named after a song, called Daniel, by Elton John.

5. I want to be a journalist, work for the BBC and eventually read the News At 10 :)

6. I nearly always tap my fingers to some unknown rhythm... well to everyone else it is anyways. So I look like I have this annoying twitch.

7. I ring church bells. I think that's pretty cool.

8. On my desk, I have: my phone, oooh... I just got a text ^^, a little toy car, a smiley face badge, a badge form college, a bracelet I never wear but it's good to play with and my heart post-it note from the other day.

9. I obviously never tidy often.... great.

10. I am now addicted to three sites: Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. :)

In late May 2021, it was announced that the remains of 215 children had been found (using ground-penetrating radar) in unmarked graves at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, western Canada. (This school was jointly operated, from 1890 to 1969, by the Catholic Church and the federal government of Canada.) This was not surprising to those of us who have paid attention to Indigenous issues over the past years and decades - the only surprise was the actual specific number: 215.

This has become a huge social and political issue in Canada, with memorials, like the one in my photo above (on the steps in front of Calgary's City Hall/Municipal Building), sprouting up across Canada.

Those not familiar with this news story can read recent news reports, such as:

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57325653

Or read journalists' reports from Canada's major media networks:

www.ctvnews.ca

www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous

(Re: terminology, Indians in Canada have been referred to by different names over the years: Indians, Native Canadians, First Nations, aboriginal Canadians, and Indigenous Canadians; many news organizations insist on capitalizing the first I in "Indigenous." "Indian" is their official name in Canada's Constitution.)

Another one from the Denton archive while Covid-19 keeps us at home… this time my portrait of John Arlott – journalist, author, broadcaster, wine connoisseur and (above all) peerless BBC cricket commentator.

I took this 35mm photograph at his home in Alderney, one of the Channel Islands, when I made a television documentary with and about him in 1981. And, let me say, he wasn't remotely as gruff as this capture would perhaps make him out to be!

Image featured in EXPLORE

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 586. Julie Christie in Far from the Madding Crowd (John Schlesinger, 1967). Collection: Alina Deaconu.

Smart and sexy Julie Christie (1941) is an icon of the new British cinema. During the Swinging Sixties, she became a superstar with such roles as Lara in the worldwide smash hit Doctor Zhivago (1965). Since then she has won the Oscar, the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Julie Frances Christie was born in 1941 in Chukua, India, then part of the British Empire. She was the daughter of Frank St. John Christie, a tea planter, and his Welsh wife Rosemary (née Ramsden), who was a painter. Her younger brother, Clive Christie, would become a professor of Southeast Asian studies at Hull University. They grew up on their father's tea plantation in Assam. At 7, Julie was sent to England for her education. As a teenager at Wycombe Court School, she played the role of the Dauphin in a school production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan. A fascination with the artist's lifestyle led to her enrolling in London's Central School of Speech and Drama training. Christie made her stage debut as a member of the Frinton Repertory of Essex in 1957. One of her first roles was playing Anne Frank in a London theatrical production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Christie was not fond of the stage, even though it allowed her to travel, including a professional gig in the United States. She made her TV debut as an artificial girl created from the DNA of a deceased science lab assistant in the BBC Sci-fi series A for Andromeda (Michael Hayes, 1961). Her first film appearance was a bit part in the amusing comedy Crooks Anonymous (Ken Annakin, 1962), which was followed up by a larger ingénue role in the romantic comedy The Fast Lady (Ken Annakin, 1963) with Stanley Baker. Christie first worked with the man who would kick her career into high gear, director John Schlesinger, when he choose her as a replacement for the actress (Topsy Jane) originally cast in Billy Liar (John Schlesinger, 1963). Christie's turn in the film as the free-wheeling Liz, the supremely confident friend and love interest to Tom Courtenay's full-time dreamer Billy, was a stunner, and she had her first taste of becoming an icon of the new British cinema. Her screen presence was such that the great John Ford cast her as the young prostitute Daisy Battles in Young Cassidy (Jack Cardiff, John Ford, 1965), a biopic about Irish playwright Sean O'Casey. She made her breakthrough to super-stardom in Schlesinger's seminal Swinging Sixties film Darling (John Schlesinger, 1965). Schlesinger called on Christie to play the role of the manipulative young actress and jet setter Diana Scott when the casting of Shirley MacLaine fell through. As played by Christie, Diana is an amoral social butterfly who undergoes a metamorphosis from an immature sex kitten to a jaded socialite. For her complex performance, Christie won raves, including the Best Actress Oscar and the Best Actress BAFTA. Her image as the It Girl of the Swinging Sixties was further cemented by her appearance in the documentary Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (1967), which covered the hipster scene in England.

Julie Christie followed up Darling (1965) with the role of the tragic Lara Antipova in the two-time Academy Award-winning Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965). Lean’s epic adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel became one of the all-time box-office champs. Christie was now a superstar who commanded a price of $400,000 per picture. More interested in film as an art form than in consolidating her movie stardom, Christie followed up Doctor Zhivago (1965) with a dual role in Fahrenheit 451 (1966) for Francois Truffaut, a Nouvelle Vague director she admired. The film was, according to Jon C. Hopwood at IMDb, "hurt by the director's lack of English and by friction between Truffaut and Christie's male co-star Oskar Werner, who had replaced the more-appropriate-for-the-role Terence Stamp". Stamp and Christie had been lovers before she had become famous, and he was unsure he could act with her, due to his own ego problems. On his part, Werner resented the attention the smitten Truffaut gave Christie. Stamp overcame those ego problems to sign on as her co-star in John Schlesinger's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd (John Schlesinger, 1967), which also starred Peter Finch and Alan Bates. Jon C. Hopwood at IMDb: “It is a film that is far better remembered now than when it was received in 1967. The film and her performance as the Hardy heroine Bathsheba Everdene was lambasted by film critics, many of whom faulted Christie for being too ‘mod’ and thus untrue to one of Hardy's classic tales of fate.” She then met the man who transformed her life, undermining her pretensions to a career as a film star in their seven-year-long love affair, the American actor Warren Beatty. Living his life was always far more important than being a star for Beatty, who viewed the movie star profession as a 'treadmill leading to more treadmills' and who was wealthy enough after Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) to not have to ever work again. Christie and Beatty had visited a working farm during the production of Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) and had been appalled by the industrial exploitation of the animals. Thereafter, animal rights became a very important subject to Christie. They were kindred souls who remain friends, four decades after their affair ended in 1974. Christie's last box-office hit in which she was the top-liner was Petulia (Richard Lester, 1968), a romantic drama about the romance between a staid doctor (George C. Scott) and a flighty but vulnerable socialite (Christie). According to Jon C. Hopwood, it is “a film that featured one of co-star George C. Scott's greatest performances, perfectly counter-balanced by Christie's portrayal of an ‘arch-kook’ who was emblematic of the 1960s. It is one of the major films of the decade, an underrated masterpiece." Despite the presence of Scott and Shirley Knight, Hopwood claims that the film would not work without Julie Christie. "There is frankly no other actress who could have filled the role, bringing that unique presence and the threat of danger that crackled around Christie's electric aura. At this point of her career, she was poised for greatness as a star, greatness as an actress.”

After meeting Beatty, Julie Christie essentially surrendered any aspirations to screen stardom, or to maintaining herself as a top-drawer working actress. She turned down the lead in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Sydney Pollack, 1969) and Anne of the Thousand Days (Charles Jarrott, 1969), two parts that garnered Oscar nominations for the second choices, Jane Fonda and Geneviève Bujold. After shooting In Search of Gregory (Peter Wood, 1969), a critical and box office flop, to fulfil her contractual obligations, she spent her time with Beatty in California, renting a beach house in Malibu. She did return to form as the bored upper-class woman who ruins a boy's life by involving him in her sexual duplicities, in The Go-Between (Joseph Losey, 1970), written by playwright Harold Pinter. She won her second Oscar nomination for her role as a brothel 'madam' in Robert Altman's Western drama McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) that she made with her lover Beatty. Christie also turned down the role of the Russian Empress in Nicholas and Alexandra (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1971), another film that won the second-choice (Janet Suzman) Best Actress Oscar nomination. Two years later, she appeared in the dazzling mystery-horror film Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973), with its famously erotic love scenes between Christie and Donald Sutherland. Director Nicolas Roeg had been her cinematographer on Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) and Petulia (1968). In the mid-1970s, her affair with Beatty came to an end, but the two remained close friends and worked together in Shampoo (Hal Ashby, 1975) and the comedy Heaven Can Wait (Buck Henry, Warren Beatty, 1978). Christie turned down the part of Louise Bryant in Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981), a part written by Beatty with her in mind, as Christie felt an American should play the role. Beatty's then lover, Diane Keaton, played the part and won a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Other interesting roles she turned down were parts in Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968), The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972), Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974), Marathon Man (John Schlesinger, 1976), and American Gigolo (Paul Schrader, 1980).

Julie Christie moved back to the UK and became 'the British answer to Jane Fonda', campaigning for various social and political causes, including animal rights and nuclear disarmament. She was greatly in demand but became even more choosy about her roles as her own political awareness increased. Her sporadic film commitments reflected her political consciousness such as the animal rights documentary The Animals Film (Victor Schonfeld, 1981), and the feature The Gold Diggers (Sally Potter, 1983), a feminist reinterpretation of film history. Roles in The Return of the Soldier (Alan Bridges, 1982) with Alan Bates and Glenda Jackson, and Merchant-Ivory's Heat and Dust (James Ivory, 1983) seemed to herald a return to form, but then she essentially retired. A career renaissance came in the mid-1990s with her turn as Queen Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh, 1996). More rave notices brought her turn as the faded movie star married to handyman Nick Nolte and romanced by a younger man (Jonny Lee Miller) in Afterglow (Alan Rudolph, 1997). She received her third Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance and showed up at the awards as radiant and uniquely beautiful as ever. Christie lived with left-wing investigative journalist and writer Duncan Campbell since 1979, before marrying in 2008. In addition to her film work, she has narrated many books on tape. In 1995, she made a triumphant return to the stage in a London revival of Harold Pinter's Old Times, which garnered her superb reviews. In the decade since Afterglow (1997), she has worked steadily on film in supporting roles. She worked three times with director-screenwriter and actress Sarah Polley: co-starring with Polley in No Such Thing (Hal Hartley, 2001) and the Goya Award-winning La Vida secreta de las palabras/The Secret Life of Words (Isabel Coixet, 2005), and taking the lead in Polley's first feature film as a director, Away from Her (Sarah Polley, 2006). Christie made a brief appearance in the third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, 2004), playing Madam Rosmerta, the landlady of the Three Broomsticks pub. That same year, she also appeared in two other high-profile films: Wolfgang Petersen's historical epic Troy (2004) and Marc Forster's Finding Neverland (2004), playing Kate Winslet's mother. The latter performance earned Christie a BAFTA nomination as a supporting actress in the film. In 2008, Christie narrated Uncontacted Tribes, a short film for the British-based charity Survival International, featuring previously unseen footage of remote and endangered peoples. She has been a long-standing supporter of the charity, and in February 2008, was named as its first 'Ambassador'. She appeared in a segment of the anthology film New York, I Love You (2008), written by Anthony Minghella, directed by Shekhar Kapur and co-starring Shia LaBeouf. She also played in Glorious 39 (Stephen Poliakoff, 2008), about a British family at the start of World War II. In 2011, Christie played a 'sexy, bohemian' version of the grandmother role in a gothic retelling of Red Riding Hood (Catherine Hardwicke, 2011) with Amanda Seyfried in the title role. Her most recent role was in the political thriller The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, 2012), where she co-starred with Robert Redford. And we conclude this bio with an observation of Brian McFarlane in The Encyclopedia of British Cinema: “Arguably the most genuinely glamorous, and one of the most intelligent, of all British stars, Julie Christie brought a gust of new, sensual life into British cinema.”

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Brian McFarlane (Encyclopedia of British Cinema), TCM, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

in memory of Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin

"Killed in Russia's war against Ukraine,

remembered by history, friends and family:

Max Levin's work had appeared in, amongst others, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, LB.ua and hromadske.

www.facebook.com/levin.maks

RAF Supermarine Spitfire two-seater T.9 trainer version MkIX PV202 G-CCCA 5R-H No 33 Squadron RAF

5R:H was built as a single-seat Vickers Supermarine LFlX fighter in 1944

In the back seat for this trip is TV Presenter and Journalist Ranvir Singh who has appeared on Good Morning Britain, ITV News, Loose Women and this year’s BBC Strictly Come Dancing

Photo taken Duxford On the 3rd November 2020 at the Imperial War Museum Duxford Cambridgeshire UK

BAE_9094

She'll be busy trying to keep track of the jamboree of hopefuls bidding for No 10 now that Boris says he's turning in his crown

REUTERS/BBC

Ukraine says it has made significant gains in pushing back Russian troops, retaking more than 3,000 sq km (1,158 sq miles) of territory in recent days. Jonathan Beale, the BBC's defence correspondent, takes a closer look at why they have been so successful - and what hurdles Ukraine's forces may still face in winning the war.

"Don't underestimate the Ukrainian's ability to surprise," a senior US military officer told me early this summer, just as Russia was continuing to make advances in the Donbas.

Ukraine's ability to surprise has become a hallmark of this war: from the Russian retreat from Kyiv, to recent attacks in Crimea. Now there's another surprise happening in the east of the country.

Until now, it was Russia making most of the advances here - albeit a slow and grinding affair that was proving costly to its army. Now it's Ukraine making the gains, taking back thousands of square miles of territory in just a matter of days.

The biggest gains for Ukraine have been in the east around the city of Kharkiv. The UK's latest defence intelligence report says that Ukraine has now liberated an area twice the size of Greater London - though it's difficult to establish the level of advances and continuing fighting with journalists kept well away from the frontline.

Ukraine says it has captured the strategically important cities of Izyum and Kupiansk - military hubs used by Russia to resupply its forces in the Donbas. Those losses alone would be a major blow to the Russian army.

in memory of Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin

"Killed in Russia's war against Ukraine,

remembered by history, friends and family:

Max Levin's work had appeared in, amongst others, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, LB.ua and hromadske.

www.facebook.com/levin.maks

By Frank Gardner and Matt Murphy

BBC News

Ukrainian strikes on Crimea are having major psychological and operational effects on Moscow's forces, Western officials have told journalists.

Explosions at the Saki airbase on 9 August and other assaults have put more than half of the Black Sea fleet's naval jets out of action, they said.

The fleet has a revered history, but it has suffered a series of humiliations since the invasion began in February.

Officials said the setbacks have forced it to adopt a defensive posture.

In March, the fleet's flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by Ukraine. The 510-crew missile cruiser had led Russia's naval assault on Ukraine, and its sinking was a major symbolic and military blow.

At the time, the Russian defence ministry said ammunition on board the Moskva exploded in an unexplained fire, and the ship tipped over while being towed back to port.

In June, the fleet suffered another embarrassment when it was forced to abandon Snake Island, a tiny outpost in the north-west of the Black Sea seized by Russia on the first day of its invasion, after coming under sustained Ukrainian bombardment.

And in recent weeks, the fleet's home in the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, has come under attack from Ukrainian forces.

At least eight fighter jets were destroyed in the bombardment of Saki airbase on 9 August.

Following the attacks, scores of holidaymakers were seen fleeing the peninsula, which was previously untouched by fighting. Images acquired by the BBC showed queues of traffic on roads leading out of Crimea three days after the attack.

The 9 August strikes were not the only apparent Ukrainian strikes in Crimea.

In July, Russian officials alleged that a Ukrainian drone attack forced an end to Navy Day celebrations in Sevastopol, and on 16 August there were explosions at an arms depot on the peninsula.

The fact that explosions in Crimea - a place previously considered to be well beyond the reach of any Ukrainian attack - were watched by thousands of Russian tourists, many of whom have since fled Crimea back into Russia, has had a psychological effect in Moscow, officials told the media.

The Western officials, who spoke unattributably on background, meaning they cannot be named, said that Russia's Black Sea fleet has been reduced to little more than a coastal flotilla that is now having to adopt a cautious attitude due to Ukrainian attacks.

They added that Russia's ability to launch an assault on the port of Odesa in western Ukraine is highly unlikely in the short term.

On Wednesday, Russian state media reported that the fleet's commander, Igor Osipov, had been replaced in light of the attacks. The RIA news agency said the fleet's new chief, Viktor Sokolov, has been introduced to military leaders at the port of Sevastopol.

Moscow also seems to be trying to re-arm its beleaguered fleet. State media reported that Admiral Sokolov told a group of young officers that they will receive 12 new vessels, alongside additional aviation and land-based vehicles later this year.

He insisted that the fleet has been "successfully completing all the tasks set for it" during the invasion, Russia's Tass news agency reported.

But on Wednesday, UK defence officials said that the Kremlin's plans have been "undermined" by the navy's failure to assume full control over the Black Sea.

The Black Sea fleet has generally pursued an "extremely defensive" position and remained near the Crimean coast, they said.

RAF Supermarine Spitfire two-seater T.9 trainer version MkIX PV202 G-CCCA 5R-H No 33 Squadron RAF

5R:H was built as a single-seat Vickers Supermarine LFlX fighter in 1944

In the back seat for this trip is TV Presenter and Journalist Ranvir Singh who has appeared on Good Morning Britain, ITV News, Loose Women and this year’s BBC Strictly Come Dancing

Photo taken Duxford On the 3rd November 2020 at the Imperial War Museum Duxford Cambridgeshire UK

BAE_9048

Miroslaw Magola Interview - Disney Plus Marvel Magneto

Tell us something about yourself?

My name is Miroslaw Magola. I come from Poland and have been living and working as a freelance artist in Munich for a long time. I am interested in philosophy, artificial intelligence, science fiction in film and literature, consciousness research and art. My friends call me Magneto.

Sir David Frost was a British journalist and BBC and ITV Television presenter, best known for his interview with Richard Nixons in the Watergate affair. On February 28th, 1996 I was on an ITV live show in England with him, where he gave me the name Magnetic Man.

Stan Lee, the inventor of numerous superheroes from the Marvel Comics Cosmos, such as Spiderman, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow. In Stan Lee’s Superhumans television documentary, he gave me the name Mind Force.

Christophe Dechavanne and Patrice Carmouzeon an TF1 live show La soirée de l'étrange in France gave me name Magnetic.

When and where did you discover your abilities?

I discovered the phenomenon of attracting metal objects by my hands and head while waiting for asylum in Neuburg an der Donau in 1987. I lived alone and had a lot of time to experiment with my consciousness. Describe your experiments with consciousness? I came to realize that a special state of consciousness allows for interaction between the object and me. It is not sleeping, not meditation nor any other known state of consciousness. I can best describe the state as follows: When I enter this state, I am surrounded by light. This is most comparable to the Northern Lights. And I am part of this light, this energy – and I have no body. I see this as the key to the special state of consciousness in which other people can also demonstrate these abilities when they reach this state of light.

Modern neuroscience and psychology speak of neuron and synapse activities. I think that music is also a fantastic way for a lot of people to relax and forget everything around them. Likewise, art moves our imagination. Meditation elevates us to another state of consciousness. But the world I speak of is something else.

Why are your demonstrations interesting?

In my demonstration I show that I attract objects made of different materials like metal, plastic, glass, wood with my hands or my head. I lift these objects vertically off the floor with the palm of my hand and move them vertically, horizontally or in a circle. I also attach them to my head. According to the laws of physical gravitational force, this is not possible and only exists in science fiction imaginations.

Where did you present your skills so far?

In the 90s I held public lectures, workshops and tried to confront many people with these abilities and asked them to imitate them. That’s when I had the idea of presenting my abilities on Television shows or scientific TV programs. It was also my thought to get a scientific explanations of my abilities and to share it around the world. I had the opportunity to be on very popular Television programs in Germany, England, France, Russia and the USA.

Have you convinced the scientists or the doubters of your abilities?

I see that the scientists and the doubters are also trying to imitate the phenomenon. They show pictures on the internet or video clips on YouTube of placing objects on their stomachs, shoulders or backs while in a horizontal position so that gravity holds the object against their body. So the objects are not held by their own attraction, which is the phenomenon that cannot yet be explained. They place the objects on the flat skin like on a table. They are also unable to lift objects off the floor with their heads. They can’t pick up the objects vertically off the ground and, while being attached to their hands, shake them in any direction like I do. It also means that they are unable to reach the state of consciousness I have described.

I tried to thoroughly research my discoveries with scientists and exchanged ideas with professors and doctors in the fields of physics, psychology, genetics, biochemistry and others. Some names and institutions are listed on my website. I have shown my demonstrations to various scientific institutions under strictly controlled conditions. So far, they have not been able to find a plausible explanation for the phenomenon, nor a concept that anybody can imitate it.

How do you see the future for this phenomenon?

If we look at history, we learn that whenever something new is discovered, it is always controversial and has critics and advocates. The internet connects people worldwide. So many people around the world can see my live TV appearances. I am convinced that very soon a new generation will show that with more developed technology and a more developed state of consciousness of humanity such things can be seen as nothing out of the ordinary but as something quite natural.

From the BBC

Russian forces launch a full-scale assault on Ukraine, with its military attacking the country from the north, east and south

Ukraine's health minister says 57 people were killed and 160 wounded on Thursday

People in the capital, Kyiv, and elsewhere are trying to flee - some 100,000 have left so far, the UN says

There are also renewed reports of explosions in the port city of Mariupol, home to half a million people

Russians seize control of the Chernobyl complex - site of the world's worst nuclear disaster

UK and US announce fresh new sanctions on Russia, including asset freezes on banks

President Vladimir Putin defends his move, saying there was no other way to defend Russia

But US President Joe Biden says Putin's aggression will cost Russia dearly

All day long the Russian troops have been trying to take over an airfield at Hostomel, on the northern outskirts of the Ukrainian capital.

This airfield is of strategic importance: if captured it could become a springboard for the Russian army into Kyiv.

Judging from verified videos, at least two Russian helicopters were shot down over it. Journalists from CNN filmed a group of Russian paratroopers landing there while the Bellingcat investigative website said it had intelligence that 18 war planes with reinforcements were heading towards it from Russia.

Later in the evening it became clear that a heavy battle for Hostomel was raging and Ukrainian forces were using both airstrikes and artillery.

By 11pm Kyiv time (21:00 GMT) an official statement was released, saying that the airfield was back in the Ukrainian hands.

More than 1,700 people have been arrested during anti-war protests across dozens of cities in Russia, an independent monitor reports.

More than 900 were arrested in Moscow and over 400 in Saint Petersburg, according to OVD-Info, which tracks arrests at opposition rallies.

Thousands gathered near Pushkin Square in central Moscow, while up to 1,000 people gathered in the former imperial capital Saint Petersburg, the AFP news agency reports.

Earlier this evening we heard from US President Joe Biden. Here's a summary of what he said:

The Russian invasion is happening exactly how US officials predicted

Russia staged false-flag operations that resulted in a "flagrant" violation of international law

President Putin moved 175,000 troops and military equipment to Ukraine's borders and brought blood supplies and built field hospitals

Putin wanted to re-establish the former Soviet Union and his actions leave him as a pariah on the international stage

The US would defend "every inch" of Nato territory, but no American troops would be deployed to Ukraine

Biden also announced sanctions to "maximise a long-term impact on Russia". In summary:

Biden said he agreed with the G7 leaders from the world's largest economies that they will collectively limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen

Russia's second largest lender VTB is among four Russian banks that will be sanctioned

The US and allies will cut off more than half of Russia's high-tech imports which will stop them from being able to modernise their military, build ships and aircraft and advance in aerospace

Cutting Russia off from the global Swift banking system is not being proposed "right now"

Il. Title- ( - sang sur mains - ) Mike Mullen having a nice steak dinner with a 'clear conscience' ... ( On top of dead Afghani civilians & dead soldiers.. Egomaniac.. ) Yes Wikileaks shared this piece inspired by them & their work: twitter.com/wikileaks/status/21824111844 it & the entire Wikileaks series is not- for sale.

At some point there may be an exhibition with funds going towards WL & Bradley Manning.

But for now none of the pieces in the series are commercially available or for sale to private individuals.

They do have free use by Wikileaks however.

More work to be posted soon.

Dimensions: 18" x 24.5" acid free paper, acrylics, gouache & ebony pencil

"Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family," Mullen said."

www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/29/pentagon-wikileaks-bl...

MMm no- Mullen..How can we end these wars ASAP- & STOP you from getting any MORE blood on YOUR hands..

( News from Wikileaks Twitter feed, 8 - 19 - 2012: "In fact, being from another planet, he might even have picked up on something that most Americans would be unlikely to notice -- that, with only slight alterations, Mullen’s blistering comment about Assange could be applied remarkably well to Mullen himself. “Chairman Mullen,” that Martian might have responded, “can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he is doing, but the truth is he already has on his hands the blood of some young soldiers and that of many Afghan families.” "

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/06/opinion/main6748239.shtml )

War Diary - wardiary.wikileaks.org/ Timeline: wartimeline.haineault.com/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mullen#2007_Senate_testimon...

& from the Pentagon- "“We want whatever they have returned to us and we want whatever copies they have expunged… We demand that they do the right thing. If doing the right thing is not good enough for them, then we will figure out what alternatives we have to compel them to do the right thing." mashable.com/2010/08/05/pentagon-wikileaks-demand/

The NERVE.. -

Wikileaks - "What we didn't hear from the Pentagon last week: "killing all those innocent people is bad. Sorry. We will stop that" Thursday, August 05, 2010

YES.

"Thousands of children and adults had been killed and the US could have announced a broad inquiry into these killings, "but he decided to treat these issues with contempt''.

He said: "This behaviour is unacceptable. We will continue to expose abuses by this administration and others."" - www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/30/us-military-wikileak...

( From Wikileaks twitter- Aug 19 2010 _ ) -

Wikileaks vs the Pentagon: Phony Fingerpointing

Tom Engelhardt:: Who Really Has Blood On Their Hands?

"Consider the following statement offered by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference last week. He was discussing Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks as well as the person who has taken responsibility for the vast, still ongoing Afghan War document dump at that site. "Mr. Assange,” Mullen commented, “can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”

Now, if you were the proverbial fair-minded visitor from Mars (who in school civics texts of my childhood always seemed to land on Main Street, U.S.A., to survey the wonders of our American system), you might be a bit taken aback by Mullen’s statement. After all, one of the revelations in the trove of leaked documents Assange put online had to do with how much blood from innocent Afghan civilians was already on American hands.

The British Guardian was one of three publications given early access to the leaked archive, and it began its main article this way: “A huge cache of secret U.S. military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents. They range from the shootings of individual innocents to the often massive loss of life from air strikes...” Or as the paper added in a piece headlined “Secret CIA paramilitaries’ role in civilian deaths”: “Behind the military jargon, the war logs are littered with accounts of civilian tragedies.

The 144 entries in the logs recording some of these so-called ‘blue on white’ events, cover a wide spectrum of day-by-day assaults on Afghans, with hundreds of casualties.” Or as it also reported, when exploring documents related to Task Force 373, an “undisclosed ‘black’ unit” of U.S. special operations forces focused on assassinating Taliban and al-Qaeda “senior officials”: “The logs reveal that TF 373 has also killed civilian men, women, and children and even Afghan police officers who have strayed into its path.”

Admittedly, the events recorded in the Wikileaks archive took place between 2004 and the end of 2009, and so don’t cover the last six months of the Obama administration’s across-the-board surge in Afghanistan. Then again, Admiral Mullen became chairman of the Joint Chiefs in October 2007, and so has been at the helm of the American war machine for more than two of the years in question.

He was, for example, chairman in July 2008, when an American plane or planes took out an Afghan bridal party -- 70 to 90 strong and made up mostly of women -- on a road near the Pakistani border. They were "escorting the bride to meet her groom as local tradition dictates." The bride, whose name we don’t know, died, as did at least 27 other members of the party, including children. Mullen was similarly chairman in August 2008 when a memorial service for a tribal leader in the village of Azizabad in Afghanistan’s Herat Province was hit by repeated U.S. air strikes that killed at least 90 civilians, including perhaps 15 women and up to 60 children. Among the dead were 76 members of one extended family, headed by Reza Khan, a "wealthy businessman with construction and security contracts with the nearby American base at Shindand airport."

Mullen was still chairman in April 2009 when members of the family of Awal Khan, an Afghan army artillery commander on duty elsewhere, were killed in a U.S.-led raid in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. Among them were his "schoolteacher wife, a 17-year-old daughter named Nadia, a 15-year-old son, Aimal, and his brother, employed by a government department.” Another daughter was wounded and the pregnant wife of Khan's cousin was shot five times in the abdomen.

Mullen remained chairman when, in November 2009, two relatives of Majidullah Qarar, the spokesman for the Minister of Agriculture, were shot down in cold blood in Ghazni City in a Special Operations night raid; as he was -- and here we move beyond the Wikileaks time frame -- when, in February 2010, U.S. Special Forces troops in helicopters struck a convoy of mini-buses, killing up to 27 civilians, including women and children; as he also was when, in that same month, in a special operations night raid, two pregnant women and a teenage girl, as well as a police officer and his brother, were shot to death in their home in a village near Gardez, the capital of Paktia province. After which, the soldiers reportedly dug the bullets out of the bodies, washed the wounds with alcohol, and tried to cover the incident up. He was no less chairman late last month when residents of a small town in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan claimed that a NATO missile attack had killed 52 civilians, an incident that, like just about every other one mentioned above and so many more, was initially denied by U.S. and NATO spokespeople and is now being “investigated.” "

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/06/opinion/main6748239.shtml

"What is interesting is who is responsible for the killings.

Of the 1,325 civilian deaths recorded by the Afghan human rights group, 23 per cent were attributed to Nato or Afghan government forces. The Taliban and their allies were responsible for 68 per cent of the deaths.

The UN study claimed the civilian death toll was slightly lower at 1,271 with anti-government forces blamed for 76 per cent of the casualties.

Chronicling precise figures is extremely difficult because most parts of the country are inaccessible.

Crucially, both studies suggested that the proportion of deaths attributed to Nato and Afghan government forces were down compared to last year because of fewer air strikes.

This is important because clumsy air strikes on innocent villages and unfair raids on their houses has been driving a lot of Afghans to pick up arms on behalf of insurgents."

by, Hamida Ghafour

More: www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100811/OP...

& -

"My countrymen called me a prostitute

(Filed: 26/10/2004)

Fourteen months ago, Hamida Ghafour went to Afghanistan to cover her native countrys postwar reconstruction for this newspaper. But, as a westernised Afghan, her homecoming wasnt as welcoming as she had hoped"

www.afghanistan.org/news_detail.asp?17220

I am skeptical about agendas.. It can be confusing, this is why for better or worse one must have THE FACTS - it would have been better if we had them from the START.

Without facts no one cares what we do- or who we kill, because we simply don't have ANY concept of how a decade long war is going..

“The government is engaging in selective prosecution to ensure that employees keep their mouths shut,” says Stephen Khon, a lawyer specializing in whistleblowing cases. “All of a sudden the whistleblower becomes public enemy number one. There is no proportionality.” www.alternet.org/world/147778/how_the_military_destroys_t...

This- - you MUST watch-- It's of Afghani's asking for peace & for us to leave- "Wikileaks Assange, stand freely for love & we in Afg will stand with you.." From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9E_nXiPj9g

US war crimes: soldiers speak out. - www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj6s1V0Dpuw

From Wikileaks Twitter- "UNAMA Human Rights Unit issued recommendations in the report including:

• The Taliban should withdraw all orders and statements calling for the killing of civilians; and, the Taliban and other AGEs should end the use of IEDs and suicide attacks, comply with international humanitarian law, cease acts of intimidation and killing including assassination, execution and abduction, fully respect citizens’ freedom of movement and stop using civilians as human shields.

• International military forces should make more transparent their investigation and reporting on civilian casualties including on accountability; maintain and strengthen directives restricting aerial attacks and the use of night raids; coordinate investigation and reporting of civilian casualties with the Afghan Government to improve protection and accountability; improve compensation processes; and, improve transparency around any harm to civilians caused by Special Forces operations.

• The Afghan Government should create a public body to lead its response to major civilian casualty incidents and its interaction with international military forces and other key actors, ensure investigations include forensic components, ensure transparent and timely compensation to victims; and, improve accountability including discipline or prosecution for any Afghan National Security Forces personnel who unlawfully cause death or injury to civilians or otherwise violate the rights of Afghan citizens."

unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1741&ctl=Deta...

From Wikileaks Twitter- CBC

"A bomb is found tucked into a school typewriter. Insurgents dressed in military uniforms attack an education chief. School guards are tied up while the building is bombed to smithereens. Teachers and students at an all-girls high school are poisoned through the drinking water."

"School attacks

Year Number of attacks against schools

2005 98

2006 220

2007 236

2008 348

2009 610

Source: UNICEF. Data for 2008 and 2009 are from the UN Country Task Force on Children, and previous years are from the Ministry of Education."

"Education for children up in Afghanistan since 2002- .

"Nine years ago, about 100,000 students were enrolled in schools. The figure now stands at more than seven million students, one-third of whom are girls, according to the Afghanistan Ministry of Education.

"It's one of those sectors where we've seen radical and dramatic progress since 2002," notes Rowell.

"No one knows where the country is going … but education is a beacon of success."

Read more: www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/06/f-afghanistan-education...

& www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/database-afghan-war-logs/

"New Petition Gains Prominent Signatures: “Defend WikiLeaks – End the Secret Wars” - Sign: seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/64042

"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Jung.

Treating Soldier Stress: www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2008931_2172992,00...

"Afghan War Diary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Afghan War Diary (also called The War Logs) is a collection of internal U.S. military logs of the War in Afghanistan published by Wikileaks on 25 July 2010.

The logs consist of 91,731 documents, covering the period between January 2004 and December 2009. Most of the documents were classified as "secret", which The New York Times called "a relatively low level of classification".

As of 28 July 2010, only 75,000 of the documents have been released to the public, a move which Wikileaks says is "part of a harm minimization process demanded by [the] source". Prior to releasing the initial 75,000 documents, Wikileaks made the logs available to The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel in its German and English on-line edition which published reports per previous agreement on that same day, July 25, 2010."

"In June 2010, Guardian journalist Nick Davies and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange established that the US army had built a huge database with six years of sensitive military intelligence material, to which many thousands of US soldiers had access and some of them had been able to download copies, and WikiLeaks had one copy which it proposed to publish online, via a series of uncensorable global servers.

Wikileaks describes itself as "a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public."

In an interview with the U.K.'s Channel 4, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that "we have a stated commitment to a particular kind of process and objective, and that commitment is to get censored material out and never to take it down." He contrasted the group with other media outlets by saying that "other journalists try to verify sources. We don't do that, we verify documents. We don't care where it came from." He denied that the group has an inherent bias against the Afghanistan War, saying that "We don't have a view about whether the war should continue or stop – we do have a view that it should be prosecuted as humanely as possible." However, he also said that he believes the leaked information will turn world public opinion to think more negatively of the war."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary

"War has become a luxury that only small nations can afford." -

Hannah Arendt

"The leak of tens of thousands of Afghanistan war-related documents tells us more than the sum total of many official communiqués about the war. On balance, more disclosure is a good thing, but the leaking of raw military intelligence is a special case that requires a careful, rather than a cavalier, approach.

There is not enough information about the war, and much official information is misleading. In Canada, the federal government's quarterly reports contain a few updates based on its goals in Kandahar, but little else that informs. The government has already shown itself to be an unreliable source on issues relating to Afghan detainees.

The situation is now too dangerous for the most trustworthy chroniclers – journalists, UN personnel – to go outside NATO-protected areas.

So reliable, independent information is lacking. The circumstances in this war make such information even more necessary."

www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/we-neede...

"Instead, many eyes will now pore over this data from many different directions, looking for patterns and attempting to eliminate the noise, disinformation and fog of war.

Many will look to it to criticise and condemn the US presence in Afghanistan, but if those on the other side – those who support such military incursions – have any sense, they too will use it to understand better the war in which they find themselves and adapt their counsel to fit more accurately the facts on the ground.

That’s the benefit, usually, of an open society. We get to triangulate on the truth by gathering facts in the public space, then providing them to all sides to chew over. We use this against our own illusions and those of more closed societies who can only view the world through one narrow perspective.": www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0730/1224275801...

wikileaks.org/

( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_ecology )

"The first phase was chilling, in part because the banter of the soldiers was so far beyond the boundaries of civilian discourse. “Just fuckin’, once you get on ’em, just open ’em up,” one of them said. The crew members of the Apache came upon about a dozen men ambling down a street, a block or so from American troops, and reported that five or six of the men were armed with AK-47s; as the Apache maneuvered into position to fire at them, the crew saw one of the Reuters journalists, who were mixed in among the other men, and mistook a long-lensed camera for an RPG. The Apaches fired on the men for twenty-five seconds, killing nearly all of them instantly."

Read more www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khat...

"With the release of the WikiLeaks documents, Arab media may finally feel vindicated, as Western media finally start to give greater prominence to civilian casualties." newamericamedia.org/2010/07/wikileaks-documents-validate-...

"Wikileaks confirmed: A plan to kill American geologist with poison beer

The Wikileaks documents contain a claim that Pakistan and Afghanistan insurgents were working to poison alcoholic drinks in Afghanistan. While that's unproven, one US adviser in Afghanistan tells the Monitor he was almost poisoned that way in 2007." : www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0728/Wiki...

"This is duplicitous only if you close your eyes to the Pakistani reality, which the Americans never did. There was ample evidence, as the WikiLeaks show, of covert ISI ties to the Taliban. The Americans knew they couldn't break those ties. They settled for what support Pakistan could give them while constantly pressing them harder and harder until genuine fears in Washington emerged that Pakistan could destabilize altogether. Since a stable Pakistan is more important to the United States than a victory in Afghanistan—which it wasn't going to get anyway—the United States released pressure and increased aid. If Pakistan collapsed, then India would be the sole regional power, not something the United States wants."

www.billoreilly.com/site/rd?satype=13&said=12&url...

"How to read the Afghanistan war logs: video tutorial

David Leigh, the Guardian's investigations editor, explains the online tools we have created to help you understand the secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan": www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/video/2010/jul/25/afgha...

"Jonathan Foreman, writing for the right of center National Review's Corner blog, hopes the documents will force America to deal with the possible deceptions being made by ally Pakistan. "It is possible that the publication of documents that provide actual evidence — rather than rumors — of the role of ISI personnel in Taliban planning, logistics, and strategy will give the West greater leverage in dealing with Islamabad and might force Pakistan’s political elite to confront the reality of the ISI’s secret activities. If so, that would be a silver lining to what is otherwise a military disaster abetted by the U.S. and British media."

www.nbclosangeles.com/news/politics/NATL-The-Importance-o...

"The real significance of the Afghan war diaries lies in what Wikileaks represents as a movement, as an evolution in journalism. One analyst has called it the emergence of open source journalism. Julian Assange makes it possible for anybody anywhere in the world to submit secret documents for publication." www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Sevanti_Ninan/article541...

A War Without End: www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708314,00.html

"Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: 'They show the true nature of this war'

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, explains why he decided to publish thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan Afghanistan war logs expose truth of occupation": www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/jul/25/julian-assange...

The history of US leaks: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10769495

Freedom of Information Act: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_(United_...

"A long-delayed Afghanistan war funding bill, stripped of billions for teachers and black farmers, is back before the House and walking now into the storm over the Internet leak of battlefield reports stirring old doubts about U.S. policy and relations with Pakistan.": www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40254.html & www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40251.html

This is a large study/drawing, Assange/Wikileakers of the organization Wikileaks ( wikileaks.org ) uses 'matches from sources' to disclose US gov secrecy ( behind large black curtains ) & to also finally bring some much needed attention & closure to some of these revelations ( set ablaze ).

This ongoing series is dedicated to everyone who has needlessly had their lives destroyed, been injured or die in this almost past decade of war. For the sources, journalists & average citizens who risk their lives to inform us.

Reuters reporters Namir Eldeen, Saeed Chmagh & the good samaritan ( father ) who died trying to save them & of course his two surviving small children who will forever be impacted by the brutality of war for decades to come.

Please help Private Bradley Manning- www.bradleymanning.org/

"One surprising consequence of the war in Iraq is the surrender of postmodernism to a victorious modernism. This has been largely overlooked in North America.

In reaction to the U.S. intervention in Iraq, Jacques Derrida, a famous postmodernist, signed on as co-author of an article drafted by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, previously an opponent of his, in an unmistakable endorsement of modernist Enlightenment principles. Derrida, the apostle of deconstructionism, is now advocating some decidedly constructive and Eurocentric activism.

The article appeared simultaneously in two newspapers on May 31, in German in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as "After the War: The Rebirth of Europe," and in French in Libération, less triumphantly, as "A Plea for a Common Foreign Policy: The demonstrations of Feb. 15 against the war in Iraq designed a new European public space."

Other famous intellectuals joined in with supportive newspaper articles of their own: Umberto Eco (of The Name of the Rose) and Gianni Vattimo in Italy and an American philosopher, Richard Rorty. This provoked much discussion in Europe, but only a few comments so far in North America, the Boston Globe and the Village Voice being rare exceptions.

This week in Montreal, there was an anti-globalization riot in which windows were broken in protest against a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting. But the Habermas-Derrida declaration praises the WTO and even the International Monetary Fund as part of Weltinnenpolitik: maddeningly hard to translate, but something like "global domestic policy" or "external internal policy."

Yet it is not much of a stretch to claim the young anti-globalists as disciples of postmodernism and Derrida, who has hitherto been a foe of "logocentrism" (putting reason at the centre), "phallologocentrism" (reason is an erect male organ and, as such, damnably central) and Eurocentrism (the old, old West is the homeland of all of the above).

Derrida added a note to the article, observing most people would recognize Habermas's style and thinking in the piece, and that he hadn't had time to write a separate piece. But notwithstanding his "past confrontations" with Habermas (Derrida had objected to being called a "Judaistic mystic," for one thing), he agreed with the article he had signed, which calls for new European responsibilities "beyond all Eurocentrism" and the strengthening of international law and international institutions."

More: www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000361.php

"In early 2003, both Habermas and Derrida were very active in opposing the coming Iraq War, and called for in a manifesto that later became the book Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe for a tighter union of the states of the European Union in order to provide a power capable of opposing American foreign policy. Derrida wrote a foreword expressing his unqualified subscription to Habermas's declaration of February 2003, "February 15, or, What Binds Europeans Together: Plea for a Common Foreign Policy, Beginning in Core Europe,” in Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe which was a reaction to the Bush administration demands upon European nations for support for the coming Iraq War[25]. Habermas has offered further context for this declaration in an interview."

More: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%c3%bcrgen_Habermas#Habermas_and_D...

Habermas: ”The asymmetry between the concentrated destructive power of the electronically controlled clusters of elegant and versatile missiles in the air and the archaic ferocity of the swarms of bearded warriors outfitted with Kalashnikovs on the ground remains a morally obscene sight

I consider Bush' s decision to call for a "war against terrorism" a serious mistake, both normatively and pragmatically. Normatively, he is elevating these criminals to the status of war enemies; and pragmatically, one cannot lead a war against a "network" if the term "war" is to retain any definite meaning.”

Derrida: “To say it all too quickly and in passing, to amplify and clarify just a bit what I said earlier about an absolute threat whose origin is anonymous and not related to any state, such "terrorist" attacks already no longer need planes, bombs, or kamikazes: it is enough to infiltrate a strategically important computer system and introduce a virus or some other disruptive element to paralyze the economic, military, and political resources of an entire country or continent. And this can be attempted from just about anywhere on earth, at very little expense and with minimal means. The relationship between earth, terra territory, and terror has changed, and it is necessary to know that this is because of knowledge, that is, because of technoscience.

It is technoscience that blurs the distinction between war and terrorism. In this regard, when compared to the possibilities for destruction and chaotic disorder that are in reserve, for the future, in the computerized networks of the world, "September 11" is still part of the archaic theater of violence aimed at striking the imagination. One will be able to do even worse tomorrow, invisibly, in silence, more quickly and without any bloodshed, by attacking the computer and informational networks on which the entire life (social, economic, military, and so on) of a "great nation," of the greatest power on earth, depends.”

www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000361.php

I am incredibly- delighted at all the vital discussions about the war & US gov that are FINALLY taking place- & on a mass scale- as a result of this leak .. Simply miraculous..

FREEDOM & PEACE ( transparency, diplomacy & the evolution of such ) FOR ALL WAR NATIONS.

( WARNING - links ( after excerpt ) are NOT for sensitive viewers- ) "Wikileaks have released over 150 supressed images. This is the tip of the iceberg, keep looking, keep publishing.In the last week Wikileaks has released over 150 censored photos and videos of the Tibet uprising and has called on bloggers around the world to help drive the footage through the Chinese internet censorship regime — the so called “Great Firewall of China”The transparency group’s move comes as a response to the the Chinese Public Security Bureau’s carte-blanche censorship of youtube, the BBC, CNN, the Guardian and other sites carrying video footage of the Tibetan people’s recent heroic stand against the inhumane Chinese occupation of Tibet."

fortuzero.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/tibet-western-media-sa...

file.wikileaks.org/file/tibet-protest-photos/index.html

FREE TIBET!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also other dire & serious issues ( out of countless ) - that expose corruption by corporations & gov's:

"A documentary about intensive pig farming due to be screened at the Guardian Hay festival on Sunday is facing a legal threat from one of the companies it investigates. Pig Business criticises the practices of the world's largest pork processor, Smithfield Foods, claiming it is responsible for environmental pollution and health problems among residents near its factories."

www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/29/pig-business-document...

"In an investigation broadcast on BBC Radio 5 on November 14, 2004,[79] it was reported that the site is still contaminated with 'thousands' of metric tons of toxic chemicals, including benzene hexachloride and mercury, held in open containers or loose on the ground. A sample of drinking water from a well near the site had levels of contamination 500 times higher than the maximum limits recommended by the World Health Organization.[80]

In 2009, a day before the 25th anniversary of the disaster, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi based pollution monitoring lab, released latest tests from a study showing that groundwater in areas even three km from the factory up to 38.6 times more pesticides than Indian standards."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

The Blue Mask - Lou Reed - www.goear.com/listen/9960779/the-blue-mask-lou-reed ( & O Superman ) www.goear.com/listen/02cf55d/o-superman-(for-massenet)-la...

Lou Reed The Blue Mask

Lyrics:

They tied his arms behind

his back to teach him how to

swim They put

blood in his coffee and milk

in his gin They stood over the

soldier in

the midst of the squalor

There was war in his body and

it caused his

brain to holler

Make the sacrifice

mutilate my face

If you need someone to kill

I'm a man without a will

Wash the razor in the rain

Let me luxuriate in pain

Please don't set me free

Death means a lot to me

The pain was lean and it made

him scream he knew he was alive

They put a

pin through the nipples on his chest

He thought he was a saint

I've made love to my mother,

killed my father and my brother

What am I

to do

When a sin goes too far, it's

like a runaway car It cannot

be controlled

Spit upon his face and scream

There's no Oedipus today

This is no play you're thinking you

are in What will you say

Take the blue mask down from my face and

look me in the eye I get a

thrill from punishment

I've always been that way

I loathe and despise repentance

You are permanently stained

Your weakness buys indifference

and indiscretion in the streets

Dirty's what you are and clean is what

you're not You deserve to be

soundly beat

Make the sacrifice

Take it all the way

There's no won't high enough

To stop this desperate day

Don't take death away

Cut the finger at the joint

Cut the stallion at his mount

And stuff it in his mouth

---

"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. "

Albert Einstein

IMAGINE THE HAPPINESS & GREAT WORK AHEAD OF US WE COULD HAVE AT THE END OF THE WARS!!!!!!!!!

www.goear.com/listen/48d6016/hora-de-la-mehedinti-romania...

NO MORE WAR & FREEDOM FOR ALL WAR NATIONS!!!!!!!!!

Peace.

Jubiläum einer Lüge

Die Vorbereitungen für den 20. Jahrestag der Terrorattacken des 11. September 2001 laufen auf Hochtouren — die Zweifel an der offiziellen Version bleiben.

(Jens Bernert, in www.rubikon.news/artikel/jubilaum-einer-luge)

Während die Angehörigen der 9/11-Opfer, die Ersthelfer und Überlebenden stinksauer auf die US-Regierung sind, hat das US-Heimatschutzministerium im Vorfeld des Terror-Jahrestags Terroralarm ausgerufen und diesen noch mit den Themen „Opposition zu Corona-Maßnahmen“ und „Kritik an Wahlfälschung“ verknüpft. Unterdessen erscheinen in Fachzeitschriften Aufsätze, die eine Verbindung zwischen der Ablehnung der offiziellen Wahrheit und Geisteskrankheit ziehen. Der 9/11-Experte Mathias Bröckers hat ein neues Buch zu den Terrorattacken geschrieben.

Der Verband der 9/11-Opfer und -Hinterbliebenen hat Anfang August 2021 US-Präsident Joe Biden von den Gedenkveranstaltungen zum zwanzigjährigen „Jubiläum“ mit deutlichen Worten ausgeladen.

Bild 1: Screenshot-Ausschnitt eines NBC-Artikels zur Ausladung US-Präsident Bidens von den 9/11-Gedenkveranstaltungen der 9/11-Direktbetroffenen (1).

„9/11-Familien an Präsident Biden: Kommen Sie nicht zu unseren Gedenkveranstaltungen“, titelt NBCNews dazu (1). Weiter heißt es:

„Fast 1.800 Amerikaner, die direkt von den Terroranschlägen des 11. September 2001 betroffen waren, lehnen die Teilnahme von Präsident Joe Biden an Gedenkveranstaltungen in diesem Jahr ab, wenn er nicht sein Versprechen einhält, Beweise der US-Regierung freizugeben, die ihrer Meinung nach eine Verbindung zwischen saudi-arabischen Führern und den Anschlägen belegen könnten.“

Bild 2: Screenshot aus dem Video „NBC Nightly News Full Broadcast — August 13th, 2021“ mit Schautafel zur verkündeten Terrorgefahr (2).

Wenige Tage darauf machte die US-Regierung mit einem Terroralarm wieder einmal klar: Wer unsere Propaganda nicht glaubt, nicht gehorcht oder einfach nur eine dumme Frage stellt, der ist ein Terrorist (2, 3). Der US-Sender NBC meldete in seiner Sendung „NBC Nightly News“ vom 13. August 2021 Nationalen Terroralarm in den Vereinigten Staaten, verkündet vom Heimatschutzministerium: „National Terrorism Alert Ahead of 9/11 20th Aniversary“ (2, 4).

Was dabei laut US-Heimatschutzministerium als Terrorismus-Gefahr (terror threat) zählt, wird von NBC in einer Schautafel dargestellt (2, 5):

„Opposition zu Corona-Maßnahmen“

„Behauptung von Wahlfälschung / Glaube an eine Wiedereinsetzung Trumps“

„9/11-Jubiläum und religiöse Feiertage“

Auf Basis dieses Terroralarms lassen sich angebliche Falschmeldungen über 9/11 — also Meldungen, die der amtlichen Wahrheit widersprechen — noch besser unterdrücken.

Dass den Regierenden „der Arsch auf Grundeis geht“ vor dem nahenden 20. Jahrestag der Terrorattacken des 11. September 2001 in Shanksville, Arlington/Pentagon und New York/WTC dürfte angesichts folgender, von US-Behörden gemachter Fotos klar sein, bei denen wirklich jeder Idiot auf den ersten Blick sehen kann, dass die offizielle Theorie bizarrer Schwachsinn ist und völlig selbst den billigsten und banalsten Grundlagen der Physik widerspricht (6). Dass die niederen Ränge ganz einfach ihre Arbeit tun, lässt sich oft nicht umfassend verhindern oder vertuschen.

Bild 3: Offizielle Absturzstelle von Flug 93 auf dem Feld in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 11. September 2001. Der links in Großaufnahme zu sehende Krater ist im rechten unteren Foto genau in der Mitte zu sehen. Die beiden Fotos wurden von US-Behörden hergestellt und sind Public Domain, beispielsweise bei Wikipedia und Wikimedia erhältlich (7 bis 9). Rechts oben das „Shanksville-Flugzeug“ drei Tage vor seiner Entführung, Wikipedia (10).

Wie jeder sehen kann, zeigen die beiden offiziellen Fotos der 9/11-Shanksville-„Absturzstelle“, dass dort kein großes Verkehrsflugzeug abgestürzt ist. Man sieht einen kleinen Einschlagskrater von vielleicht gerade einmal fünf Metern Durchmesser. Man beachte die Fahrzeuge und Bäume im rechten unteren Bild und vergleiche das mit dem kleinen Krater in der Mitte dieses Fotos. Man beachte die beiden Menschen mit den weißen Hosen, die neben dem links in Großaufnahme zu sehenden Krater stehen. Dieses Mini-Loch kann niemals die Einschlagstelle einer Passagiermaschine sein.

Bild 4: Amtliche Boeing-757-Einschlagsstelle in Arlington am Pentagon bei 9/11. Foto oben rechts: Direkt nach dem Einschlag, US Navy (11). Foto links: Kurz vor dem Zusammensturz mit offizieller „quadratischer“ Einschlagstelle in der unteren Mitte des Bildes, US Marine Corps, Wikimedia (12). Foto unten rechts: Nach dem Zusammenbruch, US Air Force, Wikipedia (13).

Schon ein Blick auf die vermeintliche Pentagon-Einschlagstelle in Arlington zeigt, dass hier kein Passagierflugzeug von ungefähr 50 Meter Länge mit einer Flügelspannweite von 38 Metern und einem Gewicht von über 100.000 Kilogramm plus zehntausender Liter Treibstoff — der Flug sollte nach Los Angeles gehen — in ein kleines Mauerloch eingeschlagen ist, ohne die umliegenden Fenster zu beschädigen.

Auf dem US-Navy-History-Foto oben rechts, das die Situation direkt nach dem Einschlag zeigt, sieht das Verhalten der umstehenden Personen eigentlich eher nach einer Übung samt Evakuierung als nach katastrophalem Ernstfall aus. Den offiziellen Angaben zufolge sind hier gerade am Boden 125 Menschen gestorben — oder liegen zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch im Sterben (14).

Das Foto links zeigt die Situation später, kurz vor dem Gebäude-Zusammensturz, samt offizieller „quadratischer“ Einschlagstelle mit „Verstrebung in der Mitte“. Das Foto unten rechts zeigt diese Stelle später während der Bergungsarbeiten, nach dem Zusammenbruch dieses Gebäudeteils.

Bei den Absturzstellen in New York, den Hochhäusern des World Trade Centers in Manhattan, deutet alles auf Sprengungen hin, wo offiziell Stunden nach dem Einschlag von zwei Flugzeugen in den Türmen WTC1 und WTC2 diese beiden Hochhäuser und noch ein weiteres in der Größenkategorie „Skyline Frankfurt“ mit der Bezeichnung WTC7 spontan zusammengebrochen sein sollen, aber das soll hier nicht auch noch ausgebreitet werden (15 bis 24). Schon mit einem einzigen Fake-Tatort bricht die ganze 9/11-Propaganda zusammen. Dazu reicht beispielsweise auch schon Shanksville alleine. Das nennt man Wissenschaft.

9/11 war mit oder ohne Unterstützung der saudischen Regierung US-Staatsterrorismus, da hilft auch der feste Glaube an magische Löcher nicht (25 bis 40, 48).

Und mit Sympathie für oder Antipathie gegen die USA oder deren Einwohner et cetera hat das auch nichts zu tun.

Unterdessen bemühen sich „regierungstreue Wissenschaftler“, in Fachzeitschriften Artikel unterzubringen, die nahelegen, dass Personen, die nicht an die offizielle 9/11-Theorie der US-Regierung glauben und das ganze hinterfragen, bösartig geisteskrank sind. Beispielsweise wurde jüngst in der FAZ eine „Studie“ verbreitet, die das Nicht-Glauben der offiziellen 9/11-Version beziehungsweise den „Glauben an Verschwörungstheorien“ in Zusammenhang mit Geisteskrankheit bringt (41).

Und in der Fachzeitschrift British Journal of Health Psychology der British Psychological Society erschien im Juli eine „Studie“ mit dem Titel „Subjektive Normen der Impfbefürworter moderieren den Zusammenhang zwischen Verschwörungsmentalität und Impfabsichten“, die Menschen, welche den Corona-Maßnahmen oder experimentellen Impfstoffen skeptisch gegenüberstehen, in Verbindung mit „Verschwörungstheoretikern“ und Geisteskrankheit bringt und ausdrücklich — siehe Literaturliste — auf eine „Studie“ mit dem Titel „Unbeantwortete Fragen: Eine vorläufige Untersuchung von Persönlichkeit und individuellen Unterschieden als Prädiktoren für den Glauben an die 9/11-Verschwörungstheorie“ aus dem Jahre 2010 verweist, in der Kritiker der amtlichen 9/11-Theorie der US-Regierung mit Geisteskrankheit und Persönlichkeitsstörungen in Verbindung gebracht werden (42, 43).

Eine Art Gegengift zu den menschen- und wissenschaftsfeindlichen propagandistischen Tiraden der „Regimeaktivisten“ stellt das neue Buch von Matthias Bröckers zu 9/11 dar (44). Bröckers recherchierte und veröffentlichte quasi von Beginn an zu dem Jahrhundertthema 9/11. Dafür wird er regelmäßig verleumdet und im übertragenen Sinne mit Schmutz beworfen. „Goldener Aluhut“ schrieb beispielsweise 2016 in der Nominierung Bröckers in der Kategorie „Verschwörungstheorie allgemein“ für den gleichnamigen Pranger-Preis, was so schmutzig an taz-Mitbegründer Mathias Bröckers sei (45):

„Mathias Bröckers, für seine Webseite www.broeckers.com, seinen nicht endenden Blödsinn bzgl. 9/11 und besonders auch für seine neueren Bücher über JFK (…) und das über Putin.“

Der Goldene Aluhut wiederum bietet verschiedene Workshops an, darunter zur Zeit für lediglich 500 Euro einen „Einsteigerworkshop für alle, die wissen möchten (sic!), was Verschwörungsideologien so gefährlich macht, warum Menschen an sie glauben und wie wir uns selbst vor ihnen schützen können. Keine Vorkenntnisse nötig“ (46).

Aber räumen wir den „Jägern“ hier nicht mehr Platz ein als den Aufklärern und lassen zum Abschluss den erfahrenen Journalisten Bröckers zu Wort kommen. Mathias Bröckers zu seinem neuen Buch „Mythos 9/11“ (44, 47):

„Kein Gericht der Welt hätte die zentrale Aussage zur Täterschaft Osama Bin Ladens und der 19 ‚Hijacker‘, die von dem in Guantanamo einsitzenden Kronzeugen Khalid Scheich Mohamed (KSM) in 182 Foltersitzungen durch Waterboarding gewonnen wurde, als beweiskräftig akzeptiert. Die von Präsident George W. Bush erst nach über einem Jahr und massiven Protesten von Opferangehörigen eingesetzte Untersuchungskommission durfte den Kronzeugen nicht persönlich befragen, auch seine Verhörer, denen gegenüber er seine Aussagen gemacht haben soll, durften nicht aussagen.

Den Ermittlern wurden die Aussagen des Zeugen nur schriftlich zur Verfügung gestellt und auf Basis dieser Folterprotokolle, aus denen dann dutzendfach zitiert wird, erstellten sie den abschließenden 9/11-Report. Dass sich der Vorsitzende des Ausschusses, Thomas Kean, danach bitter beklagte, dass ihnen zentrale Beweisstücke aus Gründen der ‚nationalen Sicherheit‘ vorenthalten worden sind und ihre Ermittlung ‚zum Scheitern verurteilt‘ war, nahm dann kaum noch jemand zur Kenntnis.

Mit dem Erscheinen des 9/11-Reports, der 2004 in Massenauflage und in dutzende Sprachen übersetzt in die Buchläden der Welt und in die Wiederholungsschleifen der Medien gedrückt wurde, war das Narrativ von Osama und den 19 Teppichmessern — die Erzählung, dass 9/11 die Tat von 19 Einzeltätern war, die von Bin Laden aus einer afghanischen Höhle gesteuert wurden — als wahre, realitätsgerechte Beschreibung der Ereignisse zementiert. So wurde die offizielle Legende zum Fanal einer Serie von Kriegen, dem ‚Great War on Terror‘, der nach Aussage des damaligen Vizepräsidenten Dick Cheney ‚länger als eine Generation‘ dauern wird und der von langer Hand geplant war.

Dem gerade pensionierten Vier-Sterne-General Wesley Clark, der bis 2000 die NATO-Streitkräfte in Europa befehligt hatte, blieb die Spucke weg, als er kurz nach den Anschlägen das Pentagon besuchte und ein alter Kollege aus dem ‚Joint Chiefs Of Staff‘ ihn in sein Zimmer zog: ‚Ich habe gerade diesen Merkzettel aus dem Büro des Verteidigungsministers bekommen, und hier steht, wir werden sieben Länder angreifen und deren Regierungen innerhalb von fünf Jahren stürzen. Wir werden mit dem Irak beginnen und dann nehmen wir uns Syrien, Libanon, Libyen, Somalia, den Sudan und den Iran, sieben Länder in fünf Jahren.‘“

Quellen und Anmerkungen:

(1) www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/9-11-families-president-bide...

(2) www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBMCXkjaMxQ&t=795s

(3) blauerbote.com/2021/08/08/drei-expertenvideos-zu-coronavi...

(4) blauerbote.com/2021/06/24/usa-34-von-50-staaten-haben-all...

(5) blog.fdik.org/2021-08/s1628938703.html

(6) www.broeckers.com/2021/08/06/mythos-9-11-alles-klar-herr-...

(7) fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Flight_93_Crater.jpg

(8) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flight93Crash.jpg

(9) blauerbote.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/flight_93_crash...

(10) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93#/media/Fi...

(11) www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/librar...

(12) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DM-SD-02-03880.JPEG

(13) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_view_of_the_Pentagon_du...

(14) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victims_of_Terrorist_Attack_on_the_...

(15) www.rubikon.news/artikel/der-verklarte-tag

(16) www.rubikon.news/artikel/die-jahrhundertluge

(17) blauerbote.com/2016/09/05/physiker-fachblatt-zu-911-world...

(18) www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2016/04/epn20164...

(19) www.rubikon.news/artikel/die-sprengung

(20) kenfm.de/akademische-naivitaet-und-der-11-september/

(21) www.globalresearch.ca/bbc-foreknowledge-of-911-collapse-o...

(22) www.amazon.de/Stigmatisierung-statt-Aufkl%C3%A4rung-%C2%B...

(23) www.rubikon.news/artikel/selektive-wahrheitssuche

(24) www.rubikon.news/artikel/selektive-wahrheitssuche-2

(25) www.rubikon.news/artikel/der-pentagon-fake

(26) www.rubikon.news/artikel/der-scheinheilige-2

(27) www.radio-utopie.de/2016/09/10/15-jahre-terrorkrieg-und-1...

(28) blauerbote.com/2018/10/08/zbigniew-brzezinski-afghanistan...

(29) blauerbote.com/2019/09/20/was-ist-911/

(30) www.broeckers.com/911-2/

(31) www.rubikon.news/artikel/bilanz-eines-jahrhundertverbrechens

(32) www.radio-utopie.de/2016/09/10/15-jahre-terrorkrieg-und-1...

(33) www.radio-utopie.de/2016/09/11/15-jahre-terrorkrieg-und-1...

(34) www.radio-utopie.de/2014/09/13/der-11-september-die-atten...

(35) www.radio-utopie.de/2014/07/04/der-11-september-die-milit...

(36) www.radio-utopie.de/2014/07/05/der-11-september-nachspiel/

(37) www.radio-utopie.de/2014/09/10/der-11-september-langer-ma...

(38) www.radio-utopie.de/2014/09/11/der-11-september-die-komma...

(39) www.radio-utopie.de/2014/09/12/der-11-september-duplikat-...

(40) antikrieg.com/aktuell/2019_08_08_dasverbrechen.htm

(41) blauerbote.com/2021/04/08/der-911-verschwoerungswahn/

(42) bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjhp....

(43) blog.fdik.org/2021-08/s1628240670.html

(44) www.broeckers.com/2021/08/06/mythos-9-11-alles-klar-herr-...

(45) web.archive.org/web/20170709104416///blog.dergoldene...

(46) dergoldenealuhut.de/workshops/

(47) www.buchkomplizen.de/buecher-mehr/mythos-9-11.html

(48) einarschlereth.blogspot.com/2021/02/ich-bin-ein-gefangene...

f13144832

When words are more powerful than a Dictator Government or Weapons...... People Win every time People Power.......

BBC

Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy paper Apple Daily has announced its closure, in a blow to media freedom in the city.

The publication's offices were raided last week over allegations that several reports had breached a controversial national security law.

Company-linked assets worth HK$18m ($2.3m; £1.64m) were later frozen. Police also detained its chief editor and five other executives.

The tabloid has been critical of the Hong Kong and Chinese leadership.

Its founder Jimmy Lai is already in jail on a string of charges.

The paper's management said that "in view of staff members' safety", it had decided "to cease operation immediately after midnight" - making Thursday's publication the final printed edition.

The digital version of the 26-year old paper will no longer be updated after midnight.

A separate announcement by publisher Next Digital thanked the readers for their "loyal support" as well as its journalists, staff and advertisers

I had to go and see for myself the difficulties that Comtel Air were having in obtaining aviation fuel.

I found the pilot having a brandy and cigarette around the back of their small and dishevelled hanger on the perimeter of the airfield.

And for a CASH payment of only £35 [+ taxes] they agreed to fly the plane around for ten minutes so I could take a few snaps…..it was worth every penny.

In case you missed it related news story

I took a stroll on a bright weekend and decided to grab a few photos of the huge redevelopment at the St James Quarter, where a much unloved and hideous 60s/70s concrete monstrosity of a shopping centre and hotel complex has been ripped down and being replaced. While I am not mad on these new buildings being in a historic area in the New Town, at least they replace a horrible set of 1970s god-awful architecture (that should also never have been in such a sensitive, historic area of town).

I could only get small glimpses of the W Hotel centrepiece poking up between the other structures as work nears completion, with its round shape and the spiraling band of bright copper which curls up and around the structure to project to a tip at the top. A report on the BBC news site tried to explain that locals refer to it as "the Walnut Whip", which is patently untrue: ever since the design was announced, Edinburgh people have referred to this building as "the dog poo"! (sorry, BBC, perhaps your lazy journalist should talk to local people instead of making stuff up).

As I said I am not keen on these very modern structures in such a sensitive, historic area, and that taller building like the spiralling hotel will now be prominent on our skyline (so when you look our from the Castle across the Georgian era New Town this thing will be sticking up above the elegant older buildings), Still,that never stops me taking some photos, and the light at the weekend was ideal for shooting architecture, so I took a bunch of B&W shots but a couple of colour ones to capture the bright copper banding.

Light In Shadows - Alexander Litvinenko (1962 - 2006) by Daniel Arrhakis (2020)

Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (1962 - 2006) was born in the Russian city of Voronezh in 1962.

After he graduated from a Nalchik secondary school in 1980, he was drafted into the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a Private. After a year of service, he matriculated in the Kirov Higher Command School in Vladikavkaz.

In 1986, he became an informant when he was recruited by the MVD's KGB counterintelligence section and in 1988. Later that year, after studying for a year at the Novosibirsk Military Counter Intelligence School, he became an operational officer and served in KGB military counterintelligence until 1991.

In November 1998, Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of the Russian tycoon and oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding the authority of his position. He was acquitted in November 1999 but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in 2000.

He fled with his family to London and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a journalist, writer and consultant for the British intelligence services and became a fierce critic of the Kremlin and the Putin regime. In his final years he also became a British citizen.

On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised in what was established as a case of poisoning by radioactive polonium-210, believed to have been administered in a cup of tea.

During a interview on 11 November to BBc Litvinenko said he had been looking into the assassination of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who had received death threats before being shot at her Moscow apartment block the previous month.

He died from the poisoning on 23 November and became the first known victim of lethal polonium 210-induced acute radiation syndrome.

(From Wikipedia and others)

Русские друзья, пожалуйста, сложите оружие и протестуйте. Украина — прекрасная страна, с прекрасными людьми, которым не хочется навредить. Путинская агрессия может также привести к китайскому вторжению на Тайвань и, возможно, к Третьей мировой войне. Пожалуйста, сложите оружие.

