Re: Main news thread - conflicts, terrorism, crisis from around the globe

[Zambeezi]

Thoughts on Commodities-backed BRICS trade currency




what he is describing are what the great economic minds have been wrestling with...
essentially how to avoid the abuse of such a currency based on commodities (unrefined/undeveloped/in-the-ground)
so called 'proven reserves' etc.
It also explains why such a currency system has not been declared yet. It's not a simple problem.

[Zambeezi]

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[Zambeezi]

Total chaos has come in the security sphere in Haiti. More than 5,000 people have fled their homes in Port-au-Prince in recent days due to the terror unleashed by the gangs.

Armed groups have taken control of 80% of the capital, committing rapes, murders, looting and burning… pic.twitter.com/qoGBBkEJH5

— Sprinter (@Sprinter99800) August 24, 2023

[Zambeezi]

Juan Guaidó 4 'murica

[Zambeezi]

Masks, again?!#Fauci #Masks pic.twitter.com/GxUSa1Igbe

— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) August 23, 2023

[Zambeezi]

https://twitter.com/talkrealopinion/status/1694746407821799859

[Zambeezi]

Rules for thee, not for me.

[Zambeezi]

controls strategic red sea / horn of Africa.

[Zambeezi]

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Iran has shown the new generation Almas anti-tank missile system, as well as footage of its use by an AH-1J attack helicopter. pic.twitter.com/dRPxYJtOV5

— Sprinter (@Sprinter99800) August 24, 2023

[Zambeezi]

[Zambeezi]

Ukrainians executing unarmed Russians trying to surrender during an assault pic.twitter.com/QbYfJupqgB

— What the media hides. (@narrative_hole) August 24, 2023

[Zambeezi]

hot points

Maui Fire - Notice all the hot points on the satellite image??? #Lahaina #fire #Maui #MauiFire #hawaiifire #Hawaii pic.twitter.com/9Lw271Jk6F

— HumanDilemma (@HumanDilemma_) August 24, 2023

[Zambeezi]

Sprinter
@Sprinter99800
The elite group of Ukrainian forces "Maroon", which is equipped with German "Leopard" tanks,
suffered catastrophic losses in the Zaporozhye region, which are measured in thousands of soldiers,
Vladimir Rogov, the leader of the Zaporozhian movement "Together with Russia", told Sputnik.

At least two-thirds of the elite tactical group are already involved in the fighting, with thousands of casualties.
They were engaged in an offensive on the village of Rabotino with the aim of moving on to the city of Tokmak in case of success.
This is a group that was best supplied and equipped with Western military equipment, including German tanks.

[Zambeezi]

Big Serge
@witte_sergei
·
19m
The AFU appears to be staging a mechanized package to assault the Russian line near Verbove.
They’ve been probing this area with small infantry units
and are aiming to wedge open a gap in the line between Verbove and Robotyne.

[Zambeezi]

[Zambeezi]

Military Summary
@MilitarySummary
Summer Operations | The Time Has Come. Armageddon And Wagner Are Back.

[anon]

Telegram channels report that investigators suspect a bomb in the landing gear of Prigozhin’s plane and have a first suspect - 1:02 pm, August 24, 2023 Source: Meduza
Russian investigators are reportedly considering the possibility that a bomb was placed in the landing-gear bay of the plane that crashed outside Moscow on Wednesday, killing mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine other people. According to the Telegram channel Shot and its law-enforcement sources, preliminary data suggest that the explosion that disrupted the aircraft’s flight occurred near the landing gear. The blast reportedly ripped off the wing, which then hit the plane’s stabilizer, causing the jet to climb sharply before it went into a tailspin.

Investigators also reportedly have their first suspect in the plane crash: Artem Stepanov, Prigozhin’s personal pilot and the former founding shareholder of MNT-Aero, the company that owns the downed aircraft.

