The Back-Channel Diplomacy Behind Trump’s U-Turn on Iran

Foreign ministers from Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan gathered before dawn Thursday in Riyadh for talks aimed at finding a diplomatic off-ramp to the war in Iran.

But there was one big problem, according to Arab officials involved in the discussions: finding a counterpart in Iran to negotiate with. Earlier that week, Israel killed Iran’s national security chief, Ali Larijani, who had been considered a viable partner who could engage with the West.

Egyptian intelligence officials managed to open a channel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—the paramilitary group that protects the Iranian regime and is the country’s most powerful security and political entity—and put forward a proposal to halt hostilities for five days to build confidence for a cease-fire, some of the officials said.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"US Israel Iran War"

In Carney’s Canada, data suggests we’re using our tax returns just to live

Don’t get too many plans for your tax refund, if you’re getting one. According to new data, Canadians are using it just to keep food on the table.

The cash crunch is forcing Canadians to rely on their tax returns to cover their day-to-day expenses. According to data, 40% of Canadians depend on their tax refund to help address cost-of-living expenses, and 28% are going to use it to pay for everyday essentials.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Canada in decline", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

The Iranian sleeper cell bringing terror to Europe

Until three weeks ago, few people had heard of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia. There was no entry in any counter-terrorism database, no Telegram channel, no social media footprint and no history.

But on Monday, the group, which has links to Iran’s network of proxies, and whose name translates as “Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right”, circulated footage of burning ambulances outside a synagogue in London, with its logo on Telegram.

It appears to be its latest strike.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", "US Israel Iran War"

Ted Morton: Carney demands Supreme Court strip provinces of right to pass their own laws

There is an important constitutional conference going on in Ottawa this week. Haven’t heard about it? Don’t feel badly. Neither have most provincial governments who stand to lose one of the most important powers they acquired with the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982.

The provincial premiers have not been invited. There is none of the pomp and circumstance and media coverage that normally accompany constitutional conventions. No, this will all take place very quietly in the chambers of the Supreme Court, where the Mark Carney Liberals are asking the Supreme Court to effectively amend the Charter by imposing new restrictions on how provincial governments can use their Section 33 notwithstanding power.

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

Ultimatums, diplomacy and a trip to Graceland as Trump eyes a deal with Iran

Trump signs Elvis’ guitar at Graceland

America may be a nation at war, but President Donald Trump’s activities over the past few days have been a mix of diplomacy and diversions – with the occasional swing towards the surreal.

On Friday, he said the US war against Iran was “winding down”. By Saturday night, he had given Iran a 48-hour deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face withering new American airstrikes.

The next day, he golfed and spent the afternoon at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

There’s a resentment I sense in reporting from nations like Great Britain and Canada, an underlying current of dismay at the realization they live in declining states and are no longer relevant.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUncategorized

Police are banning pro-Palestinine protesters from residential streets in this Toronto neighbourhood

A police spokesperson said barring Palestinian activists from residential streets in York Centre was a “targeted response to specific safety concerns,” but demonstrators say it violates their rights.

Police are banning pro-Palestinian activists from demonstrating in residential parts of a North Toronto Jewish community, a decision that’s drawing praise from the local councillor, but pushback from protesters who say it violates their rights.

The Toronto Police Service (TPS) confirmed to the Star on Monday that it is ordering protesters not to picket on residential streets near the intersection of Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue, the site of regular demonstrations and counter-demonstrations since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the country’s ensuing assault on Gaza.

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

LaGuardia pilots raised safety alarms months before deadly runway crash

Pilot safety concerns about New York’s LaGuardia airport were filed to aviation officials months before Sunday’s collision between an airplane and a firetruck left two pilots dead and 41 other people hospitalized.

According to the aviation safety reporting system administered by the US space agency Nasa, a pilot using the airport in the summer wrote, “Please do something,” after air traffic controllers failed to provide appropriate guidance about multiple nearby aircraft.

A miracle’: Canadian flight attendant ejected from plane survives New York crash

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Mass Casualty Event"

WARMINGTON: Crack and fentanyl smokers are in charge on TTC buses, streetcars or subway

If some of the crack being smoked by the person sitting next you on the subway gets on your skin or into your mouth, nose, lungs, eyes or brain, it could be a catastrophic heath risk.

Crack cocaine and crystal meth are dangerous enough but if fentanyl is mixed in with this concoction being consumed on the TTC, and is blown out for others to inhale against their will, it can kill a person or their kids riding with them.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city", WTF?

I’m afraid to ask what “Cornhole player” means

Quadruple amputee cornhole player faces murder charge after fatal shooting

h/t Mauser

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

AUBUT: A path forward – Canada’s ‘postnational’ experiment is failing

Hate them forever

From Justin Trudeau’s identity vacuum to pandemic overreach, how Canada lost its cultural core and why restoring fairness and the rule of law is the only way back.

In December 2015, soon after becoming Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau described Canada to The New York Times Magazine as a “postnational” state, adding: “There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.” He then pointed to shared values such as openness, respect, compassion, willingness to work hard, to be there for each other, and to pursue equality and justice.

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

Breaching the Iron Dome: the Iranian cluster bombs bypassing Israeli air defences

On 5 March, a post appeared on the X account of Iran’s late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, managed by his staff after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 28 February. The tweet featured a stark piece of propaganda: a gleaming, oversized missile arcing across the sky as a city below is engulfed in flames. The caption read: “Khorramshahr moments are on the horizon.”

The Khorramshahr missile, Iran’s most advanced ballistic missile, is believed to be capable of carrying a cluster warhead dispersing up to 80 submunitions. Since that post, it has come to loom large in Israeli threat assessments, a persistent concern for a country equipped with a multi-layered missile defence system that is widely regarded as the world’s most sophisticated.

The latest attack using cluster munitions occurred on Sunday, when an Iranian ballistic missile struck central Israel, injuring 15 people.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"US Israel Iran War"

For Carney, the time for talk is done

The PM has made progress on rolling back the excesses of his predecessor, but after a year, has yet to make substantial gains on his promised ambitious change

It was a year ago, minus a day, that Mark Carney called a snap election asking for a clear mandate to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump. Mr. Carney had been named Prime Minister just days before, following his victory in the Liberal leadership race.

Mr. Carney ran on the promise of strengthening Canada’s economy and military, protecting health care, stabilizing the immigration system and dramatically ramping up home building and infrastructure projects.

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

Golders Green fire: Iran ‘may be behind Jewish ambulance attack’

Security agencies and the police believe Iran could be behind the arson attack on four ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer service.

The agencies have not ruled out Tehran’s involvement in the attacks, in which four Hatzola ambulances were set on fire in Golders Green, north London. They are understood to be keeping an open mind about the attack, which is being treated as a hate crime. No one was injured.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", "US Israel Iran War", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

John Carpay: How Many Court Rulings Does It Take to Prove Use of the Emergencies Act Was Wrong?

The federal government is appealing its Emergencies Act losses to the Supreme Court of Canada, in a Notice of Application that runs 503 pages.

After declaring a “national emergency” on Feb. 14, 2022, the federal government unleashed police force on peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa, and froze hundreds of bank accounts of Canadians from coast to coast.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government