Around the world News

[CCTV]

"Pray to Allah but tether your camel!" - Of course accidents happen, even 'acts of God'(!), but if it is really going to cost £1billion to fix (really?) then i'd imagine the insurance premiums would be prohibitive hence they didn't bother rather than having unshakeable faith. One roof fire in 800 years is fairly low risk until it happens!

I do believe in humanity but unfortunately we also have a dark side and that tends to rear it's head the further we get from how we should be living. Same with animal behaviour, dogs are lovely but if you stress them and deny their basic natural needs they can 'turn nasty', humans aren't much different in that respect hence we have police etc



Book prices online are either disgustingly cheap (cheaper than toilet paper + postage) or an unrealistically high ransom.

But luckily I've summarised it for you! Although the author does then go on to say that humans are basically selfish so trying to be 'good' is a waste of time, we need a leap of consciousness. It's years since I read it but he seemed quite angry!

...

As for the 'new' IRA the hope was that 20 years of the Good Friday Agreement would mean a generation was removed from all of that but it only takes a few to spoil it and history repeats, especially if the same conditions exist. I have friends there who are afraid that a badly handled Brexit will mean more of this...but England doesn't seem to care as long as the killing stays over there. It's very sad.

There was a paradigm shift in the view of man that has espoused such views. Then you develop lines of thought differently to how you once did and get different humans.
In about 23 years from when I was a teen my grandads village went from one where people left keys in doors when at home or away to afford visitors access to one where there has been 2-3 houses shot up in the last few years with sub machine guns. Radical materialism in effect sadly.

As per northern Ireland imo theres been way too much politicking on this issues with Brexit on both sides, Roi and the eu no better imo.
It's very easy to destabilise a system quickly. It's very had, bordering on impossible, to stabilise a system quickly. Been up north on only a few occasions but those historical divides where they are deep rooted will take a long time to dissipate.

[CCTV]

This is an odd story...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/us/politics/gina-haspel-trump.html
During the discussion, Ms. Haspel, then deputy C.I.A. director, turned toward Mr. Trump. She outlined possible responses in a quiet but firm voice, then leaned forward and told the president that the “strong option” was to expel 60 diplomats. To persuade Mr. Trump, according to people briefed on the conversation, officials including Ms. Haspel also tried to show him that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were not the only victims of Russia’s attack.
Ms. Haspel showed pictures the British government had supplied her of young children hospitalized after being sickened by the Novichok nerve agent that poisoned the Skripals. She then showed a photograph of ducks that British officials said were inadvertently killed by the sloppy work of the Russian operatives. Ms. Haspel was not the first to use emotional images to appeal to the president, but pairing it with her hard-nosed realism proved effective: Mr. Trump fixated on the pictures of the sickened children and the dead ducks.
At the end of the briefing, he embraced the strong option. The outcome was an example, officials said, of how Ms. Haspel is one of the few people who can get Mr. Trump to shift position based on new information. “Her style and the way she projects herself in these kind of senior situations is disarming, without showing weakness,” said Doug Wise, a former C.I.A. officer who has worked with Ms. Haspel.

https://theduran.com/cia-director-and-nyt-accidentally-expose-skripal-poisoning-hoax-duckgate-video/
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the stunning, inadvertent, admission by the New York Times and CIA Director Gina Haspel that much of what we know from the Salisbury-Skripal poisoning is pure fabrication and manipulation.

'Duckgate’, as it is now being dubbed, was used to trick US President Trump into expelling 60 Russian Diplomats over false photographic evidence presented to him by Haspel, as it was provided to her by UK authorities. The manipulation of POTUS Trump, courtesy of CIA Director Haspel, the UK government (and accidentally documented on by the NYT), has now blown open some serious holes into the entire narrative that Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned by Russian agents with the deadly Novichok nerve agent.

Via The Blogmire…
If you’re late joining the party, and don’t understand what is so extraordinary about this, let me spell it out plainly and unambiguously:
Firstly, there were no dead ducks as a result of poisoning. None. Zilch. Nada!
Secondly, there were no children sickened by nerve agent. None. Zilch. Nada!

Yet even though there were no dead ducks, and no sick children, Mr Trump was apparently persuaded by the head of the CIA to expel 60 diplomats after being shown pictures of dead ducks and sick children.
In addition to the extraordinary nature of this revelation, there is also a huge irony here. Along with many others, I have long felt that the duck feed is one of the many achilles heels of the whole story we’ve been presented with about what happened in Salisbury on 4th March 2018. And the reason for this is precisely because if it were true, there would indeed have been dead ducks and sick children.

According to the official story, Mr Skripal and his daughter became contaminated with “Novichok” by touching the handle of his front door at some point between 13:00 and 13:30 that afternoon. A few minutes later (13:45), they were filmed on CCTV camera feeding ducks, and handing bread to three local boys, one of whom ate a piece. After this they went to Zizzis, where they apparently so contaminated the table they sat at, that it had to be incinerated.
You see the problem? According to the official story, ducks should have died. According to the official story children should have become contaminated and ended up in hospital. Yet as it happens, no ducks died, and no boys got sick (all that happened was that the boys’ parents were contacted two weeks later by police, the boys were sent for tests, and they were given the all clear).

And yet despite the fact that no ducks died and no children were made sick, the director of the CIA (a.k.a. the Canard Invention Association), allegedly using information given to her agency by the British Government, showed the President of the United States pictures of dead ducks and sick children, apparently from Salisbury, to persuade him to take extreme action (Note: You can read more about the duck feed and all the other holes in the official story here).
In other words, Mr Trump was lied to, and in a big way, and with potentially huge consequences.
---------------
There's more in both articles, on Haspel and lots more on the Skripal's.
Maybe the skripals were poisoned at a later occasion. Murky world.
But how could dead ducks and sick children be presented in pics if neither happened ?

Personally this story of Russian assassination seemed very fishy to me at the time. It seemed too sloppy for an intelligence agency hit.

They allege trump was pissed having been told eu nations, the big ones would act accordingly but only kicked out a few diplomats. Its alleged he was mitigating the murders as spy games and not on board with CIA thinking.
But the "new evidence" of the children hospitalised and dead ducks swathed him to act. This "new evidence" has been directly refuted as not having any basis in reality

[CCTV]

^^ these links descend from left to right, while some of the thinking is reliant on the NYT having good sources. Though the skripal incident is in the murky world of spies.

[CCTV]

7 bombs gone off in Sri-Lanka and a curfew has been put in place. Reports of 130+ dead and 500+ injured.

Horrible news

[CCTV]

Was thinking of starting a good news thread and came across that report.

[CCTV]

7 bombs gone off in Sri-Lanka and a curfew has been put in place. Reports of 130+ dead and 500+ injured.

Horrible news

Risen to 320 dead and 500 injured.

[Balinkay]

Risen to 320 dead and 500 injured.

Fuck the fuck off.

Any news as to who and why did it?

[justme]

Fuck the fuck off.

Any news as to who and why did it?

shockkkk horror who could have done it!!,

[CCTV]

Fuck the fuck off.

Any news as to who and why did it?

Seems to be a local Islamic group and later claimed by ISIS.
Reported to be a lot of tensions between the majority Buddhists, Muslims and Christians. But not tensions to the extent of this reprisal and mostly between the Muslim's and Buddhists.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-48018417

Not a lot of clarity about the attack and rumoured the state had been warned about the attack by Indian and USA security forces which might lend credit to the ISIS claim - with 80+ detonators found in searches of houses when arrests were made.

[Balinkay]

Jesus. Cheers CC.

[CCTV]

Some shock results in the Ukrainian presidential election. Though its been expected.

A comedian/actor with no political experience but has trained as a lawyer has defeated the pro-EU president in a landslide victory getting between 72-73% of the vote.

The outgoing president had been
casting himself as a bulwark against Russian aggression and a champion of Ukrainian identity. While the new president hasnt really had much policy.

It's a complex result and not as clear as my post might suggest. It's not a return to Russia or a rejection of the EU- who he seems to be favourable to too.

In the main people didnt vote for him as much as they were voting against the pro-EU and anti-Russian former president. While he's connected through his entertainment TV productions to an exiled billionaire who owns that TV channel and has been central in the banking issues.

Big issues seem to be more about a lack of tackling corruption within the state, while theres been a lot of dissatisfaction around billions pumped into the main bank to keep it a float and the IMF, sheer poverty is another issue with many emigrating to Poland for work and a better lifestyle.

Heres two contrasting pieces in terms of tone and content on the election.

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1RX01N

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/25/zelenskiy-ukraine-putin-russian

This one below is about corruption in reference to Ukraine involving Joe Biden which has been brought into the US political realm.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/opinion/white-house/436816-joe-bidens-2020-ukrainian-nightmare-a-closed-probe-is-revived%3famp

[Clungeman]

It looks like Georgia and Alabama are both wanting to use The Handmaid's Tale as a blueprint for how to run a society over there in the States...

[Balinkay]

Not a fan of anti-abortion laws. I get that it's kind of murder, but damn…*not even rape babies or unviable pregnancies?

[justme]

only in the deep south of America in the bible belt.. Its non of any ones business if a woman choses to do what she wants with her body.With in reason. there should be a time limit to where an abortion is not permitted of course (well in most cases)

[stevie harkness]

So if a man rapes a woman in Alabama and gets her pregnant and she gets an abortion he'll be let out of prison before her?