Russian friends, please lay down your weapons and protest. Ukraine is a lovely country, with lovely people, who you don’t want to harm. War only benefits the US and NATO military industrial complex (MIC). This might also lead to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and possibly World War III.

Использование Google Translate для русского языка похоже на игру в кости. Если есть предложение, с которым вы боретесь, вы бросаете кости три раза и каждый раз получаете другой перевод.

Using Google Translate for Russian is like playing dice. If there is a sentence you are struggling with, you roll the dice three times and get a different translation each time❗️😂

US, EU sacrificing Ukraine to ‘weaken Russia’: former NATO adviser. Former Swiss intelligence officer and NATO adviser Jacques Baud on the roots of the Ukraine-Russia war and its growing dangers: thegrayzone.com/2022/04/15/us-eu-sacrificing-ukraine-to-w...

SHADES OF GRAY IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR. If you’re looking for morality tales — clashes between the clearly good and the clearly bad — I suggest you look elsewhere than to the geopolitical theater: libertarianinstitute.org/articles/tgif-shades-of-gray-in-...

Western Dissent from US/NATO Policy on Ukraine is Small, Yet the Censorship Campaign is Extreme. Preventing populations from asking who benefits from a protracted proxy war, and who pays the price, is paramount. A closed propaganda system achieves that: greenwald.substack.com/p/western-dissent-from-usnato-poli...

The Pimps of War. The unaccountable coterie of neocons and liberal interventionists who orchestrated two decades of military fiascos in the Middle East are now stoking a suicidal war with Russia: consortiumnews.com/2022/04/11/chris-hedges-the-pimps-of-war/

From Paris to Karachi – Regime Change is In the Air. There is nothing good about war. On this point all civilized people can agree. So, those that support the ‘current thing’ can stop reading right about…. : tomluongo.me/2022/04/13/paris-karachi-regime-change-in-th...

____________________________________________________

I’ve always supported Ukraine’s admission into NATO, without fully understanding the ramifications of it until recently (like most Americans). It appears as if the US and NATO have left NATO membership for Ukraine on the table without having any intention of granting it to them (to provoke a response from Putin).

Diplomats and Politicians have advised against adding Ukraine to NATO for over twenty years, warning that it might spark a conflict with Russia. Unfortunately, the only thing the US and NATO MIC cares about is money. It couldn’t care less if thousands of Ukrainians, and Russians lose their lives in a proxy war.

Starve the MIC beast. Russian friends, please lay down your arms and protest. US friends, let’s pressure our politicians for a diplomatic solution. This must be resolved before there are any more casualties. Instead of encouraging and glorifying war we must end it.

Poles caring for Ukrainian families have reported children crying out in the middle of the night (suffering from PTSD), while our Globalist politicians and MIC dither out of selfish interest for their own profit, rather than negotiating an end to the conflict…

In my previous post, I shared my belief that the US government and NATO are Globalist and secular. On the other hand, I believe that Russia is still Christian and sovereign. Globalists intend to absorb all sovereign nations until there are none left.

I believe that China is sovereign as well. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has its hooks so deep into the American establishment (academia, business, entertainment, politics, etcetera) that I believe China will be allowed to do as she pleases.

“Elite capture has worked for a minimal investment. The CCP has enriched members of our leadership class, and that leadership class has, in turn, done China’s bidding, effectively doing their lobbying, in the United States.” Peter Schweizer: m.theepochtimes.com/beijings-elite-capture-strategy-was-a...

If America was the country I thought she was (Christian and sovereign), a strategic alliance with Russia would make more sense, instead of antagonizing Putin at every turn. Sadly, it’s too late for that. The best we can do now, is hope and pray that our purposely inept leaders don’t spark WWIII.

Here’s the Biggest Geopolitical Factor The Markets Haven’t Priced In… Yet. This is what happens when people you’d never hire for a job are running OUR country (US). Taz, my Tasmanian Devil, has far more common sense and restraint than our government does: internationalman.com/articles/heres-the-biggest-geopoliti...

You can imagine America’s response if Venezuela was to our south (instead of Mexico), and the Venezuelan government was allowing the Chinese army to conduct war exercises along our border, while the Russian navy had one of their warships patrolling the Gulf of Mexico, just off the coast of Galveston.

IT’S APPLES TO APPLES FOLKS, DON’T LET ANYONE SHOUT YOU DOWN OR TELL YOU OTHERWISE.

This is exactly the kind of behavior NATO engaged in prior to Russia invading Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Initially, the US invested $5B of OUR tax dollars to help turn Ukraine, culminating in the violent overthrow of Ukraine’s Russo-friendly government in 2014 (which led to Putin invading and annexing Crimea).

The US sent another $14B in aid to Ukraine in March.

Even if a temporary peace is negotiated, I have ZERO faith NATO will cease poking the bear (please see the Rand report link below). That’s something to keep in mind for those of you who live in Russia and Ukraine. It’s always the people who are hurt by their governments’ actions, never their rulers.

Americans Are “In Charge” of the War Says French Journalist Who Returned From Ukraine: summit.news/2022/04/12/french-journalist-returns-from-ukr...

From Korea to Libya: On the Future of Ukraine and NATO's Neverending Wars. Ukraine needs peace and security, not perpetual war that is designed to serve the strategic interests of certain countries or military alliances: www.commondreams.org/views/2022/04/05/korea-libya-future-...

Washington Post Admits NATO Wants to Prolong War in Ukraine. For some in NATO, it’s better for Ukrainians to keep fighting, and dying, than to achieve a peace that comes too early or at too high a cost to Kyiv and the rest of Europe: summit.news/2022/04/06/washington-post-admits-nato-wants-...

Sit back and watch Europe commit suicide. If the US goal is to crush Russia's economy with sanctions and isolation, why is Europe in an economic free fall instead? Don’t miss the fireworks in the last two paragraphs: thecradle.co/Article/columns/8853

The "Rules-Based International Order" Is Dead. Washington Killed It. The rules apply to thee, but never to me: mises.org/wire/rules-based-international-order-dead-washi...

____________________________________________________

Finland and Sweden could join NATO as soon as this summer. More Globalist politicians in favor of ending Russia’s sovereignty, and deposing Putin at the risk of igniting WWIII (please see the World Economic Forum’s Young Globalist Leaders links below): nypost.com/2022/04/11/finland-sweden-could-reportedly-joi...

🚨Rand Prescribed US Provocations Against Russia, and Predicted Russia Might Retaliate in Ukraine. Report shows how US policy focuses on actions to hurt Russia, and manipulates third party countries such as Ukraine toward that end: original.antiwar.com/Rick_Sterling/2022/03/27/rand-report...

“How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises. Is Putin acting on his own, or is he playing a starring role in a larger production that we’re not aware of?: www.theburningplatform.com/2022/03/28/gradually-then-sudd...

The Commodity Currency Revolution. “Government default may occur not because it is inevitable, but because it is preferable to hyperinflation.” N. Gregory Mankiw: www.goldmoney.com/research/the-commodity-currency-revolution

Escobar: Meet The New, Resource-Based Global Reserve Currency. “No one on this Earth should be seen as a minor player. Everyone is equal and sovereign” SL. Is Putin simply trying to drive a hard bargain, to remain sovereign?: www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-meet-new-resource-...

What do you think of the before USA, and after USA photos taken in the Middle East? Is that what we want Ukraine and Russia to look like in a few years? Should the American government stop toppling governments around the world, and shore up its own democracy at home instead? Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as profitable to “fix” the US (as a result, critical needs at home have been unmet for decades).

"We have a much bigger objective. We've got to look at the long run here. This is an example -- the situation between the United Nations and Iraq -- where the United Nations is deliberately intruding into the sovereignty of a sovereign nation... Now this is a marvelous precedent (to be used in) all countries of the world..." Council on Foreign Relations member and former CIA director Stansfield Turner (Rhodes scholar), late July, 1991.

The more the American people know about our government, the better. Pressuring our politicians to negotiate an end to this conflict NOW might prevent imminent nuclear disaster, or one further down the line. If the US has had any success with regime change, please let me know in the comments section below. For the most part, all I see is senseless carnage for the benefit of a “privileged” few.

Privileged in quotes because I hope, and pray that, they go to hell. I’m talking about the MIC and our politicians, who are getting rich from sparking one proxy war after another, not our troops. It’s high time to get our affairs in order, and to stop wrecking the rest of the world. If the US government continues to run around the world provoking wars, it’s bound to catch up with us.

“I deeply worry that what’s going to happen next is that we will see Ukraine turn into Syria," Democratic Senator Chris Coons told CBS News on April 17.

“Obama officials now back in office under President Biden coordinated with the Al Qaeda jihadist franchise in an effort to topple the Syrian regime, while claiming they backed only the ‘moderate opposition’.” Aaron Mate’. I’m not thrilled with Bush and Cheney either, by the way: www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/04/20/al_qa...

A friend asked “so, assuming that NATO (US) provoked Putin, did Putin have to react in the way that he did?” Of course, the answer is a resounding “NO.” It’s as if Putin is using our government’s provocations as an excuse for his actions. In all likelihood, Putin has wanted to annex the Donbas for quite some time.

OR Putin sees no other way to restore a buffer zone than by force, given the US and NATO’s actions over the past thirty years. A buffer zone is key to American sovereignty as well. In a perfect world, NATO (US) would respect Russia’s borders (in this world, they have not). In any event, surely there was a nonviolent solution Putin could have pursued more aggressively.

Would the best course of action for Putin have been to simply do nothing, and do his best to ignore the US and NATO’s relentless provocations? Unfortunately, the ball is already in play. All we can do now is hope, and pray that our reckless Globalist leaders don’t escalate the conflict any further (spoiler alert: they are escalating the conflict further).

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT PUTIN IS IN ON IT? THAT HE’S DOWN WITH KLAUS SCHWAB AND HIS MERRY BAND OF GLOBALIST BANKERS?

It’s hard to imagine Putin being given the green light to go marauding across Finland, and Sweden. Much less the Baltics and Poland, unless he’s playing a role in a much larger Globalist production that the public isn’t aware of.

In their thirst for power, I don’t believe Globalists care how much carnage they inflict on the rest of us. They must be stopped.

There’s much more to the Russia/Ukraine conflict than Western media portrays. The few journalists who have grasped that fact are vilified as pro-Putin, Russian sympathizers or trolls (which is absurd because to a woman or man, none of them condone Putin’s actions). Neither do I.

If that’s you’re interpretation, you’re missing A LOT.

____________________________________________________

World Economic Forum’s “Young Globalist Leaders” Revealed. Excellent choices for those of you who can’t handle civil liberties, and prefer being told what to do: www.technocracy.news/world-economic-forums-young-global-l...

Meet our Young Global Leaders for 2020. As someone who cherishes his freedom, I demand every politician on this list wear a prominently displayed red Gestapo armband: www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/ygl-wef-young-global-leaders/

Why Did Vladimir Putin Invade Ukraine? This article makes the NATO argument look oversimplified, but also underscores how little we know regarding Putin’s true motives: www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18329/russia-putin-ukraine-inv...

Putin: Destined to Hang or Drown? A MUST READ. This is similar to what I touched on in my first bracketed section regarding regime change a few days ago: tomluongo.me/2022/03/18/putin-destined-to-hang-or-drown/

Why the ‘ruling class’ hates Putin and Trump: They aren’t globalists (see Globalism Must Die). I believe Klown Schwab mistakenly referred to Putin as an acolyte of his: www.worldtribune.com/why-the-ruling-class-seeks-new-cold-...

Why would Putin invade Ukraine if he had the slightest chance of being deposed by the US and NATO (unless he has another reason and/or is colluding w/ someone else)? I can’t shake the feeling that a big piece of the puzzle is missing.

OR, PUTIN MAY SIMPLY FEEL HE HAS A STRONGER HAND TO PLAY AT THE NEGOTIATING TABLE THAN THE EU.

At this point, it doesn’t matter why Putin has invaded Ukraine. It must stop. For those interested in learning the backstory, the previous links are helpful. However, at the end of the day NO ONE knows what’s going on in his head, only Putin (not even our government).

I wish everyone would read my previous piece instead, where I may actually be able to make an impact. As far as this conflict goes, there’s only hope and prayer for most of us. Unless you can afford to donate, or take a family in.

____________________________________________________

In my opinion, it seems like such a poor move on Putin’s part. I’m surprised he finally took the bait, he’s too smart for that. There must be other factors at play, that we’re not privy to. Is he colluding with someone else? What are we missing?

If it’s the Chinese invading Taiwan, then we’d have a real parade of the horribles on our hands. With arguably one of the weakest American presidents in modern times, I’m not sure what the CCP is waiting for?

It would be interesting to evaluate China’s possible annexation of Taiwan, through the lens of China already having infiltrated, and corrupted most of the American establishment through elite capture.

Would this make China more, or less likely to invade Taiwan? It seems like China could just waltz in and take Taiwan. Albeit, the US and EU MIC would profit from arming the Taiwanese in the short run (much as they’ve done with Ukraine thus far).

Pentagon Contractors Seizing New Gold Rush to Cash in on the Ukraine Crisis. www.commondreams.org/views/2022/04/18/pentagon-contractor...

How would our politicians REALLY feel if China invaded Taiwan (when they’re not busy grandstanding in front of the cameras, and rattling sabers for the “benefit” of the American people). Would they even care?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been almost entirely provoked by the US and NATO, while our tainted leaders ignore the threat China poses to Taiwan (and the US). It’s telling they chose to start a proxy war to weaken Russia, rather than China, who’s arguably a far greater threat to the US.

If China decided to flex her muscles militarily, I doubt these cowards would have the will to push back. They sold their souls for Chinese $$$ long ago. I wouldn’t want to be Taiwan right now.

During the Cold War, It would have raised “alarm bells” if Jimmy Carter’s or Ronald Reagan’s family, were found to have received millions from Russian businessmen connected to the KGB, according to Schweizer: m.theepochtimes.com/hunter-bidens-china-business-deals-sh...

China’s Taiwan Invasion Plans May Get Faster and Deadlier. If conventional wisdom suggests it will take PLA strategists a year or two to make adjustments to their military (based on lessons learned from Russia’s failures)…: foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/19/china-invasion-ukraine-taiwan/

In my opinion, Putin took his time to strike as part of the negotiating process with Ukraine. It wasn’t a strategic blunder on his part. On the other hand, if China decides to take Taiwan they most likely will do so without fair warning.

I have no idea what I’d do in Zelenskyy’s shoes. I’m sure there are those who would consider him a weak leader if he acquiesced to Putin’s demands. Is he also trying to draw the US and NATO in, so he can depose Putin? If so, how many more lives would be lost?

Would Zelenskyy still be considered a hero if millions of Ukrainian, and Russian lives were lost in the process of removing Putin from power? Installing a pro-Western (or Globalist) regime would likely come at a great cost.

The Proxy Gambit. Proxies tend to be the parties who pay most dearly in any armed conflict: mwi.usma.edu/the-proxy-gambit/

As I don’t know the players true motives, I’m just speculating. We the people are compassionate, and want a swift end to this conflict. However, there are most likely elements within our government who want to prolong it.

Defense contractors need money, and our military needs experience to prepare us for a likely future conflict, possibly on American soil. Which is more important: an immediate ceasefire in order to save lives, or prolonging the conflict in part for the aforementioned reasons (and/or Putin’s terms being viewed as unreasonable)?

It seems like our defense contractors could be put to good use rebuilding critical infrastructure, instead of participating in endless proxy wars that leave our country bankrupt outside the Beltway. On the other hand, combat experience sets our troops apart from many of our adversaries. Would RMT (realistic military training) alone be enough to help them develop the skills they need?

This is the first time I’ve tried to understand the ins and outs of war. My musings should be viewed as food for thought only, and not taken literally.

____________________________________________________

It’s frightening how quickly the MSM can whip people into a frenzy over CoVid, pivot on a dime, then transform the very same people into a warmongering mob (with precious few conducting their own research regarding the Russia/Ukraine conflict).

Now showing at a theater near you: Two Minutes of Hate (for the brainwashed masses) starring Orange Man Bad, ALL Anti-Vaxxers, and Wladimir Putin. No research required, just add hate. The more unhinged, and visceral the better.

Anyone attempting to be the voice of reason better buckle up, as our culture is becoming increasingly uncivilized. Get between people and their Two Minutes of Hate… Watch Out! It’s now a crime to tell the truth in Western society. Orwell’s 1984 has arrived.

Maybe people will channel their anger more effectively in their next life (rather than being willfully, OR defiantly ignorant, as they are now)?

While You Were Distracted By Will Smith, International Elitists Met At The World Government Summit. Guests included Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum and Kristalina Georgieva of the International Monetary Fund: www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/while-you-were-distracted...

Freedom is Tyranny: Robert Reich Goes Full Orwellian in Anti-Free Speech Screed. Remember, Ignorance is Strength. You’re missing out if you don’t read the comments following the article: jonathanturley.org/2022/04/13/187265/

Why The Digital Dollar Will Destroy Free Speech. It’s hard to remain optimistic when probably AT LEAST 30%-40% of “Americans” would support this. Some country: economicprism.com/why-the-digital-dollar-will-destroy-fre...

The Cost of Financialization-Globalization: You Lost $500,000 and Gained $137.13. Charles Hugh Smith: charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-cost-of-financi...

The West Needs WWIII. Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong thinks the New World Order’s so-called “Great Reset” plan for humanity now needs war to try and make it work: usawatchdog.com/the-west-needs-wwiii-martin-armstrong/

It’s quite likely that our politicians’ Globalist NWO agenda supersedes all else. If it takes an American or Western European city being nuked to help accomplish their aims, so be it. Damn the torpedoes (these are zealots to the nth degree, who won’t hear reason). The inmates are truly running the asylum.

“How much are we prepared to sacrifice to help the US win a propaganda war against Putin? Free speech is important because… It gives people the ability to hold the powerful to account. Which is exactly why the powerful work to eliminate it.” Caitlin Johnstone: caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/how-much-are-we-prepared-...

Conservatives and Libertarians may come to regret not shouting down, censoring, or ostracizing Marxists while they had the chance. Now, Marxists control the levers of power in DC, and the rest of the corrupt “American” establishment. Clearly having principles isn’t nearly as effective as having none.

“Everyone’s Anti-War Until The War Propaganda Starts. It’s actually the weirdest thing in the world that there’s something that has been directly affecting our minds our entire lives, …, but we don’t talk about it constantly. It should be at the front and center of our attention.”: caityjohnstone.medium.com/everyones-anti-war-until-the-wa...

“Wealth in the pursuit of socialism is actually a common idea among the elites. In other words, it’s okay for SELECT people within a socialist/collectivist society to retain large amounts of property because they are special.” Brandon Smith: alt-market.us/a-study-of-cultism-shows-us-why-gatekeeping...

We the People Are the New, Permanent Underclass in America. In the eyes of the government, we the people (the voters, the consumers, and the taxpayers) are little more than pocketbooks waiting to be picked: www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads...

🚨🔥2000 Mules exposes the lies of the Democrats, RINOs, and Fake News who say it was the "most secure election in history." It was, perhaps, the least secure in history: www.bitchute.com/video/P4gwlcZ8KbTV/

Even though some of their aims appear to be quite noble, there are far too many psychopaths involved with the Globalist movement for it to be allowed to flourish. That should become clear while reading this chronological history: www.khouse.org/articles/1997/90/

“We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis

Those of us who have a healthy fear of Technocratic-Fascism are every bit as much to blame as those who crave “Socialism”. We’ve utterly failed to communicate effectively.

____________________________________________________

This section highlights the ongoing battle between the Globalists and Sovereigns.

The US is functioning as a Globalist entity, rather than as a Sovereign one. Globalists want to eradicate ALL Nationalist leaders, because they reject their Globalist agenda of Cultural Marxism, Global Interventionism (INFLATION and PROXY WARS like Ukraine and Syria, which create millions of asylum seekers), and Open Borders. Globalists’ aim is to DESTROY Western society as we know it by destroying our shared identity.

🚨Davos Elites Warn ‘Painful Global Transition’ Should Not Be Resisted By Nation States: summit.news/2022/05/24/videos-davos-elites-warn-painful-g...

Maria Ressa won the Nobel Prize for her attempt to undermine Rodrigo Duerte in the Philippines. Ukraine’s Zelenskyy may be guilty of the same behavior Ressa accused Duerte of. However, one leader is down with the Globalist juggernaut, while the other is not: theaseanpost.com/article/philippines-ressa-worthy-nobel-p...

Americans are told our leaders are good. Truth be told, the majority of our leaders are probably no better than our enemies. In most instances that should read “enemies of Globalism.” Many believe there’s no such thing as a good politician. That they are duplicitous to a man or woman. I tend to agree, especially on a national level.

I’m beginning to view the US as the nicest house in a bad neighborhood. Our government hasn’t sparked a civil war… Yet. Only one year, and three months into the current administration: we have raging inflation not seen since the 70’s, AND the potential for World War III. Only 15 months into a four year term. How ‘bout them apples?

Is The Real Rate Of Inflation More Than Twice As High As The Number We Were Just Given? Just what exactly does 7.5% inflation excluding food and gas mean? theeconomiccollapseblog.com/is-the-real-rate-of-inflation...

“The status quo never mentions the rampant inflation in assets, because the already-wealthy got wealthier, so asset inflation is wonderful and deserves to be permanent.": charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/04/yes-it-is-different...

For those of you who haven’t read my previous post, one of Orban’s many sins is not allowing an unreported rape crisis to occur in Hungary by flinging its borders wide open, a la Germany’s Angela Merkel. Die Klown Schwab acolyte Merkel wouldn’t allow German media to cover the crisis whilst in office.

“After Viktor Orban won re-election in a landslide, the EU responded by slapping sanctions on Hungary as a form of punishment for the electorate exercising their democratic will.” Paul Joseph Watson: m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6EulPAIX60&feature=youtu.be

The results of George Soros’ desperate “ends justify the means” approach lately have been very harmful to the social fabric of Western society. At best they are divisive, at worst they are making our cities unsafe.

Despite Globalists seemingly benign intentions, I’m afraid we’ll wind up under Techno-Fascist control due to the fact that most of our rulers are predatory wolves, while we the people are domesticated sheep.

Our nation’s representatives would ultimately give way to a more centralized ruling class, whose wealth and power would grow exponentially through the use of social credit, surveillance, and CBDCs (like China but worse because multinational corporations would hold all of the cards). Corrupt politicians and special interest groups will never stop tilting the board in their favor. That’s the unfortunate reality we all have to face, including George Soros, and why I believe Liberal Internationalism (Globalism) will fail. It’s just too “pie in the sky.”

Globalist rulers need nation states like the US? and Russia to keep them in check, even if their relationships seem antagonistic at times. I’ll take the other side of a gentlemen’s bet against Soros: I’ll short the Globalist NWO, and go long Sovereigns like Hungary (I’m not very happy with Russia, or the US right now). It’s a dumpster fire George. Maybe the solution is the rich giving even more generously than they already do? I honestly don’t know: www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/06/the-george-soros-phi...

The wealthy shouldering ever more of the burden of righting our ship (because they want to) may be the only way forward. One can count on the federal government NEVER spending our tax dollars wisely, so it will continue to take a great deal of private investment in certain communities. It’s very unlikely that a more centralized (Globalist) government with greater taxation would put a dent in our problems. Ockham’s razor suggests that the wealthy need to do MOAR❗️

I see a Globalist NWO like a charity where most, if not all donations go to enriching its founders rather than to their intended recipients. These are people whose only skill is graft. We must stop looking to our government for solutions, and look to ourselves instead.

Even though the US and NATO ultimately provoked the response they wanted from Putin, I'd call this type of Global Interventionism a humanitarian disaster. Our government doesn’t represent the American people. It sure as hell doesn’t represent me.

Someone should inform the Nobel Committee that their predilection for Global Interventionism, and Peace, cannot coexist (as evidenced by Ukraine, and Syria). That’s one hell of a conundrum for the Committee to solve, wouldn’t you agree?

I often view China as a country with so much wasted potential, due to its human rights abuses, but one could say the same thing or something very similar about the US. We’re capable of so much more. Can you imagine how much good we could do if we Made Love, Not War? m.youtube.com/watch?v=0KG4pebWiDQ

I hope that the US will return to her Sovereign roots, and stop using our tax dollars (and printing press) to spearhead proxy wars around the globe, that leave nothing but death and destruction in their wake while enriching a “privileged” few. That should be the goal of every American. God speed!

____________________________________________________

Alright, stick a fork in me. I’M DONE! If I make any large additions after this evening, just shoot me. The time capsule reads April 27, 2022, “The Day WE Saved The World.”

OMFG, just joking! I never intended for these to have so many links. However, someone approaching this topic from ground zero may find them helpful.

If you’re one of the handful approaching geopolitics from square one who found this interesting enough to suffer through from start to finish, I’m impressed! It’s a real ball buster. If you really hate yourself, you should read my previous piece on Globalism.

You’ve got it figured out when you start seeing examples of Global Fascism (Cultural Marxism, Global Interventionism, and Open Borders) everywhere you look.

————————————————————————————————-

I’m far more worried about the Coastal Elites who are brainwashed by their Marxist institutions, than I am about millions of hard-working naturalized citizens who embody the American ideal. Most naturalized American citizens I’ve met share my concern. A few have even fled Communist regimes, and are alarmed by what they see.

I’m convinced Globalists will cause ALL OF US far more harm, than good, and that everyone needs to be aware of the danger. Just look at Ukraine, and to a much lesser extent food and gas prices. If you think we’re facing challenging circumstances in the US, inflation this high is ruinous to developing nations.

Globalists don’t want us to burn fossil fuels, eat meat, etc. They couldn’t care less about our transportation, or nutritional needs. However, I’m not convinced that they REALLY care. Climate change is probably just another means to wrest control from the rest of us (research should back up this thesis for those of you willing to do the legwork).

The same could probably be said for the Coastal Elites as well. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if those giving the radical Left their marching orders don’t believe in their ideology either. If most of us working-class Americans and naturalized citizens can see through their lies, it’s a bit of a stretch to say that a Harvard graduate couldn’t as well.

In fact, it’s probable that NONE of our political class care about these ideologies, other than as a means to control us (divide and conquer), and to further enrich themselves at our expense (unlimited money and power). DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE.

————————————————————————————————-

LEFT + RIGHT = MIGHT

Let me amend this to say that we’ve ALL been taken for a ride by our politicians, to varying degrees.

It’s naive to assume that Republicans will come riding to the rescue this fall. They may provide a brief respite, but the GOP is bought off by the same corporations, defense contractors, etc. It’s the system silly, and until we change it...

For the record, I share many concerns with Liberals and Conservatives.

Take climate change for example, I also care about the environment, but believe climate change fear is being weaponized against us. Note: China can burn as much coal as she pleases.

It’s being used not only to control us, but to weaken us as well (to make us less competitive internationally).

On the home front, high inflation may lead to greater dependence on government handouts, which would break people’s spirit of self-reliance, and tighten the government’s grip on power.

On the international front, China will grow even more powerful (I’m not sure how Globalists’ will corral China lol). Globalists’ plan to distribute Sovereign countries’ wealth to developing nations.

Sovereign countries like the US and Russia! A real (sovereign) Nationalist leader like _____ would have united us against the Chinese AND Globalist threats, but alas. That time has passed.

[I can’t imagine a better time for the Chinese to invade Russia, than while the US and Russia are engaged in a proxy war over Ukraine. In the future, To whom shall Russia turn, Should the Chinese seek to plunder her resources?

When asked how he feels about the crisis in Ukraine, Chinese supreme leader Xi Jinping channeled Charlie Sheen when he simply replied “WINNING.” Do you think Biden & Harris are up for the challenge?

There’s no limit to how much of Russia and the Far East China can conquer if our President & Congressclowns continue to compound one geopolitical “miscue” after another.]*

Globalist largesse sounds lovely, but most people would rather give voluntarily than have it siphoned away by Globalist politicians who only serve China, corporations, special interests, and above all else, themselves. Never we the people.

The only question “our” representatives in DC ask themselves is “what’s in it for ME?”

Economic World War: Who Benefits And How Much Time Is Left?: alt-market.us/economic-world-war-who-benefits-and-how-muc...

Regardless of whether Russia and China are truly Sovereign, or quasi-Sovereign due to their relationship with the IMF, we Americans have our work cut out for us! It’s still the Globalist bankers versus the US, hoping to destroy the dollar’s global reserve status and our way of life (neither wants to be the other’s vassal).

Cut off my legs and call me Shorty but, I can’t see Putin or Xi Jinping bending over and grabbing their ankles quite like the traitors running the USSA government have done. I also can’t imagine that these autocrats would be capable of very much more than temporary alliances.

The entire point of the US Constitution is for OUR representatives to adhere to it, not make it their life’s mission to figure out ways to go over, under or around it like ours have done. That Constitution, or what’s left of it, is why we’re still barely hanging on as a nation.

Be aware of any attempt our government makes to relinquish our Sovereignty, and exempt themselves from the US Constitution and Bill of Rights (e.x., the WHO Pandemic Treaty expected by Aug 1). They likely won't ask we the people to ratify the treaty before Biden signs it.

————————————————————————————————-

I believe Brandon has said this before, and was most likely correct in his assessment. There’s probably going to be too much (in)fighting, and jockeying for position to see who gets the most power, for a truly Globalist society to exist in our lifetimes.

Hence the Globalists need for World War III, pandemics or whatever batshit crazy plan they hatch next to reset the clock, and bring us to heel. Globalists may be the greatest threat humanity has ever known, whether one leans Right or Left.

Everyone is saying this, so it’s not exactly an original thought of mine. It’s all out in the open. Globalists have pulled back the curtain so that their intentions are no longer a mystery. I wish I could say this was all poppycock, but I’m afraid it’s not.

As Brandon has also said, their hubris is likely to be their downfall. What’s unknown is how much damage they’ll cause in the meantime. Someone should make a Hollywood film, and finance it with Chinese dollars. It’s all very Bond villainesque❗️😂

————————————————————————————————-

“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US” Walt Kelly.

If I had my druthers, all members of the US federal government currently serving Globalist bankers would resign peacefully, and be replaced by more honorable state and local politicians, if there’s such a thing. Then the entire rotten system would be scrapped in favor of one that's impossible to game by corporations, foreign powers like China, and special interest groups.

Whatever Sovereignty we enjoyed clearly went out the window with the establishment of the Federal Reserve. As if our Deep State ruling class isn’t bad enough, we’re now subject to the whims of international tyrants as well.

✅ “Toto, I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore.” The US hasn’t been a Capitalist society for over 100 years. You are witnessing Corporate Socialism (Fascism) FAILING, not Capitalism. More Socialism won’t fix the problem: internationalman.com/articles/toto-i-dont-think-were-in-k...

Our country won’t survive without our government being returned to its original state, the one our founders intended, and the wealthy stepping up.

✅ For those of you who vant to know how the sausage is made: hannenabintuherland.com/usa/the-federal-reserve-cartel-th...

The US federal government should have a Sovereign Congress, not a Globalist one. Look at the damage our Global Interventionism has caused in Ukraine and Syria. Will inflation run so hot eventually that we’re forced to default on our debt, losing our dollar hegemony? Do our Globalist politicians care, or is this all by design??

✅ "If the citizenry cannot replace a kleptocratic government and/or limit the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation is a democracy in name only." Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1: charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-real-threat-to-...

I was living in the America our founders envisioned, without realizing that America hasn’t existed during my lifetime.

✅ How Empires Die. When the state loses the ability to recognize and solve core problems of security and fairness, it will be replaced by another arrangement that is more adaptable and adept at solving problems: charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/02/how-empires-die.htm...

If you were Putin, and within hours of being deposed, what would you do? I know what I would do. I’D SEND IT!! Shouldn’t we be protesting right about now, and calling our Congressmorons to stop escalating this madness instead of cheering them on like a bunch of imbeciles?!

✅ Basic Solutions To Our Economic Problems That Establishment Elites Won’t Allow: alt-market.us/basic-solutions-to-our-economic-problems-th...

“Unless the people, through unified action, arise and take charge of their government, they will find that their government has taken charge of them. Independence and liberty will be gone, and the general public will find itself in a condition of servitude to an aggregation of organized and selfish interest.” Calvin Coolidge

————————————————————————————————-

Empire of Lies Eager to Receive Mr. Sarmat’s Business Card: thesaker.is/empire-of-lies-eager-to-receive-mr-sarmats-bu...

The world has a major crude oil problem; expect conflict ahead: ourfiniteworld.com/2022/04/21/the-world-has-a-major-crude...

Oh God It’s Going To Get SO Much Worse. caityjohnstone.medium.com/oh-god-its-going-to-get-so-much...

🚨The Chaos in New York Is a Warning. The first large-scale test of mail-in voting in the pandemic has left one in five New Yorkers with their votes tossed out: www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/07/new-york-ele...

Time Columnist Denounces Free Speech as a White Man’s “Obsession.”: jonathanturley.org/2022/05/01/why-does-musk-care-so-much-...

The Supreme Court Needs To Stop UNELECTED Bureaucrats From Making Up Laws: thefederalist.com/2021/09/13/the-supreme-court-needs-to-s...

————————————————————————————————-

Liberal Internationalist (Globalist) US, EU, and Ukrainian leaders are assholes for provoking Putin in the first place. Putin is an even bigger asshole for responding to their provocations. Lastly, anyone who supports these Fascist politicians is an asshole themselves.

The Ukraine crisis has become a master class in assholery if you ask me. This drawn out proxy war is making Ukrainian lives a living hell, while enriching a “privileged” few (Globalist bankers, the MIC, and their political henchmen).

No one else benefits, save for the wealthy from asset inflation. What is it going to take for us to rise up and say “enough is enough”?

Global Interventionism is a death cult. Kissinger offered sound advice eight years ago, but none of these jerks heeded it, which isn’t surprising (see link below). They are nothing but schoolyard bullies armed with nukes ☠️

“I deeply worry that what’s going to happen next is that we will see Ukraine turn into Syria," Democratic Senator Chris Coons told CBS News on April 17.

“While Trump put an end to the CIA proxy war, his efforts to further extricate the U.S. from Syria by withdrawing troops were thwarted by senior officials (UNELECTED Bureaucrats) who shared the preceding Obama administration's regime change goals.” Aaron Mate’: www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/04/20/al_qa...

I believe (sovereign) Trump was acting on his own, not (globalist) Neocons, for the benefit of our country. The US government needs far more than one (sovereign) Nationalist politician in DC.

