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Pistol

Best of the Web: Slovakian government suspects gunman who attempted to assassinate PM Robert Fico 'was not working alone'

fico shooting slovakia
The man suspected of attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Robert Fico may not have been working alone, Slovakia's interior minister says.

A team is investigating the possibility Wednesday's attack was not carried out by a "lone wolf", as previously believed, Matus Sutaj Estok told reporters on Sunday.

Mr Fico's life is no longer in danger following hours of surgery, but the 59-year-old still requires intensive care, his deputy said earlier.

On Saturday, the man charged with his attempted murder was placed in custody until his trial.

The alleged assailant has not been formally named, but Slovak reports have widely identified him as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula from the town of Levice.

Local media have described him as a poet who has been involved in political organisations with various ideologies.

Comment: We'll take the Mossad-CIA-MI6 trifecta for $600, Alex.


Arrow Down

Best of the Web: Helicopter carrying Iranian president crashes - reports

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
© Sputnik / Sergey BobylevIranian President Ebrahim Raisi
The aircraft with Ebrahim Raisi on board suffered a "hard landing," according to some media.

A helicopter on which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was a passenger encountered a "hard landing" on Sunday, according to reports by Iranian state television and other media outlets.

The Interior Minister of Iran Ahmad Vahidi has reportedly confirmed that the helicopter with Raisi on board had made a hard landing in the city of Jolfa in the northwestern Iranian province of East Azarbaijan.

Several other senior officials, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Governor of East Azarbaijan Malek Rahmati, were traveling with the president, reports claim.

About an hour after the incident, rescue teams reportedly managed to reach the area and began a search operation that is currently ongoing.

Fireball 2

Best of the Web: Bright meteor fireball illuminates night sky over Spain and Portugal on May 18

Meteor Fireball
© outono.net
Lately we have been having a lot of meteor activity over the Iberian Peninsula, a phenomenon that causes great expectation.

As you will remember, on March 29 we had two bolides over the eastern part of Spain, which generated many comments.

Tonight, around 0:46 CET (23:46 Lisbon time), a bright fireball has illuminated the skies of Spain and Portugal. According to the Civil Protection of Portugal, the meteor would have fallen in the village of Pereira, in Castro Daire, northern Portugal, 60 km southwest of Porto. Portugal declared an alert and mobilized its firefighters in case there was any information.

Here we can see an impressive video recorded by @rvbzzx in Lisbon and slowed down by @jpunto88_ to make it look better:


Comment: Other videos:






Microscope 2

Best of the Web: NIH official finally admits taxpayers funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan — after years of denials

Lawrence Tabak
© Jack Gruber-USA TODAYNational Institutes of Health (NIH) principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak
It's about time!

At long last, National Institutes of Health (NIH) principal deputy director Lawrence Tabak admitted to Congress Thursday that US taxpayers funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China in the months and years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Dr. Tabak," asked Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, "did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through [Manhattan-based nonprofit] EcoHealth [Alliance]?"

"It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research," Tabak answered. "If you're speaking about the generic term, yes, we did."

Boat

Best of the Web: 151 dead, 104 missing and 600,000 homeless after heavy rains and floods in Brazil - Worst flood in over 80 years (UPDATED)

Aerial view of flooded areas in Encantado city, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, taken on May 1.
© AFPAerial view of flooded areas in Encantado city, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, taken on May 1.
At least 10 people have died in floods caused by torrential rains in Brazil's south, authorities said Wednesday, as rescuers searched for nearly two dozen individuals reported missing.

Deluges in the state of Rio Grande do Sul have displaced some 3,300 people in more than 100 municipalities, many of whom have been moved to shelters.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced he would visit the area, which governor Eduardo Leite said was dealing with "the worst disaster in the history of our state."

Leite said work was continuing to locate the missing even as more heavy rains were forecast.


Comment: Update May 3

The BBC reports:
A hydroelectric dam has collapsed in southern Brazil after days of heavy rains that triggered massive flooding, killing more than 30 people.

Officials say another 60 people are missing in Rio Grande do Sul state.

About 15,000 residents have fled their homes since Saturday. At least 500,000 people are without power and clean water across the state.

The burst dam triggered a two-metre (6.6ft) wave, causing panic and further damage in the already flooded areas.

The dam is located between the municipality of Cotiporã and the city of Bento Gonçalves.
Update May 4

CGTN reports:
The death toll keeps climbing from continuous rains in Brazil's southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. At least 58 people have been killed, while another 67 remain missing according to the state's civil defense agency. The rains have triggered the worst floods in more than 80 years.

