CharlieH

Israel’s military has continued its heavy bombardment amid intense fighting in Gaza as its war with Hamas hit the two-month mark and the resulting humanitarian crisis threatened a breakdown of public order. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had struck about 250 targets in Gaza over a 24-hour period, ending on Thursday morning. In a residential part of Rafah, a town on the southern border with Egypt where the IDF has told people to relocate to avoid areas likely to be bombed, about 20 people were killed in airstrikes that hit two homes. Women and children were among the dead, according to witnesses. “We live in fear every moment, for our children, ourselves, our families,” said Dalia Abu Samhadaneh, who is living in Rafah with her family after fleeing Khan Younis. “We live with the anxiety of expulsion.” She is among 1.87 million people – more than 80% of the population of 2.3 million – who have fled their homes in the past two months, according to the UN. Many families have been displaced multiple times, and are living in tents and overcrowded makeshift shelters. More than 17,000 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 46,000 wounded, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Many more are trapped under rubble. About 350 Palestinians had been killed and 1,900 injured in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Thursday. At the northern end of the Gaza Strip, there was heavy fighting in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The IDF said its troops raided a militant compound, killing “a number” of fighters and uncovering a network of tunnels. Al Jazeera said one of its journalists had lost 22 members of his family in a strike in Jabaliya. According to the IDF, 12 rockets were launched from the Mawasi zone on the Gaza coast on Wednesday. Israel has told Palestinians in Khan Younis to head to the area, out of the way of heavy bombardment and fighting on the ground. Israel accused Hamas of “using the civilians as a human shield”. FULL STORY

I know two who would jump at the chance to go.They love fishing.

Petty references. emoji and remarks on Moderation have been removed. Persist and your ability to post may be removed.

If cant find them reasonably local, you can always buy them on Lazada, available from 29bt. https://www.lazada.co.th/products/5-3-2-italian-sweet-basil-plant-2pot-buy-5-get-3-free-i4349957728.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.8.2f9156c0Fwnkaz

Seems to me you should paws, before writing these topics and I hope you are Feline better soon. CLOSED.

MOVED to alternative energy forum

Similar scam reported in news articles if memory serves. If it looks and walks like a duck it probably is. Follow your gut.

I use Bertolli, can get from major supermarkets and Lazada.

MOVED to Health forum

Bickering removed.

We ar not going to go through every Nationality with this question. CLOSED

A Nevada grand jury has indicted six individuals who acted as fake electors in a scheme intended to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, according to the state’s attorney general. The indictments make Nevada the third state – joining Michigan and Georgia – to bring charges against those who served as fake pro-Trump electors after the 2020 election. The six Nevadans charged are fake electors: Michael McDonald, Jesse Law, Jim DeGraffenreid, Durward James Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice. They face felony charges of “offering a false instrument for filing” and “uttering a forged instrument.” None of the fake electors have responded to requests for comment from CNN. Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office said in a short statement that “we cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged,” adding: “Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.” As part of the effort to help then-President Donald Trump be reelected, six Republicans in Nevada signed false Electoral College votes in December 2020 for Trump, who lost the state to Biden, according to special counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment, the House select committee that investigated January 6, 2021, and the Nevada attorney general’s office. Nevada is among at least five states that have launched criminal investigations into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Two of those states – Michigan and Georgia – have already brought criminal charges against some of the people who signed onto the alternative slates of fake electors, and more charges could be brought soon. FULL STORY

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly told his supporters he will serve as their “retribution” if he is elected again in 2024. But pressed by Fox host Sean Hannity in a Fox News town hall Tuesday about whether he would abuse his power or seek retribution against his political enemies as president, Trump first sidestepped the question –and then seemed to minimize its seriousness, responding on a second round that he would only be a “dictator” on Day One of his presidency to address the border and domestic oil production. “I’m going to be, you know he keeps, we love this guy, he says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said, ‘No, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling.’ After that I’m not a dictator,” Trump said. The former president’s comments came days after former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who lost her seat to a Trump-backed primary challenger last year after she participated in the House commission that probed the January 6, 2021, insurrection, said the nation would be “sleepwalking into a dictatorship” if Trump wins next year. “Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?” Hannity initially asked. Trump did not directly answer that question and instead pointed to his own four indictments and dismissed the 91 criminal charges he faces as “made up charges.” Later, Hannity again pressed Trump, asking, “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” “Except for day one. I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill,” Trump replied. FULL STORY

Another thread descends into a bickeringfest. CLOSED.