VChK OGPU, another Telegram channel that often publishes information allegedly from sources in Russia’s police and military agencies, reports that Stepanov had access to the plane and is now wanted by the police. According to VChK OGPU, Stepanov left for Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East before the crash. His brother told the Telegram channel that he’s been offline for the past three days. Meanwhile, MNT-Aero’s nominal owner, Olga Gubareva, and Stepanov’s business partner, Kirill Shcherbakov, are also not answering calls.
https://meduza.io/en/news/2023/08/24/telegram-channels-report-that-investigators-suspect-a-bomb-in-the-landing-gear-of-prigozhin-s-plane-and-have-a-first-suspect https://archive.ph/V9Xln


First Suspect in Prigozhin Jet Crash Case Emerges: Reports By Isabel van Brugen On 8/24/23 at 7:15 AM EDT
The first suspect in the aircraft crash reported to have killed Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is his personal pilot, Russian Telegram channels reported on Thursday.Artem Stepanov, who was formerly hit by United States sanctions for his connection with Prigozhin, is being investigated for his alleged involvement in the plane crash, according to Telegram news channels Sirena and SHOT, the Baza channel, which is linked to Russia's security services, and the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, which has close ties to Russian security forces.
https://www.newsweek.com/prigozhin-plane-crash-update-first-suspect-artem-stepanov-pilot-1822160 https://archive.ph/wwCV1

Who is Kristina Raspopova? Prigozhin Plane Crash Stewardess
Russian aircraft thought to be carrying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed between Moscow and St. Petersburg on Wednesday, with authorities saying all ten people on board, including the crew, were killed.One of these crew members is reported to be Kristina Raspopova, the 39-year-old stewardess on the ill-fated private jet. Russia's civil aviation authority listed Raspopova as among the crew members on the flight manifest for the journey, along with pilot Alexey Levshin and co-pilot Rustam Karimov.One Russian media report from Baza, an anonymous Telegram channel allegedly linked to Russia's security services, said that Raspopova is the sister of a Russian official in the town of Yemanzhelinsk, not far from Russia's border with Kazakhstan. There is conflicting information as to where Raspopova was born but several reports say she grew up in Moscow and had spent the last few years living in St. Petersburg. However, Russian website 74.RU reported that she was born in Kazakhstan.VChK-OGPU, an anonymous Telegram channel also claiming to be linked to Russia's security services, said she had travelled to Moscow a few days prior to Wednesday's flight. Hours before leaving on the flight, she had told her family that take-off had been delayed, posting a photograph from the café in the airport, Baza reported.
https://www.newsweek.com/wagner-group-yevgeny-prigozhin-russia-plane-crash-kristina-raspopova-flight-attendent-stewardess-1822157 https://archive.ph/F6fee

What he leaves behind Yevgeny Prigozhin owns and controls a vast network of ‘trolls,’ media outlets, and profitable businesses. This was his empire before he bet the farm on Wagner Group.
Yevgeny Prigozhin isn’t just the founder of the Wagner Group mercenary organization, and he’s not only the man who staged an armed rebellion last weekend. Prigozhin is also a billionaire who owns a variety of businesses — a fact that Vladimir Putin emphasized on Tuesday, June 27, when telling a group of Defense Ministry officers about Prigozhin’s vast earnings on state catering contracts. Journalists from the news outlet Bumaga in St. Petersburg, where most of Prigozhin’s assets are based, spoke to the billionaire’s local business partners to find out what is now happening with his non-mercenary companies. Meduza shares the following English-language adaptation of Bumaga’s story.

Yevgeny Prigozhin didn’t always advertise his leadership at Wagner. In fact, he denied any direct involvement in the mercenary group until well after it became Russia’s most visible fighting force in Ukraine. According to journalists at The Bell, the original idea for the organization belongs (ironically, in light of last weekend’s rebellion) to several high-ranking officers in the Defense Ministry.

It’s believed that Wagner Group cut its in teeth in eastern Ukraine, fighting alongside Moscow-backed separatists in the Donbas. Later, the mercenaries reportedly assassinated several prominent field commanders in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” when they refused to align with Moscow’s power vertical. Next, Wagnerites shipped out for operations in Syria and the Central African Republic. In November 2022, after the veil slipped from Prigozhin’s leadership at Wagner Group, the “PMC Wagner Center” opened in St. Petersburg, in a 23-story building on Zolnaya Street. With apparent aspirations to become a sprawling incubator for pro-invasion projects, the center announced plans to make office space available at no cost to “patriotic” creators, designers, and IT specialists. Over the next six months, the center welcomed dozens of new residents, including “z-bloggers,” a drone aviation school, the “Cyberfront-Z” movement, which coordinated writing pro-war comments on social media, and others. One group staged “master classes” in military education for orphans and “troubled teens,” using “trainers” with established ties to neo-Nazi groups, according to investigative journalists at The Insider.
A day of raids