————————————————————————————————-

The Bizarre, Unanimous Democratic Support for the $40b War Package to Raytheon and CIA: "For Ukraine": greenwald.substack.com/p/the-bizarre-unanimous-dem-suppor...

Sen. Paul Delays Vote on $40 Billion Ukraine Package, Calls for Spending Oversight. Finally a politician who represents us: m.theepochtimes.com/sen-paul-delays-vote-on-40-billion-uk...

Newsflash: it doesn’t take $40B, and crippling inflation, to send Seal Team 6 in to get Putin. If the US sells Treasuries to finance the war in Ukraine, China can dump those T-Bills at a later date (triggering a collapse in the dollar).

[“As per the WHO Pandemic Treaty signed Aug 1, 2022, you are ordered to shelter in place. Absentee ballots will be mailed to all voters (prior to the election)…” Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.]*

I’m so jaded that I don’t believe it matters anymore, which is probably the whole point (to demoralize us). Two sides of the same coin, like I opined in my DSA post. Wake up sleepyheads 💤

————————————————————————————————-

The Nobel Committee’s elitist thought process? I do believe Obama’s “I haven’t earned this” reaction speaks well to his character. Trump’s comments on the other hand, not so much. Hey, I’m not perfect either, last time I checked: nypost.com/2019/11/02/why-obama-got-a-nobel-peace-prize-f...

Trump Nobel Peace Prize nomination - what you need to know. “The committee should look at the facts and judge him (Trump) on the facts - not on the way he behaves sometimes." Christian Tybring-Gjedde. What if he hurts our feelings?: www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54092960

If Trump was more tactful he wouldn’t have alienated so many people, and maybe would have been re-elected. Humans can be very superficial in our judgments of others, myself included. America is paying the price for our superficiality.

Unfortunately, our media is wholly incapable of reporting without bias. One needs a cipher, or Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from the X Files, to get at the truth. Remember, “The Truth is Out There”, just not on government-captured mainstream media (MSM).

Legacy MSM are paid liars (propagandizers), best ignored and forgotten. I’m ready to see our corrupt government, and their Ministry of Truth (MSM), lose hold of their false narratives, forever. Going, going, gone.

————————————————————————————————-

My Energy is Your Problem, The Birth of a New Europe: tomluongo.me/2022/04/22/my-energy-your-problem-birth-new-...

Putin’s Nuclear Threat Is Terrifying Even If He’s Bluffing: www.washingtonpost.com/business/putins-nuclear-threat-is-...

Henry Kissinger: To settle the Ukraine crisis, start at the end: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/henry-kissinger-to-settle...

BRENT RENAUD, a loving son, brother, uncle, friend and an award-winning documentary filmmaker, was killed March 13, 2022: www.nwaonline.com/obituaries/2022/mar/20/brent-renaud-202...

A history of corruption in the United States. Ancient history, or ongoing?: today.law.harvard.edu/a-history-of-corruption-in-the-unit...

Who Really Killed the Gold Standard?: nationalinterest.org/feature/who-really-killed-the-gold-s...

Bombings, shootings and rioting are on the rise in Sweden. We need to talk about why: www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/05/sweden-and-the-crisis-of...

————————————————————————————————-

“Even though she may be sleeping, America is a sleeping giant, I believe,” she said. “Americans will wake up to their tyrannical government, and there will be push back on a massive scale.” Natalya Androsova: m.theepochtimes.com/weve-seen-this-before-russian-america...

“As the national emergency continues, the order gives over 130 special powers to the president, including the ability to deploy troops inside the country to tamp down civil unrest. He can freeze bank accounts, and shut down various types of communications during an emergency. It also gives the federal government vast powers involving other aspects of Americans’ lives...” Suzanne Downing. Welcome to the United Socialist States of Amerika comrades. Enjoy the ride: mustreadalaska.com/biden-extends-his-covid-19-emergency-p...

I half expect Biden to pass away whilst in office after Congress has repealed Presidential term limits. They can prop him up “Weekend at Bernie’s” style while he issues edicts on high. “You’ve been bad (for reading independent journalism), no Internet for 90 days” the ventriloquist exclaims to the raucous applause of freedom-hating “Americans” everywhere. “Why not the death penalty” the mob begs and pleads. “Come on Joe!” Is this the America you want for your children and grandchildren?

If Americans only understood the pressure being put on us by adversaries inside and outside the federal government, WE THE PEOPLE could become a force to be reckoned with. I hope I’ve done a reasonably good job of highlighting who a few of these bad actors are. Globalist politicians willing to risk nuclear war, CIVIL WAR or famine to remain in power, are no one we want to forfeit our independence to. Rest assured, there are many more who want to harm us.

The same US government that’s working to classify ALL semiautomatic firearms as automatic weapons so as to make them illegal, is distributing mine-resistant vehicles to LEAs around our country as we speak. I don’t recall a single official from OUR government asking us how we feel about military surplus being used in this manner. What the hell is going on? A slow motion coup (theft of our rights) 100 years in the making has transpired, while we were chewing our cud.

It’s all very third world, Banana Republic. “Hello, I’d like to request technicals on either side of my block. Thank you.” I hope I’m NOT on to something!

————————————————————————————————-

Maybe I’ll find the time, some rainy day or when there’s nuclear ash falling from the sky, to organize the brilliant writers’ links as footnotes. Thank you Glenn Greenwald for introducing me to the term Corporate Socialism.

Hopefully I can wrap up these political pieces soon (possibly with the help of an editor), and get back out there while the flowers are still blooming! Thank you so much for reading these 🙏

————————————————————————————————-

As our government has committed several acts of war against Russia, the only thing keeping Putin from unleashing a devastating wave of cyberattacks across the US is restraint (and fear of reprisal). Winter is coming...

The probability of something unimaginable happening before the midterms, or the next Presidential election is as high as it’s ever been. We the people must lasso our runaway government before it’s too late. 100 seconds to midnight.

HERE’S TO THE UNHOLIEST OF ALLIANCES: FROM THE MARXISTS, TO THE RIGHT WINGERS, & TO ALL OF US IN BETWEEN, WHAT WE ALL WANT, ABOVE

ALL ELSE, IS REFORM.

Pointing fingers and blaming others, which is what our political class wants us to do, will get us nowhere (like a hamster on a wheel). There’s nothing more terrifying to these creeps, than a unified American public.

🚨EU commission president threatens Italy on eve of election, says Brussels has ‘tools’ if wrong parties win: rmx.news/article/shock-eu-commission-president-threatens-...

🚨As Democracy Dies in the EU, Von der Leyen Reveals its Sins: tomluongo.me/2022/09/23/as-democracy-dies-eu-its-sins-are...

————————————————————————————————-

I never imagined so many people reading this, so it never occurred to me to reach out to these wonderful writers. If you happen to find a writer(s) you enjoy, please share them with your friends, and patronize them if you can afford to.

Hopefully my holistic approach has helped shed some additional light on a few of the issues our country is facing. If the US devolves into a Marxist cesspool like Europe it hurts democracies around the globe. So goes the US, so goes the world. I believe it’s crucial for everyone’s sake that we get our house in order.

I’ve included my most recent thoughts and links under the essays on Free Speech and Vaccines (Flickr has a character limit), whereas the previous essay on Globalism represents my initial thoughts on the subject. Be advised, I’m still struggling to tone down a few of my newest additions.

Obviously, a working journalist is forced to home in on a particular issue if they’re writing on an almost daily basis. I’ve been adding to this essay off and on for two months, so it’s a different animal. Like me and Taz!

____________________________________________________

Lastly, like most starving artists, I could use an agent to reach out to buyers for me. In the meantime, I'm hoping to raise enough money to practice Fine Art Photography, Investigative Journalism, and Travel Photography while looking for representation.

Lord willing, I’ll finally be attending the Confederate Festival this April, looking for long lost family, and shooting hundreds of photos. Festa Confederada 2019: m.youtube.com/watch?v=uBMweAdVTpM 🇧🇷

The desire to be loved (and not hated by half the country), trumps tribalism.

I’ve been working on this unexpected calling for a while now without any income. If you’ve enjoyed this content, please consider making a donation. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to edit this, and turn it into an e-book any time soon (but I still hope it makes a difference).

If you would like to make a donation, please click on the following link. Square has an Apple Pay option with Safari as your default browser, otherwise it has Google Pay or manual entry. $0 donations through Oct 21, 2022: square.link/u/TKiCLrQk

One can only hope that the sum of our parts is worth more than our political beliefs.

Every writer is a slave to their muse. When the creative juices are flowing you just have to sit tight, & continue writing. Damn the consequences. Literally! You never know when your (ink) well’s going to run dry.

I penned the above because I’m worried sick, have a fairly good grasp of what’s happening to our country, and have an obligation to share it. By the way, I believe it's fixable, but only if 100% of us are on board.

There was never a time for "ignorance is bliss”, we only thought there was… 🇺🇸

🌟TIME TO SUCK IT UP & WORK TOGETHER🌟

Global Corporate Socialism (Global Fascism), modeled after the Chinese surveillance state.

America’s Shadow Government (Behind The Facade). How the murder of JFK set the stage for 9/11, The Patriot Act, and never-ending war in the Middle East: richhardy.substack.com/p/americas-shadow-government-behind

🚨Europe, More Than Putin, Must Shoulder The Blame For The Energy Crisis: original.antiwar.com/cook/2022/09/14/europe-more-than-put...

THE USA MUST PROVIDE UKRAINE AID UNTIL PEACE IS NEGOTIATED AND THEREAFTER GIVEN ITS ROLE IN THE CONFLICT

Wojtek in Britain after the war

After the end of World War II in 1945, Wojtek was transported to Berwickshire, Scotland, with the rest of the 22nd Company. They were stationed at Winfield Airfield on Sunwick Farm, near the village of Hutton, Scottish Borders. Wojtek soon became popular among local civilians and the press, and the Polish-Scottish Association made him an honorary member.

Following demobilisation on 15 November 1947, Wojtek was given to Edinburgh Zoo, where he spent the rest of his life, often visited by journalists and former Polish soldiers, some of whom tossed cigarettes for him to eat, as he did during his time in the army. Media attention contributed to Wojtek's popularity. He was a frequent guest on BBC television's

Wojtek died in December 1963, at the age of 21. At the time of his death he weighed nearly 35 stone (490 lb; 220 kg), and was over 6 feet (1.8 m) tall

Die Mainstream-Medien führen einen Krieg gegen die Meinungsfreiheit.

Beinahe täglich werden alternative Medien unter Beschuss genommen — und das nicht nur von führenden Politikern, sondern auch von etablierten, vermeintlich „seriösen“ Medien. Dabei verraten nicht nur die New York Times oder die BBC ihre selbst gesetzten Verpflichtungen gegenüber der „Wahrheit“, indem sie völkerrechtswidrige Kriege unterstützen und zugleich alternative Medien der Propaganda bezichtigen. Mit zahlreichen Bespielen belegt Shane Quinn diese zunehmenden Angriffe auf die Meinungsfreiheit.

(aus www.rubikon.news/artikel/mord-an-der-wahrheit)

Anfang 2017 gab die New York Times den folgenden neuen Leitsatz bekannt: „Die Wahrheit ist heute wichtiger als je zuvor.“ Damit hat sie sich ein scheinbar edles, doch möglicherweise strittiges Motto auf die Fahnen geschrieben, wenn man die jüngste Vergangenheit der Zeitung näher betrachtet. Zwei Experten für Völkerrecht, Howard Friel und Richard Falk, haben nach der Irak-Invasion von 2003 ein Buch mit dem Titel „The Record of the Paper: How the New York Times Misreports US Foreign Policy“ veröffentlicht, zu dem bisher kaum Rezensionen erschienen.

Friel und Falk haben sich aufgrund der Bedeutung dieser Zeitung auf die Times konzentriert. Die Autoren heben hervor, dass die Begriffe „Völkerrecht“ und „UN-Charta“ in 70 Times-Leitartikeln zum Irak – im Zeitraum vom 11. September 2001 bis zum 20. März 2003 – kein einziges Mal vorkommen. Die „Wahrheit“ schien nicht besonders „wichtig“ zu sein, denn die Times sah der Zerstörung des Irak stillschweigend zu.

Das auf die amerikanische Öffentlichkeit gerichtete Trommelfeuer der Propaganda war so stark, dass 69 Prozent der Bevölkerung glaubten, Saddam Hussein sei in die Anschläge vom 11. September „persönlich verwickelt“ gewesen. Das ist ein erheblicher Manipulationserfolg. Die Umfrageergebnisse müssen dem irakischen Diktator, einem vergessenen ehemaligen Verbündeten der USA, völlig neu gewesen sein.

Warum Hussein es auf sich nehmen sollte, einen Überraschungsangriff ausgerechnet gegen die USA zu veranlassen, sei dahin gestellt. Vielleicht, falls er einen Todeswunsch gehabt hat, doch spätere Ereignisse zeigten, dass er kein selbstmörderischer Typ war.

Muster der Mainstream-Berichterstattung

Es war nicht allein die Times, die der amerikanischen Bevölkerung den Irakkrieg verkaufte; auch Fernsehsender von Fox News bis CBS und CNN waren überwiegend Kriegsbefürworter. Fox News, im Besitz von Rupert Murdoch – der den illegalen Konflikt nachdrücklich unterstützte –, platzierte dauerhaft eine US-Flagge in der Ecke seiner Fernsehbilder. Fox-Mitarbeiter wurden verpflichtet, die Invasion als „Operation Iraqi Freedom“ – „Operation für die Freiheit des Irak“ – zu bezeichnen, bei der später hunderttausende Iraker getötet wurden.

Dieses Muster zieht sich auch durch die Berichterstattung zu anderen unrechtmäßigen Interventionen, sichtbar etwa im liberalen Guardian, der die Zerstörung Lybiens im Jahr 2011 befürwortete, mit Leitartikeln, die beschworen „Je schneller Muammar al-Gaddafi fällt, desto besser.“ Der Guardian ermunterte die NATO, „das militärische Gleichgewicht weiter zu Ungunsten Gaddafis zu kippen“, während er später im selben Jahr resümierte, dass „bisher alles recht gut gelaufen ist“ – zu diesem Zeitpunkt waren bereits Tausende getötet worden.

Im Jahr 2015 versicherte Ian Birrell, damals stellvertretender Chefredakteur des Independent, seiner Leserschaft noch immer: „Ich würde sagen, dass Großbritannien und Frankreich Recht damit hatten, sich [in Libyen] einzumischen. Die Fehlschläge kamen später.“ Offenbar war es kein Problem für zwei alte Imperialmächte, „sich einzumischen“, um einen souveränen Staat zu zerstören, und die Eindringlinge danach der Verantwortung zu entbinden, da „die Fehlschläge“ ja erst „später“ kamen.

Herabwürdigung des Journalismus

Es geschieht in der Tat selten, dass man einen prominenten Journalisten die Ausgewogenheit der westlichen Mainstream-Berichterstattung in Frage stellen hört. Dieselben Stimmen melden sich jedoch zu Wort, wenn alternative Nachrichtenquellen einen anderen Standpunkt vertreten, der nicht ihrem Geschmack entspricht.

Nick Cohen warf dem Sender Russia Today – kurz RT – im Guardian vor, ein „Propagandakanal“ zu sein, und behauptete, Russland würde „den Journalismus herabwürdigen.“ Im darauf folgenden Satz beschreibt Cohen BBC und New York Times als „seriöse Nachrichtenorganisationen.“

Cohen unterstützte den Irakkrieg mit Nachdruck; er schrieb damals, „die Linke verrät die irakische Bevölkerung, indem sie gegen den Krieg ist“, und „eine amerikanische Invasion bietet die Möglichkeit der Erlösung.“ Ihm warf man nicht vor, durch die Unterstützung dieser Verletzung des Völkerrechts „den Journalismus herab[zu]würdigen“, auch dann nicht, als er später andere Interventionen in Libyen und Syrien befürwortete.

Der Ruf der BBC, die Cohen zuvor als „seriös“ bezeichnet hatte, erhielt einen Dämpfer, als die Cardiff University enthüllte, dass der Sender in seiner Berichterstattung über die Irak-Invasion „die kriegsfreundlichste Agenda unter allen Sendern zeigte.“

Im Informationskrieg

Steven Erlanger von der New York Times beschrieb RT als „Vertreter der Kreml-Politik“, eingesetzt, um „westliche Demokratien zu unterwandern“ und „den Westen zu destabilisieren.“ Er unterließ es, diese Behauptungen durch irgendeine Form von Beweis zu belegen. Um diese Angriffe aus einer anderen Perspektive zu sehen, könnte es sich lohnen, auf einen entscheidenden Auszug aus dem First Amendment der US-Verfassung zu verweisen: „Der Kongress darf kein Gesetz erlassen, das [...] die Rede- oder Pressefreiheit beschneidet [einschränkt].“

Dieses Gesetz existiert in westlichen Demokratien nicht, doch Versuche, die Meinungsfreiheit zu beschränken, schreiten zügig voran, während Machtorgane alternative Medien zunehmend angreifen. Wir sind an einem Punkt angelangt, an dem der französische Präsident Emmanuel Macron kurz nach seinem Amtsantritt legitime Nachrichtenquellen öffentlich dafür attackierte, sie würden „wie hinterlistige Propaganda funktionieren.“

Vielleicht ist die versteckte Sorge, zum Beispiel bezüglich RT, in dessen wachsender Beliebtheit und Reichweite begründet. Der Sender kommt auf eine wöchentliche Gesamtzuschauerzahl von 70 Millionen Menschen und diese Zahl steigt. RT ist für Zuschauer in westlichen Kerngebieten wie Großbritannien und den USA verfügbar, und acht Millionen Amerikaner schauen diesen Sender jede Woche. Es ist durchaus eine beachtliche Leistung, dass ein Sender, der das Wort „Russia“ im Titel trägt, Millionen von Zuschauern anziehen kann, trotz der wachsenden Anti-Russland-Stimmung, die von den westlichen Machthabern verfochten wird.

Es spricht Bände, dass elitäre Figuren wie Hillary Clinton in der Vergangenheit geklagt haben: „Wir befinden uns in einem Informationskrieg und wir sind dabei, diesen Krieg zu verlieren.“ Zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte haben Bevölkerungen breiten Zugang zu alternativen Nachrichtenperspektiven – Sichtweisen, die sie wahrscheinlich als ausgewogener betrachten. Das unangefochtene Monopol auf die öffentliche Meinung existiert nicht mehr.

DSC_8894kl

Getty Images

By Steve Rosenberg in Moscow & Paulin Kola, London

BBC News

Thousands of people in Russia have paid their last respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader who brought the Cold War to a peaceful end.

Many queued for hours to file past his coffin in a historic hall where previous Soviet leaders lay in state.

But the man who oversaw the breakup of the USSR was not given a state funeral.

President Vladimir Putin, who has called the end of the union the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century", did not attend.

The Kremlin's official explanation: No space in his schedule.

As people made their way inside the Columned Hall of the House of Unions, sombre music played - a huge black and white portrait of Mr Gorbachev hanging from the balcony.

The former president lay in an open coffin, flanked by a guard of honour.

His daughter and other family members sat there as people lay flowers. Soon, there was a sea of red carnations.

It was here that Mr Gorbachev's predecessors, Soviet leaders like Lenin, Stalin and Brezhnev, lay in state, too.

Many Russians blame Mikhail Gorbachev for launching reforms that caused economic chaos and for letting the Soviet Union fall apart.

But in the streets around the Hall of Unions, long lines of Muscovites - young and old - queued up to pay their respects.

"Gorbachev gave us hope, helped us dream of liberty," Stanislav tells the BBC. "I hope our society is not saying goodbye to liberty."

"This is a farewell to the person who has done his utmost to save the country from authoritarianism, from backwardness," says Olga, a pensioner and long-time Gorbachev fan.

Veteran liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky was among them, saying: "These people came to Gorbachev to say 'Thank you Mr Gorbachev. You gave us a chance, but we lost this chance."

As the former leader's coffin was carried into the Novodevichy Cemetery, heading the funeral procession was his close friend and Nobel peace prize laureate Dmitry Muratov. The journalist held up a portrait of the late Soviet leader.

Lining the path to the grave were an assortment of wreaths - from Mr Gorbachev's family, his comrades, government departments and foreign embassies.

When the coffin was lowered into the grave, a military band played the Russian national anthem and a gun salute rang out in his honour.

He was buried next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999.

Mr Gorbachev died on Tuesday, aged 91.

He took power in 1985, introducing bold reforms and opening the USSR to the world.

But he was unable to prevent the collapse of the union in 1991, and many Russians blame him for the years of turmoil that ensued.

Outside Russia, he was widely respected, with the UN Secretary General António Guterres saying he had "changed the course of history", and US President Joe Biden calling him a "rare leader".

Among those filing past the coffin on Saturday, was Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban - a close ally of Mr Putin's. No other foreign leaders were known to have attended.

Another Putin ally - his predecessor Dmitry Medvedev - showed up, later to berate the West for seeking to break up Russia.

Others included the ambassadors of the US, UK and Germany.

In fact, so many Russians were keen to pay their respects that the ceremony had to be extended.

But the fact that this was not a state funeral is a sign that the current Kremlin leadership has little interest in honouring Mr Gorbachev's legacy.

It was well known that Mr Putin and Mr Gorbachev had a strained relationship - their last meeting was reportedly in 2006.

Most recently, Mr Gorbachev was said to have been unhappy with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, even though he had supported the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014.

He is seen in the West as an architect of reform who created the conditions for the end of the Cold War in 1991 - a time of deep tensions between the Soviet Union and Western nations, including the US and Britain.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 "for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations".

But in the new Russia that emerged after 1991, he was on the fringes of politics, focusing on educational and humanitarian projects.

Gorbachev made one ill-fated attempt to return to political life in 1996, receiving just 0.5% of the vote in presidential elections.

DaimlerChrysler existed from 1998 to 2007, the merger of Daimler-Benz, the maker of Mercedes-Benz autos, and the Chrysler Corporation.

One example of the cross-breeding of the two brands was the Chrysler Crossfire model. It was based on the Mercedes-Benz R170 platform on which the first M-B SLK model was built. The exterior and interior were by Chrysler. The front looked very much like its American Chrysler contemporaries. The rear end was unique. Some felt it was reminiscent of the Rambler Marlin of the mid-1960's. Other auto journalists such as Jeremy Clarkson, then of BBC's Top Gear auto program were less than kind.

The car was built as model years 2004-2008 by Karmann in Germany. Despite it being a German-engineered car built in Germany, the American public didn't flock to it with adoration, interest and awe. There was apparently a 230-day supply of them in 2005.

Chrysler is no longer associated with Daimler, but the progeny of their relatively brief union remains in the world.

BBC RADIO SERVICE

The new broadcasts will make four hours of World Service English news available every day and will reach audiences in Ukraine and parts of Russia.

Listeners in the area will be able to tune into the broadcasts at 15735 kHz from 16:00-18:00 GMT and 5875 kHz from 22:00-

00:00 GMT.

Posted at 18:5918:59

Russia significantly behind schedule - UK defence secretary

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace

EPACopyright: EPA

Earlier we heard from Russian President Vladimir Putin who said his "special military operation" in Ukraine - aka an invasion - was "going according to plan".

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has a very different take. He says Russia is significantly behind schedule.

"Despite the horrendous daily destruction and bombardment of civilian areas, and a number of these cities, Ukrainians come out in the daytime, they gauge their forces, they drive them back in some cases, and they continue to fight," he told the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Beale.

"Russia has been accumulating a significant number of not only deaths, but also desertions and people surrendering, and a significant number of armour and equipment has been destroyed," he added.

He also pointed to Russian forces' failure to take the capital, Kyiv - and poor logistical planning around vehicles and food for troops.

Of President Putin, Mr Wallace said: "He's a man wrapped in sanctions of his own making. He's a man who has broken every international law. He's a man more and more isolated."

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Edited by Jeremy Gahagan

Get involved

Send an email to

Posted at 20:2620:26

US lawmakers introduce bill to fund Ukrainians with proceeds from seized Russian assets

A yacht belonging to a Russian oligarch

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Western nations have imposed crippling sanctions on several Russian billionaires, intending to freeze or seize their assets.

Some in the US are pushing for even more sanctions targeted at allies of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

As part of that effort, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced on Thursday a unique bill that would empower the Biden administration to use the proceeds from sanctioned assets to help Ukraine.

"Typically, sanctioned assets are frozen, not permanently confiscated, an appropriate safeguard under more normal circumstances," said Representative Tom Malinowski, who is co-sponsoring the legislation.

"But in this extraordinary case, we think it would be fitting and right to use the wealth that has supported Putin to help the country he is destroying."

Malinowski added that seeing the luxury apartments, villas and yachts of oligarchs seized would "give Ukrainians and Russians who hate Putin a huge boost" in a war that is being partly defined by morale.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 18:4318:43

What are the latest developments?

A mother hugs her son at a checkpoint on the Polish border

EPACopyright: EPA

Civilians continue to make their way out of Ukraine and into neighbouring countries as the bombardment of key cities by Russia intensifies.

Here's the latest:

The UN has said that more than one million people have now fled Ukraine since the conflict began seven days ago

Russian forces have gained control of the key port city of Kherson on Ukraine's southern coast, making it the first major city to fall

Shelling continues in the strategic port city of Mariupol, and the mayor there has said that Russian forces have cut off electricity, food, water, and heating

At least 22 people have been killed in air strikes on Chernihiv, a city around 70 miles north of Kyiv

A second round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators has taken place in Belarus, with Ukraine calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians

Vladimir Putin claimed in a televised speech that the invasion was "going according to plan"

Nato is not considering a no-fly zone, the US ambassador to the bloc has said

At a press conference, Volodymyr Zelensky told Nato: "If you do not have the power to close the skies, then give me planes"

Zelensky also asked Putin for direct talks

Russia is to challenge the ban imposed on its football teams by Fifa and Uefa

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has launched an investigation into possible war crimes amid the suspected bombing of civilians by Russian forces

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Summary

Ukraine's President Zelensky has asked Vladimir Putin for one-to-one talks, saying this is the only way to end the war

He also appealed to the West to "give me planes" to fight invasion

Meanwhile Putin insists the war is "going to plan", despite taking only one major city

In Mariupol, a southern port near Ukraine's border with Russia, civilians are trapped by intense shelling

Russian forces have taken control of Kherson, also in the south

If Russia captures more southern cities, Ukrainian forces could be cut off from the sea

Kyiv remains in government control and a large Russian armoured convoy is some distance away

More than one million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began

Live Reporting

Edited by Paul Gribben

Get involved

Send an email to

Posted at 18:1118:11

Putin praises bravery of Russian troops

A bit more now on Russian President Vladimir Putin's speech this afternoon.

Speaking at a meeting of the Russian Security Council, he praised Russian troops for what he described as their "bravery" in Ukraine.

In the televised address shown on rolling news channel Rossiya 24, he listed a number of examples of Russian soldiers' "heroic" actions during the fighting against what he called "neo-Nazi" forces in Ukraine.

He added that the families of Russian soldiers who had been killed during the fighting would be compensated.

It comes after Moscow yesterday said that 498 of its soldiers had been killed so far in Ukraine - the first time it's put a number on how many of its troops have been killed since the invasion started.

Ukraine says that number is far higher.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

18:05

'Understanding' reached on evacuation corridors - Ukraine negotiator

We have some more details from the Ukraine-Russia talks.

Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak says the sides have reached an understanding on "jointly securing humanitarian corridors to evacuate peaceful civilians, and also on supplying medicine and food to the places of the most fierce fighting".

He adds there is a possibility, "I stress, with a possibility of a temporary ceasefire for the evacuation period in certain sectors".

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 17:5417:54

BREAKING

Talks end 'without results we hoped for' - Ukrainian negotiator

Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak says that "with a great regret" the latest talks between Russia and Ukraine "haven't achieved the results we were hoping for".

But he says the two sides agreed to continue negotiations in "the nearest future".

"The only thing I can say is that we discussed the humanitarian aspect in details, because quite a lot of cities are now surrounded," he says.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 17:5017:50

WATCH: Tennis player leaves family to fight for Ukraine

Watch Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky describe the moment he left his children watching cartoons to join Ukraine's reserve army.

The 36-year-old retired from tennis after the Australian Open in January.

Stakhovsky told the BBC it was a "no-win scenario" because if he stayed he wouldn't forgive himself, but now can't forgive himself for leaving.

Video content

Video caption: Ukraine: Tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky describes moment he left family to fightUkraine: Tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky describes moment he left family to fight

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

17:24

BREAKING

Russia's operation 'going according to plan' - Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his "special military operation" - otherwise known as Russia's invasion of Ukraine - is "going according to plan".

His claim comes despite many analysts suggesting the invasion has not gone to plan.

In a televised speech, he accused Ukrainian forces of taking "thousands of foreign citizens hostage" and using civilians as "human shields" - he provided no evidence for these claims.

He added that Russians and Ukrainians were "one people" and said he would "destroy this 'anti-Russia' created by the West".

Posted at 17:2017:20

Watch: Russia journalist apologises for war

The editor of a Russian news site apologised to his Ukrainian colleagues for the war, when he appeared alongside a Ukrainian journalist on the BBC.

Ivan Kolpakov has to run his independent news site, Meduza, from outside the country.

Olga Malchevska from BBC Ukrainian - who also appeared on the show - is in London. On Friday, her family home in Kyiv was hit by an attack. Her family are safe.

“I want to say sorry to my Ukrainian colleagues”, Kolpakov said on The Media Show. “I’m really sorry that we didn’t stop Russian authorities from doing that”.

Watch the full exchange below...

Social embed from twitter

ReportReport this social embed, make a complaint

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 16:5016:50

At least 22 dead after air strikes in Chernihiv

We are seeing reports of deaths and casualties in the northern city of Chernihiv, which has been subject to heavy shelling in recent days.

Ukraine's emergency state service (SES) reports 22 people have been found dead so far after air strikes hit residential buildings.

According to the BBC's Ukrainian Service, several high-rise buildings were also targeted during the shelling.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

16:42

Russia to challenge football ban imposed by Fifa and Uefa

We've just learned that the Russian Football Union says it will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to appeal against the ban from international competitions after the country's invasion of Ukraine.

More details here.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

16:27

BREAKING

Zelensky asks Putin for talks

Zelensky

EPACopyright: EPA

President Zelensky has given regular updates during the invasion (file picture)Image caption: President Zelensky has given regular updates during the invasion (file picture)

And here's more from the Ukrainian president - who said direct talks with Vladimir Putin are "the only way to stop this war".

"We are not attacking Russia and we do not plan to attack it. What do you want from us? Leave our land," he said.

"Sit down with me. Just not 30 metres away like with [French President Emmanuel Macron]," he added, referring to the long-table talks last month.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

16:19

BREAKING

Zelensky tells Nato: Send us planes

Ukraine's President Zelensky has given a news conference - where he appealed to the West to send him warplanes.

"If you do not have the power to close the skies [enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine], then give me planes," he said.

"If we are no more then, God forbid, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia will be next."

Those countries are part of the Nato defence alliance, which means if Russia invaded one it would be at war with all members.

We'll have more lines from Zelensky soon.

NEW

Posted at 14:4214:42

BREAKING

Mayor compares Mariupol blockade to Nazi siege

Mariupol strap

BBCCopyright: BBC

The mayor of Mariupol says Russian troops encircling the southern port city have created a situation similar to the deadly Nazi siege of St Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) in World War Two.

"They are trying to create a blockade here, just like in Leningrad," said Vadym Boichenko.

The city's mayor says Russian troops have cut off the city's electricity, food, water and heating.

He said "they couldn't find a way to break us. So now they are trying to prevent us from repairing electricity, water and heating supply".

Russian forces destroyed a train connection so they can't evacuate civilians, he adds.

Temperatures are forecast to drop to -2C (28 Fahrenheit) this coming weekend.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 14:1614:16

Watch: Long queues to withdraw money in Moscow

Video content

Video caption: Russia: Long queues of people wanting to withdraw money in MoscowRussia: Long queues of people wanting to withdraw money in Moscow

This video, filmed on Thursday lunchtime in the Russian capital, shows a long queue of people waiting to withdraw money – as fears continue over the impact of financial sanctions.

One man hunting for euros or dollars tells the BBC that he had tried seven different cash machines.

Posted at 13:5713:57

What will the war crimes investigation involve?

Anna Holligan

BBC News Hague correspondent

Russia faces a war crimes investigation after a record referral from 39 countries. It's evidence of international concern but it's more than just symbolic, it means the investigation can begin immediately.

In fact, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan told the BBC he has already despatched a team to the region, to start gathering and preserving any evidence of atrocities that fall within the court's jurisdiction - which covers war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, anything that violates the Geneva Conventions.

For example, the indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, deliberately targeting civilians or buildings that have no military link; like the concert venue in Kharkiv, and TV tower in Kyiv.

Plus, the use of weapons that are imprecise and could result in civilian casualties, like cluster munitions or vacuum bombs, which Ukraine's ambassador to the US accused Moscow of deploying - an allegation the Kremlin has denied.

The ICC investigators will be collecting clues to build a picture on the ground, establish a chain of command and eventually bring charges against the people at the top giving the orders and orchestrating this invasion.

Russia isn't a member of the ICC so any Russian nationals would have to be extradited to face justice in The Hague.

But as history tells us, leaders who seem all powerful, untouchable today, may not be so tomorrow.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 13:2413:24

Protests continue in Russia - but what effect might they have?

Jenny Hill

BBC correspondent in Moscow

A young woman with her hands up is escorted away by two police officers in Saint Petersburg

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Every day since Russia invaded Ukraine, people have protested in the street, disgusted by the aggression perpetrated in the name of their country.

Many are dragged off and detained by police; this morning the authorities warned again that taking part in an unsanctioned protest (protests are rarely sanctioned here) where there is "violence" can result in up to eight years in prison.

The West hopes that popular discontent, exacerbated by public anger as sanctions start to take effect, might be enough to deter Vladimir Putin from his course.

It’s hard to see, in the short term at least, how that will happen.

The Kremlin is stifling independent reporting and state TV, which does not show the full extent of hostilities, parrots its narrative: that this is not a war, but a "special military operation" to - in its (unjustifiable) words - "de-Nazify" the country.

The Kremlin celebrates Russian soldiers killed in action as heroes. The pain imposed by sanctions will, presumably, be presented as another example of Western aggression.

