Smoky skies across much of B.C. as wildfires grow
Approximately 2,000 people in the Village of Ashcroft have been told to be ready to leave their homes at a moment's notice, after an evacuation alert was put into place at noon Friday for the entire community, about 100 kilometres west of Kamloops.
The warning comes with officials forecasting smoky skies across much of B.C. as over 300 fires burn across the province, with more expected in the days ahead.
Cliff Chapman with the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) said Thursday the province appeared to be "on the precipice of a very challenging 72 hours" with hot and dry weather, dry lightning and strong winds forecast.
Russian forces attacked the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv with a missile on July 19, killing at least three people, including a child, and injuring 14, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said.
Russian forces attacked the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv with a missile on July 19, killing at least three people, including a child, and injuring 14, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said.
Explosions were reported after an air raid alert went off in the region, the Ukrainian Air Force reported.
A residential part of the city came under attack, Sienkevych said. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia hit a playground, damaging nearby high-rise buildings.
Global IT outage disrupts B.C. health-care system
A global IT outage has caused widespread disruption across multiple industries, including significant issues within the health-care sector in B.C.
The province's Ministry of Health confirmed the disruption is impacting its networks and computers.
In a statement, the ministry said it has implemented "contingency plans" to ensure that health-care services remain operational, and patient care is not disrupted "to the best of our ability."
It is urging people to contact their care providers Friday if they have questions about appointments or services.
Here's coverage from the Guardian. It was a big story that was widely covered so it shouldn't be hard to find another source if you want one.
I understand the concern about their sale but the conclusion that they aren't reliable isn't supported by evidence as far I can tell. Per the included link in the post, they haven't failed a fact check in the last 5 years -- and they were sold to Axel Springer in late 2021. MBFC has reviewed them multiple times since the acquisition. Politico, also acquired by Axel Springer, was rated "Leans Left" in blind bias reviews by AllSides both before and after the acquisition, so it doesn't appear to have changed their editorial bias much either. I can't find any evidence of a shift rightward or away from factual reporting.
Ukrainian president condemns Hungarian prime minister’s unilateral ‘peace mission’ to Moscow
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken aim at the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, accusing him of betraying fellow European leaders after Orbán’s recent “peace mission” to Moscow.
The Ukrainian president kicked off the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace on Thursday with an emotional speech in which he made veiled but repeated references to Orbán’s recent attempts to get close to Moscow.
. . .
He told the session: “We have maintained unity in Europe by acting together, which means that Putin has missed his primary targets … This is our advantage, but it remains an advantage only as long as we are united.”
Referring to Putin, he said: “He may try to approach you, or go to some of your partners individually, trying to tempt or pressure you to blackmail you so that one of you betrays the rest. We keep our unity.”
Brazilian Forum on Public Safety finds every indicator of gender-based violence increased in 2023, including murder, harassment and stalking
Brazil has recorded unprecedented levels of rape and other forms of gender-based violence for the second year running, amid growing concerns over rightwing efforts to criminalize rape victims who have an abortion.
The data, released on Thursday in the annual report by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, showed that reported cases of rape rose by 6.5% from the previous year to a new historic high of 83,988 – or one every six minutes.
Experts say the figures are “even more alarming” against a backdrop of far-right activism, which includes a bill currently before the lower house of Congress that seeks to penalize rape survivors who seek a termination.
Every single indicator of gender-based violence increased in 2023 compared with the previous year, including murder (0.8%), sexual harassment (48.7%) and stalking (34.5%).
Pro-Macron and center-right lawmakers successfully pulled their votes together to stop the left from grabbing control of the National Assembly.
Emmanuel Macron’s party formed a last–minute agreement with right-leaning lawmakers to win a key vote in parliament on Thursday that opens the door to the French president playing a greater-than-expected role in forming the country’s next government.
The two political groups put together an ad-hoc alliance to reelect Yaël Braun-Pivet as head of the French National Assembly, the fourth highest-ranking official in France. The vote was widely seen as a test to see who could work together in France’s fractured parliament to name a future prime minister.
In combining their forces, the centrists and the center right seized political momentum while also delivering a stunning blow to their rivals further to the left.
