Trump’s government has made the US a village idiot - and if the idiot gets into a fight with the whole village, the idiot will have more bruises.

Why he does that - I don’t pretend to understand.

Yes. Every country on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea has recently left the land mine ban.

Unlike Ukraine, we don’t have hundreds of kilometers of space for a strategic retreat. So if signs start indicating that an invasion might come, border areas will have mine fields.

If it comforts anyone: many modern land mines have electronic detonators. They can be designed to become inert after a set amount of time, or when their battery runs out of juice. Old models had mechanical / piezo detonators, and could survive decades in the right conditions.

Note for medical accuracy: often, renal failure can be compensated for with dialysis and life prolonged until a transplant is found.

After a trauma like a car crash, there might be other issues that prevent some treatment, however.

Basically, despite the headline, I will say that I hope she lives and finds a donor.

P.S. A secondary and named source has now appeared, and claims to have photos:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/30/hamas-beat-protester-death-oday-al-rabbay-gaza-doorstep/

Mazen Shat, a senior police officer affiliated with Fatah – the Palestinian nationalist group that lost control of Gaza after a brief war with Hamas in 2007 – told The Telegraph: “Uday was martyred by the criminals of Hamas. And what’s his crime? He told the truth, because he refused to be silent on injustice, because he did not kneel to Hamas.”

Mr Shat said Hamas had tortured the young man for four hours. Images showed open wounds and bruising that left their victim’s body swollen and bloody.

Just when one thinks IDF has reached rock bottom depravity, some war criminal finds a way to go deeper.

I hope the pepetrators (and if a command was given, their commanders, and if directions were given, the political leaders) are held responsible.

It will take a lot of time and maneuvering. Politically, Israel must lose status and become considerably weaker before justice can occur. Meanwhile, the ICC must gain status and become considerably more influential. Then…

Yes, it involves assumptions.

On the background of Hamas having tortured and killed opponents before, and on the background of demonstrations having occured against them in Gaza at the end of Ramadan, as reported here…

Videos verified by The New York Times showed groups of Gazans in the half-ruined streets in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. Some carried more neutral signs that opposed the continuation of the war, while others chanted slogans calling for Hamas to get out.

…it is not a big assumption that Hamas leaders would ask their security service to find out who organized protests against them, and to kill those persons. They are not shy. It is not news that they kill civilians. It is not a big assumption.

However, time will clarify things. People will be asking Gaza residents if they know someone who knows someone named Oday Nasser Al Rabay, and soon enough we should have more information. If such a person isn’t found, or turns up alive, it will be news too.

Checking one’s sources implies that you read them, see what evidence they offer (e.g. relatives’ posts, photos or videos from burial ceremonies), cross-check if the material is new or has been placed into a different context… and decide if you trust the material. The source can be direct or another publication. A journalist is better equipped to do that, since they can ask from quite many colleagues. They have the benefit of experience.

Material that gets re-published can usually be considered somewhat credible.

Material that does not get re-published, typically is not.

Not really.

The only veteran with weight here is Petro Poroshenko, the president who took office after Yanukovich fled, and left office after losing elections to Zelensky.

Sadly, Poroshenko has been harassed quite considerably (charges are being considered, his properties have been sanctioned)… for things he did as a president, did openly, and at that moment, did for the benefit of Ukraine. One of those deeds was buying coal from Russian-occupied territories - until coal could be obtained from other places.

To me, the accusations against him have seemed more than a bit unfair - a man who did what he could in 2014 has been held against today’s standards and found wanting. It is natural that Trumpists would seek out Poroshenko and try to talk him over to their side. Him being pissed off, he might not reject their advances.

Former President Petro Poroshenko, the de facto leader of Ukraine’s opposition, said following the scuffle that he wouldn’t criticize Zelensky “because this is not what the country needs now.”

Following his team’s reported meetings with members of the Trump administration, the former president changed his tune and lashed out at his successor.

He criticized Zelensky for the sanctions imposed on him and said that Zelensky is the “unfortunate leader of the team who moves the nation to dictatorship.”

However, on the background of today’s Ukraine, the person with the biggest amount of support - ex-commander of the armed forces Zaluzhny - has probably not been approached, or has rejected them.