The other calculation - that those sanctions and international isolation might catalyse other more influential figures to remonstrate with Putin - seems not impossible but still rather fanciful at this stage; most analysts acknowledge that the Russian president has made himself so powerful that few dare stand up to him.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

13:22

BREAKING

Putin tells Macron Ukraine 'demilitarisation' will be achieved

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that the goals of Russia's operation in Ukraine - its demilitarisation and neutral status - will be achieved, the Kremlin has said.

The pair shared a 90 minute call earlier on Thursday.

Putin said that any attempts by Kyiv to delay negotiations would result in Moscow adding to its list of demands.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

13:01

'We have nowhere to run in Kharkiv - and we don't want to'

Kharkiv graphic

BBCCopyright: BBC

Andrew Licholit, from Kharkiv, has joined the city's militia and says he is "helping the regular army and the police to defend and observe the borders of the city".

He says he joined up last week following the invasion, having previously served between 2015 and 2018 in the Donbas conflict.

"The situation right now is controllable, we’re controlling it," he says. "But the Russians are committing literal military crimes.

"They’re committing air assaults on parts of our city which don’t have any military targets there."

Andrew Licholit

Andrew LicholitCopyright: Andrew Licholit

He says the Russians are using people in the city to place marks on targets for strikes and says one of the militia's roles is to track these people down and capture them if possible.

"Right now, I know that we are fighting a big, powerful army. But this is our home and we don't have anywhere to go. We don't have anywhere to run. And actually we don’t want to," he says.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

It has been a week since Russia invaded Ukraine and attacks are intensifying on key cities - although only one major city has fallen.

Here's some of what has happened today:

Russian forces have taken control of the key port city of Kherson, in the south of Ukraine. It is the first major city to be captured by Russian troops

More than a million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion began last Thursday, the UN says, with more than 500,000 of those heading to neighbouring Poland

An investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine has been launched by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague

Several cities have come under intense shelling, including Mariupol - where the mayor has warned that the wounded cannot be helped due to the sustained bombardments

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that a third world war would be nuclear, but he says this is not something Russians are thinking about

The capital, Kyiv, remains in government control, although there have been several large explosions, and a large Russian armoured convoy remains some distance away - with the US saying it has stalled due to fuel shortages

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

10:42

Investigators assessing claims of war crimes

As we've been reporting, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has begun gathering evidence of possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.

ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan says he opened an immediate investigation after being urged to do so by 39 nations.

It will cover allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and would extend to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, he said.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC but Kyiv has accepted the court's jurisdiction.

Khan said it is important that an investigation take place: "Directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects amounts to a war crime. That's very clear.

"And even if attacks are aimed at military objectives but the weapons used are wide-use weapons that are not precise, it may also amount to a war crime as they are likely to cause excessive civilian harm."

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Summary

It's been one week since Russia invaded its neighbour, Ukraine, and attacks are intensifying on key cities

Russian forces have taken control of Kherson in the south - the first major city to fall

If they capture more southern cities, Ukrainian forces could be cut off from the sea

In Mariupol, a strategic port near the Russian border, hundreds are feared killed by shelling

Kyiv remains in government control and a large Russian armoured convoy remains some distance away

More than one million people have already fled the country, the UN says

Vladimir Putin's foreign minister warns a third world war would be nuclear but says Russians are not thinking about this

Russian and Belarusian athletes are barred from the Winter Paralympics

Posted at 10:1510:15

Ukrainian tennis star: 'I have a gun and I'm prepared to use it'

Ukrainian tennis player Sergiy Stakhovsky says he's returned to his home country to fight against the Russian invasion.

Speaking to Radio 5 Live, he says he doesn't have any experience of fighting - but wants to "defend what's ours, defend our country".

"Putin has made it much easier for Ukrainians to join [the military reservists] because he's decided Ukraine never existed," he says.

"I have a gun and I'm prepared to use it."

10:11

Get ready to pay reparations, Zelensky tells Russians

And another line from the Ukrainian president: after days of shelling in Ukraine's cities, Zelensky vows that the country will be rebuilt - and says Russia will learn about "reparations".

"Even if you destroy all our Ukrainian cathedrals and churches, you will not destroy our faith, our sincere belief in Ukraine and God, belief in people," he says.

"We will rebuild every single house, every single street, every single city."

"And we are telling Russia - learn the words 'reparations' and 'contributions'. You will pay back fully to us for what you've done against our state, against our every single Ukrainian."

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Live Reporting

Edited by Owen Amos

Get involved

Send an email to

Posted at 10:0610:06

Zelensky: Another virus has attacked us

And here's more from Ukrainian President Zelensky's latest video update.

He refers directly to Vladimir Putin, telling the Russian president to: "Go home. To your home."

He says Putin should defend the Russian-speaking people - not around the whole world - "but in your home".

"There are quite a few of them there too. About 150 million."

This appears to be a reference to Moscow's claim that their action is in defence of Russian-speaking people in parts of Ukraine.

Zelensky also likens Russia's invasion to a virus, saying it has been two years since Ukraine recorded its first Covid case: "It's been a week now that another virus attacked."

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Analysis

Posted at 10:0310:03

The most dangerous moments still lie ahead

Fergal Keane

BBC News, Lviv

The most dangerous moments of this conflict are ahead. The Russian advance is going slower and meeting far greater resistance than President Putin expected. There are severe problems of logistics, command, morale and fighting effectiveness. But the Russians will grind on. As they do the civilian casualties in areas hit by shelling will mount.

While Western sanctions and boycotts have shown a rare degree of unanimity they will take time to have an effect. They will not stop this war. That is because it has become an existential struggle for Vladimir Putin. If he loses he knows his days in power are surely numbered. The possibility of being overthrown or facing an international criminal tribunal will be on his mind.

His goal is to remove the government in Kyiv and install a puppet regime. Anything short of that leaves him vulnerable to an unending resistance in Ukraine. To those who know the country and how it has changed over the past eight years, his goal of suppression seems very unrealistic, even if he gains a short-term military victory.

Still, at this stage, he has every reason to continue prosecuting his war, however great the cost in lives.

The Ukrainians have shown themselves to be more than savvy in the information war. They are quick to adapt and are innovative in the military confrontations. They fight as people who fear to lose their homeland to a foreign invader. But facing a military force with immense superiority in numbers, their best hope is to pull the Russians into a draining war of attrition.

As more cities are shelled and Russia piles suffering on civilians, as details of war crimes emerge, how do the allies respond when sanctions cannot make the artillery fall silent? Having ruled out a military involvement, for fear of a horrendous wider European war, the West will have to consider how it responds to the sight of besieged cities under Russian bombardment.

There are no easy answers. We are truly in an unknown landscape.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

This bloke Lavrov is as mad as putin unless he is reading putins words ......

Posted at 9:559:55

Lavrov compares US to Hitler for 'subjugating Europe'

Sergei Lavrov

BBCCopyright: BBC

We have some more from Sergei Lavrov.

He repeats the Russian claim that the Ukrainian government is a neo-Nazi regime and says gangs are looting towns and cities, including in Mariupol. The BBC has seen no evidence to support these claims.

Lavrov also says the Ukrainians are "now trying to use civilians as human shields".

He repeatedly refers to Hollywood and says that people should not "just look at this Hollywood movie" written by the Western media "where there is an ultimate evil".

The Russian foreign minister also says that Nato is trying to bolster the West's security at the cost of Russia's.

He compares the US to Napoleon and Hitler, saying "back in the days, Napoleon and Hitler had a goal to subjugate Europe - now Americans do so".

He says the cancelling of the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline "shows the place" of the EU, suggesting the US was behind the decision.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 9:489:48

More than 575,000 Ukrainians have fled to Poland

As we have been reporting, more than one million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion, according to the UN.

The EU estimates that up to four million people may try to leave the country in total.

Poland has so far taken in more than 575,000 people since the conflict began, the Polish Border Guard agency says.

The agency said 95,000 people had entered Poland from Ukraine on Wednesday alone, slightly down from Monday’s record high of 100,000.

By 06:00 GMT today, another 27,100 people had crossed the border, it added.

Poland is home to a large Ukrainian community that is estimated to be between one and two million, and many people fleeing the war have gone to stay with family or friends.

Those with nowhere to stay are being transported to makeshift accommodation centres in fire stations and sports halls across the country.

Many Poles are also offering to house refugees in their own homes.

Map showing countries Ukrainian refugees are fleeing to

BBCCopyright: BBC

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 9:399:39

BREAKING

No respite in Russia's shelling of cities since midnight - Zelensky

President Volodymyr Zelensky

Volodymyr ZelenskyCopyright: Volodymyr Zelensky

Meanwhile, as Sergei Lavrov speaks in Moscow, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has released a new video.

He claims Ukraine's defence lines are holding up, but says there has been no let up in Russia's shelling of cities since midnight.

He says the change in Russia's tactic - to targeting of civilian areas - shows that Ukraine has been successful in resisting Moscow's plan for a quick victory via land assault.

"We have nothing to lose but our own freedom," Zelensky says, adding that Ukraine is getting daily arms supplies from its international allies.

His comments come after an investigation into possible war crimes was launched, with Russia accused of bombing civilians.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 9:369:36

BREAKING

Lavrov: Third World War would be nuclear

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is giving a news conference in Moscow.

He says that US President Joe Biden has said the only alternative to sanctions is a third world war - and Lavrov goes on to say that a third world war could only be "nuclear war".

He says that is only in the heads of Western politicians - and is not in the heads of the Russian people.

"If real war is waged against us then those who make such plans should think about it [and] in my opinion such plans are being made," he says.

We'll bring you more lines from Lavrov's conference soon.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 9:209:20

Watch: Kyiv explosions captured by TV crew

Some more footage now of the explosions that rocked Kyiv overnight - this time caught by a CBS News crew finishing off a segment.

Charlie d'Agata was visibly caught off guard by the blasts, which he likened to lightning.

The correspondent is in Kyiv for the BBC's US partner CBS.

Social embed from twitter

ReportReport this social embed, make a complaint

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 9:139:13

H&M and Spotify among latest to pull out of Russia

Will Vernon

BBC News, Moscow

The list of international companies and organisations that are curtailing or ceasing operations in Russia continues.

The latest: the World Bank, Spotify, H&M, Citigroup.

H&M announced today it is ceasing all sales in Russia. The chain is hugely popular in the country, with over 155 stores, placing Russia in the top ten countries in the world by number of outlets.

The World Bank has announced it is halting all programmes in Russia and Belarus with immediate effect.

The bank had already scaled down its operations significantly since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, not approving any new lending since then.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 9:049:04

Kherson residents 'need food and medical aid'

Another Kherson resident tells Today he has opened a volunteer centre to help people with food, water and medicine as the city falls under Russian control.

Speaking on the BBC Today programme, he says food supplies are insufficient and there are many wounded civilians who need to be taken out of the city for treatment.

He says the Russians are "not allowing the Red Cross to bring medicine and ambulances to help people".

"I have already had this experience in Donetsk in 2014 and I came here to Kherson," he adds.

"I think in a couple of years we will have a completely different Ukraine and it will be a completely free Ukraine, not under Russia."

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 9:039:03

Kherson: 'In our souls we are not afraid of Russia'

A military tank is seen on a street of Kherson on 1 March

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

We've been reporting that Russian forces have seized control of the key southern port city of Kherson – the first major Ukrainian city to be taken since the start of the invasion.

One resident sheltering at home in the city with his family says the locals are "not afraid" of the Russian soldiers.

He tells the BBC's Today programme: "Since the start of the war I went outside only once – just for 10 minutes – to the supermarket downstairs to get some food.

"I just look out of the window and see the Russian soldiers and Russian tanks, and I read all the local news, I just don’t go outside because it’s really dangerous now."

He says other locals had been approaching the soldiers on the street and telling them to leave.

"People are not afraid of the soldiers – in our souls we are not afraid of Russia.

"The soldiers are saying: 'Guys, we don't like the situation too – we will not touch you and maybe in a couple of days we will leave, we are waiting for an order'.

"From their behaviour it’s clear they're unhappy to be here."

He says the Ukrainian flag remains above the city's government building.

"It's a strange situation when the city is occupied but nothing apart from the Russian army [presence] shows it’s under control."

Graphic showing sothern Ukraine

BBCCopyright: BBC

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 8:448:44

Russian schoolchildren to learn about war's 'necessity'

Children evacuated from the separatist Donbas region begin lessons in Volgograd

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Children evacuated from the separatist Donbas region of eastern Ukraine begin lessons in VolgogradImage caption: Children evacuated from the separatist Donbas region of eastern Ukraine begin lessons in Volgograd

Russia's education ministry has announced that schoolchildren throughout the nation will be given a virtual lesson on "why the liberation mission in Ukraine is a necessity".

The broadcasted instruction will take place at 12:00 Moscow time (09:00GMT) on Thursday.

Viewers will be taught "about the danger Nato represents to our country" and "why Russia stood up for the protection of the civilians of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics".

A statement on the ministry's Facebook page said children will also learn "how to distinguish the truth from lies in the huge stream of information, photos and videos that are flooding the internet today".

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 8:278:27

France asks citizens to leave Russia

The French government is telling its citizens to leave Russia in light of the escalating conflict if their presence there is not "essential".

Other countries have similar travel advisories in place.

The UK Foreign Office "advises against all travel to the whole of Russia" due to difficulties in leaving the country and what it describes as the "increased volatility" of the Russian economy.

The US State Department is advising the same. It cites multiple factors including "the potential for harassment against US citizens by Russian government security officials".

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 8:158:15

Explosions now the soundtrack of Kyiv

Lyse Doucet

Chief International Correspondent, in Kyiv

It’s day eight of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Just past midnight in Kyiv, the air raid siren blared yet again. The quiet in the dead of night was shattered by several large explosions.

This is the soundtrack of this city now. In a capital where many can’t sleep, images were posted on social media of a huge orange fireball lighting the sky.

The day dawned very cold, grey. It’s another morning where residents of Kyiv hear that Moscow's mammoth armoured convoy on the edge of city is still stalled.

"The column has made little discernible progress in over three days," Ukraine’s defence ministry said in a statement.

Reports speak of possible shortages of food and fuel, of wheels stuck in the mud, of restive Russian forces, and Ukrainian resistance.

On the rim of a beleaguered city, there are reports of heavy fighting and roads are strewn with burnt and blackened carcasses of military vehicles.

Across Ukraine, mayors send updates of their cities' desperate plight.

Mayor Igor Kolykhaiev, who once presided over the southern port city of Kherson, posted a message on Facebook informing residents that the Ukrainian flag still flies over their city, but there were no Ukrainian forces.

He told invading troops, who now control the first major city, "not to shoot people".

Mayor Vadym Boychenko of Mariupol, now under intense shelling and a deepening humanitarian catastrophe, reported that Russian attacks were being repelled "with dignity".

More than a million Ukrainians have fled; many more keep fighting as Russia advances and attacks with devastating force in the north, east, and south of the country.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 8:088:08

More on Russia and Belarus Paralympics ban

Paralympics in Beijing

Thomas Lovelock for OIS/PACopyright: Thomas Lovelock for OIS/PA

Some more details now on the breaking news that athletes from Russia and Belarus have both been banned from competing in the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, due to start tomorrow.

A statement on Thursday from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said the "situation in the athlete villages is escalating and ensuring the safety of athletes has become untenable".

The initial IPC decision to allow 71 Russians and 12 Belarusians to compete as neutrals drew heavy criticism.

"We are very firm believers that sport and politics should not mix," IPC president Andrew Parsons said in a statement today.

"However, by no fault of its own the war has now come to these Games and behind the scenes many governments are having an influence on our cherished event."

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 8:008:00

We can't even take wounded from the streets - Mariupol mayor

Will Vernon

BBC News, Moscow

The port city of Mariupol on the Black Sea coast continues to come under sustained attack.

The mayor of the city has made a desperate video address, saying: "We cannot even take the wounded from the streets, from apartments, since the shelling does not stop."

The Russian Defence Ministry has urged civilians to leave the city via a so-called ‘green corridor.’

Today, a pro-Russian rebel spokesman said they would launch "targeted strikes" against the city unless Ukrainian forces there surrender.

South-east Ukraine

BBCCopyright: BBC

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 7:447:44

UK intelligence: Russian advance on Kyiv slowing

Convoy viewed from satellite

2022 MAXAR TECHNOLOGIESCopyright: 2022 MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES

Russian military convoy 80km north of Kyiv pictured on 28 FebruaryImage caption: Russian military convoy 80km north of Kyiv pictured on 28 February

Little progress has been made in the last three days by the long convoy of Russian forces approaching Kyiv, according to a British military intelligence assessment.

The main body of the military column, which is approaching the capital from its north, "remains over 30km from the centre of the city having been delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown and congestion".

The defence ministry update also adds that the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol remain under Ukrainian control.

On Russia's casualty figures, the UK predicts that the actual numbers are "considerably higher" than the 498 killed and 1,597 wounded declared so far by Moscow.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 7:327:32

Adviser: Occupied Ukraine needs outside aid

An adviser to the Ukrainian president says "humanitarian corridors" should be set up into occupied parts of the country to allow humanitarian aid from international organisations to reach them.

Mykhailo Podolyak also accuses Russian forces of allowing the Ukrainian areas under their control to become "places of looting, robbery, murder".

Social embed from twitter

ReportReport this social embed, make a complaint

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 7:207:20

BREAKING

Russia and Belarus banned from 2022 Paralympics

Athletes from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to compete at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, the International Paralympic Committee has said.

We will bring you more on this as it unfolds.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 7:007:00

What’s the latest in Ukraine?

Ukrainian military members stand guard at Independence Square, in Kyiv

EPACopyright: EPA

If you're just joining us, here's an update of what we know on day eight of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

In Kyiv:

Four major explosions in the past few hours have been captured on video by witnesses, but it’s unclear what the targets were of if there were casualties

BBC correspondents say the blasts could be heard from two storeys underground in their bunker

A US defence official says a massive convoy of Russian military vehicles close to Kyiv has "stalled" due to fuel and food shortages

In the south:

Russian forces have seized control of the key port city of Kherson, according to local officials. It's the first major Ukrainian city to be taken since the invasion began

In the port city of Mariupol, hundreds of people are feared dead following hours of sustained shelling, the city's deputy mayor says. Ukraine's military claims the city remains in Ukrainian hands

In the northeast:

There has also been heavy shelling of the country's second city, Kharkhiv

In other developments:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a late-night video, praising the courage of citizens in defending their country

More than one million people have now fled Ukraine since the start of the invasion, the UN says, with the number rising rapidly

An investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine has been launched by the International Criminal Court in The Hague

Russia has for the first time said it sustained heavy military casualties during its attack on Ukraine, with 498 troops killed and a further 1,597 injured. Ukraine has claimed that far more Russian troops have been killed. The BBC cannot independently verify these claims.

Graphic showing areas controlled by Russia

BBCCopyright: BBC

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 6:466:46

Russians must pay 30% commission on foreign currency

In a sign that Russia's central bank is trying to stop people from selling their roubles, it has reportedly made it more expensive for individuals to buy foreign currencies.

It has imposed a 30% commission on such purchases on currency exchanges, Reuters reports.

The central bank did not immediately reply to the news agency for a request for comment.

Yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin announced emergency measures to try and prop up the Russian rouble, including banning Russians from transferring money abroad, after the currency crashed to a record low.

In recent days many ordinary Russians have been racing to withdraw cash.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 6:216:21

Time magazine cover pays tribute to Zelensky and Ukraine

Many Ukrainians are sharing Time magazine's latest cover, which features a quote from President Volodymyr Zelensky atop the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Above t

The main entrance to Melford Hall, a National Trust estate, near Long Melford, in Suffolk, England.

Please:- No group invites!

Long Melford, colloquially and historically also referred to as Melford, is a large village and civil parish in the Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by the River Stour, just 3 miles (4.8 km) from Sudbury, approximately 16 miles (26 km) from Colchester and 14 miles (23 km) from Bury St Edmunds. It is one of Suffolk's "wool towns" and is a former market town. The parish also includes the hamlets of Bridge Street and Cuckoo Tye. Its name is derived from the nature of the village's layout (originally concentrated along a 3-mile stretch of a single road) and the Mill ford crossing the Chad Brook (a tributary of the River Stour). Prehistoric finds discovered in 2011 have shown that early settlement of what is now known as Long Melford dates back to the Mesolithic period, up to 8300 BC. In addition, Iron Age finds were made in the same year, and again were found within the largely central area of the current village. The Romans constructed two roads through Long Melford, the main one running from Chelmsford to Pakenham. Roman remains were discovered in a gravel pit in 1828, a site now occupied by the village's football club. In 1997 Roman finds were uncovered including complete skeletons with one in a stone coffin, part of the original Roman Road, complete Samian pottery in a villager's garden. In June 2013, some archaeological evidence of a Saxon and Bronze Age settlement in the northern area of the village was discovered by Carenza Lewis and her team from Cambridge University, during a student dig. The Church of the Holy Trinity is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity. The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, former Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011. Melford Hall is a stately home in the village of Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is the ancestral seat of the Parker Baronets. The hall was mostly constructed in the 16th century, incorporating parts of a medieval building held by the abbots of Bury St Edmunds which had been in use since before 1065. It has similar roots to nearby Kentwell Hall. It passed from the abbots during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and was later granted by Queen Mary to Sir William Cordell. From Cordell it passed via his sister to Thomas and Mary Savage before being sold back into another male Cordell line. In 1786 it was sold to Harry Parker, son of Admiral Hyde Parker. Beatrix Potter was a cousin of the family and was a frequent visitor to the hall from the 1890s onwards. One wing of the hall was gutted by fire in February 1942 but rebuilt after World War II, retaining the external Tudor brickwork with 1950s interior design. The hall was first opened to the public in 1955 by Ulla, Lady Hyde Parker. In 1960 it passed into the care of the National Trust. It is generally open on weekend afternoons in April and October, and on afternoons from Wednesday to Sunday during May to September. The Hall grounds host a number of events including the "Big Night Out" every November to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night and from 2013 the annual LeeStock Music Festival

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interestingly, both of the Boston area Banksy pieces are on Essex St:

• F̶O̶L̶L̶O̶W̶ ̶Y̶O̶U̶R̶ ̶D̶R̶E̶A̶M̶S̶ CANCELLED (aka chimney sweep) in Chinatown, Boston

• NO LOITRIN in Central Square, Cambridge.

Does that mean anything? It looks like he favors Essex named streets & roads when he can. In 2008, he did another notable Essex work in London, for example, and posters on the Banksy Forums picked up & discussed on the Essex link as well.

Is there an Essex Street in any of the other nearby towns? It looks like there are several: Brookline, Charlestown, Chelsea, Gloucester, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lynn, Medford, Melrose, Quincy, Revere, Salem, Saugus, Somerville, Swampscott, and Waltham. Most of these seem improbable to me, other than maybe Brookline, or maybe Somerville or Charlestown. But they start getting pretty suburban after that.

But, again, why "Essex"? In a comment on this photo, Birbeck helps clarify:

I can only surmise that he's having a 'dig' at Essex UK, especially with the misspelling of 'Loitering'. Here, the general view of the urban districts in Essex: working class but with right wing views; that they're not the most intellectual bunch; rather obsessed with fashion (well, their idea of it); their place of worship is the shopping mall; enjoy rowdy nights out; girls are thought of as being dumb, fake blonde hair/tans and promiscuous; and guys are good at the 'chit chat', and swagger around showing off their dosh (money).

It was also the region that once had Europe's largest Ford motor factory. In its heyday, 1 in 3 British cars were made in Dagenham, Essex. Pay was good for such unskilled labour, generations worked mind-numbing routines on assembly lines for 80 years. In 2002 the recession ended the dream.

• • • • •

This photo appeared on Grafitti - A arte das ruas on Yahoo Meme. Yes, Yahoo has a Tumblr/Posterous-esque "Meme" service now -- I was as surprised as you are.

• • • • •

Banksy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Banksy

• Birth name

Unknown

• Born

1974 or 1975 (1974 or 1975), Bristol, UK[1]

• Nationality

British

• Field

Graffiti

Street Art

Bristol underground scene

Sculpture

• Movement

Anti-Totalitarianism

Anti-capitalism

Pacifism

Anti-War

Anarchism

Atheism

Anti-Fascism

• Works

Naked Man Image

One Nation Under CCTV

Anarchist Rat

Ozone's Angel

Pulp Fiction

Banksy is a pseudonymous[2][3][4] British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol[2] and to have been born in 1974,[5] but his identity is unknown.[6] According to Tristan Manco[who?], Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier technician, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s."[7] His artworks are often satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world.[8] Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.

Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti.[9] Art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder.[10]

Banksy's first film, Exit Through The Gift Shop, billed as "the world's first street art disaster movie", made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.[11] The film was released in the UK on March 5.[12]

Contents

• 1 Career

•• 1.1 2000

•• 1.2 2002

•• 1.3 2003

•• 1.4 2004

•• 1.5 2005

•• 1.6 2006

•• 1.7 2007

•• 1.8 2008

•• 1.9 2009

•• 1.10 2010

• 2 Notable art pieces

• 3 Technique

• 4 Identity

• 5 Controversy

• 6 Bibliography

• 7 References

• 8 External links

Career

Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist 1992–1994[14] as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), with Kato and Tes.[15] He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene. From the start he used stencils as elements of his freehand pieces, too.[14] By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a piece. He claims he changed to stencilling whilst he was hiding from the police under a train carriage, when he noticed the stencilled serial number[16] and by employing this technique, he soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London.[16]

Stencil on the waterline of The Thekla, an entertainment boat in central Bristol - (wider view). The image of Death is based on a 19th century etching illustrating the pestilence of The Great Stink.[17]

Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects often include rats, monkeys, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly.

In late 2001, on a trip to Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, he met up with the Gen-X pastellist, visual activist, and recluse James DeWeaver in Byron Bay[clarification needed], where he stencilled a parachuting rat with a clothes peg on its nose above a toilet at the Arts Factory Lodge. This stencil can no longer be located. He also makes stickers (the Neighbourhood Watch subvert) and sculpture (the murdered phone-box), and was responsible for the cover art of Blur's 2003 album Think Tank.

2000

The album cover for Monk & Canatella's Do Community Service was conceived and illustrated by Banksy, based on his contribution to the "Walls on fire" event in Bristol 1998.[18][citation needed]

2002

On 19 July 2002, Banksy's first Los Angeles exhibition debuted at 33 1/3 Gallery, a small Silverlake venue owned by Frank Sosa. The exhibition, entitled Existencilism, was curated by 33 1/3 Gallery, Malathion, Funk Lazy Promotions, and B+.[19]

2003

In 2003 in an exhibition called Turf War, held in a warehouse, Banksy painted on animals. Although the RSPCA declared the conditions suitable, an animal rights activist chained herself to the railings in protest.[20] He later moved on to producing subverted paintings; one example is Monet's Water Lily Pond, adapted to include urban detritus such as litter and a shopping trolley floating in its reflective waters; another is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, redrawn to show that the characters are looking at a British football hooligan, dressed only in his Union Flag underpants, who has just thrown an object through the glass window of the cafe. These oil paintings were shown at a twelve-day exhibition in Westbourne Grove, London in 2005.[21]

2004

In August 2004, Banksy produced a quantity of spoof British £10 notes substituting the picture of the Queen's head with Princess Diana's head and changing the text "Bank of England" to "Banksy of England." Someone threw a large wad of these into a crowd at Notting Hill Carnival that year, which some recipients then tried to spend in local shops. These notes were also given with invitations to a Santa's Ghetto exhibition by Pictures on Walls. The individual notes have since been selling on eBay for about £200 each. A wad of the notes were also thrown over a fence and into the crowd near the NME signing tent at The Reading Festival. A limited run of 50 signed posters containing ten uncut notes were also produced and sold by Pictures on Walls for £100 each to commemorate the death of Princess Diana. One of these sold in October 2007 at Bonhams auction house in London for £24,000.

2005

In August 2005, Banksy, on a trip to the Palestinian territories, created nine images on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier. He reportedly said "The Israeli government is building a wall surrounding the occupied Palestinian territories. It stands three times the height of the Berlin Wall and will eventually run for over 700km—the distance from London to Zurich. "[22]

2006

• Banksy held an exhibition called Barely Legal, billed as a "three day vandalised warehouse extravaganza" in Los Angeles, on the weekend of 16 September. The exhibition featured a live "elephant in a room", painted in a pink and gold floral wallpaper pattern.[23]

• After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000,[24] on 19 October 2006 a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sotheby's London for £50,400, setting an auction record for Banksy's work. The six silk-screen prints, featuring the model painted in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe pictures, sold for five times their estimated value. His stencil of a green Mona Lisa with real paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction.[25]

• In December, journalist Max Foster coined the phrase, "the Banksy Effect", to illustrate how interest in other street artists was growing on the back of Banksy's success.[26]

2007

• On 21 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three works, reaching the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction: over £102,000 for his Bombing Middle England. Two of his other graffiti works, Balloon Girl and Bomb Hugger, sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively, which were well above their estimated prices.[27] The following day's auction saw a further three Banksy works reach soaring prices: Ballerina With Action Man Parts reached £96,000; Glory sold for £72,000; Untitled (2004) sold for £33,600; all significantly above estimated values.[28] To coincide with the second day of auctions, Banksy updated his website with a new image of an auction house scene showing people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit."[6]

• In February 2007, the owners of a house with a Banksy mural on the side in Bristol decided to sell the house through Red Propeller art gallery after offers fell through because the prospective buyers wanted to remove the mural. It is listed as a mural which comes with a house attached.[29]

• In April 2007, Transport for London painted over Banksy's iconic image of a scene from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns. Although the image was very popular, Transport for London claimed that the "graffiti" created "a general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime" and their staff are "professional cleaners not professional art critics".[30] Banksy tagged the same site again (pictured at right). This time the actors were portrayed as holding real guns instead of bananas, but they were adorned with banana costumes. Banksy made a tribute art piece over this second Pulp Fiction piece. The tribute was for 19-year-old British graffiti artist Ozone, who was hit by an underground train in Barking, East London, along with fellow artist Wants, on 12 January 2007.[31] The piece was of an angel wearing a bullet-proof vest, holding a skull. He also wrote a note on his website, saying:

The last time I hit this spot I painted a crap picture of two men in banana costumes waving hand guns. A few weeks later a writer called Ozone completely dogged it and then wrote 'If it's better next time I'll leave it' in the bottom corner. When we lost Ozone we lost a fearless graffiti writer and as it turns out a pretty perceptive art critic. Ozone - rest in peace.[citation needed]

Ozone's Angel

• On 27 April 2007, a new record high for the sale of Banksy's work was set with the auction of the work Space Girl & Bird fetching £288,000 (US$576,000), around 20 times the estimate at Bonhams of London.[32]

• On 21 May 2007 Banksy gained the award for Art's Greatest living Briton. Banksy, as expected, did not turn up to collect his award, and continued with his notoriously anonymous status.

• On 4 June 2007, it was reported that Banksy's The Drinker had been stolen.[33][34]

• In October 2007, most of his works offered for sale at Bonhams auction house in London sold for more than twice their reserve price.[35]

• Banksy has published a "manifesto" on his website.[36] The text of the manifesto is credited as the diary entry of one Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin, DSO, which is exhibited in the Imperial War Museum. It describes how a shipment of lipstick to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp immediately after its liberation at the end of World War II helped the internees regain their humanity. However, as of 18 January 2008, Banksy's Manifesto has been substituted with Graffiti Heroes #03 that describes Peter Chappell's graffiti quest of the 1970s that worked to free George Davis of his imprisonment.[37] By 12 August 2009 he was relying on Emo Phillips' "When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness."

• A small number of Banksy's works can be seen in the movie Children of Men, including a stenciled image of two policemen kissing and another stencil of a child looking down a shop.

• In the 2007 film Shoot 'Em Up starring Clive Owen, Banksy's tag can be seen on a dumpster in the film's credits.

• Banksy, who deals mostly with Lazarides Gallery in London, claims that the exhibition at Vanina Holasek Gallery in New York (his first major exhibition in that city) is unauthorised. The exhibition featured 62 of his paintings and prints.[38]

2008

• In March, a stencilled graffiti work appeared on Thames Water tower in the middle of the Holland Park roundabout, and it was widely attributed to Banksy. It was of a child painting the tag "Take this Society" in bright orange. London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham spokesman, Councillor Greg Smith branded the art as vandalism, and ordered its immediate removal, which was carried out by H&F council workmen within three days.[39]

• Over the weekend 3–5 May in London, Banksy hosted an exhibition called The Cans Festival. It was situated on Leake Street, a road tunnel formerly used by Eurostar underneath London Waterloo station. Graffiti artists with stencils were invited to join in and paint their own artwork, as long as it didn't cover anyone else's.[40] Artists included Blek le Rat, Broken Crow, C215, Cartrain, Dolk, Dotmasters, J.Glover, Eine, Eelus, Hero, Pure evil, Jef Aérosol, Mr Brainwash, Tom Civil and Roadsworth.[citation needed]

• In late August 2008, marking the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the associated levee failure disaster, Banksy produced a series of works in New Orleans, Louisiana, mostly on buildings derelict since the disaster.[41]

• A stencil painting attributed to Banksy appeared at a vacant petrol station in the Ensley neighbourhood of Birmingham, Alabama on 29 August as Hurricane Gustav approached the New Orleans area. The painting depicting a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan hanging from a noose was quickly covered with black spray paint and later removed altogether.[42]

• His first official exhibition in New York, the "Village Pet Store And Charcoal Grill," opened 5 October 2008. The animatronic pets in the store window include a mother hen watching over her baby Chicken McNuggets as they peck at a barbecue sauce packet, and a rabbit putting makeup on in a mirror.[43]

• The Westminster City Council stated in October 2008 that the work "One Nation Under CCTV", painted in April 2008 will be painted over as it is graffiti. The council says it will remove any graffiti, regardless of the reputation of its creator, and specifically stated that Banksy "has no more right to paint graffiti than a child". Robert Davis, the chairman of the council planning committee told The Times newspaper: "If we condone this then we might as well say that any kid with a spray can is producing art". [44] The work was painted over in April 2009.