Update May 7

Reuters reports:
Rescuers rushed to evacuate people stranded by devastating floods across the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul on Tuesday, with 90 reported dead and desperate survivors seeking food and basic supplies.

On the outskirts of Eldorado do Sul, 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) from the state capital of Porto Alegre, many people who left their homes were sleeping on the roadside and told Reuters they were going hungry. Entire families were leaving on foot, carrying belongings in backpacks and shopping carts.

"We've been without food for three days and we've only just got this blanket. I'm with people I don't even know, I don't know where my family is," said a young man who gave his name as Ricardo Junior.

The flooding has hampered rescue efforts, with dozens of people still waiting to be evacuated by boat or helicopter from stricken homes. Small boats crisscrossed the flooded town searching for survivors.


The state's Civil Defense agency said the death toll has risen to 90 with another four deaths being investigated, while 131 people are still unaccounted for and 155,000 are homeless.

Heavy rains that began last week have caused rivers to flood, inundating whole towns and destroying roads and bridges.

In Porto Alegre, a city of 1.3 million inhabitants on the Guaiba river, downtown streets were under water.


Porto Alegre residents faced empty supermarket shelves and closed gas stations, with shops rationing sales of mineral water. The city distributed water in trucks to hospitals and shelters.

The floods have also impacted water and electricity services, with more than 1.4 million affected overall, according to Brazil's Civil Defense.
Update May 12

The Anadolu Agency reports:
The death toll from floods caused by heavy rains in Brazil has risen to 137, authorities reported Saturday.

Following heavy rains that have been affecting the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul since last week, the loss of life and property is steadily increasing.

According to a statement from the Civil Defense of the state, the number is 125 people still missing.

The number of injured has risen to 756, and more than 2 million people have been affected.

Additionally, the statement noted that more tha 600,000 people have been displaced.


The statement highlighted that hospitals have reached full capacity, necessitating additional support for patient care.
Update May 17

Xinhua News Agency reports:
As many as 151 people have died to date from south Brazil's worst climate disaster on record and another 104 people remain missing, the Civil Defense agency said Thursday.

Since torrential rains began to lash the country's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, on April 29, floods and mudslides have left some 600,000 people homeless.

Horse in an unstable condition.
Horse in an unstable condition.
In the last 24 hours, the number of fatal victims rose from 149 to 151 as 458 of the state's 497 cities were suffering from severe flooding, including the capital Porto Alegre, where the Guaiba River burst its banks and inundated most of the metropolis.

According to the Civil Defense agency's latest report, over 2.28 million residents have been directly impacted by the disaster in the state, which borders Argentina and Uruguay, and is a center of Brazilian agribusiness, as well as the top rice producer in Latin America.



Cassiopaea

Best of the Web: Unprecedented South Pacific auroras confirm recent geomagnetic storm as 'Great Storm', in same class as 1859 Carrington Event


Comment: Oh yeah folks, we're in the middle of it now!


On the south Pacific island of New Caledonia, no one expects to see auroras. Ever. Situated about halfway between Tonga and Australia, the cigar-shaped island is too close to the equator for Northern or Southern Lights. Yet on May 10, 2024, this happened:
aurora new caledonia
© Frédéric DesmoulinsThe auroras australis have been observed as far away as New Caledonia (Boulouparis). Photo taken on the evening of May 11, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. Nikon D500, 16-80 f/2.8-4.0, ISO 5000, 20s f/3.2. Historic first for New Caledonia.
"I have rarely been so happy when taking a photo!" says Frédéric Desmoulins, who photographed the display from Boulouparis in the island's south province. "I could see the red color of the auroras with my naked eye. According to the New Caledonian Astronomy Society, these photos are the first for this territory."

"The auroral visibility from New Caledonia is really unique and extremely valuable," says Hisashi Hayakawa, a space weather researcher at Japan's Nagoya University. "The last time sky watchers saw auroras in the area may have been during the Carrington Event of Sept. 1859, when auroras were sighted from a ship in the Coral Sea."

Comment: Now get this: in December 1859 the Atlantic magazine published a detailed report about the 1859 Carrington Event, and noted, among many other things in its superb report (oh for the days when The Atlantic published good research), that:
The aurora borealis of August 28th was surpassingly brilliant not only in the northern portion of this continent, but also as far south as the equator, — as well as in Cuba, Jamaica, California, and the greater portion of Europe. [...]