On June 24, as Prigozhin’s armed convoy closed in on Moscow, multiple police groups raided the PMC Wagner Center in St. Petersburg. State investigators and officers from SWAT, the National Guard, and the Interior Ministry searched the center’s offices and confiscated office equipment. But, as of this writing, not one resident in the building has publicly severed ties with PMC Wagner Center (though the “Wagnerenok” youth club has since changed its name).

Anna Zamaraeva, who oversees PMC Wagner Center’s media and blogger production, also confirmed to Bumaga that no residents have terminated their membership at the center. “Since Monday [June 27], we’ve been working as usual in accordance with the Russian Federation’s applicable laws,” she said, adding that her colleagues will appeal to the authorities with an inventory list of everything seized over the weekend. Zamaraeva explained that the center believes it’s still perfectly legal to keep its ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin and his operations.In April 2023, Prigozhin announced the opening of Wagner Group recruiting centers across St. Petersburg to be housed at one shooting range and four martial arts clubs. Sayd Tikhonov, the founder of one of those sports clubs, told Bumaga that neither Prigozhin’s rebellion nor Saturday’s police raids affected recruitment across the city. “Until the order comes down, of course, [we’ll keep recruiting at gyms],” he said. “So far, there’s been nothing. After all, nothing serious happened. They haven’t dissolved the organization [Wagner Group], and they haven’t banned it.”
Send in the trolls

A native of St. Petersburg, Yevgeny Prigozhin has deep ties to the region. Before he became the infamous mercenary leader who captured Bakhmut and staged an insurrection against Russia’s own military, Prigozhin gained notoriety abroad for his ties to the so-called Internet Research Agency. Better known as Russia’s “troll factory,” this group was responsible for the online interference in U.S. politics that led to the first Western sanctions against Prigozhin. In 2019, Prigozhin’s “troll factory” empire expanded with the Patriot Media Group — an umbrella outfit for dozens of websites with names like “Economics Today,” “Politics Today,” and so on. Over the years, Patriot courted friendly ties to hundreds of small regional projects nationwide. Yevgeny Prigozhin headed the media group’s board of trustees until late May 2023, when he transitioned to a role as a deputy board member to focus more on the war in Ukraine.Naturally, the “troll factory” also invested in promoting pro-invasion narratives. In March 2022, by Prigozhin’s own admission, he helped launch the Cyberfront-Z Telegram channel — a project devoted to bullying celebrities who criticize the war in Ukraine and demanding the cancelation of their performances in Russia. The group also spams comment sections online with pro-invasion remarks. Journalists at Fontanka have tied the channel’s employers to legal entities connected to Prigozhin.An investigative report last fall published by the Dossier Center found that roughly 400 companies make up Prigozhin’s entire “troll factory.” These groups have received hundreds of millions of rubles in funding to flood social media with fake comments, to buy promotions on popular news and blogger channels, and even to plant bogus reports in legacy news outlets like the newspaper Kommersant.An aspect of the “troll factory” schemes that receives very little attention abroad (perhaps because it is a local rivalry) is Prigozhin’s feud with St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov. The conflict grew more heated in 2021 when Prigozhin’s position in the region began to “weaken,” sources told Bumaga. More recently, the campaign by Prigozhin and his troll empire has escalated from mere criticism (about the governor’s snow-cleanup and trash-pickup efficiency, for example) to outright character attacks and legal efforts, including petitions demanding treason charges against Beglov.

As with his role at Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin didn’t acknowledge his control over “the trolls” relatively recently, in this case in February 2023, when he deemed it appropriate to declare that the group was necessary for “defending Russia’s information space from the obnoxious, aggressive propaganda of anti-Russian messaging by the West.”On June 24, during Prigozhin’s armed rebellion, Russia’s federal censor blocked the websites and social media accounts of the publications that comprise the Patriot Media Group on the grounds that these outlets were “spreading incitements to join an armed rebellion.” That same day, the authorities raided the offices of several “newsrooms” under Prigozhin’s control.
Journalists at Bumaga have learned that the websites are still blocked, but the largest outlet in Prigozhin’s pocket — RIA FAN — already has a backup site up and running. It turns out that the publication anticipated its confrontation with the federal censor at least a month ago and registered the domain riafan.org on May 18, 2023.