• In December 2008, The Little Diver, a Banksy image of a diver in a duffle coat in Melbourne Australia was vandalised. The image was protected by a sheet of clear perspex, however silver paint was poured behind the protective sheet and later tagged with the words "Banksy woz ere". The image was almost completely destroyed.[45].

2009

• May 2009, parts company with agent Steve Lazarides. Announces Pest Control [46] the handling service who act on his behalf will be the only point of sale for new works.

• On 13 June 2009, the Banksy UK Summer show opened at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, featuring more than 100 works of art, including animatronics and installations; it is his largest exhibition yet, featuring 78 new works.[47][48] Reaction to the show was positive, with over 8,500 visitors to the show on the first weekend.[49] Over the course of the twelve weeks, the exhibition has been visited over 300,000 times.[50]

• In September 2009, a Banksy work parodying the Royal Family was partially destroyed by Hackney Council after they served an enforcement notice for graffiti removal to the former address of the property owner. The mural had been commissioned for the 2003 Blur single "Crazy Beat" and the property owner, who had allowed the piece to be painted, was reported to have been in tears when she saw it was being painted over.[51]

• In December 2009, Banksy marked the end of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference by painting four murals on global warming. One included "I don't believe in global warming" which was submerged in water.[52]

2010

• The world premiere of the film Exit Through the Gift Shop occurred at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on 24 January. He created 10 street pieces around Park City and Salt Lake City to tie in with the screening.[53]

• In February, The Whitehouse public house in Liverpool, England, is sold for £114,000 at auction.[54] The side of the building has an image of a giant rat by Banksy.[55]

• In April 2010, Melbourne City Council in Australia reported that they had inadvertently ordered private contractors to paint over the last remaining Banksy art in the city. The image was of a rat descending in a parachute adorning the wall of an old council building behind the Forum Theatre. In 2008 Vandals had poured paint over a stencil of an old-fashioned diver wearing a trenchcoat. A council spokeswoman has said they would now rush through retrospective permits to protect other “famous or significant artworks” in the city.[56]

• In April 2010 to coincide with the premier of Exit through the Gift Shop in San Francisco, 5 of his pieces appeared in various parts of the city.[57] Banksy reportedly paid a Chinatown building owner $50 for the use of their wall for one of his stencils.[58]

• In May 2010 to coincide with the release of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" in Chicago, one piece appeared in the city.

Notable art pieces

In addition to his artwork, Banksy has claimed responsibility for a number of high profile art pieces, including the following:

• At London Zoo, he climbed into the penguin enclosure and painted "We're bored of fish" in seven foot high letters.[59]

• At Bristol Zoo, he left the message 'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.' in the elephant enclosure.[60]

• In March 2005, he placed subverted artworks in the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.[61]

• He put up a subverted painting in London's Tate Britain gallery.

• In May 2005 Banksy's version of a primitive cave painting depicting a human figure hunting wildlife whilst pushing a shopping trolley was hung in gallery 49 of the British Museum, London. Upon discovery, they added it to their permanent collection.[62]

Near Bethlehem - 2005

• Banksy has sprayed "This is not a photo opportunity" on certain photograph spots.

• In August 2005, Banksy painted nine images on the Israeli West Bank barrier, including an image of a ladder going up and over the wall and an image of children digging a hole through the wall.[22][63][64][65]

See also: Other Banksy works on the Israeli West Bank barrier

• In April 2006, Banksy created a sculpture based on a crumpled red phone box with a pickaxe in its side, apparently bleeding, and placed it in a street in Soho, London. It was later removed by Westminster Council. BT released a press release, which said: "This is a stunning visual comment on BT's transformation from an old-fashioned telecommunications company into a modern communications services provider."[66]

• In June 2006, Banksy created an image of a naked man hanging out of a bedroom window on a wall visible from Park Street in central Bristol. The image sparked some controversy, with the Bristol City Council leaving it up to the public to decide whether it should stay or go.[67] After an internet discussion in which 97% (all but 6 people) supported the stencil, the city council decided it would be left on the building.[67] The mural was later defaced with paint.[67]

• In August/September 2006, Banksy replaced up to 500 copies of Paris Hilton's debut CD, Paris, in 48 different UK record stores with his own cover art and remixes by Danger Mouse. Music tracks were given titles such as "Why am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?". Several copies of the CD were purchased by the public before stores were able to remove them, some going on to be sold for as much as £750 on online auction websites such as eBay. The cover art depicted Paris Hilton digitally altered to appear topless. Other pictures feature her with a dog's head replacing her own, and one of her stepping out of a luxury car, edited to include a group of homeless people, which included the caption "90% of success is just showing up".[68][69][70]

• In September 2006, Banksy dressed an inflatable doll in the manner of a Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoner (orange jumpsuit, black hood, and handcuffs) and then placed the figure within the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California.[71][72]

Technique

Asked about his technique, Banksy said:

“I use whatever it takes. Sometimes that just means drawing a moustache on a girl's face on some billboard, sometimes that means sweating for days over an intricate drawing. Efficiency is the key.[73]”

Stencils are traditionally hand drawn or printed onto sheets of acetate or card, before being cut out by hand. Because of the secretive nature of Banksy's work and identity, it is uncertain what techniques he uses to generate the images in his stencils, though it is assumed he uses computers for some images due to the photocopy nature of much of his work.

He mentions in his book, Wall and Piece, that as he was starting to do graffiti, he was always too slow and was either caught or could never finish the art in the one sitting. So he devised a series of intricate stencils to minimise time and overlapping of the colour.

Identity

Banksy's real name has been widely reported to be Robert or Robin Banks.[74][75][76] His year of birth has been given as 1974.[62]

Simon Hattenstone from Guardian Unlimited is one of the very few people to have interviewed him face-to-face. Hattenstone describes him as "a cross of Jimmy Nail and British rapper Mike Skinner" and "a 28 year old male who showed up wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a silver tooth, silver chain, and one silver earring".[77] In the same interview, Banksy revealed that his parents think their son is a painter and decorator.[77]

In May 2007, an extensive article written by Lauren Collins of the New Yorker re-opened the Banksy-identity controversy citing a 2004 photograph of the artist that was taken in Jamaica during the Two-Culture Clash project and later published in the Evening Standard in 2004.[6]

In October 2007, a story on the BBC website featured a photo allegedly taken by a passer-by in Bethnal Green, London, purporting to show Banksy at work with an assistant, scaffolding and a truck. The story confirms that Tower Hamlets Council in London has decided to treat all Banksy works as vandalism and remove them.[78]

In July 2008, it was claimed by The Mail on Sunday that Banksy's real name is Robin Gunningham.[3][79] His agent has refused to confirm or deny these reports.

In May 2009, the Mail on Sunday once again speculated about Gunningham being Banksy after a "self-portrait" of a rat holding a sign with the word "Gunningham" shot on it was photographed in East London.[80] This "new Banksy rat" story was also picked up by The Times[81] and the Evening Standard.

Banksy, himself, states on his website:

“I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as being 'good at drawing' doesn't sound like Banksy to me.[82]”

Controversy

In 2004, Banksy walked into the Louvre in Paris and hung on a wall a picture he had painted resembling the Mona Lisa but with a yellow smiley face. Though the painting was hurriedly removed by the museum staff, it and its counterpart, temporarily on unknown display at the Tate Britain, were described by Banksy as "shortcuts". He is quoted as saying:

“To actually [have to] go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring. It's a lot more fun to go and put your own one up.[83]”

Peter Gibson, a spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy, asserts that Banksy's work is simple vandalism,[84] and Diane Shakespeare, an official for the same organization, was quoted as saying: "We are concerned that Banksy's street art glorifies what is essentially vandalism".[6]

In June 2007 Banksy created a circle of plastic portable toilets, said to resemble Stonehenge at the Glastonbury Festival. As this was in the same field as the "sacred circle" it was felt by many to be inappropriate and his installation was itself vandalized before the festival even opened. However, the intention had always been for people to climb on and interact with it.[citation needed] The installation was nicknamed "Portaloo Sunset" and "Bog Henge" by Festival goers. Michael Eavis admitted he wasn't fond of it, and the portaloos were removed before the 2008 festival.

In 2010, an artistic feud developed between Banksy and his rival King Robbo after Banksy painted over a 24-year old Robbo piece on the banks of London's Regent Canal. In retaliation several Banksy pieces in London have been painted over by 'Team Robbo'.[85][86]

Also in 2010, government workers accidentally painted over a Banksy art piece, a famed "parachuting-rat" stencil, in Australia's Melbourne CBD. [87]

Bibliography

Banksy has self-published several books that contain photographs of his work in various countries as well as some of his canvas work and exhibitions, accompanied by his own writings:

• Banksy, Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall (2001) ISBN 978-0-95417040-0

• Banksy, Existencilism (2002) ISBN 978-0-95417041-7

• Banksy, Cut it Out (2004) ISBN 978-0-95449600-5

• Banksy, Wall and Piece (2005) ISBN 978-1-84413786-2

• Banksy, Pictures of Walls (2005) ISBN 978-0-95519460-3

Random House published Wall and Piece in 2005. It contains a combination of images from his three previous books, as well as some new material.[16]

Two books authored by others on his work were published in 2006 & 2007:

• Martin Bull, Banksy Locations and Tours: A Collection of Graffiti Locations and Photographs in London (2006 - with new editions in 2007 and 2008) ISBN 978-0-95547120-9.

• Steve Wright, Banksy's Bristol: Home Sweet Home (2007) ISBN 978-1906477004

External links

• Official website

• Banksy street work photos

Interestingly, both of the Boston area Banksy pieces are on Essex St:

• F̶O̶L̶L̶O̶W̶ ̶Y̶O̶U̶R̶ ̶D̶R̶E̶A̶M̶S̶ CANCELLED (aka chimney sweep) in Chinatown, Boston

• NO LOITRIN in Central Square, Cambridge.

But, again, why "Essex"? In a comment on this photo, Birbeck helps clarify:

• • • • •

• Meredith Goldsten of the Boston Globe wrote to me on Facebook and asked for permission to run one of my Banksy photos in the newspaper, which I granted. Supposedly, this photo or one of the others I took appeared in the Globe on 15 May 2010, but I haven't been able to find it. The online version of that day's article, titled Tag — we’re it: Banksy, the controversial and elusive street artist, left his mark here. Or did he? uses a photo taken by "Essdras M. Suarez / Globe Staff". If I can find a copy of that day's paper and verify that one of my Banksy photos was in there, I'll scan the page & post a copy here :-)

• This photo appeared on Grafitti - A arte das ruas on Yahoo Meme. Yes, Yahoo has a Tumblr/Posterous-esque "Meme" service now -- I was as surprised as you are.

• This photo also appeared on Love Your Chaos on Tumblr, among other blogs. Thanks!

• • • • •

Banksy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Banksy

• Birth name

Unknown

• Born

1974 or 1975 (1974 or 1975), Bristol, UK[1]

• Nationality

British

• Field

Graffiti

Street Art

Bristol underground scene

Sculpture

• Movement

Anti-Totalitarianism

Anti-capitalism

Pacifism

Anti-War

Anarchism

Atheism

Anti-Fascism

• Works

Naked Man Image

One Nation Under CCTV

Anarchist Rat

Ozone's Angel

Pulp Fiction

Contents

• 1 Career

•• 1.1 2000

•• 1.2 2002

•• 1.3 2003

•• 1.4 2004

•• 1.5 2005

•• 1.6 2006

•• 1.7 2007

•• 1.8 2008

•• 1.9 2009

•• 1.10 2010

• 2 Notable art pieces

• 3 Technique

• 4 Identity

• 5 Controversy

• 6 Bibliography

• 7 References

• 8 External links

Career

2000

The album cover for Monk & Canatella's Do Community Service was conceived and illustrated by Banksy, based on his contribution to the "Walls on fire" event in Bristol 1998.[18][citation needed]

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

• In December, journalist Max Foster coined the phrase, "the Banksy Effect", to illustrate how interest in other street artists was growing on the back of Banksy's success.[26]

2007

Ozone's Angel

• On 21 May 2007 Banksy gained the award for Art's Greatest living Briton. Banksy, as expected, did not turn up to collect his award, and continued with his notoriously anonymous status.

• On 4 June 2007, it was reported that Banksy's The Drinker had been stolen.[33][34]

• In October 2007, most of his works offered for sale at Bonhams auction house in London sold for more than twice their reserve price.[35]

• A small number of Banksy's works can be seen in the movie Children of Men, including a stenciled image of two policemen kissing and another stencil of a child looking down a shop.

• In the 2007 film Shoot 'Em Up starring Clive Owen, Banksy's tag can be seen on a dumpster in the film's credits.

2008

2009

• May 2009, parts company with agent Steve Lazarides. Announces Pest Control [46] the handling service who act on his behalf will be the only point of sale for new works.

2010

• In February, The Whitehouse public house in Liverpool, England, is sold for £114,000 at auction.[54] The side of the building has an image of a giant rat by Banksy.[55]

• In May 2010 to coincide with the release of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" in Chicago, one piece appeared in the city.

Notable art pieces

In addition to his artwork, Banksy has claimed responsibility for a number of high profile art pieces, including the following:

• At London Zoo, he climbed into the penguin enclosure and painted "We're bored of fish" in seven foot high letters.[59]

• At Bristol Zoo, he left the message 'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.' in the elephant enclosure.[60]

• In March 2005, he placed subverted artworks in the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.[61]

• He put up a subverted painting in London's Tate Britain gallery.

Near Bethlehem - 2005

• Banksy has sprayed "This is not a photo opportunity" on certain photograph spots.

See also: Other Banksy works on the Israeli West Bank barrier

Technique

Asked about his technique, Banksy said:

Identity

Banksy's real name has been widely reported to be Robert or Robin Banks.[74][75][76] His year of birth has been given as 1974.[62]

In July 2008, it was claimed by The Mail on Sunday that Banksy's real name is Robin Gunningham.[3][79] His agent has refused to confirm or deny these reports.

Banksy, himself, states on his website:

“I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as being 'good at drawing' doesn't sound like Banksy to me.[82]”

Controversy

“To actually [have to] go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring. It's a lot more fun to go and put your own one up.[83]”

Also in 2010, government workers accidentally painted over a Banksy art piece, a famed "parachuting-rat" stencil, in Australia's Melbourne CBD. [87]

Bibliography

Banksy has self-published several books that contain photographs of his work in various countries as well as some of his canvas work and exhibitions, accompanied by his own writings:

• Banksy, Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall (2001) ISBN 978-0-95417040-0

• Banksy, Existencilism (2002) ISBN 978-0-95417041-7

• Banksy, Cut it Out (2004) ISBN 978-0-95449600-5

• Banksy, Wall and Piece (2005) ISBN 978-1-84413786-2

• Banksy, Pictures of Walls (2005) ISBN 978-0-95519460-3

Random House published Wall and Piece in 2005. It contains a combination of images from his three previous books, as well as some new material.[16]

Two books authored by others on his work were published in 2006 & 2007:

• Martin Bull, Banksy Locations and Tours: A Collection of Graffiti Locations and Photographs in London (2006 - with new editions in 2007 and 2008) ISBN 978-0-95547120-9.

• Steve Wright, Banksy's Bristol: Home Sweet Home (2007) ISBN 978-1906477004

External links

• Official website

• Banksy street work photos

Posted at 17:4217:42 March 6 2022

Irpin evacuation: Family killed as they fled

We have more information about the three civilians known to have been killed while trying to flee Irpin, a town just outside Kyiv.

A highly distressing image taken by a photographer for the New York Times show three members of a family of four - a mother and two children - lying dead on the pavement, while Ukrainian soldiers try to save the life of the wounded father.

We're not publishing the picture here due to its extremely graphic nature.

The children were a teenaged son and a daughter who appeared to be about eight years old, the newspaper reports.

The family had run from the fighting carrying a suitcase and a few backpacks and had brought their small dog with them.

They were hit by a mortar attack.

Russian forces have been firing mortar shells at an already-collapsed bridge being used by evacuating civilians, including children.

Ukraine has accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting the evacuation routes from Irpin, after a railway track was hit and damaged on Saturday.

As well as Irpin, the small towns of Hostomel and Bucha to the north-west of Kyiv have seen heavy fighting in recent days.

Russia is striking civilian targets in Ukraine, including hospitals, nurseries, and schools, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister has said,

Olha Stefanishyna told the BBC that, after "strong resistance" from the Ukrainian army, there was an "enormous operation" by Russia against civilians.

She accused Russia of a "terroristic plan", with attacks coming from the air and also by land.

The World Health Organization also said health facilities are being attacked.

"The WHO has confirmed several attacks on health care in Ukraine, causing multiple deaths and injuries," the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday.

The British government has accused Russia of targeting populated areas "in multiple locations".

"Russia has previously used similar tactics in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016, employing both air and ground-based munitions," the UK said in an intelligence update.

On Saturday, UN monitors said 351 civilian deaths had been confirmed in Ukraine since the invasion began on 24 February, but the real figure was likely to be "considerably higher".

The UNHCR said more than 1.5m people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded.

But Russia denies targeting civilians - saying it is carrying out a "special military operation" against Ukrainian "nationalists" and "neo-Nazis".

Meanwhile, more than 1,700 people were detained across 44 Russian cities on Sunday at anti-war protests, the monitoring group OVD-Info said.

Ms Stefanishyna spoke to the BBC from a sandbagged room on Sunday morning

Image caption,

Ms Stefanishyna spoke to the BBC from a sandbagged room on Sunday morning

Ms Stefanishyna - who was speaking to BBC TV's Sunday Morning programme - accused Russia of "military tactics right in the cities of Ukraine".

"Shelled hospitals, the shelled houses for kindergartens and schools, and the ordinary households," she said. "This is how the reality looks."

She said Ukraine was seeing "another wave of implementation of this terroristic plan of [the] Russian Federation".

Ms Stefanishyna claimed Russia was suffering "enormous losses" of soldiers and equipment, but this "does not deter Russia".

"It only encourages further aggression," she said.

line

War in Ukraine: More coverage

LIVE: Latest updates from on the ground

IN KYIV: Locals fear another Grozny or Aleppo

ANALYSIS: Europe finally steps up

EXPLAINED: Why Putin has invaded Ukraine?

IN DEPTH: Full coverage of the conflict

line

Attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure - such as schools and hospitals - is against the Geneva Conventions, which are treaties agreed by all countries that are supposed to regulate war.

As well as the WHO, other non-government organisations have also reported attacks on civilian targets.

Amnesty International says it has verified various attacks - including cluster munitions hitting a kindergarten and nursery, and a ballistic missile hitting a hospital.

Live Reporting

Edited by Rebecca Seales

Get involved

Send an email to

Posted at 13:5913:59

Evacuating Mariupol: I was ready to leave... then the shelling started

Joel Gunter

BBC News, in Lviv

Map showing Mariupol

.Copyright: .

A second attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol has failed, with both sides once again blaming each other for breaking the ceasefire.

After the first failed evacuation yesterday, Maxim, a 27-year-old IT developer who is caring for his grandparents in their sixth-floor apartment, told the BBC the day began with hope and ended in desperation:

"As fast as I could, I packed four bags for me and my grandparents with warm clothes and food and all of our remaining water and I packed them into my car.

"Right when I was ready to drive, the shelling started again. I heard explosions near to us. I carried everything back upstairs as fast as I could to the apartment. From there, I could see smoke rising from the city and smoke rising from the highway to Zaporizhzhia, where people were supposed to escape.

"Many people came into the city centre because they heard there was a ceasefire and buses to take them out and to flee the shelling there. Then they could not get back to their shelters when it started again.

People seen taking shelter in Maxim's home

.Copyright: .

People are taking shelter in Maxim's homeImage caption: People are taking shelter in Maxim's home

"So we have taken many people into the apartment. They are from the left side of the city, they say it is destroyed. All the houses are burning and no one can put out the fires. There are many dead bodies lying in the streets and no one can carry them

"We have run out of bottled water and we are down to the water that I filled in the bath before the taps went off. The gas is the only thing still working, we can use it to boil the bath water to drink.

"Today the police opened the stores and told people to take everything because the people here have no food and drink. Our neighbours manged to take some candy, some fish and some fizzy drinks.

"The ceasefire was a lie, one side never planned to stop firing. If they say there is [another ceasefire] we will have to try go but we don’t know if it will be real. Maybe now we are better to hide."

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 13:4813:48

Mariupol authorities: Russian shelling making evacuation impossible

The Mariupol City Council, which announced a ceasefire and fresh evacuation attempt this morning, has now confirmed that the plans have been aborted.

It says Russian shelling has made the safe evacuation of civilians impossible.

The city is now in its fifth day with no water, no power, no sanitation, and food and drinking water are fast running out.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 13:4413:44

Civilians fleeing town near Kyiv shot dead

Map of Irpin

.Copyright: .

We've been reporting on civilians fleeing the town of Irpin, north-west of Kyiv, to escape terrifying Russian bombardment.

It's now reported that at least three people have been killed by Russian mortar shells targeting a damaged bridge that residents have been using to try and escape.

The New York Times reports that three members of the same family were killed. The newspaper says that small groups were making a run for it across a section of exposed road, and being helped by Ukrainian soldiers to reach cover.

The video below shows people trying to escape Irpin earlier today. The footage is distressing.

Video content

Video caption: Ukraine war: Residents run from Russian shelling in Irpin, near KyivUkraine war: Residents run from Russian shelling in Irpin, near Kyiv

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 13:4013:40

BREAKING

Mariupol evacuation halted for a second day - International Red Cross

The evacuation of civilians from the besieged south-eastern city of Mariupol has been halted, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

Ukrainian and Russian forces blamed each other for failing to observe a ceasefire to allow local people to escape, after a similar agreement fell apart yesterday.

This was the agreed evacuation route:

A map showing the evacuation route from Mariupol westward to Zaporizhzhia

.Copyright: .

We'll bring you more as we get it.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 13:3213:32

In Moldova, 600 Ukrainian refugees under one roof

Lucy Williamson

BBC News, Chisinau, Moldova

People register at a shelter for refugees

BBCCopyright: BBC

Over 200,000 people have crossed into Moldova since the invasion beganImage caption: Over 200,000 people have crossed into Moldova since the invasion began

Moldova's athletics stadium has become a place to stop running. Around 600 Ukrainian refugees are living under the vast grey roof of this Soviet-style block.

Pet dogs are walked at a sedate stroll around the running track. In the middle, nests of camp beds, arranged in family groups, are slung with blankets. Two young sisters lounge on one, playing with a doll half as big as they are; laying it down to rest.

The vast majority of refugees here are Roma. Camps here sometimes have a segregated feel.

At the border, Roma board buses separately to other refugees. Some say that’s a voluntary choice. But there are also reports that officials at some centres in the capital are blocking Roma from entering, pushing them towards other shelters.

Here at the stadium, I meet a family of 16 who have arrived from the city of Kharkiv. Among them are Liolye, her parents, and six of her children - two of whom share their names with US and Russian presidents: the eldest is called Kennedy, the youngest, Vladimir.

There was shooting in their neighbourhood, Liolye told me, so they grabbed the children in the clothes they were standing in and ran.

It took five days to get to the Moldovan border and cross. In that time, one of their houses was hit by shelling back in Kharkiv.

More than 200,000 people have crossed into Moldova since the conflict began. Many keep moving into Romania, but almost 100,000 have stayed here in this small former Soviet state.

Moldova has had by far the highest proportion of Ukrainian refugees per capita. For every 100,000 residents, Poland has received around 1,700 refugees into the country; Moldova almost 4,000.

At the athletics centre, the children run around the track in an endless loop. Above them stretch empty bleachers. The spectators for this event are watching from a distance, all around the world.

Athletics stadium housing refugees

BBCCopyright: BBC

An athletics stadium in Moldova's capital has become a shelter for Ukrainian refugeesImage caption: An athletics stadium in Moldova's capital has become a shelter for Ukrainian refugees

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 13:1513:15

Fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since WW2, UN says

Ukrainian refugees

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

UN officials say they expect the wave of refugees to intensify furtherImage caption: UN officials say they expect the wave of refugees to intensify further

The number of Ukrainian refugees continues to rise sharply, and more than 1.5 million people have fled the country in just 10 days, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Filippo Grandi, the agency's high commissioner, has called it the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.

But where exactly are these refugees going and which countries have opened their borders to Ukrainians?

Here is what we know so far:

A total of 922,400 people have fled Ukraine to Poland since 24 February, according to Polish border guards

The number of Ukrainians who have entered Moldova has reached 201,133. The country has by far the largest concentration of refugees per capita in the region

Romania has welcomed 227,446 Ukrainians so far. Of those, 155,680 have already driven or flown out of the country

About 50,000 Ukrainians have reached the Czech Republic

Hungary and Slovakia have also seen Ukrainian refugees arrive

The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed staff to Moldova, Poland and Romania "to scale up [the] response capacities of its country offices, including operations, engagement with partners and support to the [Ukrainian] government for the health response".

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 12:5712:57

Civilian airport west of Kyiv completely destroyed - Zelensky

The civilian airport in the city of Vinnytsia, about 250km (155 miles) south-west of Kyiv, has been completely destroyed by Russian rockets, according to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

So far, most of the fighting in Ukraine has taken place to the north and east of Kyiv, and also in Ukraine's southern regions.

Volodymyr Zelensky

EPACopyright: EPA

Ukraine's President Zelensky says Russian rockets destroyed the civilian airport in VinnytsiaImage caption: Ukraine's President Zelensky says Russian rockets destroyed the civilian airport in Vinnytsia

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 12:4912:49

Chaotic scenes as people flee town close to Kyiv

More now from Irpin, a town 20km (12 miles) north-west of Kyiv which has been heavily damaged by artillery and air strikes.

Photos show chaotic scenes of people escaping as the blasts there continue.

People crouch down as they run from a blast in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Residents and journalists flee after a blastImage caption: Residents and journalists flee after a blast

Someone is helped to crawl under a crash barrier in the centre of the road as they flee

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Others were helped under the road's crash barrierImage caption: Others were helped under the road's crash barrier

Someone runs away from a plume of smoke on the road from Irpin

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Explosions were going off constantly this morning, reporters there sayImage caption: Explosions were going off constantly this morning, reporters there say

A Ukrainian soldier helps a woman

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

A Ukrainian soldier helps a woman cross the deserted roadImage caption: A Ukrainian soldier helps a woman cross the deserted road

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 12:3412:34

Russian forces ill-prepared for war - UK defence sources

Jonathan Beale

BBC defence correspondent

British defence sources have told the BBC that Russian troops had been ill-prepared for the war in Ukraine. "They really did think they were conducting military exercises not preparing for an invasion," one said.

One source said President Putin thought he had the army he had seen at Moscow's annual Victory Day Parade, but "the army on parade ground has not turned out to be an army made for battle".

Earlier this week the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, accused President Putin of betraying his troops "by sticking them down roads to be killed and abandoned in the cold".

Russian troops, he said, had been left in a place where "potentially thousands could be killed".

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 12:2312:23

Putin: Attack will end when Moscow's demands are met

Vladimir Putin has told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call that Russia will only halt its military operation if Ukraine stops fighting and Moscow's demands are met, the Kremlin says.

Russia insists its invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea is a special military operation, which Putin claims, without any evidence, is needed to "denazify" the country.

The Russian leader reiterated that the assault is going according to plan and on schedule.

He has made similar comments in recent days, amid verdicts from Western defence analysts that the Russian military campaign was going less well than expected.

According to the Kremlin statement, Putin says he hopes Ukrainian negotiators will take a more "constructive" approach.

Erdogan's office said the Turkish leader had appealed for an urgent general ceasefire.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 12:0812:08

Defiant Zaporizhzhia prepared for battle

Sarah Rainsford

BBC Eastern Europe correspondent, in Zaporizhzhia

Zaporizhzhia map and key information. It says it is an industrial riverside city in the south-east

.Copyright: .

With frontlines to the east and south, Zaporizhzhia feels edgy. There are multiple layers of heavily fortified checkpoints at all the entrance and exit points.

On Saturday, with only an hour to go until a strict curfew, we were taken for questioning at the local police headquarters, held in a pitch-dark corridor behind heaps of sandbags until the security services could confirm our identity.

We were released with an apology. "We need to be extra careful," the officer told us. "I ask you to understand." Outside, there were no streetlights and all the buildings around were in darkness. No-one is allowed out after 19:00 in this city except to run to a bomb shelter.

This morning, local residents emerged to form queues at the few shops that were open. A passing car slowed down to check whether we were "svoi", one of them. Shortly afterwards, we were pulled over by police with a sudden shout, ordered to raise our hands. Three armed officers surrounded the van, pointing their weapons directly at us until I could explain who we were.

But the city remains defiant.

All along the main roads in and out of town, billboards that might have advertised soap or real estate before the war are now pasted with blunt messages for Vladimir Putin and his troops. Some are addressed to "Russian occupiers", calling on soldiers to wave the white flag and surrender, or "lay down your arms and live". Many tell Russia or Putin himself to "F*** off!", only without the asterisks.

If the Russian president expected his troops and tanks to be met as liberators, he miscalculated.

A billboard in Zaporizhzhia

BBCCopyright: BBC

A billboard in Zaporizhzhia with a blunt message for Vladimir Putin and his troopsImage caption: A billboard in Zaporizhzhia with a blunt message for Vladimir Putin and his troops

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 11:5711:57

Recap: What's happening on the ground

Map showing areas of Russian control

.Copyright: .

If you're just joining us, here's a quick recap of what's been happening on day 11 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

For a second day, there are attempts to evacuate trapped civilians from the besieged southern city of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials said a new route had been agreed with Russian forces that was meant to open at 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT). It's not clear yet how this is unfolding on the ground

Yesterday a planned evacuation corridor was aborted due to Russian attacks

Ukraine's president warns that Russian forces are preparing to shell the port city of Odesa, predicting a "historic crime"

There are signs Russia's war command is focusing on the southern front, aiming to cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea, Ukraine's top security official says

But there has also been intense fighting to the north-west of Kyiv. The small town of Irpin - which lies at the head of the huge Russian convoy near the capital - has come under artillery fire and air strikes

In the east, Kharkiv and Sumy have also suffered renewed bombardment

More than 1.5m people fleeing Ukraine have crossed into neighbouring countries in the last 10 days, according to the UN

UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab says the conflict could last for months, if not years

The UK's chief of defence staff says the government has a direct line to Moscow's operational HQ, and he has asked to meet his Russian counterpart

Map showing military movements near Kyiv

.Copyright: .

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 11:4411:44

In Lviv cafes, signs display alleged Russian losses

Yalda Hakim

BBC World News presenter, in Lviv

Sign provided by the Ukrainian Armed Forces of what they claim are Russian losses

BBCCopyright: BBC

Outside shop windows in Lviv there are signs like this - showing Russian losses as claimed by the Ukrainian militaryImage caption: Outside shop windows in Lviv there are signs like this - showing Russian losses as claimed by the Ukrainian military

On the surface, everyday life continues in Lviv, a city near the Polish border in western Ukraine that has become a way station for refugees fleeing bombing in other cities.

Coffees are drunk and cakes are eaten in cafes, the trams rumble around the cobbled streets and shops have full shelves.

But the atmosphere is tense. ID documents and passports are scrutinised, and on shop and cafe doors, signs display the list of casualties that Ukraine's armed forces say they have inflicted on Russia so far.

And then once or twice a day the sirens go off, soldiers suddenly emerge and everyone files down to the nearest shelter. Make no mistake, this is a country at war.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 11:3011:30

Pope Francis rejects Russia's 'special operation' narrative

Pope Francis has said the Ukraine conflict is "not a military operation but a war", and called Ukraine a "martyred country" where "rivers of tears and blood flow".

His comments are a rebuke to the official Russian narrative being pushed by the Kremlin, which insists its invasion of Ukraine is a "special military operation" launched to "demilitarise" Ukraine.

Last week the Pope appealed for an end to the conflict, calling for humanitarian corridors to be opened to allow civilians to flee.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 11:2211:22

BBC World News taken off air in Russia

The front of the BBC's New Broadcasting House in central London

PA MediaCopyright: PA Media

As we've been reporting, Russian authorities have restricted access to a large number of media outlets, including the BBC.

BBC World News, the broadcaster's global television news channel, has also been taken off air in Russia.

Here's a reminder of how to get around restrictions on BBC services in Russia:

Download the Psiphon app from the AppStore or Google Play Store

Look for the dedicated BBC site on the Tor Browser which can be found using this URL. Note that this URL only works using the Tor Browser or the Onion Browser (on iPhones)

If access to the apps is restricted then send a blank email to or . An email will be sent in response with a direct and safe download link

The BBC has also launched two new shortwave frequencies broadcasting World Service English news for four hours a day to Ukraine and parts of Russia:

15735 kHz from 14:00 GMT to 16:00 GMT

5875 kHz from 20:00 GMT to 22:00 GMT

BBC graphic

BBCCopyright: BBC

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 11:1211:12

A new evacuation route opens

As we've been reporting, authorities in Mariupol, the south-eastern port city, say that a fresh ceasefire is coming into effect to allow trapped civilians to evacuate.

The effort began about an hour ago, but we're unable to confirm at this point if buses and cars have begun to move.

Here's a map of the route:

Evacuation route from Mariupol

BBCCopyright: BBC

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 11:0311:03

Fleeing the small town in path of Russian troops

Profile of city of Irpin

.Copyright: .

An elderly woman is helped while crossing a destroyed bridge as she tries to leave the city of Irpin

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

An elderly woman is helped as she tries to leave Irpin, in the Kyiv regionImage caption: An elderly woman is helped as she tries to leave Irpin, in the Kyiv region

The town of Irpin, 20km (12 miles) north-west of Kyiv, has found itself on the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces in recent days.

It stands near the strategic Hostomel airfield, and the head of the huge Russian convoy assembled near the capital.

Residential buildings and roads have been heavily damaged by artillery and air strikes. Ukrainian forces have also blown up bridges to curb the Russian advance, reports suggest.

Images from Saturday show people crossing one bridge amid shattered girders as they try to flee.

Trains are the main escape route, according to Reuters news agency, but the town is under constant bombardment. Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that Russian troops had blown up part of the railway track along the evacuation route from Irpin.