In Jamaica the aurora borealis was witnessed for the first time, perhaps, since the discovery of this island by Columbus. So rare is the phenomenon in those latitudes, that it was taken for the glare of a fire, and was associated with the recent riots.
Guess what erupted in New Caledonia three days after auroras were sighted there... serious rioting akin to a 'civil war':

France deploys military to quell independence protests and serious rioting in Pacific territory of New Caledonia

Spaceweather.com also reports that another massive 'Carrington-class' sunspot is poised to hurl a geomagnetic storm Mars' way...
MONSTER SUNSPOT TARGETS MARS: First Earth, now Mars. Carrington-class sunspot AR3664 is now directly facing the Red Planet. NASA's Mars rover Perseverance saw it yesterday through the dusty air of Jezero Crater:

mars sunspot rover AR3664
© NASA's Mars rover Perseverance
On May 14th, AR3664 produced an X8.6-class solar flare, the strongest flare of the solar cycle, and hurled a corresponding CME directly toward Mars. NASA models suggest it should hit Mars on May 17th, potentially sparking global auroras.

"We're bracing for impact!" says says Nick Schneider of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Schneider works with an ultraviolet camera on NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, which may be able to observe the display. Stay tuned!



Cult

Best of the Web: UCLA attackers exposed: meet the violent Zionist agitators LA police haven't arrested

ucla pro anti zionist riots
Pro-zionist protestors instigate violence at UCLA demonstration, May 1, 2024
The Grayzone has obtained a dossier detailing the identities of the Zionist hooligans who assaulted UCLA anti-genocide student protesters. It was sent to LA police, but no arrests have been made. And the cops still can't explain why they disappeared for hours during the mob attack.

On April 30, thirty people were injured when a mob of Zionist hooligans savagely assaulted the pro-Palestine UCLA encampment shortly before midnight. For over three hours, local and campus police stood down as the masked thugs assaulted students, journalists, and even officers of the law with fireworks volleys, pepper spray, and metal pipes. Though multiple attackers have been identified by community members on social media, to date there have been no arrests of pro-Israel goons.

Yellow Vest

Best of the Web: France deploys military to quell independence protests and serious rioting in Pacific territory of New Caledonia

New Caledonia miltary france
France imposed an emergency Wednesday in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia for at least 12 days, boosting security forces' powers to quell deadly unrest in the archipelago where indigenous people have long sought independence.

Armed clashes and other violence that erupted Monday following protests over voting reforms have left four people dead, including a gendarme, and injured more than 300, French authorities said.

French military forces were being deployed to protect ports and airports, to free up police and security forces battling looting, arson and other violence, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced as the emergency measures kicked in at 8 p.m. Paris time, which was 5 a.m. Thursday in New Caledonia.

Comment: The West has made it quite clear that the Pacific region is integral to its China provocations and containment policy, and France, having recently lost its stranglehold over regions in Africa, is likely reluctant to lose its 'dependencies' elsewhere: US House passes $95 billion 'aid' package for Ukraine, Israel, Indo-pacific, wars after months-long delay


Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Slovakia's PM Robert Fico in 'life-threatening condition' after assassination attempt

fico
Slovakia prime minister taken to hospital as President Zuzana Caputova condemns 'brutal and ruthless' attack.
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico is in a life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting, according to his official Facebook page.

"He was shot multiple times and is currently in a life-threatening condition," read a message posted on Wednesday on Fico's social media account.

"At this moment, he is being transported by helicopter to Banska Bystrica, because it would take too long to get to Bratislava due to the necessity of an acute intervention. The next few hours will decide," it added.

Earlier, reports on local media said that Fico was hit four times in the stomach outside the House of Culture in the town of Handlova in the afternoon. Police sealed off the scene and a suspect has been detained, according to the Dennik N news outlet and TA3, a Slovakian TV station.

Comment: The Washington-EU establishment has loathed Fico since he was elected. The following reports are from just the past 6 months: A statement following the shooting:


Notable comments from Fico regarding the contrived coronavirus crisis and vaccinations:


Analysis of the assassination attempt:




Broom

Best of the Web: De-dollarization bombshell: The coming of BRICS+ decentralized monetary ecosystem

Burning dollar
Get ready for what may well be the geoeconomic bombshell of 2024: the coming of a decentralized monetary ecosystem.

Welcome to The Unit - a concept that has already been discussed by the financial services and investments working group set up by the BRICS+ Business Council and has a serious shot at becoming official BRICS+ policy as early as in 2025.

According to Alexey Subbotin, founder of Arkhangelsk Capital Management and one of the Unit's conceptualizers, this is a new problem-solving system that addresses the key geoeconomic issue of these troubled times: a global crisis of trust.