UN secretary general says situation ‘fast deteriorating into catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications’ Israel-Hamas war – live updates Israeli forces and Hamas are fighting house-to-house battles along the length of the Gaza Strip, with devastating consequences for the civilian population amid a complete collapse in humanitarian relief. As the war intensified on Wednesday, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, invoked a rarely used clause in the UN charter to raise the issue on his own initiative before the security council, to warn that the conflict “may aggravate existing threats to international peace and security”. “We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system,” Guterres wrote in a letter to the council. “The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region.” He added: “Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible. “An even worse situation could unfold, including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into neighboring countries.” As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been fighting their way through badly bomb-damaged urban areas in northern and southern Gaza, Hamas has increasingly relied on improvised bombs to inflict casualties and slow down the assault. Gaza’s hospitals have reported a flood of civilian dead and injured, many of them women and children, as medical supplies dwindle, while the spread of ground combat to the south has stopped any delivery of humanitarian aid much farther than the Rafah crossing point with Egypt. FULL STORY

Congress unlikely to approve more funding for Ukraine before end of year after GOP demanded stricter border regulations The Senate has blocked a supplemental funding bill that included financial aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as provisions aimed at bolstering border security. The vote, which fell mostly along party lines, increases the likelihood that Congress will fail to approve more funding for Ukraine before the end of the year, as the White House has warned that Kyiv is desperately in need of more aid. The vote was 49 to 51, as every Senate Republican opposed advancing the legislation. Sixty votes were needed to take up the bill. Republicans in both chambers of Congress had demanded stricter border regulations in exchange for their support, and they said the bill failed to meet their requirements. The vote came one day after Senate Democrats formally unveiled the $111bn supplemental security bill, reflecting the funding request that Joe Biden issued in October to provide assistance to the US’s allies abroad. Ahead of the vote, Biden delivered an address to urge Congress to pass the bill, warning that a failure to act would only benefit Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, in the war against Ukraine. “Who is prepared to walk away from holding Putin accountable for this behavior? Who among us is really prepared to do that?” Biden said. “I’m not prepared to walk away, and I don’t think the American people are either.” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed leaders of the G7 group of nations and called on them to confound Vladimir Putin by winning “the battle of motivations” and not showing weakness. The G7 leaders met by video at short notice in a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian leader that included trying to breathe new life into the sanctions against Russia. FULL STORY

CLOSED.

That identical picture is on linkedin. These type of scams etc typically harvest images from social media.

Closure removed.......Resumed Usual suspects with usual content disrupting others. Next will be removal of those people if you cany/won't stop.

MOVED to Motoring forum

Reported exchange removed. Keep it civil please NO personal attacks.

New laws designed to slash the number of migrants by 300,000 a year risk splitting up families already living in the UK. Brits could see their foreign partners told to leave the country the next time their visa comes up for renewal – if their household does not earn £38,700, No 10 said. The move is part of plans to cut net migration after it soared to nearly three-quarters of a million in 2022. Experts, however, warned the planned crackdown was causing distress for many. Downing Street defended the policy, saying it was right that “if you are bringing someone into the country you are able to support them”. Under the plans unveiled on Monday those wishing to bring their spouse to the UK will now have to earn £38,700, a significant increase on the current figure of £18,600, and what has been described as a tax on love. Former Tory minister Gavin Barwell said it was “both morally wrong and unconservative to say that only the wealthiest can fall in love, marry someone and then bring them to the UK”. As well as applying to those yet to come to the UK, No 10 confirmed the new higher figure risks affecting those already here. Asked if it would apply to partners when they came to renew their visas, No 10 said the change was “not retrospective, but it would apply to renewals in the future”. At that point, people would be expected to “meet the visa requirements of the day”. The prime minister’s official spokesperson added: “People always have a set length of time for their visas and will be aware at the conclusion of that visa time that they don’t have a guarantee that they will obviously remain in the country.” FULL STORY