The river can be seen as people wait their turn to cross the destroyed concrete bridge

Jedrzej Nowicki/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via ReutersCopyright: Jedrzej Nowicki/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters

Crowds have been trying to get out of the town, despite destroyed bridgesImage caption: Crowds have been trying to get out of the town, despite destroyed bridges

Ukrainians in military fatigues direct civilians over the remnants of a bridge

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Locals say Russian warplanes are circling overhead, and have bombed residential areasImage caption: Locals say Russian warplanes are circling overhead, and have bombed residential areas

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 10:4210:42

WATCH: Ukraine's president has an invitation for Elon Musk

Ukraine's President Zelensky has invited tech entrepreneur Elon Musk to visit Ukraine after the war - with the SpaceX boss saying he looked forward to visiting.

Musk has sent Ukraine a truckload of Starlink internet terminals, which connect to his company's satellite-based service, and has pledged to send more this week.

The government is working to secure Ukraine's internet access amid Russian attacks on communications infrastructure.

You can read more here on how Starlink will work.

Video content

Video caption: Watch President Zelensky invite Elon Musk to visitWatch President Zelensky invite Elon Musk to visit

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 10:3110:31

UK deputy PM 'sceptical' of any Putin ceasefire assurances

Dominic Raab

BBCCopyright: BBC

More now from UK deputy prime minister Dominic Raab. Asked whether a new ceasefire around Mariupol will hold, he says he’s very sceptical about any assurance Russia’s president makes.

He tells the BBC that Putin’s “initial gambit has stuttered” and the right strategy for the UK is to “keep putting the squeeze on those bankrolling Putin’s war machine”.

Anyone who thinks the war will be resolved in days “is deluding themselves”, he adds.

He denied the UK was letting Ukrainian refugees down, saying while you could always question if more can be done, the UK is giving £220m of humanitarian assistance.

British nationals and anyone who has settled in the UK can bring immediate family, parents, grandparents and siblings to safety from Ukraine on a visa that will last three years.

But some Ukrainians without "settled status" in the UK complain this means they can't help family members.

The EU is giving all Ukrainian refugees the right to live and work in member states for three years.

As we've been reporting, the number of people fleeing the country has now hit 1.5m and is expected to continue to grow.

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Posted at 10:1410:14

Hundreds arrested in Russia at anti-war protests - monitoring group

More than 600 demonstrators have been arrested in 21 Russian cities, according to the monitoring group OVD-Info, after jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny called for Russians to protest against the war in Ukraine.

The monitoring group, citing local media sources, said more than 200 people were detained in a Siberian city - Novosibirsk.

Navalny called for demonstrations in the main squares of Russian cities at 14:00 local time - in Moscow and St Petersburg that is 11:00 GMT.

Mass detentions have become the norm at anti-government protests in Russia. OVD-Info says at least 8,000 protesters have been detained or arrested in Russia since the war in Ukraine began 11 days ago.

Sunday's protests follow a day of global demonstrations against Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Saturday.

Protester in Tokyo holds sign saying 'stop Putin'

EPACopyright: EPA

Protests against Russia's invasion of Ukraine took place around the world on SaturdayImage caption: Protests against Russia's invasion of Ukraine took place around the world on Saturday

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

Anti-war statement of Channel One editor Marina Ovsyannikova

youtu.be/s5SOdx8JCzg

Live Reporting

Edited by Chris Giles

Get involved

Send an email to

Posted at 8:388:38

Acts of defiance within Russia incredibly important - UK minister

More now from UK foreign office minister James Cleverly, who has been responding to the shock interruption of a Russian news programme on state-controlled TV by a news editor holding up an anti-war sign.

Cleverly tells BBC Breakfast these acts of defiance - which also include people taking to the streets in Russia - are important and show a "huge deal of bravery" in what is an oppressive, authoritarian state.

He says "we are worried" about the woman who held up the sign, named as Marina Ovsyannikova following reports that her lawyer has been unable to locate her.

Her sign referred to Russian propaganda, and Cleverly also says it's "really important that the Russian people" understand what is being done in their name in Ukraine as they have been "systematically lied to by Putin".

Article share tools

ShareView more share options

Share this post

Copy this link

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60746557?ns_mchannel...

Read more about these links.

An employee on Russia’s state Channel One television has interrupted the channel’s main news programme with an extraordinary protest against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One, burst on to the set of the live broadcast of the nightly news on Monday evening, shouting: “Stop the war. No to war.”

She also held a sign saying: “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.” It was signed in English: “Russians against the war.”

The news anchor continued to read from her teleprompter speaking louder in an attempt to drown out Ovsyannikova, but her protest could be seen and heard for several seconds before the channel switched to a recorded segment.

vsyannikova also released a pre-recorded video via the OVD-Info human rights group in which she expressed her shame at working for Channel One and spreading “Kremlin propaganda.”

“Regrettably, for a number of years, I worked on Channel One and worked on Kremlin propaganda, I am very ashamed of this right now. Ashamed that I was allowed to tell lies from the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of the Russian people. We were silent in 2014 when this was just beginning. We did not go out to protest when the Kremlin poisoned [opposition leader Alexei] Navalny,” she said.

“We are just silently watching this anti-human regime. And now the whole world has turned away from us and the next 10 generations won’t be able to clean themselves from the shame of this fratricidal war.”

Wearing a necklace in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag, Ovsyannikova said in her video statement that her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian.

“What is happening in Ukraine is a crime and Russia is the aggressor,” she said. “The responsibility of this aggression lies on the shoulders of only one person: Vladimir Putin.”

She urged fellow Russians to join anti-war protests in order to bring an end to the conflict. “Only we have the power to stop all this madness. Go to the protests. Don’t be afraid of anything. They can’t imprison us all.”

The protest was welcomed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In a video address on Monday night he said: “I’m thankful to those Russians who don’t stop trying to deliver the truth, who are fighting against disinformation and tell real facts to their friends and families, and personally to that woman who went in the studio of Channel One with an anti-war poster.”

OVD-Info said that Ovsyannikova was arrested shortly after her protest and was being held at the Ostankino television centre. Pavel Chikov, head of of the Agora human rights group, later said Ovsyannikova had been arrested and taken to a Moscow police station.

Russian police detain a protestor at a rally in Moscow

More than 4,300 people arrested at anti-war protests across Russia

She could face prison time under a newly introduced Russian legislation that criminalised spreading so-called “fake news” about the Russian military. Those found guilty under the law could face up to 15 years in jail.

Ovsyannikova could also face legal consequences for encouraging “civil unrest” by telling Russians to protest.

In a statement published by the state news agency TASS, Channel One said that “an incident took place with an extraneous woman in shot. An internal check is being carried out.”

A law enforcement source told TASS that Ovsyannikova could be charged under legislation banning public acts that aim to “discredit the use of Russia’s armed forces.”

Her statement marks the first time that an employee from Russian state media has publicly denounced the war as the country continues its crackdown on anti-war dissent. So strict is the current wave 0f censorship that other news programmes blurred out the message on Ovsyannikova’s sign in their own reports on the incident.

Since the start of the war, Russia has launched an unprecedented crackdown on protestors, independent news outlets and foreign social media networks. Nearly 15,000 people, including children and elderly people have been detained for protesting against the war.

More than two dozen Russian media outlets have been blocked by the country’s media regulator or have chosen to cease operations. The widely used social media platforms Facebook and Instagram have also been banned.

State TV meanwhile, remains the main source of news for many millions of Russians, and closely follows the Kremlin line.

Within hours of her protest, more than 40,000 people had so far left comments on Ovsyannikova’s Facebook page, with many praising her for her taking a stand.

“You are a hero. Thank you so much,” one comment read.

Videos of the incident quickly racked up thousands of views.

“Wow, that girl is cool,” tweeted Kira Yarmysh, the spokesperson for the jailed opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.

Edgars Rinkēvičs, Latvia’s foreign minister, said on Twitter: “While there are brave people like Maria #Ovsyanikova, a producer at Russia’s Channel 1, protesting against the Russia’s war and propaganda tonight or protesters on the streets #Russia still has a chance for better future.”

Summary

Nearly all of the Russian military offensives remain stalled after making little progress over the weekend, says a senior US defence official

An evacuation convoy of about 160 cars has managed to leave the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, authorities there say

There were at least two large explosions in Kyiv's western Borshchagovka district early on Tuesday morning, journalists in the city say

A news staffer with a sign reading "no war " has appeared behind a newsreader on Russian state-controlled TV

Negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian representatives will resume on Tuesday after a fourth round of talks ends without breakthrough

Russia continues its bombardment of many Ukrainian cities, with one person killed in a strike on a block of flats in the capital Kyiv

Russia's defence ministry claims a Ukrainian missile has killed 20 people in the city of Donetsk. Ukraine has blamed Russia for the attack

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 86. Julie Christie and Terence Stamp in Far from the Madding Crowd (John Schlesinger, 1967).

Julie Frances Christie was born in 1941 in Chukua, India, then part of the British Empire. She was the daughter of Frank St. John Christie, a tea planter, and his Welsh wife Rosemary (née Ramsden), who was a painter. Her younger brother, Clive Christie, would become a professor of Southeast Asian studies at Hull University. They grew up on their father's tea plantation in Assam. At 7, Julie was sent to England for her education. As a teenager at Wycombe Court School, she played the role of the Dauphin in a school production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan. A fascination with the artist's lifestyle led to her enrolling in London's Central School of Speech and Drama training. Christie made her stage debut as a member of the Frinton Repertory of Essex in 1957. One of her first roles was playing Anne Frank in a London theatrical production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Christie was not fond of the stage, even though it allowed her to travel, including a professional gig in the United States. She made her TV debut as an artificial girl created from the DNA of a deceased science lab assistant in the BBC Sci-Fi series A for Andromeda (Michael Hayes, 1961). Her first film appearance was a bit part in the amusing comedy Crooks Anonymous (Ken Annakin, 1962), which was followed up by a larger ingénue role in the romantic comedy The Fast Lady (Ken Annakin, 1963) with Stanley Baker. Christie first worked with the man who would kick her career into high gear, director John Schlesinger, when he choose her as a replacement for the actress (Topsy Jane) originally cast in Billy Liar (John Schlesinger, 1963). Christie's turn in the film as the free-wheeling Liz, the supremely confident friend and love interest to Tom Courtenay's full-time dreamer Billy, was a stunner, and she had her first taste of becoming an icon of the new British cinema. Her screen presence was such that the great John Ford cast her as the young prostitute Daisy Battles in Young Cassidy (Jack Cardiff, John Ford, 1965), a biopic about Irish playwright Sean O'Casey. She made her breakthrough to super-stardom in Schlesinger's seminal Swinging Sixties film Darling (John Schlesinger, 1965). Schlesinger called on Christie to play the role of the manipulative young actress and jet setter Diana Scott when the casting of Shirley MacLaine fell through. As played by Christie, Diana is an amoral social butterfly who undergoes a metamorphosis from an immature sex kitten to a jaded socialite. For her complex performance, Christie won raves, including the Best Actress Oscar and the Best Actress BAFTA. Her image as the It Girl of the Swinging Sixties was further cemented by her appearance in the documentary Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (1967), which covered the hipster scene in England.

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Brian McFarlane (Encyclopedia of British Cinema), TCM, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

REUTERS

An electoral worker carries a ballot box through a war-damaged block of flats in Mariupol, Donetsk region

By Patrick Jackson

BBC News

Ukrainian journalist Maxim Eristavi tweeted to say that his family had been "forced to vote at gunpoint" in southern Ukraine.

"They come to your house," he wrote. "You have to openly tick the box for being annexed by Russia (or for staying with Ukraine if you feel suicidal). All while armed gunmen watch you."

Petro Kobernik, who left Kherson just before the voting began, told AP in an interview by phone: "The situation is changing rapidly, and people fear that they will be hurt either by the Russian military, or Ukrainian guerrillas and the advancing Ukrainian troops."

++++ FROM WIKIPEDIA ++++

U Bein Bridge (Burmese: ဦးပိန် တံတား) is a crossing that spans the Taungthaman Lake near Amarapura in Myanmar. The 1.2-kilometre (0.75 mi) bridge was built around 1850 and is believed to be the oldest and (once) longest teakwood bridge in the world.[1][2][3] Construction began when the capital of Ava Kingdom moved to Amarapura,[4] and the bridge is named after the mayor who had it built.[5] It is used as an important passageway for the local people and has also become a tourist attraction and therefore a significant source of income for souvenir sellers.[1][5][6][7] It is particularly busy during July and August when the lake is at its highest.[8]

The bridge was built from wood reclaimed from the former royal palace in Inwa. It features 1,086 pillars that stretch out of the water, some of which have been replaced with concrete. Though the bridge largely remains intact, there are fears that an increasing number of the pillars are becoming dangerously decayed. Some have become entirely detached from their bases and only remain in place because of the lateral bars holding them together. Damage to these supports have been caused by flooding as well as a fish breeding program introduced into the lake which has caused the water to become stagnant. The Ministry of Culture’s Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library plans to carry out repairs when plans for the work are finalised.[1]

From 1 April 2009, eight police force personnel have been deployed to guard the bridge. Their presence is aimed at reducing anti-social behaviour and preventing criminal activities, with the first arrest coming in September 2013 when two men were reported for harassing tourists.[8]

Contents

1 Construction

2 Design and Structure

3 Gallery

4 References

Construction

The construction was started in 1849 and finished in 1851. Myanmar construction engineers used traditional methods of scaling and measuring to build the bridge. According to historic books about U Bein Bridge, Myanmar engineers made scale by counting the footsteps.

Design and Structure

The bridge was built in curved shape in the middle to resist the assault of wind and water. The main teak posts were hammered into the lake bed seven feet deep. The other ends of the posts were shaped conically to make sure that rain water would fall down easily. The joints of the bridge are intertwined.

Originally, there were 984 teak posts supporting the bridge and two approach brick bridges. Later the two approach brick bridges were replaced by wooden approach bridge. There are four wooden pavilions at the same interval along the bridge. By adding posts of two approach bridges and four pavilions, the number of posts amounts to 1089.

There are nine passageways in the bridge, where the floors can be lifted to let boats and barges pass. There 482 spans and the length of the bridge is 1,209 metres.

Myanmar (Burmese pronunciation: [mjəmà]),[nb 1][8] officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also known as Burma, is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia. Myanmar is bordered by India and Bangladesh to its west, Thailand and Laos to its east and China to its north and northeast. To its south, about one third of Myanmar's total perimeter of 5,876 km (3,651 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline of 1,930 km (1,200 mi) along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The country's 2014 census counted the population to be 51 million people.[9] As of 2017, the population is about 54 million.[10] Myanmar is 676,578 square kilometers (261,228 square miles) in size. Its capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city and former capital is Yangon (Rangoon).[1] Myanmar has been a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 1997.

Early civilisations in Myanmar included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Burma.[11] In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. The Pagan Kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty, the country was for a brief period the largest empire in the history of Mainland Southeast Asia.[12] The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam as well. The British took over the administration of Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the country became a British colony. Myanmar was granted independence in 1948, as a democratic nation. Following a coup d'état in 1962, it became a military dictatorship.

For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and its myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars. During this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country.[13] In 2011, the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. This, along with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners, has improved the country's human rights record and foreign relations, and has led to the easing of trade and other economic sanctions.[14] There is, however, continuing criticism of the government's treatment of ethnic minorities, its response to the ethnic insurgency, and religious clashes.[15] In the landmark 2015 election, Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a majority in both houses. However, the Burmese military remains a powerful force in politics.

Myanmar is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources. In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion.[6] The income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by supporters of the former military government.[16] As of 2016, Myanmar ranks 145 out of 188 countries in human development, according to the Human Development Index.[7]

Etymology

Main article: Names of Myanmar

In 1989, the military government officially changed the English translations of many names dating back to Burma's colonial period or earlier, including that of the country itself: "Burma" became "Myanmar". The renaming remains a contested issue.[17] Many political and ethnic opposition groups and countries continue to use "Burma" because they do not recognise the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country.[18]

In April 2016, soon after taking office, Aung San Suu Kyi clarified that foreigners are free to use either name, "because there is nothing in the constitution of our country that says that you must use any term in particular".[19]

The country's official full name is the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar" (ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်, Pyidaunzu Thanmăda Myăma Nainngandaw, pronounced [pjìdàʊɴzṵ θàɴməda̰ mjəmà nàɪɴŋàɴdɔ̀]). Countries that do not officially recognise that name use the long form "Union of Burma" instead.[20]

In English, the country is popularly known as either "Burma" or "Myanmar" /ˈmjɑːnˌmɑːr/ (About this sound listen).[8] Both these names are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group. Myanmar is considered to be the literary form of the name of the group, while Burma is derived from "Bamar", the colloquial form of the group's name.[17] Depending on the register used, the pronunciation would be Bama (pronounced [bəmà]) or Myamah (pronounced [mjəmà]).[17] The name Burma has been in use in English since the 18th century.

Burma continues to be used in English by the governments of many countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom.[21][22] Official United States policy retains Burma as the country's name, although the State Department's website lists the country as "Burma (Myanmar)" and Barack Obama has referred to the country by both names.[23] The Czech Republic officially uses Myanmar, although its Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentions both Myanmar and Burma on its website.[24] The United Nations uses Myanmar, as do the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Australia,[25] Russia, Germany,[26] China, India, Bangladesh, Norway,[27] Japan[21] and Switzerland.[28]

Most English-speaking international news media refer to the country by the name Myanmar, including the BBC,[29] CNN,[30] Al Jazeera,[31] Reuters,[32] RT (Russia Today) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)/Radio Australia.[33]

Myanmar is known with a name deriving from Burma as opposed to Myanmar in Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Greek – Birmania being the local version of Burma in the Spanish language, for example. Myanmar used to be known as "Birmânia" in Portuguese, and as "Birmanie" in French.[34] As in the past, French-language media today consistently use Birmanie.,[35][36]

History

Main article: History of Myanmar

Prehistory

Main articles: Prehistory of Myanmar and Migration period of ancient Burma

Pyu city-states c. 8th century; Pagan is shown for comparison only and is not contemporary.

Archaeological evidence shows that Homo erectus lived in the region now known as Myanmar as early as 750,000 years ago, with no more erectus finds after 75,000 years ago.[37] The first evidence of Homo sapiens is dated to about 11,000 BC, in a Stone Age culture called the Anyathian with discoveries of stone tools in central Myanmar. Evidence of neolithic age domestication of plants and animals and the use of polished stone tools dating to sometime between 10,000 and 6,000 BC has been discovered in the form of cave paintings in Padah-Lin Caves.[38]

The Bronze Age arrived circa 1500 BC when people in the region were turning copper into bronze, growing rice and domesticating poultry and pigs; they were among the first people in the world to do so.[39] Human remains and artefacts from this era were discovered in Monywa District in the Sagaing Division.[40] The Iron Age began around 500 BC with the emergence of iron-working settlements in an area south of present-day Mandalay.[41] Evidence also shows the presence of rice-growing settlements of large villages and small towns that traded with their surroundings as far as China between 500 BC and 200 AD.[42] Iron Age Burmese cultures also had influences from outside sources such as India and Thailand, as seen in their funerary practices concerning child burials. This indicates some form of communication between groups in Myanmar and other places, possibly through trade.[43]

Early city-states

Main articles: Pyu city-states and Mon kingdoms

Around the second century BC the first-known city-states emerged in central Myanmar. The city-states were founded as part of the southward migration by the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states, the earliest inhabitants of Myanmar of whom records are extant, from present-day Yunnan.[44] The Pyu culture was heavily influenced by trade with India, importing Buddhism as well as other cultural, architectural and political concepts, which would have an enduring influence on later Burmese culture and political organisation.[45]

By the 9th century, several city-states had sprouted across the land: the Pyu in the central dry zone, Mon along the southern coastline and Arakanese along the western littoral. The balance was upset when the Pyu came under repeated attacks from Nanzhao between the 750s and the 830s. In the mid-to-late 9th century the Bamar people founded a small settlement at Bagan. It was one of several competing city-states until the late 10th century when it grew in authority and grandeur.[46]

Imperial Burma

Main articles: Pagan Kingdom, Taungoo Dynasty, and Konbaung Dynasty

See also: Ava Kingdom, Hanthawaddy Kingdom, Kingdom of Mrauk U, and Shan States

Pagodas and kyaungs in present-day Bagan, the capital of the Pagan Kingdom.

Pagan gradually grew to absorb its surrounding states until the 1050s–1060s when Anawrahta founded the Pagan Kingdom, the first ever unification of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Pagan Empire and the Khmer Empire were two main powers in mainland Southeast Asia.[47] The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon and Pali norms by the late 12th century.[48]

Theravada Buddhism slowly began to spread to the village level, although Tantric, Mahayana, Hinduism, and folk religion remained heavily entrenched. Pagan's rulers and wealthy built over 10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone alone. Repeated Mongol invasions (1277–1301) toppled the four-century-old kingdom in 1287.[48]

Temples at Mrauk U.

Pagan's collapse was followed by 250 years of political fragmentation that lasted well into the 16th century. Like the Burmans four centuries earlier, Shan migrants who arrived with the Mongol invasions stayed behind. Several competing Shan States came to dominate the entire northwestern to eastern arc surrounding the Irrawaddy valley. The valley too was beset with petty states until the late 14th century when two sizeable powers, Ava Kingdom and Hanthawaddy Kingdom, emerged. In the west, a politically fragmented Arakan was under competing influences of its stronger neighbours until the Kingdom of Mrauk U unified the Arakan coastline for the first time in 1437.

Early on, Ava fought wars of unification (1385–1424) but could never quite reassemble the lost empire. Having held off Ava, Hanthawaddy entered its golden age, and Arakan went on to become a power in its own right for the next 350 years. In contrast, constant warfare left Ava greatly weakened, and it slowly disintegrated from 1481 onward. In 1527, the Confederation of Shan States conquered Ava itself, and ruled Upper Myanmar until 1555.

Like the Pagan Empire, Ava, Hanthawaddy and the Shan states were all multi-ethnic polities. Despite the wars, cultural synchronisation continued. This period is considered a golden age for Burmese culture. Burmese literature "grew more confident, popular, and stylistically diverse", and the second generation of Burmese law codes as well as the earliest pan-Burma chronicles emerged.[49] Hanthawaddy monarchs introduced religious reforms that later spread to the rest of the country.[50] Many splendid temples of Mrauk U were built during this period.

Taungoo and colonialism

Bayinnaung's Empire in 1580.

Political unification returned in the mid-16th century, due to the efforts of Taungoo, a former vassal state of Ava. Taungoo's young, ambitious king Tabinshwehti defeated the more powerful Hanthawaddy in the Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1534–41). His successor Bayinnaung went on to conquer a vast swath of mainland Southeast Asia including the Shan states, Lan Na, Manipur, Mong Mao, the Ayutthaya Kingdom, Lan Xang and southern Arakan. However, the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia unravelled soon after Bayinnaung's death in 1581, completely collapsing by 1599. Ayutthaya seized Tenasserim and Lan Na, and Portuguese mercenaries established Portuguese rule at Thanlyin (Syriam).

The dynasty regrouped and defeated the Portuguese in 1613 and Siam in 1614. It restored a smaller, more manageable kingdom, encompassing Lower Myanmar, Upper Myanmar, Shan states, Lan Na and upper Tenasserim. The Restored Toungoo kings created a legal and political framework whose basic features would continue well into the 19th century. The crown completely replaced the hereditary chieftainships with appointed governorships in the entire Irrawaddy valley, and greatly reduced the hereditary rights of Shan chiefs. Its trade and secular administrative reforms built a prosperous economy for more than 80 years. From the 1720s onward, the kingdom was beset with repeated Meithei raids into Upper Myanmar and a nagging rebellion in Lan Na. In 1740, the Mon of Lower Myanmar founded the Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom. Hanthawaddy forces sacked Ava in 1752, ending the 266-year-old Toungoo Dynasty.

A British 1825 lithograph of Shwedagon Pagoda shows British occupation during the First Anglo-Burmese War.

After the fall of Ava, the Konbaung–Hanthawaddy War involved one resistance group under Alaungpaya defeating the Restored Hanthawaddy, and by 1759, he had reunited all of Myanmar and Manipur, and driven out the French and the British, who had provided arms to Hanthawaddy. By 1770, Alaungpaya's heirs had subdued much of Laos (1765) and fought and won the Burmese–Siamese War (1765–67) against Ayutthaya and the Sino-Burmese War (1765–69) against Qing China (1765–1769).[51]

With Burma preoccupied by the Chinese threat, Ayutthaya recovered its territories by 1770, and went on to capture Lan Na by 1776. Burma and Siam went to war until 1855, but all resulted in a stalemate, exchanging Tenasserim (to Burma) and Lan Na (to Ayutthaya). Faced with a powerful China and a resurgent Ayutthaya in the east, King Bodawpaya turned west, acquiring Arakan (1785), Manipur (1814) and Assam (1817). It was the second-largest empire in Burmese history but also one with a long ill-defined border with British India.[52]

The breadth of this empire was short lived. Burma lost Arakan, Manipur, Assam and Tenasserim to the British in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826). In 1852, the British easily seized Lower Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. King Mindon Min tried to modernise the kingdom, and in 1875 narrowly avoided annexation by ceding the Karenni States. The British, alarmed by the consolidation of French Indochina, annexed the remainder of the country in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885.

Konbaung kings extended Restored Toungoo's administrative reforms, and achieved unprecedented levels of internal control and external expansion. For the first time in history, the Burmese language and culture came to predominate the entire Irrawaddy valley. The evolution and growth of Burmese literature and theatre continued, aided by an extremely high adult male literacy rate for the era (half of all males and 5% of females).[53] Nonetheless, the extent and pace of reforms were uneven and ultimately proved insufficient to stem the advance of British colonialism.

British Burma (1824–1948)

Main articles: British rule in Burma and Burma Campaign

Burma in British India

The landing of British forces in Mandalay after the last of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, which resulted in the abdication of the last Burmese monarch, King Thibaw Min.

British troops firing a mortar on the Mawchi road, July 1944.

The eighteenth century saw Burmese rulers, whose country had not previously been of particular interest to European traders, seek to maintain their traditional influence in the western areas of Assam, Manipur and Arakan. Pressing them, however, was the British East India Company, which was expanding its interests eastwards over the same territory. Over the next sixty years, diplomacy, raids, treaties and compromises continued until, after three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885), Britain proclaimed control over most of Burma.[54] British rule brought social, economic, cultural and administrative changes.

With the fall of Mandalay, all of Burma came under British rule, being annexed on 1 January 1886. Throughout the colonial era, many Indians arrived as soldiers, civil servants, construction workers and traders and, along with the Anglo-Burmese community, dominated commercial and civil life in Burma. Rangoon became the capital of British Burma and an important port between Calcutta and Singapore.

Burmese resentment was strong and was vented in violent riots that paralysed Yangon (Rangoon) on occasion all the way until the 1930s.[55] Some of the discontent was caused by a disrespect for Burmese culture and traditions such as the British refusal to remove shoes when they entered pagodas. Buddhist monks became the vanguards of the independence movement. U Wisara, an activist monk, died in prison after a 166-day hunger strike to protest against a rule that forbade him to wear his Buddhist robes while imprisoned.[56]

Separation of British Burma from British India

On 1 April 1937, Burma became a separately administered colony of Great Britain and Ba Maw the first Prime Minister and Premier of Burma. Ba Maw was an outspoken advocate for Burmese self-rule and he opposed the participation of Great Britain, and by extension Burma, in World War II. He resigned from the Legislative Assembly and was arrested for sedition. In 1940, before Japan formally entered the Second World War, Aung San formed the Burma Independence Army in Japan.

A major battleground, Burma was devastated during World War II. By March 1942, within months after they entered the war, Japanese troops had advanced on Rangoon and the British administration had collapsed. A Burmese Executive Administration headed by Ba Maw was established by the Japanese in August 1942. Wingate's British Chindits were formed into long-range penetration groups trained to operate deep behind Japanese lines.[57] A similar American unit, Merrill's Marauders, followed the Chindits into the Burmese jungle in 1943.[58] Beginning in late 1944, allied troops launched a series of offensives that led to the end of Japanese rule in July 1945. The battles were intense with much of Burma laid waste by the fighting. Overall, the Japanese lost some 150,000 men in Burma. Only 1,700 prisoners were taken.[59]

Although many Burmese fought initially for the Japanese as part of the Burma Independence Army, many Burmese, mostly from the ethnic minorities, served in the British Burma Army.[60] The Burma National Army and the Arakan National Army fought with the Japanese from 1942 to 1944 but switched allegiance to the Allied side in 1945. Under Japanese occupation, 170,000 to 250,000 civilians died.[61]

Following World War II, Aung San negotiated the Panglong Agreement with ethnic leaders that guaranteed the independence of Myanmar as a unified state. Aung Zan Wai, Pe Khin, Bo Hmu Aung, Sir Maung Gyi, Dr. Sein Mya Maung, Myoma U Than Kywe were among the negotiators of the historical Panglong Conference negotiated with Bamar leader General Aung San and other ethnic leaders in 1947. In 1947, Aung San became Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of Myanmar, a transitional government. But in July 1947, political rivals[62] assassinated Aung San and several cabinet members.[63]

Independence (1948–1962)

Main article: Post-independence Burma, 1948–62

British governor Hubert Elvin Rance and Sao Shwe Thaik at the flag raising ceremony on 4 January 1948 (Independence Day of Burma).

On 4 January 1948, the nation became an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu as its first Prime Minister. Unlike most other former British colonies and overseas territories, Burma did not become a member of the Commonwealth. A bicameral parliament was formed, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Chamber of Nationalities,[64] and multi-party elections were held in 1951–1952, 1956 and 1960.

The geographical area Burma encompasses today can be traced to the Panglong Agreement, which combined Burma Proper, which consisted of Lower Burma and Upper Burma, and the Frontier Areas, which had been administered separately by the British.[65]

In 1961, U Thant, then the Union of Burma's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and former Secretary to the Prime Minister, was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations, a position he held for ten years.[66] Among the Burmese to work at the UN when he was Secretary-General was a young Aung San Suu Kyi (daughter of Aung San), who went on to become winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

When the non-Burman ethnic groups pushed for autonomy or federalism, alongside having a weak civilian government at the centre, the military leadership staged a coup d’état in 1962. Though incorporated in the 1947 Constitution, successive military governments construed the use of the term ‘federalism’ as being anti-national, anti-unity and pro-disintegration.[67]

Military rule (1962–2011)

On 2 March 1962, the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d'état, and the government has been under direct or indirect control by the military since then. Between 1962 and 1974, Myanmar was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general. Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalised or brought under government control under the Burmese Way to Socialism,[68] which combined Soviet-style nationalisation and central planning.

A new constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was adopted in 1974. Until 1988, the country was ruled as a one-party system, with the General and other military officers resigning and ruling through the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP).[69] During this period, Myanmar became one of the world's most impoverished countries.[70]

Protesters gathering in central Rangoon, 1988.

There were sporadic protests against military rule during the Ne Win years and these were almost always violently suppressed. On 7 July 1962, the government broke up demonstrations at Rangoon University, killing 15 students.[68] In 1974, the military violently suppressed anti-government protests at the funeral of U Thant. Student protests in 1975, 1976, and 1977 were quickly suppressed by overwhelming force.[69]

In 1988, unrest over economic mismanagement and political oppression by the government led to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country known as the 8888 Uprising. Security forces killed thousands of demonstrators, and General Saw Maung staged a coup d'état and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). In 1989, SLORC declared martial law after widespread protests. The military government finalised plans for People's Assembly elections on 31 May 1989.[71] SLORC changed the country's official English name from the "Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma" to the "Union of Myanmar" in 1989.

In May 1990, the government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years and the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of a total 492 seats (i.e., 80% of the seats). However, the military junta refused to cede power[72] and continued to rule the nation as SLORC until 1997, and then as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) until its dissolution in March 2011.

Protesters in Yangon during the 2007 Saffron Revolution with a banner that reads non-violence: national movement in Burmese. In the background is Shwedagon Pagoda.

On 23 June 1997, Myanmar was admitted into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). On 27 March 2006, the military junta, which had moved the national capital from Yangon to a site near Pyinmana in November 2005, officially named the new capital Naypyidaw, meaning "city of the kings".[73]

Cyclone Nargis in southern Myanmar, May 2008.

In August 2007, an increase in the price of diesel and petrol led to the Saffron Revolution led by Buddhist monks that were dealt with harshly by the government.[74] The government cracked down on them on 26 September 2007. The crackdown was harsh, with reports of barricades at the Shwedagon Pagoda and monks killed. There were also rumours of disagreement within the Burmese armed forces, but none was confirmed. The military crackdown against unarmed protesters was widely condemned as part of the international reactions to the Saffron Revolution and led to an increase in economic sanctions against the Burmese Government.

In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis caused extensive damage in the densely populated, rice-farming delta of the Irrawaddy Division.[75] It was the worst natural disaster in Burmese history with reports of an estimated 200,000 people dead or missing, damage totalled to 10 billion US dollars, and as many as 1 million left homeless.[76] In the critical days following this disaster, Myanmar's isolationist government was accused of hindering United Nations recovery efforts.[77] Humanitarian aid was requested but concerns about foreign military or intelligence presence in the country delayed the entry of United States military planes delivering medicine, food, and other supplies.[78]

In early August 2009, a conflict known as the Kokang incident broke out in Shan State in northern Myanmar. For several weeks, junta troops fought against ethnic minorities including the Han Chinese,[79] Wa, and Kachin.[80][81] During 8–12 August, the first days of the conflict, as many as 10,000 Burmese civilians fled to Yunnan province in neighbouring China.[80][81][82]

Civil wars

Main articles: Internal conflict in Myanmar, Kachin Conflict, Karen conflict, and 2015 Kokang offensive

Civil wars have been a constant feature of Myanmar's socio-political landscape since the attainment of independence in 1948. These wars are predominantly struggles for ethnic and sub-national autonomy, with the areas surrounding the ethnically Bamar central districts of the country serving as the primary geographical setting of conflict. Foreign journalists and visitors require a special travel permit to visit the areas in which Myanmar's civil wars continue.[83]

In October 2012, the ongoing conflicts in Myanmar included the Kachin conflict,[84] between the Pro-Christian Kachin Independence Army and the government;[85] a civil war between the Rohingya Muslims, and the government and non-government groups in Rakhine State;[86] and a conflict between the Shan,[87] Lahu, and Karen[88][89] minority groups, and the government in the eastern half of the country. In addition, al-Qaeda signalled an intention to become involved in Myanmar. In a video released on 3 September 2014, mainly addressed to India, the militant group's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri said al-Qaeda had not forgotten the Muslims of Myanmar and that the group was doing "what they can to rescue you".[90] In response, the military raised its level of alertness, while the Burmese Muslim Association issued a statement saying Muslims would not tolerate any threat to their motherland.[91]

Armed conflict between ethnic Chinese rebels and the Myanmar Armed Forces have resulted in the Kokang offensive in February 2015. The conflict had forced 40,000 to 50,000 civilians to flee their homes and seek shelter on the Chinese side of the border.[92] During the incident, the government of China was accused of giving military assistance to the ethnic Chinese rebels. Burmese officials have been historically "manipulated" and pressured by the Chinese government throughout Burmese modern history to create closer and binding ties with China, creating a Chinese satellite state in Southeast Asia.[93] However, uncertainties exist as clashes between Burmese troops and local insurgent groups continue.