The show was recognized with four nominations for its third and final season, including a best actor nod for D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai.
Reservation Dogs is finally getting some Emmy love in its final season.
The FX/Hulu comedy, co-created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, has long been a critical favorite, picking up recognition at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, Spirit Awards and Writers Guild Awards. Emmy nominations, though, have remained elusive — until Wednesday morning.
The show was recognized in the best comedy series category for the 2024 Emmys, competing alongside Abbott Elementary, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hacks, Only Murders in the Building, Palm Royale, The Bear and What We Do in the Shadows.
German leaders plan to halve aid to Ukraine just as Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election looks increasingly likely.
Germany, which overcame its initial reluctance to support Ukraine to become the country’s biggest European supplier of military aid, looks poised to change course as the finance minister said the government would slash future assistance by half in order to fulfill other spending priorities.
That appeared to be Berlin's unequivocal message to Ukraine on Wednesday as the government detailed its preliminary 2025 budget, in which military aid to Ukraine is slated to be cut by half to just €4 billion, according to a draft seen by POLITICO.
PM tells parliament he wants to ‘beat Hamas’ before investigation into deadliest attack in Israel’s history
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected calls for an immediate independent inquiry into the security failures that allowed the deadliest attack in his country’s history.
Speaking to Israel’s parliament, Netanyahu told lawmakers: “First, I want to beat Hamas.”
. . .
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, had last week called for the formation of a state-commission inquiry for the 7 October attacks.
Just four days after a Russian missile hit Ukraine’s leading hospital for children, the floors of Okhmatdyt’s main building looked surprisingly spotless. The dust and shattered glass from the devastating blast that defaced the building were wiped out. Damaged furniture was removed, and the staff we...
Just four days after a Russian missile hit Ukraine’s leading hospital for children, the floors of Okhmatdyt’s main building looked surprisingly spotless.
The dust and shattered glass from the devastating blast that defaced the building were wiped out. Damaged furniture was removed, and the staff wearing clean scrubs rushed along the well-lit corridors. At first glance, things seemed almost normal, if not for the absence of patients.
. . .
But Russia’s latest attack in its genocidal war against Ukraine demonstrated that Ukrainians continue to unite and resist in the face of such brutality. Thousands of volunteers have amassed to save their fellow citizens and later to help rebuild the hospital.
They've been very active targeting Russia since the full-scale invasion, though they've been pretty quiet lately.
"The cyberattack was aimed at destroying internal information of companies that serve Russian public sector clients involved in the war against Ukraine," HUR said in a post on Telegram.
Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) claimed on July 16 that it had hacked nearly 100 Russian websites that support the Kremlin's war effort, taking them offline and replacing their homepages with a picture of a bloody pig's head.
The intelligence agency said the operation was carried out on July 15 with the help of "the volunteer hacker community."
"The cyberattack was aimed at destroying internal information of companies that serve Russian public sector clients involved in the war against Ukraine," it said in a post on Telegram.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump selected Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate on July 15. The 39-year-old conservative, whose fame ballooned after the publication of his 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," was announced as Trump's pick for vice president on ...
Vance is one of Trump's most vocal supporters and an outspoken critic of U.S. aid to Ukraine.
. . .
Vance has said that it would be "completely irresponsible" for Ukraine to join NATO. He has also argued for the U.S. to focus solely on preventing Chinese expansion, even if that means sacrificing sovereign Ukrainian lands to Russia.
"Any peace settlement is going to require some significant territorial concessions from Ukraine, and you're gonna have a peace deal, because that's the only way out of the conflict," Vance said in February.
Newly armed with deep-strike missiles, Kyiv is trying to degrade Russian abilities on the peninsula, aiming at airfields, air defenses and logistics hubs.
Ukraine, now armed with American-made precision missiles, is for the first time capable of reaching every corner of Crimea — and the missiles are increasingly flying in both directions.
It is a new strategic push as Kyiv seeks to raise the cost for Russian occupation forces that have long used the peninsula as a base of operations just off Ukraine’s southern coast.