Where the money is made

There are six companies registered in Yevgeny Prigozhin’s name that have not already been dissolved. Three of these businesses are different legal entities for the Concord catering company. Prigozhin also serves as the director of the real estate company that legally manages the PMC Wagner Center and owns 49 percent of a film-distribution business. Additionally, he owns 80 percent of another property-leasing and -management firm.

Journalists at Verstka Media have also tied Prigozhin to several businesses not registered in his name that reported record profits in 2022. For example, Russockapital, which supplies food to schools and hospitals in Moscow, won more than 150 state contracts and earned 760 million rubles ($8.9 million) in profits. Reports at MBK Media, meanwhile, connect Prigozhin to a company called Verona, which made 750 million rubles ($8.8 million) on school catering deals in Moscow.Prigozhin doesn’t do school catering in St. Petersburg, at least not anymore. Concord won a contract to supply food to 14 schools in the city in 2011, but that work ended after just one year. The company doesn’t even bid on these contracts anymore. More than once, Prigozhin has tried to implement investment projects in St. Petersburg.In 2021, the Megaline company (which has unofficial ties to Prigozhin) signed an agreement with the municipal investment committee to create a maritime industrial complex just outside the city. Prigozhin claims that he hoped to invest as much as 300 billion rubles ($3.5 billion) into St. Petersburg’s infrastructure.Journalists have written that Prigozhin has offices at the Trezzini Palace Hotel in St. Petersburg, which he calls “his own hotel.” During Saturday’s rebellion, the authorities raided this property, too, seizing 4 billion rubles ($46.8 million) in cash (along with boxes of guns and apparently narcotics). (Prigozhin says the money was intended for Wagner Group soldiers.) In the past, Prigozin has claimed that he would like to rebuild the hotel, expanding into adjacent lots he’s acquired, but the project will have to wait until there’s a new governor, he says.According to available information, not one of the billionaire’s investment ventures in St. Petersburg is currently in motion. The massive maritime industrial complex was reportedly given to another investor, and Prigozhin openly accuses Governor Beglov of sabotaging his other projects.

All in the family

There are also several assets registered in the names of Prigozhin’s wife and their two children. For example, the family owns property in a gated community outside St. Petersburg at Lake Lakhta. Records show that the Concord company managed the construction of the community’s 49 villas, some of which belong individually to Prigozhin, his wife Lyubov, their son Pavel, and their daughter Polina. Counted together, this real estate adds up to roughly 17,000 square meters (more than 180,000 square feet). Prigozhin’s other daughter, Veronika, is the registered founder of a hotel not far from the Mariinsky Theater, while Pavel Prigozhin founded a business center located on the Sinopskaya Embankment. The family owns other properties throughout St. Petersburg, as well. Some have old history, like a restaurant launched in 1996 where Prigozhin used to entertain and dine the city’s political elites. There’s more recent history, too, like a food court on University Embankment where a bombing in April 2023 killed “war correspondent” Vladlen Tatarsky. After that deadly attack, Prigozhin said he’d previously transferred control over the cafe to the pro-invasion Cyberfront-Z movement.
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/06/28/what-he-leaves-behind https://archive.ph/K6ZFI

[Zambeezi]

not news to Zodland...
Peshmerga/Erbil/Barzani clan took their weapons & abandoned entire Yazidi villages to ISIS rape & slaughter. spit.
Kurds/Turks cut from the same cloth. treacherous. betrayers. Assyri Arabs know very well.


https://new.thecradle.co/articles/the-shocking-kurdish-role-in-iraqs-yazidi-genocide

[anon]

"The dashing 90s are back." Strelkov commented on the crash of Prigogine's jet
The reason for the crash of the Embraer aircraft of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private military company Wagner, could be the “cleansing of key witnesses.” This version was put forward by the ex-Minister of Defense of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Igor Strelkov (Girkin), who is now in a pre-trial detention center on a case of extremism. In his telegram channel , it is specified that the comment of the former head of the military department of the DPR was transmitted through his lawyer.