Frederica Matteoni (writing in German for Berliner Zeitung) probably has checked her sources.

Gaza: Hamas soll jungen Protestteilnehmer zu Tode gefoltert haben

Edit, a few days later: The Telegraph quotes a known person who’s describing what they did.

Hamas tortures protester to death and leaves body on family’s doorstep

Also, this is not new behaviour from Hamas. Take of look at historical precedents, I’ll give a selection extending back to 2015.

1. Torturing people has been everyday business for Hamas. Recently, on retreat, Hamas had to abandon some security camera storage media.

Shackled and whipped with canes: Israel uncovers ‘thousands of hours’ of sickening footage showing Hamas interrogators torturing innocent Palestinians

2. A few years ago, in 2022, they had an execution spree. France 24 reports:

Gaza’s Hamas executes five Palestinians, including two for ‘collaboration’ with Israel

3. Back in 2015 they had a big execution spree. The Guardian reports:

Hamas executed 23 Palestinians under cover of Gaza conflict, says Amnesty

Maybe it is time to stop and consider: maybe both Israel and Hamas are committing crimes of the most severe kind. History is not in short supply of one one tyranny fighting another.___

I probably don’t know the correct term in English. It’s a product for starting a fire in a wood-fired stove or campfire. A rectanglular block of wood fiber soaked in oil.

The headline is mistaken. I checked out an article with photos from the scene.

The limousine was authentic. The place was nice, a few blocks from the FSB headquarters.

But there was no “tremendous explosion” - the car just burnt. Every house had its windows intact, the car itself had its windows intact while burning, etc.

Explanations: technical malfunction, passer-by with fire cubes and a lighter.

I think the “dying soon” bit was Zelensky trying to make him more paranoid. Putin seems to already be fairly paranoid and Zelensky giving predictions about his death will probably have effect on his peace of mind and diet. :)

Yes. But it would be a violation of international law, so they should not be willing.

If the matter somehow transforms to obtaining the assistance of El Salvador in this case, a credible proposal of EU economic sanctions would hasten a compromise.

To be honest, I’m not fully understanding why El Salvador accepted those people from the US.

A more realistic counter-proposal: Ukraine will negotiate a trade deal with China, because China is not under Putin’s influence - on the contrary, Putin is heavily dependent on China and under their influence. At this point, they can tell him to stop. He’s very low on reserves.

They are blowing this bagpipe too hard. It will burst again, like it burst before.

They’re again demanding things that would probably violate Ukraine’s constitution.

Threatening to throw a tantrum if one’s opponents gang up, is only an admission of vulnerability and an invitation for opponents to gang up quicker.

Besides, the EU has already held consultations with China (which got a tariff raise last month) about how to adapt to the situation. Both have previously used response strategies aimed at Trump’s support bases. They’ll do it without hesitation.

And if Trump is going to enact “far larger” tariffs against every big trade partner, he’ll knock the US economy into a recession.

Same question. If I’d see something like this happening to a person, I have 2 cans of riot-sized pepper spray for temporarily disabling a group of persons from close range.

Police better wear uniforms.

Also, a student who lives in a known place (and studies in a known place) does not need to be arrested if her visa has been revoked. She needs a letter to be delivered, asking her to leave. Which she needs to dispute in a court of law, because the reasons for revoking her visa are inadmissible.

Tha’s a new thing for me.

I wish they had detailed how the removal of glycans is accomplished. Alas, Wikipedia doesn’t even have an article about “glycoengieering”, which would likely be the term for this method.

Edit: oh, I also mistunderstood. I started thinking that it accomplishes removal of glycans from the invading virus, but instead it’s only removal of glycans from the vaccine, exposing more of the virus, leading to more diverse antibodies. Which is far more doable, and not a big technical novelty. But apparently, quite useful. :)

I hope Serbians find evidence of which cop brought a long range acoustic device and activated it, and which cop supplied the device or gave the order.

Because it’s quite clear that someone did, without a legal basis and without warning.

They probably work alright in fair weather.

However, I would not like to be the guy running this place within 50 kilometers of any artillery.

For a droner, the challenge would be flying into the winch motor room as the ship deploys. Disabling it doesn’t seem very hard. Once it’s disabled, they won’t be fixing it at sea.