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team outlined the evidence it has collected against former President Trump on Tuesday, walking through information it says will showcase his motive and knowledge of a plan to block the transfer of power. The breakdown comes in a request to introduce evidence of events both before and after the conspiracy outlined in Trump’s indictment, an effort to “establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge” and plans related to his efforts to stay in power. The 9-page filing shows prosecutors plan to showcase an array of Trump comments dating as far back as 2012, when he sought to cast into doubt the legitimacy of elections whose results he did not favor. That includes the multiple instances when Trump refused to commit to accept the results of either the 2016 or 2020 election. Prosecutors also plan to show evidence gathered about other Trump associates, including the encouraging of riots at a Detroit vote-counting center and the targeting of a Republican National Committee attorney who countered Trump’s claims of fraud. “The Campaign Employee encouraged rioting and other methods of obstruction when he learned that the vote count was trending in favor of the defendant’s opponent,” the filing says of a campaign employee who sought to mobilize riots at the TCF Center after President Biden took the lead in vote counts. “Thereafter, Trump made repeated false claims regarding election activities at the TCF Center, when in truth his agent was seeking to cause a riot to disrupt the count.” But much of the filing indicates prosecutors plan to bring in an array of Trump comments they argue show a longstanding refusal to accept election results and instead undermine the process, something they say all show “his motive, intent, and plan to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election results and illegitimately retain power.” FULL STORY

Israeli forces have reported the most intense day of fighting in Gaza since the ground attack began nearly six weeks ago, with offensives stepped up in northern and southern Gaza and reports of a rise in civilian deaths. Amid heavy combat in key urban areas, including around Khan Younis, Hamas said there would be no further return of hostages until Israel’s “aggression against Gaza stopped”. The UN said “some of the heaviest shelling in Gaza so far” took place between Sunday and Monday afternoons. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said 349 Palestinians had been killed and 750 injured in that period. The latest fighting came as the Biden administration imposed a visa ban on Israeli settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, in one of toughest measures on Israel by the White House in recent memory. “The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank, including attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and Palestinian attacks against Israelis,” the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Tuesday. FULL STORY

Humanity faces ‘devastating domino effects’ including mass displacement and financial ruin as planet warms Many of the gravest threats to humanity are drawing closer, as carbon pollution heats the planet to ever more dangerous levels, scientists have warned. Five important natural thresholds already risk being crossed, according to the Global Tipping Points report, and three more may be reached in the 2030s if the world heats 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial temperatures. Triggering these planetary shifts will not cause temperatures to spiral out of control in the coming centuries but will unleash dangerous and sweeping damage to people and nature that cannot be undone. “Tipping points in the Earth system pose threats of a magnitude never faced by humanity,” said Tim Lenton, from the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute. “They can trigger devastating domino effects, including the loss of whole ecosystems and capacity to grow staple crops, with societal impacts including mass displacement, political instability and financial collapse.” The tipping points at risk include the collapse of big ice sheets in Greenland and the West Antarctic, the widespread thawing of permafrost, the death of coral reefs in warm waters, and the collapse of atmospheric circulation in the North Atlantic. Unlike other changes to the climate such as hotter heatwaves and heavier rainfall, these systems do not slowly shift in line with greenhouse gas emissions but can instead flip from one state to an entirely different one. When a climatic system tips – sometimes with a sudden shock – it may permanently alter the way the planet works. Scientists warn that there are large uncertainties around when such systems will shift but the report found that three more may soon join the list. These include mangroves and seagrass meadows, which are expected to die off in some regions if the temperatures rise between 1.5C and 2C, and boreal forests, which may tip as early as 1.4C of heating or as late as 5C. FULL STORY