“I believe that the likely involvement of the President [of Russia Vladimir Putin] is minuscule, approximately at the level of the likelihood of a man-made disaster. The likelihood of a terrorist act by Ukraine or the West is even less likely. Here we can talk about the "cleansing of key witnesses", about which not a word was heard in the media. It is also possible, but unlikely, personal revenge on the part of high-ranking military men, ”Strelkov believes.

The former head of the DPR Ministry of Defense noted that he could not say that he was upset by what had happened, since Prigozhin was not only his personal enemy, but also “by and large, an enemy of Russia.” However, Strelkov does not have positive emotions from the state of emergency, as this "is another evidence of the further deepening of unrest in Russia."
https://rtvi.com/news/vozvrashhayutsya-lihie-90-e-strelkov-prokommentiroval-krushenie-dzheta-prigozhina/

[Zambeezi]

Big Serge
@witte_sergei
·
19m
The AFU appears to be staging a mechanized package to assault the Russian line near Verbove.
They’ve been probing this area with small infantry units
and are aiming to wedge open a gap in the line between Verbove and Robotyne.

Russian Sources are reporting that a Major Assault by the Ukrainian Armed Forces equipped with Western Equipment is ongoing near the Settlement of Robotyne on the “Zaporizhzhia” Frontline with at least 83 Pieces of Armor said to have been Committed to the Attack; the Buildup for… pic.twitter.com/sg3xnF7pVC

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 24, 2023

Ukrainian Armed Forces equipped with Western Equipment is ongoing
near the Settlement of Robotyne on the “Zaporizhzhia” Frontline
with at least 83 Pieces of Armor said to have been Committed to the Attack



-- GEROMAN -- time will tell - --
@GeromanAT
"Armed Forces of Ukraine are preparing for a decisive blow: the accumulation of enemy equipment near Orekhov
“To the north of Orekhovo we observe a cluster of enemy equipment. At least fifty units.
The enemy is concentrating forces for a decisive blow.
He needs to go to Verbovoye, then to Tokmak.

We hold on. Zaporozhye front. 58th Army of Russia," said D. Rogozin,
head of the Tsarskie Wolves group of military advisers."

[Zambeezi]

Dilma remembers. Lawwwzzzzzz yes.

[Böhse Tante]

New BRICS members will be
Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates,
the UOL portal writes with reference to the draft final document of the summit.

A draft of the final statement, obtained by UOL and exclusively revealed, indicates that the names have already been defined.

The bloc currently includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

@DDGeopolitics

Ethiopia is now included into BRICS+



Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali's statement
https://twitter.com/AbiyAhmedAli/status/1694623023301566775?t=V_OMGHuxJ8iXmUEhfkkG4w&s=19
on the African country becoming a new member of BRICS.

"A great moment for Ethiopia as the BRICS leaders endorse our entry into this group today.
Ethiopia stands ready to cooperate with all for an inclusive and prosperous global order."

If you ask why, look at a map, think - and then smile. 





 

[Zambeezi]

[Böhse Tante]

Carl Zha
@CarlZha
·
3h
Chinese cartoonist Wuheqilin pulled no punches when it comes to Japan dumping Fukushima waste water into the Pacific Ocean

 

Have we already had this? 

An ordinary Pacific tuna swims in the area of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

[Böhse Tante]

Total chaos has come in the security sphere in Haiti. More than 5,000 people have fled their homes in Port-au-Prince in recent days due to the terror unleashed by the gangs.

Armed groups have taken control of 80% of the capital, committing rapes, murders, looting and burning… pic.twitter.com/qoGBBkEJH5

— Sprinter (@Sprinter99800) August 24, 2023

Reminds of reports at the times of "Papa Doc", his son ant the "Tonton Macoutes". All supported by the USA - like always. 

[Böhse Tante]

And this one and then think B&R. 

[Zambeezi]

Danny Haiphong SCOTT RITTER LIVE

[Zambeezi]

18min ago....
OSINTdefender
@sentdefender
3M54-1 “Kalibr” Cruise Missiles launched by Russian Naval Ships in the Black Sea are currently Striking the Odesa Region of Southern Ukraine.