Democratic reforms

Main article: 2011–12 Burmese political reforms

The goal of the Burmese constitutional referendum of 2008, held on 10 May 2008, is the creation of a "discipline-flourishing democracy". As part of the referendum process, the name of the country was changed from the "Union of Myanmar" to the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar", and general elections were held under the new constitution in 2010. Observer accounts of the 2010 election describe the event as mostly peaceful; however, allegations of polling station irregularities were raised, and the United Nations (UN) and a number of Western countries condemned the elections as fraudulent.[94]

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Aung San Suu Kyi and her staff at her home in Yangon, 2012

The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party declared victory in the 2010 elections, stating that it had been favoured by 80 percent of the votes; however, the claim was disputed by numerous pro-democracy opposition groups who asserted that the military regime had engaged in rampant fraud.[95][96] One report documented 77 percent as the official turnout rate of the election.[95] The military junta was dissolved on 30 March 2011.

Opinions differ whether the transition to liberal democracy is underway. According to some reports, the military's presence continues as the label "disciplined democracy" suggests. This label asserts that the Burmese military is allowing certain civil liberties while clandestinely institutionalising itself further into Burmese politics. Such an assertion assumes that reforms only occurred when the military was able to safeguard its own interests through the transition—here, "transition" does not refer to a transition to a liberal democracy, but transition to a quasi-military rule.[97]

Since the 2010 election, the government has embarked on a series of reforms to direct the country towards liberal democracy, a mixed economy, and reconciliation, although doubts persist about the motives that underpin such reforms. The series of reforms includes the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, the granting of general amnesties for more than 200 political prisoners, new labour laws that permit labour unions and strikes, a relaxation of press censorship, and the regulation of currency practices.[98]

The impact of the post-election reforms has been observed in numerous areas, including ASEAN's approval of Myanmar's bid for the position of ASEAN chair in 2014;[99] the visit by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December 2011 for the encouragement of further progress, which was the first visit by a Secretary of State in more than fifty years,[100] during which Clinton met with the Burmese president and former military commander Thein Sein, as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi;[101] and the participation of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the 2012 by-elections, facilitated by the government's abolition of the laws that previously barred the NLD.[102] As of July 2013, about 100[103][104] political prisoners remain imprisoned, while conflict between the Burmese Army and local insurgent groups continues.

Map of Myanmar and its divisions, including Shan State, Kachin State, Rakhine State and Karen State.

In 1 April 2012 by-elections, the NLD won 43 of the 45 available seats; previously an illegal organisation, the NLD had not won a single seat under new constitution. The 2012 by-elections were also the first time that international representatives were allowed to monitor the voting process in Myanmar.[105]

2015 general elections

Main article: Myanmar general election, 2015

General elections were held on 8 November 2015. These were the first openly contested elections held in Myanmar since 1990. The results gave the National League for Democracy an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of the national parliament, enough to ensure that its candidate would become president, while NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency.[106]

The new parliament convened on 1 February 2016[107] and, on 15 March 2016, Htin Kyaw was elected as the first non-military president since the military coup of 1962.[108] On 6 April 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor, a role akin to a Prime Minister.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Myanmar

A map of Myanmar

Myanmar map of Köppen climate classification.

Myanmar has a total area of 678,500 square kilometres (262,000 sq mi). It lies between latitudes 9° and 29°N, and longitudes 92° and 102°E. As of February 2011, Myanmar consisted of 14 states and regions, 67 districts, 330 townships, 64 sub-townships, 377 towns, 2,914 Wards, 14,220 village tracts and 68,290 villages.

Myanmar is bordered in the northwest by the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh and the Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh states of India. Its north and northeast border is with the Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan province for a Sino-Myanmar border total of 2,185 km (1,358 mi). It is bounded by Laos and Thailand to the southeast. Myanmar has 1,930 km (1,200 mi) of contiguous coastline along the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea to the southwest and the south, which forms one quarter of its total perimeter.[20]

In the north, the Hengduan Mountains form the border with China. Hkakabo Razi, located in Kachin State, at an elevation of 5,881 metres (19,295 ft), is the highest point in Myanmar.[109] Many mountain ranges, such as the Rakhine Yoma, the Bago Yoma, the Shan Hills and the Tenasserim Hills exist within Myanmar, all of which run north-to-south from the Himalayas.[110]

The mountain chains divide Myanmar's three river systems, which are the Irrawaddy, Salween (Thanlwin), and the Sittaung rivers.[111] The Irrawaddy River, Myanmar's longest river, nearly 2,170 kilometres (1,348 mi) long, flows into the Gulf of Martaban. Fertile plains exist in the valleys between the mountain chains.[110] The majority of Myanmar's population lives in the Irrawaddy valley, which is situated between the Rakhine Yoma and the Shan Plateau.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Myanmar

A clickable map of Burma/Myanmar exhibiting its first-level administrative divisions.

About this image

Myanmar is divided into seven states (ပြည်နယ်) and seven regions (တိုင်းဒေသကြီး), formerly called divisions.[112] Regions are predominantly Bamar (that is, mainly inhabited by the dominant ethnic group). States, in essence, are regions that are home to particular ethnic minorities. The administrative divisions are further subdivided into districts, which are further subdivided into townships, wards, and villages.

Climate

Main article: Climate of Myanmar

The limestone landscape of Mon State.

Much of the country lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator. It lies in the monsoon region of Asia, with its coastal regions receiving over 5,000 mm (196.9 in) of rain annually. Annual rainfall in the delta region is approximately 2,500 mm (98.4 in), while average annual rainfall in the Dry Zone in central Myanmar is less than 1,000 mm (39.4 in). The Northern regions of Myanmar are the coolest, with average temperatures of 21 °C (70 °F). Coastal and delta regions have an average maximum temperature of 32 °C (89.6 °F).[111]

Environment

Further information: Deforestation in Myanmar

Myanmar continues to perform badly in the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) with an overall ranking of 153 out of 180 countries in 2016; among the worst in the South Asian region, only ahead of Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The EPI was established in 2001 by the World Economic Forum as a global gauge to measure how well individual countries perform in implementing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The environmental areas where Myanmar performs worst (ie. highest ranking) are air quality (174), health impacts of environmental issues (143) and biodiversity and habitat (142). Myanmar performs best (ie. lowest ranking) in environmental impacts of fisheries (21), but with declining fish stocks. Despite several issues, Myanmar also ranks 64 and scores very good (ie. a high percentage of 93.73%) in environmental effects of the agricultural industry because of an excellent management of the nitrogen cycle.[114][115]

Wildlife

Myanmar's slow economic growth has contributed to the preservation of much of its environment and ecosystems. Forests, including dense tropical growth and valuable teak in lower Myanmar, cover over 49% of the country, including areas of acacia, bamboo, ironwood and Magnolia champaca. Coconut and betel palm and rubber have been introduced. In the highlands of the north, oak, pine and various rhododendrons cover much of the land.[116]

Heavy logging since the new 1995 forestry law went into effect has seriously reduced forest acreage and wildlife habitat.[117] The lands along the coast support all varieties of tropical fruits and once had large areas of mangroves although much of the protective mangroves have disappeared. In much of central Myanmar (the Dry Zone), vegetation is sparse and stunted.

Typical jungle animals, particularly tigers, occur sparsely in Myanmar. In upper Myanmar, there are rhinoceros, wild water buffalo, clouded leopard, wild boars, deer, antelope, and elephants, which are also tamed or bred in captivity for use as work animals, particularly in the lumber industry. Smaller mammals are also numerous, ranging from gibbons and monkeys to flying foxes. The abundance of birds is notable with over 800 species, including parrots, myna, peafowl, red junglefowl, weaverbirds, crows, herons, and barn owl. Among reptile species there are crocodiles, geckos, cobras, Burmese pythons, and turtles. Hundreds of species of freshwater fish are wide-ranging, plentiful and are very important food sources.[118] For a list of protected areas, see List of protected areas of Myanmar.

Government and politics

Main article: Politics of Myanmar

Assembly of the Union (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw)

The constitution of Myanmar, its third since independence, was drafted by its military rulers and published in September 2008. The country is governed as a parliamentary system with a bicameral legislature (with an executive President accountable to the legislature), with 25% of the legislators appointed by the military and the rest elected in general elections.

REUTERS

Emergency workers wore blue plastic coverings as they dug

By Orla Guerin

BBC News, Izyum, Ukraine

In a pine forest at the edge of Izyum the stench of death filled the air as a mass exhumation got under way.

The earth is giving up its secrets. Ukrainian officials believe war crimes have been committed, which they are determined to document.

Around 100 Ukrainian emergency service workers wearing blue plastic coverings dug into the earth, opening makeshift graves.

They are trying to establish the cause of death of hundreds of people buried in a forest at the edge of the city, recently liberated by advancing Ukrainian forces.

Izyum, invaded in April, was used by Russia as a key military hub to supply its forces from the east.

The exhumation was conducted mostly in silence, as police and prosecutors looked on. One officer put his head in his hands. Another walked away.

Kharkiv regional prosecutor Olexander Ilyenkov says there is no doubt war crimes have been committed here.

"In the first grave, there is a civilian who has a rope over her neck. So we see the traces of torture," he told the BBC.

He said almost everyone died because of Russian soldiers.

"Some of them were killed, some were tortured, some were killed because of Russian Federation air and artillery strikes."

Ukraine was determined to show this disturbing sight to the world. Convoys of international journalists were brought to watch on.

The burial ground - beside an existing cemetery - contains row after row of graves, marked by crude wooden crosses.

Names were written on a few, but most were marked only by a number. The burials here were carried out under the orders of the Russians when they were in control.

Ukrainian police say there are 445 new graves at the site, but some contain more than one body. It's unclear how all of them died. Many are said to be civilians, women and children among them.

Prosecutors say some were killed by Russian shelling and others were victims of a Russian airstrike on an apartment block in March, in which 47 people were killed.

Officials say one grave contained around 20 soldiers, some with their hands bound and one with a noose around his neck. The body of a man in military uniform was exhumed and zipped into a white body bag.

As the graves were opened there were sporadic explosions in the distance as the security forces worked to de-mine the area.

72-year-old Hryhorii came to the burial site today to see the grave of his wife, Ludmilla. He told us she was killed on 7 March during heavy shelling in Izyum.

He first had to bury her in the yard of their home, then she was reburied in August. Now her remains will be disturbed once again.

It's only now, since the Russians have been pushed out, that Ukraine can carry out detailed investigations here, and can determine how many victims the occupiers left behind.

A woman who lived opposite the forest told us Russians troops had kept locals away from the cemetery.

A local man named Maxim appeared at the burial site, asking journalists to record his account of torture.

He said he was detained by the Russians in early September, and released by Ukrainian forces when they arrived in Izyum last Saturday (10 September).

He showed us the marks on his wrists caused by handcuffs, and said he had been subjected to electric shocks.

A senior advisor to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky told the BBC evidence of torture was found in some areas recently retaken by Ukrainian forces.

"We saw wildly frightened people who were kept without light, without food, without water, and without the right to justice," Mykhailo Podolyak said.

Kharkiv prosecutor Mr Ilyenkov said several similar burial sites had been found in areas recently retaken by Ukrainian forces.

US national security spokesman John Kirby said reports of the graves in Izyum were "horrifying" but "in keeping with the kind of depravity and the brutality with which Russian forces have been prosecuting this war against Ukraine".

"We're going to continue to actively support efforts to document war crimes and atrocities that Russian forces commit in Ukraine and to assist national and international efforts to identify and hold Russians accountable," he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned "in the strongest possible terms" what he described as the "atrocities" committed in Izyum.

British lawyer Nigel Povoas, who specialises in the prosecution and investigation of major international and transnational crime and who has just returned from Izyum, told the BBC's Newshour he would not be surprised if the exhumations revealed evidence of war crimes.

"I think that the early signs at the moment - although it's very very early - is that some of the bodies have died from shelling or malnutrition and a lack of healthcare," he said. "But as normal bodies are tested and the cause of death determined, I would expect there to be also evidence of torture and executions, because it follows a pattern of what's been happening in the occupied territories."

Someone PLEASE remind me next time I consider this sort of treatment in Photoshop, to avoid anything which features coloured feathers! It took ages!

I took this earlier today on the Royal Mile. It's a performer from a show called 'Stonewall', the blurb for which says "On a hot summer night in 1969 a riot took place in downtown Manhattan that would change the face of modern sexuality forever." It's on at Pleasance One at 5.50pm until August 27th. You can find the show here: Stonewall

Incidentally, while I was taking these pics (another 500 shots today...ho-hum!), Sanjeev Kohli (a.k.a. Navid from 'Still Game'), was filming an item for the BBC about the madness of the Edinburgh Fringe. However, the performers from this show were carefully choreographed to walk through in the background just as he was describing "the madness". Compared to announcing fictional winners of premium rate phoneline contests, it's small beer, but whatever happened to journalistic integrity? ;-)

Die nächste Stufe des Wahns: 3G im Nahverkehr. Wie die Hitlerfaschisten kommen die deutschen Polit-Bonzen nicht mehr heraus aus ihrer eigenen Virus-Propaganda-Blase. Nicht mehr heraus aus ihrer korrupten Verbindung mit der US-Pharma-Mafia, deren unwirksamer krankmachender Impfstoff inzwischen bei 95% der deutschen Erwachsenen gespritzt wurde und einen Inzidenzwert von über 330 verursacht hat. Während dieser Wert vor Beginn der Impf-Orgie Ende 2020 bei unter 100 lag. Japan beendete Mitte 2021 den Einsatz der US-EU-Impfstoffe und hat seitdem kein Corona-Problem mehr, aktuell eine Inzidenz von 0,9. In China, wo bis jetzt nur 40% der Bevölkerung mit dem einheimischen Impfstoff geimpft ist, liegt die Inzidenz bei 0,0 und gibt es seit einem Jahr keine Maskenpflicht und keine Verbote mehr. Offensichtlich wirkt der chinesische Impfstoff wesentlich besser; die USA verzeichnen insgesamt 26 mal so viele Virustote wie China. Dennoch ist der chinesische Impfstoff in der EU, in der BRD und in den USA verboten - die US-EU-Politiker wollen die Profite der US-Pharma-Industrie nicht gefährden.

(Dagmar Henn, 17 Nov. 2021, de.rt.com/meinung/127215-die-naechste-stufe-des-wahns-3g-...)

Die Ampel will auf keinen Fall andere Impfstoffe zulassen und setzt weiter auf Terror und Zwang gegen Ungeimpfte, obwohl 95% der Erwachsenen geimpft sind. Jetzt wird die Aussperrung vom öffentlichen Nahverkehr geplant. Hat die kommende Regierungskoalition darüber nachgedacht, welche Folgen das hat? Kaum anzunehmen.

Es kommt einem vor, als habe irgendjemand einen Wettbewerb für die irrwitzigste Maßnahme ausgeschrieben. Der Preis für den Sieger muss wahrhaft beeindruckend sein. Offenbar fürchten die deutschen Teilnehmer, durch den österreichischen Lockdown für Ungeimpfte ins Hintertreffen zu geraten, und bemühen sich jetzt nach Kräften, die Nachbarn doch noch zu überholen. Anders kann man die von der kommenden Ampelkoalition geäußerten Pläne zu 3G im Nahverkehr nicht mehr betrachten. Ungeimpfte sollen tatsächlich den öffentlichen Nahverkehr nur noch mit Test benutzen dürfen. Und es steht zu fürchten, dass nicht einmal die Aussage der Polizei, das könne man nicht kontrollieren, sie davon abhält.

Ein Haufen vom Fahrdienst des Bundestags verwöhnte Politiker mit einem durchaus beträchtlichen Einkommen will einen Lockdown für Ungeimpfte durch die Hintertür einführen, der die österreichischen Regeln noch übertrifft. Klar, sie kennen den öffentlichen Nahverkehr nur aus der Heimfahrt in den Wahlkreis in der 1. Klasse der Bahn. Einkaufen gehen sie vermutlich auch nicht. Und da die Justiz sich als zahnlos erwiesen hat, was die Verteidigung selbst banalster Grundrechte betrifft, ignorieren sie sie völlig.

Und jede der drei beteiligten Parteien versenkt ganz nebenbei angebliche Grundsätze – die Sozialdemokraten entziehen abhängig Beschäftigten den Zugang zu ihrem Arbeitsplatz und bringen sie in eine arbeitsrechtlich völlig unklare Lage; die Grünen ignorieren jeglichen sozialen Maßstab, da es nicht die Wohlhabenden sind, die auf den ÖPNV angewiesen sind; und die FDP hat ihre vermeintliche Verteidigung der Freiheit schon auf den ersten Metern preisgegeben.

Wäre der Zustand der Rechtsordnung dieses Landes noch ansatzweise normal, ein solcher Plan müsste an den Gerichten scheitern, weil er gegen den Gleichbehandlungsgrundsatz verstößt. Mal ganz abgesehen von der Legitimität einer Unterscheidung zwischen möglicherweise ansteckenden Ungeimpften und ebenso möglicherweise ansteckenden Geimpften – diese wahnwitzige Idee der Ampler unterscheidet zwischen Ungeimpften. Und zwar zwischen jenen Ungeimpften, die zufällig neben einem Testzentrum wohnen, und allen anderen.

Was sie offenkundig nicht bedacht haben, ist, dass nicht jeder neben einem solchen Testzentrum wohnt. Und dass nicht jeder ein Auto besitzt. Und selbst, wenn die Herrschaften eine tägliche Testpflicht am Arbeitsplatz einführen würden, es noch ein Wochenende gibt, an dem man nicht in die Arbeit fährt. Um dann am Montag ohne Test gar nicht erst in selbige kommen zu können.

Was sie ebenfalls nicht bedacht haben, ist die Tatsache, dass nur ein Bruchteil der Menschen noch in Umgebungen lebt, in denen man vor die Tür tritt und Bäcker, Metzger oder Supermarkt gleich erreicht. Auch zur Grundversorgung kann man den ÖPNV benötigen.

Es gäbe natürlich eine Möglichkeit, das Ganze so zu gestalten, dass es dem Gleichheitsgrundsatz nicht widerspricht – neben jeder, wortwörtlich jeder Haltestelle eines öffentlichen Verkehrsmittels müsste eine Testmöglichkeit eingerichtet werden. An jeder Bus- oder Trambahnhaltestelle, an jedem kleinen Provinzbahnhof. Nur dann wäre sichergestellt, dass die Voraussetzungen für alle gleich sind.

Und welche Konsequenzen hätte es, sollten von heute auf morgen sämtliche Ungeimpften, die nicht mit dem Auto unterwegs sind, ihre Arbeit nicht antreten können, weil sie den ÖPNV nicht mehr nutzen dürfen (nur zur Erinnerung – auch Taxen sind rechtlich Teil des ÖPNV …)? Wenn willkürlich aus den unterschiedlichsten Bereichen auch nur ein Zehntel der Arbeitskräfte ausfällt, quer durch von Ambulanz bis Zimmermann? Entweder, die Beteiligten haben gar nicht erst über die Folgen nachgedacht, oder sie steuern gezielt ins Chaos.

Es ist auch nicht anzunehmen, dass Schadensersatzpflichten, die aus dieser Entscheidung resultieren, mit dem Hinweis, die Betroffenen hätten sich impfen lassen können, abgewiesen werden können. Denn wenn der Bundestag auf dem Gesetzesweg die Möglichkeit nimmt, der Arbeitspflicht nachzukommen, wird der Staat auf Schäden, die eventuell Dritten daraus entstehen, auf jeden Fall sitzen bleiben. Was, wenn die Arbeitgeber klagen? Denken wir mal an Verzögerungen beim Fertigstellen von Bauwerken, an fehlende Besetzungen bei Feuerwehren oder, wenn die Polizei bei uns nicht völlig anders gestrickt ist als in den USA, an Unterbesetzungen bei der Polizei. Haben sie sich vorher erkundigt, wie viele Lkw-Fahrer mit dem öffentlichen Nahverkehr zur Arbeit kommen und ungeimpft sind? Und welche Konsequenzen das für die ohnehin angeschlagenen logistischen Strukturen hätte?

Wiederholen wir das mit der Verhältnismäßigkeit, der alles staatliche Handeln gehorchen muss, doch noch einmal: erforderlich, zweckmäßig und mildestes Mittel. Beim letzten Punkt gibt es die übliche glatte 6. Denn wenn man es für nötig hält, die Impfquote zu erhöhen, gäbe es die Möglichkeit, andere Impfstoffe zuzulassen; das wäre, nach dem Ergebnis einer vom Bundesgesundheitsministerium veranlassten Umfrage, tatsächlich zielführend, ohne die Grundrechte eines einzigen Bürgers einzuschränken (es würden nur die Kurserwartungen der Besitzer von BioNTech-Aktien darunter leiden). Wie alle sehen können, wird dieser Schritt nicht einmal in Erwägung gezogen, obwohl er weder aufwendige Kontrollmaßnahmen erfordert noch hohe Kosten auslöst (im Gegenteil, diese Impfstoffe sind weit billiger als die zugelassenen). Solange dieser Kurs beibehalten wird, ist keine der verhängten Maßnahmen das mildeste Mittel.

Mit der Zweckmäßigkeit sieht es ebenfalls nicht gut aus, da mittlerweile nicht mehr bestritten wird, dass auch Geimpfte krank und ansteckend sein können. Der Zweck, eine Ansteckung im ÖPNV zu verhindern, könnte also nur erreicht werden, wenn alle Fahrgäste gleichermaßen getestet sein müssten. Wobei natürlich auch dann die oben erwähnten Probleme gelten – eine Benachteiligung all jener, die nicht neben einem Testzentrum wohnen, müsste vermieden werden.

Beim letzten Kriterium, der Erforderlichkeit, sind wir wieder bei der Frage, ob es die verkündeten Engpässe in den Krankenhäusern tatsächlich gibt und was dafür verantwortlich ist. Aber da braucht man sich keine Sorgen zu machen: Die Wahrscheinlichkeit ist hoch, dass sich die Ampeltruppe demnächst noch auf eine Impfpflicht in Gesundheitsberufen einigt. Dann werden wir bald sehen und erleben, welche Folgen es hat, wenn plötzlich ein Teil des Pflegepersonals verschwindet. Die künftige Überlastung wäre selbst ohne Corona dauerhaft sichergestellt.

Man könnte fast meinen, in Berlin wollten sie ausprobieren, an welchem Punkt alles im Chaos versinkt. Und das Einzige, das noch Bedeutung besitzt, ist, vorher dafür zu sorgen, dass das Ergebnis nicht den Verursachern angelastet wird, indem man die Ungeimpften als Sündenbock markiert.

(USA: Nationalgarde von Oklahoma widersetzt sich COVID-Impfmandat des Pentagon)

Was ohnehin die Hauptstrategie im Umgang mit all den Dingen zu sein scheint, die die deutsche Politik verbockt. So, wie jetzt schon feststeht, dass Probleme mit der Gasversorgung, sollten sie in diesem Winter eintreten, nicht die Folge der von der EU freigegebenen Spekulation mit Erdgas oder eigener geopolitischer Stümperei sind, sondern ganz sicher die Schuld Russlands. Für jeden Berliner Unfug wird ein Schuldiger gefunden, der nicht in Berlin an der Regierung sitzt. Das macht das Regieren wesentlich leichter, weil man sich das mühsame Nachdenken über die Folgen eigenen Handelns endlich schenken kann.

Eines jedenfalls haben die Ampler schon geschafft: Sie haben einen zusätzlichen Anreiz gesetzt, das Auto anstelle des ÖPNV zu nutzen. Nur im eigenen Fahrzeug entginge man der Testerei und käme sowohl zur Arbeit als auch zum Einkauf. Das ist zwar das Gegenteil dessen, was zumindest die Grünen immer zu wollen behaupten, aber Logik war ja noch nie das ihre.

----------------------------------------------

Der Terror der EU und Polens gegen Flüchtlinge : "Sie verstoßen gegen jede denkbare Regel des humanitären Völkerrechts"

(aus de.rt.com/kurzclips/127278-lawrow-kritisiert-polen-sie-ve...)

Am Dienstag traf sich der russische Außenminister Sergei Lawrow mit dem Vorsitzenden der Kommission der Afrikanischen Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat, in Moskau. Bei einer gemeinsamen Pressekonferenz sprach sich der Außenminister zum Thema "Migrationskrise" aus.

Lawrow warf Polen Verstöße gegen das humanitäre Völkerrecht an der belarussischen Grenze vor. "Das Verhalten der polnischen Seite ist absolut inakzeptabel. Ich denke, dass sowohl das Tränengas und die Wasserwerfer als auch die Schüsse über die Köpfe der Migranten hinweg in Richtung des Staates Weißrussland - all dies spiegelt meiner Meinung nach den Wunsch wider, ihre Handlungen zu verbergen", kommentierte Lawrow.

"Sie können nicht übersehen, dass sie gegen jede denkbare Regel des humanitären Völkerrechts und andere Vereinbarungen der Weltgemeinschaft verstoßen. Natürlich verstehen sie das alles. Wir erleben jetzt, dass eine der Aufgaben, die die polnische Seite löst, darin besteht, zu verhindern, dass ihre Handlungen öffentlich werden. Journalisten werden dort einfach nicht zugelassen.

Journalisten von CNN, BBC und anderen westlichen Medien und Fernsehsendern arbeiten von der belarussischen Seite aus. Sie äußern ein ernsthaftes Unverständnis darüber, warum sie auf der polnischen Seite einfach nicht zugelassen werden. Wie Sie wissen, wurden Ihre Kollegen von RT France festgenommen, irgendwo hingebracht, angeklagt und mit einer Geldstrafe belegt. Wir fordern ein sofortiges Ende dieser Willkür", betonte Russlands Außenminister.

Die Lage an der östlichen EU-Außengrenze hat sich seit vergangener Woche dramatisch zugespitzt. Weiterhin harren auf der weißrussischen Seite an der Grenze zu Polen Tausende Migranten bei Temperaturen um den Gefrierpunkt in provisorischen Lagern im Wald aus. In den vergangenen Tagen versuchten einzelne Gruppen von Migranten wiederholt, Sperranlagen zu durchbrechen und die Grenze zu überqueren.

Erinnern wir uns: Vor 3 Monaten versuchten sich alle deutschen Parteien gegenseitig darin zu übertreffen, Flüchtlinge aus Kabul zu retten und auszufliegen. Jetzt versuchen sie sich gegenseitig darin zu übertreffen, Flüchtlinge an der polnischen Grenze erfrieren zu lassen. Der Unterschied zwischen beiden Flüchtlingsgruppen ist folgender: die in Kabul waren Folterhelfer der NATO, die an Polens Grenze hingegen nicht; sie sind vor den Kriegen der NATO und ihren Folterern geflüchtet.

096

Das Merkel-Regime und das US-Regime unterstützen offen einen antisemitischen Neonazi

Der diese Woche in Weißrussland (Belarus) zu Recht festgenommene Blogger hat im faschistischen Terror-Bataillon »Asow« in der Ukraine gekämpft. Er ist dennoch im US State Department empfangen worden und wird von der deutschen Regierung ebenfalls propagandistisch gefördert. Vor wenigen Tagen noch verleumdete das CDU-SPD-Regime jeden als antisemitisch, der den Mord an über 200 Palästinensern und 61 Kindern durch Israel in Gaza kritisierte. Doch die gleiche deutsche Regierung unterstützt offen und mit viel Geld die Nazis, Rassisten, Antisemiten und SS-Anhänger in der Ukraine und im Baltikum, wie auch den erwähnten rechtsextremen Blogger mit terroristischem Hintergrund.

(Reinhard Lauterbach, aus www.jungewelt.de/artikel/403260.belarus-die-amis-und-der-...)

Der festgenommene belarussische Aktivist Raman Pratassewitsch hat eine weit rechtere Vergangenheit, als es westliche Medien bisher dargestellt haben. Der Chef des belarussischen Geheimdienstes KGB, Iwan Tertel, sagte am Mittwoch vor dem Parlament des Landes, Pratassewitsch habe 2014/15 im ukrainischen Neonazibataillon (inzwischen: Regiment) »Asow« im Donbass gekämpft. Das erfülle die Tatbestände des Terrorismus und des Söldnertums.

Der Einsatz von Pratassewitsch bei »Asow« wird auch von ukrainischer Seite nicht mehr bestritten. Andrej Bilezkij, früherer Chef der Einheit, sagte gegenüber dem ukrainischen Dienst der BBC, »Raman« habe »in unseren Reihen gegen die Okkupation der Ukraine gekämpft« – als Journalist – »mit den Waffen des Wortes«.

An dieser Stelle kommt der US-amerikanische Aspekt der Vergangenheit von Pratassewitsch ins Bild. Er hat selbst behauptet, sich im Donbass als Videojournalist für Radio Liberty betätigt zu haben, dem in Prag ansässigen US-Propagandasender. Russische und oppositionelle ukrainische Medien veröffentlichen darüber hinaus Hinweise darauf, dass Pratassewitsch im »Pressedienst« des Asow-Bataillons tätig gewesen sein dürfte. Darunter ist eine Ausgabe der »Hauszeitschrift« des Bataillons, Schwarze Sonne. Auf einer Titelseite aus dem Jahr 2015 ist ein junger Mann in Kampfmontur zu sehen – Pratassewitsch zumindest sehr ähnlich. Das Blättchen steckt voller faschistischer Bekenntnisartikel und homofeindlicher Propaganda. Obwohl der US-Kongress schon 2015 jede direkte US-Unterstützung des Asow-Bataillons wegen dessen faschistischer Orientierung verboten hatte, gelangte Pratassewitsch in den Genuss von US-Stipendien zur »Talentförderung«; dabei wurde er, wie Selfies von ihm zeigen, 2018 sogar im US-Außenministerium empfangen.

In sozialen Netzwerken fanden russische Journalisten zudem Selbstporträts mit einem schweren Maschinengewehr oder wie Pratassewitsch gemeinsam mit anderen Kämpfern von »Asow« in Reih und Glied steht. Außerdem veröffentlichte das nationalistische belarussische Portal Nascha Niwa 2015 ein Interview mit einem in den Reihen von »Asow« kämpfenden Belarussen, das mit einem Photo illustriert ist, das bis auf das verpixelte Gesicht mit einem der Selfies von Pratassewitsch identisch ist. Darin erklärt der Interviewte, er sei 2014 auf eigene Initiative in die Ukraine gegangen, um »gegen die russischen Horden« zu kämpfen.

Hinweise gibt es auch darauf, dass Pratassewitsch der »Jungen Front«, der Jugendorganisation der »Volksfront«, angehört hat. Diese vertritt einen antirussischen belarussischen Nationalismus, vertrieb auch Broschüren, die die belarussischen Kollaborateure mit den Nazibesatzern glorifizierten. Öffentliche Auftritte der »Jungen Front« zeigen das typische Design faschistischer Aufmärsche. Schon seit Mitte der 90er Jahre, als der Gründer der »Volksfront«, Sjanon Pasnjak, angesichts drohender Verfolgung in Belarus dorthin auswich, haben die USA als Rückzugsraum gedient und die »Volksfront« politisch am Leben gehalten.

Prowestliche russische und ukrainische Medien versuchen, die jetzt bekanntgewordenen Informationen mit dem Hinweis zu entkräften, sie bewiesen nichts zu den jetzt gegen Pratassewitsch erhobenen Vorwürfen. Konkret vielleicht nicht. Aber sie lassen eine Spur erkennen: vom belarussischen Nationalismus, dessen Förderung durch die USA und zu den jüngsten Protesten gegen Alexander Lukaschenko.

----------------------------------------

Die Bundesregierung sagt: der Tageszeitung junge Welt sei mit geheimdienstlichen Mitteln der »Nährboden zu entziehen«. Wirtschaftlich und wettbewerbsrechtlich negative Folgen durch die Nennung der Zeitung im Verfassungsschutzbericht seien sogar beabsichtigt.

Unsere Antwort darauf kann nur sein, dass sie mit diesem grundgesetzwidrigen Eingriff in die Presse- und Meinungsfreiheit genau das Gegenteil erreichen! Deshalb fordern wir alle Freunde, Leserinnen und Leser, Unterstützer, Autoren und Genossenschaftsmitglieder auf: Tun wir alles, um den »Nährboden« der jungen Welt zu stärken – jetzt erst recht!

Jetzt abonieren: www.jungewelt.de/abo

DSC_0193

Wer war der wahnsinnige Anführer der Republik Dave?

Wer war der wahnsinnige Anführer der Republik Dave? – Dave.

Wer war der Sheriff von Megaton?

Lucas Simms ist der Sheriff der Stadt Megaton.

Wer oder was ist DiMA Fallout Shelter?

Peace. While you're here in Acadia, synth-kind welcomes you, as long as you welcome us. DiMA ist ein modifizierter Synth auf der Insel im Jahr 2287.

Fallout shelter wer ist der berühmteste reporter

Wer war der wahnsinnige Anführer der Republik Dave?

Wer war der Sheriff von Megaton?

Wer oder was ist DiMA Fallout Shelter?

zusammenhängende Posts

Warum ist Essen für Kinder wichtig?

Wohin wird der Apple Bestätigungscode geschickt?

Was ist der unterschied zwischendisplay vergröserung

Paket per Nachnahme Wer darf annehmen

Wann ist öffentliches Training an der Säbener Straße?

Wer ist aus prenden bei wobau

Der preis ist heiß moderator tot

Was ist der unterschied zwischen ichtholan 20 und 50

Was ist der unterschied zwischen ipad und tablet

Wann kommt der Film Die Heiden von Kummerow?

Toplist

Neuester Beitrag

Stichworte