While it is unlikely to have much effect on the front line, Ukraine’s campaign with the long-range version of the Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, appears meant to force the Kremlin to make difficult choices about where to deploy some of its most valuable air defenses to protect critical military infrastructure.
"I welcome the decision of the allies to open up the possibility of greater use of weapons to strike these targets," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
Ukraine has the right under international law to attack military targets located in Russian territory, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during an interview on the United News telethon July 14.
United States policy prohibits Ukrainian forces from using U.S.-supplied weapons to strike targets deep within Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Washington to lift restrictions, saying the ability to use long-range U.S. weapons such as ATACMS within Russia and occupied Crimea would produce "an instant result."
In the interview, Stoltenberg affirmed Ukraine's right to self-defense.
Gonna go on the record right now and say that this dude is a real turd
Weapons donations from the United States and European countries will take weeks, if not months, to reach the front lines.
Despite billions of dollars in additional weapons and security assistance that NATO announced this week, allied officials said Ukraine would not be ready to launch a dramatic counteroffensive or retake large swaths of territory from Russia until next year.
Donations of missiles, combat vehicles, ammunition and air defenses from the United States and European countries will take weeks, if not months, to reach the front lines.
Some of the newly committed weapons have not yet been bought or built.
Outgunned and outmanned, Ukrainian soldiers struggling to hold the front line in a brutal, months-long Russian siege of Chasiv Yar are increasingly worried about their army's ability to protect their rear. If key supply lines from the west are cut off and if troops to their south are overrun, they
Outgunned and outmanned, Ukrainian soldiers struggling to hold the front line in a brutal, months-long Russian siege of Chasiv Yar are increasingly worried about their army's ability to protect their rear. If key supply lines from the west are cut off and if troops to their south are overrun, they risk being choked.
. . .
After retreating west from the Donetsk Oblast city of Bakhmut just over one year ago, Ukraine's forces have used the higher ground around Chasiv Yar to inflict massive losses on advancing Russian troops who this spring made incursions into the town's eastern outskirts.
But the predicament for Ukrainian troops struggling to hold Chasiv Yar worsened in past weeks after a poorly organized rotation of Ukrainian soldiers to the south allowed Russian forces to advance towards the Ukraine-held towns of Toretsk and Niu York.
Nato official warns there could be further Russian strikes on Ukraine this week to try to draw attention away from event
World leaders flew into Washington DC on Tuesday for a two-day Nato summit where they are expected to agree enhanced military support for Ukraine against a backdrop of questions about Joe Biden’s mental sharpness.
Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, were among those arriving at the US capital amid a warning that Russia could step up missile strikes on Ukraine this week, repeating a barrage that killed at least 38 on Monday.
The summit is expected to agree a fresh package of military aid for Ukraine, including at least four additional Patriot air defence systems and progress on supplying F-16 fighters, to help Kyiv better fend off devastating Russian attacks.
Key updates on July 9: * Rescue operations end at Kyiv children's hospital, at least 33 killed in capital overall * Ukraine struck airbase, oil depot, and energy facility in Russia overnight, source says * Ukrainian partisans say they sabotaged railway in Russia's Rostov Oblast * North Korean m...
Search and rescue operations at the site of a Russian missile attack on Okhmatdyt hospital in Kyiv concluded on July 9, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
The attack against the medical facility killed two people, including a doctor, and wounded 32 others. Eight children were hospitalized, according to Klymenko.
In total, at least 33 people, including four children, were killed in Kyiv as a result of the July 8 attack, officials said the following day. Another 10 children are among the 117 injured.
Fake quotes appeared over photos of celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson and Elton John, calling to end aid to Ukraine and describing European collapse.
Russian bots with a Kremlin disinformation network published 120,000 fake anti-Ukraine quotes falsely attributed to celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson, in one day, the independent Russian media outlet Agentsvo reported June 15.
Quotes appeared over celebrity photos, displaying messages calling to end aid to Ukraine and describing European collapse.
The images were published between June 14-15 by the Kremlin disinformation network Dvoynyk, a representative of the Bot Blocker project told Agentsvo. The fake quotes have since garnered over 500,000 views.
Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine overnight on June 1, launching drones and cruise missiles, while damaging energy infrastructure across various regions across the country.
Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine overnight on June 1, launching drones and cruise missiles, while damaging energy infrastructure across various regions across the country.
. . .
Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko confirmed that energy infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad, and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts came under attack by Russian forces. Restoration workers are currently on scene and are determining the extent of the damage.
. . .
Ukraine's Air Force announced an air alert throughout the country, including the far-western oblasts, citing the threat of Russian cruise missiles, drones, and Tu-95MS bombers.
There's an archive link at the bottom of the post.
It has more to do with them being identified and fleeing the country:
Holocaust memorial had recorded two figures arriving at about 3am with spray paint and stencils, as well as two or three other people who may have been involved. They were reportedly quickly identified from mobile phone information.
All were Bulgarian and left Paris by coach for Brussels later the same morning just after spray-painting the graffiti, France Info reported, confirming an earlier report in the satirical weekly Canard Enchaîné.
And the similarity to a previous incident:
In October, about 60 Stars of David were discovered on walls in Paris and districts on the outskirts. All were in a blue similar to the blue of the Israeli national flag.
A Moldovan couple were arrested in that case and their alleged handler, a pro-Russian Moldovan businessman, was identified, according to Agence France-Presse.
That does make it sound less good, but there's also a compelling pro-Ukrainian argument for using revenue (and other funds) rather than the seized assets for defense. It's widely agreed that Ukraine is owed those assets for reconstruction. Many want to liquidate them as an alternative to directly funding the defense effort, which could harm Ukraine's ability to rebuild after the war. So it's sort of robbing future-Ukraine to pay for the present. It's especially risky because countries tend to lose focus of things like reconstruction and get distracted by the next shiny conflict or crisis.
That obviously depends on Ukraine's allies continuing to fund their defense though.
The party’s ruling body, known as the political council, issued a statement on Tuesday in which it insisted that the government would not be blackmailed but also signalled that a way out of the crisis was possible if there was swift progress on preferential trade terms and visa liberalisation.
'We won't be blackmailed but we can be bribed!'
They changed it to that considerably less bonkers headline. Perhaps because they became of aware of their legal exposure under international laws against poor taste...? 🧐
Can we talk about a story that's fallen through the cracks here? CNN claiming this as an exclusive is madness. Who do these people think they are? And should the ICC issue arrest warrants about it? 😉
BBC just reported that Iranian state media has confirmed their deaths:
President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and several others are confirmed to have been killed in Sunday's helicopter crash in north-western Iran, state TV says.
The concern isn't about the consequences faced by Russia, but the impact on the rest of the world. Like, if Russia were to collapse, I think most would agree that Egyptians don't deserve to find out what suddenly not having $1.7 billion in wheat would mean, right? I don't think anyone has any idea what that would mean for, say, Tajikistan and other post-Soviet states with economies closely tied to Russia. Collapse would be chaos and it wouldn't stay confined within Russia's borders.
And, again, I don't think that justifies preventing Russia from losing. There are worse concerns for Russia winning. And the idea that Russia neither winning nor losing could be a sustainable final state is probably a fantasy.
I think that's one of the meanings. If a Russian loss led to the sudden collapse of the Russian state or a radical retraction of the Russian economy, who knows what the consequences would be?
I don't think that's a justification for not letting Russia lose, but it is a big bag of who-the-fuck-knows.
Netanyahu doesn't need Gantz's party to remain in power. They'd lose a more moderate voice in the war cabinet. The Unity government would probably lose legitimacy in the eyes of most Israelis. It would be very bad for Netanyahu politically. It would also probably be good for Gantz politically, as recent polling suggests that he might be starting to get some of Netanyahu's stink on him.
It's complicated. They don't have the ability to bring down the government but both Gantz and Gallant are much more popular than Netanyahu. Netanyahu's choice (again) comes down to placating the far-right to keep his government in power in the short-term at the expense of further alienating the Israeli public. If he bows to this pressure, the far-right might topple his government immediately. All paths probably lead to electoral (then legal) doom for Netanyahu at some point.