Socialism_Is_The_Alternative

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The Ukrainian National Guard has announced that the commander of the notorious neo-Nazi Azov brigade, Colonel Denis ‘Redis’ Prokopenko, will be promoted, significantly increasing his troop command.

Originally formed as a volunteer unit of radical nationalists, Azov rose to prominence in Ukraine following the 2014 Western-backed coup, reportedly becoming a central part of an international white supremacist network.

In an interview on Thursday, National Guard Commander General Aleksandr Pivnenko announced that Prokopenko would lead a new corps, which will encompass Azov along with four additional brigades.

The West has long been trying to isolate Iran, but is failing.

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Russia's State Duma ratified the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between Russia and Iran in its plenary session on 8 April, Sputnik reported.

"The agreement lays a solid foundation for expanding the comprehensive Russian-Iranian partnership in all areas, including defense, counterterrorism, energy, finance, transportation, industry, science, and technology," the Russian news outlet stated.

The treaty was concluded for 20 years, with the possibility of a subsequent five-year extension.

The agreement was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, before being voted on in the Duma.

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In the last few days, the US has been deploying B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to Diego Garcia, a strategic US military base in the British Indian Ocean Territory. This ominous development is almost certainly related to Trump’s ultimatum to Iran, issued on March 20th, which basically amounts to “Negotiate or be bombed”.

[...]

Ironically, the US plans to use this base, despite its dark history, to strike Iran, viewing it as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier”—much like Britain saw its bases during WWII. While the B-2 is a formidable weapon, is it truly invincible? Similar claims were made about the F-117 Nighthawk after the 1991 Gulf War.

It should be remembered that the invisibility of a bombing was rudely shattered by the Serbs in 1999, when they shot down one F-117, and, as was recently revealed, damaged a second beyond repair. There are also long-standing claims, needless to say denied by the US, that Serbian air defences damaged a B-2. The most interesting thing is that Serbia shot down one F-117 and damaged another using the elderly S-125 Neva/Pechora Surface to Air Missile (SAM) system (NATO reporting name SA-3 Goa), a system introduced in 1961.

Compare this with the far more advanced systems used by Iran, both Russian and domestically produced SAM systems such as the S-200 (SA-5) and S-300 (Buk) systems from Russia, and the new Arman Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM), and the Bavar-373 and Sayyyad-2 long-range missiles, which can hit targets at maximum ranges of up to 230km, as well as a host of medium, short range, and man portable systems. Like Russia, the Iranians operate a layered air defense system far superior, and far more formidable, than anything the US has faced since Vietnam half a century ago.

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A senior Iranian official said that Tehran has warned six countries they will face "severe consequences" if they support Washington in a military attack against the Islamic Republic, Reuters reported on 6 April.

"Iran has issued warnings to Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Turkey, and Bahrain that any support for a US attack on Iran, including the use of their airspace or territory by the US military during the attack, will be considered a hostile act," the official stated while speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The official stressed that such an action "would have severe consequences for those countries," adding that "Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has placed the Iranian armed forces on high alert."

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The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) has issued a religious decree, or fatwa, urging Muslim countries to provide immediate military, financial, and armed support to the Palestinian resistance in response to an ongoing genocide by the Israeli regime in Gaza.

Endorsed by over a dozen prominent scholars, the decree calls for direct military intervention, economic sanctions against Israel, and intensified backing of Palestinian resistance groups.

It also demands a unified Islamic military alliance to defend Muslim nations and counter foreign aggression.

“The failure of the Arab and Islamic governments to support Gaza while it is being destroyed is considered by Islamic law to be a major crime against our oppressed brothers in Gaza,” said Ali al-Qaradaghi, Secretary General of the IUMS, during a public reading of the fatwa on Friday.

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The Israeli army killed at least 112 Palestinians on 3 April in multiple attacks across the besieged Gaza Strip, including 71 in Gaza City, where strikes targeted dozens of families seeking shelter at the Dar al-Arqam School.

Thirty-one Palestinians, including 18 children, women, and elderly people, were killed during the Dar al-Arqam School bombing. Hours after this massacre, Israeli warplanes bombed another school-turned-shelter in Gaza City, killing three Palestinians and injuring many more.

"This barbaric Israeli aggression comes amid an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, with the health sector suffering a near-total collapse due to the destruction of hospitals and the ongoing blockade, making it extremely difficult to provide medical care to the wounded," the Gaza Civil Defense said in a statement.

I always liked calling this outfit the US Institute of War is Peace.

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Set up in 1984 and lavished with a $55M taxpayer-funded annual budget, USIP has been a haven for neocons since its inception, with figures from War on Terror and Iraq architects Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle to Elliott Abrams and Robert Kagan joining its board or actively collaborating with its activities.

After the 2018 death of Gene Sharp, who collaborated with the USIP, senior institute officials praised the veteran regime change operator - whose work helped destabilize entire regions, as “a pioneer of people power.”

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Once the conflict in the Donbass got underway in 2014, then-USIP chief Stephen Hadley urged the US to ramp up arms deliveries to Ukraine and send Russian troops home in “body bags.”

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In countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, the USIP’s activities have included nationbuilding in the wake of the US invasions, from civil society grants to training of the US-backed puppet governments’ officials, and top-down implementation of US-style electoral and governance systems, which rapidly collapsed once US occupation forces were gone.

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The White House has terminated tens of millions of dollars of funding for the White Helmets, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated NGO that played a key role in the US-backed regime change war in Syria.

CNN reported on 28 March that a contract worth $30 million from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for the White Helmets was terminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping reforms of the agency.

A smaller contract, worth $1.4 million, from the US State Department to the White Helmets remains in place.

The White Helmets, also known as Syria Civil Defense, was founded by former British intelligence officer James Le Mesurier in Turkiye in 2013 to carry out psychological operations in Syria as part of the broader CIA-backed war to topple the government of Bashar al-Assad and bring Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to power.

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The Palestinian resistance movement has celebrated the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Netzarim Corridor as a victory, describing it as yet another failure for the occupying regime in achieving its declared goals in the 15-month-long genocidal war on the people of Gaza.

Hamas made the remarks in a statement on Sunday, after Israeli troops withdrew from the Netzarim Corridor - a military zone cutting off the north of the Gaza Strip from the south- as part of a ceasefire deal in the blockaded territory.

The complete withdrawal of the Israeli military from the Netzarim Corridor signals a “continuation of the failure of the goals of the war of extermination against the Palestinian people,” the resistance group said.

Hamas went on to say that the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes and the ongoing prisoner swap refutes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “lie” about achieving victory in Gaza.

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Speaking at Work Programs Conference of the ministry of military affairs on Sunday, Israel's newly appointed chief of staff Major General Eyal Zamir admitted that the number of Israeli soldiers killed and wounded in Gaza is significantly higher than what the army has officially reported.

The Israeli military asserts that 844 soldiers have lost their lives and 5,696 have sustained injuries since the onset of the bloody Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023.

In contrast, Zamir stated that there are a minimum of 5,942 officially recognized “bereaved families” – a designation used exclusively for the families of soldiers killed in action.

He also revealed that over 15,000 soldiers have been admitted to the rehabilitation system due to physical injuries and mental health problems, reinforcing assumptions that Israel has been deliberately underreporting its military losses.

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The official death toll due to Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza significantly increased on 3 February, after the Gaza Health Ministry added the 14,222 Palestinians estimated missing under the rubble.

The ministry now reports that 61,709 people, including over 17,000 children, have been killed since the start of the war.

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Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on 19 January, the Gaza civil defense has been able to recover additional bodies, including 18 on Monday, adding to the confirmed death toll.

The Health Ministry's estimate of nearly 62,000 dead is in line with an estimate of the death toll published earlier this month by the Lancet medical journal. It estimated that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of Israel's genocidal war on the strip was around 40 percent higher than recorded by the Health Ministry.

LOL -- this anti-Iran, anti-Russia, and anti-China Neocon Democrat just got sentenced to 11 years in prison. They call him Gold Bar Bob. Snip:

Former US Senator Bob Menendez, known for his longstanding links to Zionist lobbies, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes in gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt.

Menendez was convicted of using his once-considerable influence in exchange for bribes. According to the indictment, Menendez and his wife Nadine "engaged in a corrupt relationship" with three New Jersey businessmen from at least 2018 through 2022.

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US security agents reportedly found $480,000 in cash at his home, some of it stuffed inside boots and the pockets of clothing, along with gold bars worth an estimated $150,000, among other valuables.

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In April 2024, Menendez voted in favor of a $95 billion aid package for Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine.