Putin apologizes for ‘tragic incident’ but stops short of saying Azerbaijani plane was shot down

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people, but stopped short of acknowledging that Moscow was responsible.

Putin’s apology came as allegations mounted that the plane had been shot down by Russian air defenses attempting to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Ukraine - Russia"

The Liberals’ focus is no longer on whether Justin Trudeau should resign. The debate is now about how to replace him

The fight for the future of the Liberal Party of Canada has begun.

It is no longer a question of whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should resign — for most of caucus, that question is settled. It may even be settled for the prime minister. He is in British Columbia, possibly taking the 2024 version of a walk in the snow, a run down the ski hill.

What is now up for debate is who should pick the next Liberal leader and what that means for the party.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government

A year of mass attacks reveals anger and frustration in China

“The Chinese people are so miserable,” read a social media post in the wake of yet another mass killing in the country earlier this year. The same user also warned: “There will only be more and more copycat attacks.”

“This tragedy reflects the darkness within society,” wrote another.

Such bleak assessments, following a spate of deadly incidents in China during 2024, have led to questions about what is driving people to murder strangers en masse to “take revenge on society”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State"

Canada’s military is falling behind on drone technology

Drones are now an integral part of the way conflicts are waged but Canada’s military is lagging behind in advances made to this crucial tool of modern warfare.

In November, the Department of National Defence said it does not intend on buying first-person view drones, also known as FPVs. These affordable drones allow the pilot to see as if they are inside the drone in real-time, usually through a headset, and are prized for their precision.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces"

Bird flu may be mutating to become more transmissible to humans, US scientists warn

A Louisiana woman with the first severe case of bird flu in the US had a mutated form of the disease that may make it more infectious to humans.

Scientists believe the virus, which has spread across bird and cattle farms in the US and caused more than 60 mild human infections, could jump more easily to the public in future.

California has declared a state of emergency over the virus, which has been found in more than 600 dairy farms there over the last four months.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Liberal MP Chahal urges Trudeau to stop ‘needless reflection’ and resign, accusing ‘cabal’ around Trudeau of a ‘reckless strategy’ of ‘mutual political destruction’

Alberta Liberal MP George Chahal has sent a letter to his 152 caucus colleagues urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign immediately, and a second letter to the party president, calling for leadership planning to begin.

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau no longer has the support of caucus, and to maintain some dignity he should immediately tender his resignation,” wrote Chahal (Calgary-Skyview, Alta.) in a letter sent out this morning to all Liberal MPs, and obtained by The Hill Times.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government

We’re being frozen out of British cultural life, say Jewish artists

There must be an as yet undetermined link.

Britain’s cultural world has turned its back on Jewish creatives according to a series of allegations gathered by The Times.

Artists, writers and performers have stated that they are being frozen out of British cultural life because they refuse to describe Israeli actions in Gaza as genocidal.

While many have chosen to remain anonymous because of the “chilling” cultural climate in the country, others have decided to speak out.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023"

No commitment from Trump team to drop tariff threat after meeting with Joly, LeBlanc in Florida

Two of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top cabinet ministers met Friday with two of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks in an attempt to stave off the looming prospect of tariffs on Canadian exports.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc flew to Florida to brief the presidential transition team on the government’s plan for improving border security and to make the case that Trump’s threat of steep tariffs on all Canadian exports to the U.S. would damage both countries’ economies.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, USA

Mexico Worries Trump Will Order Strikes Against Drug Cartels

MEXICO CITY—The once-unthinkable prospect of U.S. military action on Mexican soil is dominating the political conversation in Mexico as the country braces for President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.

With Trump and his allies this year floating the use of American military force against Mexico’s drug cartels, Mexican officials have tried to learn whether he is serious or merely blustering to gain leverage in talks about shutting down the pipeline of migrants and drugs heading into the U.S. Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has rushed to blunt criticism from Trump’s orbit and put to rest worries at home that there is any danger from the country’s neighbor to the north.

Maybe Trump could order a strike on Harrington lake?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inMexican drug cartels, Mexico, USA

Is the Trudeau government Canada’s biggest national security threat? An expert weighs the evidence

Canada’s national security faces such major challenges, that its state of “crisis” is alarming and enraging.

“In December 2024 we find ourselves in a far worse situation across all areas of national security than we did in 2015,” said emergency response expert and retired Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Lt.-Col. David Redman.

Could heightened external and internal threats result from not only Liberal government incompetence — but also by design?

Redman thinks so.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Terry Newman: No Boxing Day joy for you, say anti-Israel mall protesters

Yesterday, as shoppers were returning unwanted presents, revelling in Boxing Day sales and enjoying the Christmas tree light show at the Toronto Eaton Centre, a group of anti-Israel protesters disrupted the joyful experience by harassing bargain-hunters and unfurling a large banner with a crude likeness of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the words “arrest this criminal” emblazoned in red. Like the twisted image of Netanyahu, and the chants that filled the mall, nothing these protesters say or do is to be trusted.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Canada, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

Migrants and End of Covid Restrictions Fuel Jump in U.S. Homelessness

Homelessness soared to the highest level on record this year, driven by forces that included a surge in migrants seeking asylum, a national housing crisis and the end of pandemic-era measures to protect the needy, the federal government reported on Friday.

The number of people experiencing homelessness topped 770,000, an increase of more than 18 percent over last year and the largest annual increase since the count began in 2007. Nearly every category of unhoused people grew, with the rise especially steep among children and people in families.

The report, released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, showed that homelessness had risen by a third in the past two years, after years of only modest fluctuations. The agency blamed factors such as “our worsening national affordable-housing crisis,” inflation and the end of certain aid programs from the pandemic.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis"

Report: China Rapidly Builds Up Weapons And Psychological Warfare Operations

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is undertaking an unprecedented military buildup aimed at challenging America and its allies, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. And, like Nazi Germany’s buildup in the 1930s, the militarization program ordered by the Chinese Communist Party isn’t simply a great power buildup — it’s a weapon in service of a deadly ideology.

The 2024 Department of Defense China Military Power Report and recent analysis by Bill Gertz in the Washington Times reveal this buildup as part of a broader strategy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to position itself as a global superpower. Meanwhile, the U.S., having spent $5.4 trillion on the global war on terror and attendant, futile nation-building, has left itself strategically vulnerable by diverting critical resources while underestimating the threat from China.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State"

Trump Backers Battle Online Over Immigrants

Weeks before President-elect Donald J. Trump is to take office, a major rift has emerged among his supporters over immigration and the place of foreign workers in the U.S. labor market.

The debate hinges on how much tolerance, if any, the incoming administration should have for skilled immigrants brought into the country on work visas.

The schism pits immigration hard-liners against many of the president-elect’s most prominent backers from the technology industry — among them Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who helped back Mr. Trump’s election efforts with more than a quarter of a billion dollars, and David Sacks, a venture capitalist picked to be czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency policy.

The H-1B visa program has long been abused at the expense of American born workers.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Societally Destructive Immigration Policy", USA

‘We Dug It, We Own It’ – The case for taking back the Panama Canal.

In 1978, the Carter administration made a deal with General Omar Torrijos, the uniformed socialist strongman who had seized power in Panama, to abandon America’s crown jewel.

The Panama Canal had been built with over a decade of labor and half a billion of early twentieth century dollars by American engineers and visionaries who succeeded where the British and the French had failed, in the process they created a new country, Panama, and new trade routes.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA