World News Random, Random

[ti-amie]

There was a very long and informative thread about this on the Bird App. I'll see if it was aggregated by the Thread Reader App.

[ti-amie]

Uh, what?

[Owendonovan]

"The FAO reports the 7.2 billion will be used to reduce the deficit and debt."

I think they mean population, not deficit and debt.

[ti-amie]

There was a very long and informative thread about this on the Bird App. I'll see if it was aggregated by the Thread Reader App.

Thread by Una Hajdari

There isn’t a conflict or escalation brewing in Kosovo atm. Kosovo Serbs set up roadblocks towards two main border crossings with Serbia in the north, in opposition to a move by the gov’t whereby Serbian citizens need special certificates when entering the country. #calmdown



Since Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo, citizens need special “temporary documents” while residing in the country. PM Albin Kurti recently announced that Kosovo would reciprocate by demanding the same from Serbian citizens. The decision enters into force tonight.

Politically motivated (or influenced) Kosovo Serbs gathered on the roads towards the border in order to stop people from driving to Serbia. Similar roadblocks have been set up several times over the years, and while they do signal tensions, they rarely lead to armed escalations.

This is because the north of Kosovo is covered by more NATO/KFOR troops per capita than almost any place in Europe. They are stationed there to maintain order, and escalations like these are exactly when their powers come into force.
Of course, this comes on the back of a month-long spat between Kosovo and Serbia over how that border in particular (which Serbia considers an internal, administrative border) should be handled. I wrote about the last time things got intense last year:

Von der Leyen urges end to Serbia-Kosovo border tensions
Pristina says a draft agreement has been reached to bring to an end spat over license plates.
https://www.politico.eu/article/von-der ... -kosovo-bo

Ever since Kurti was elected PM, he has tried to solidify Kosovo’s independence by doing to Serbia what Serbia has done to Kosovo — as in, if you don’t think we’re independent, watch us exercise our powers on our territory.
For Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, this hurts his pride and he’ll try to save face by making inflammatory statements like the one below to deflect from the fact that his hands are basically tied.

(Reference in Serbian is at the link below)

There have been sirens going off in North Mitrovica, the main Serb-majority municipality in the country, for a good part of the day. They’re intended to go off anytime there’s even a whiff of an incident that could endanger civilians, so that they know to stay off the streets.

But they go off when there are police raids there as well, like they have in the past year or so when the police confiscated illegal goods. While they are definitely unpleasant and startling, the main goal is to make sure civilians aren’t accidentally caught in crossfire or w/e.

The reason Serbia is “upset” is bc Kosovo did this outside the EU-monitored dialogue between the two, intended as the venue for solving outstanding bilateral issues. It messes with the perception President Vucic tries to emulate that he has everything under control.

At this moment (obv subject to change) Kosovo Police confirm that they were shot at while on the ground in the northern part of the country, but that no one has been injured. They also confirm that Kosovo Albanian drivers close to the border crossing were hassled by local Serbs.

While none of this is “normal” or welcome, it sadly isn’t extraordinarily out of proportion to previous incidents in the north. Various political and criminal Kosovo Serb groups flex their muscles when they feel their domination in that area is threatened, and yes, they are armed

The KFOR (NATO troops part of the Kosovo Forces) have active and regularly updated intervention plans on all the main roads leading into Kosovo in the North, which they can implement whenever they deem the situation to have significantly escalated.



While Russia is *always* happy when things go haywire in the Balkans, this incident was entirely tied to a decision by the Kosovo government that was announced ages ago, and the fact that Serbia is unhappy about it.



After the 1999 NATO bombing of what remained of Yugoslavia (yes the thing Putin always mentions), Serbia withdrew its military and political presence from Kosovo and signed the Kumanovo Agreement which set up a NATO-enforced air and ground safety zone.

While various facets of the agreement were suspended at times as a sign of goodwill (and joint NATO and Serbian army patrols were organized along the border) when a security crisis hits they’re immediately reimposed. This basically the equivalent of NATO Article 5 being violated.

As someone who has personally visited Bondsteel (the biggest US army base in the region, found in Kosovo) and the barracks of various NATO members close to the border — I can claim with almost 100% certainty that Russia or Serbia cannot (re)occupy Kosovo overnight.
The only thing this frantic fear-mongering (and spreading of alarmist disinfo) will achieve is that (armed) rabble-rousers will feel encouraged to actually go out and shoot people while the whole world is watching. So have that on your conscience while you spread fake news.

Additional NATO and Kosovo police presence has been placed on the bridges between Serb-majority North Mitrovica and Albanian-majority South Mitrovica, to pre-empt spillover tensions. FYI, the main bridge between the two municipalities has been closed off for almost two decades…
… and is guarded by international forces (such as the Italian Carabinieri) to deter ease of access for people who might want to escalate things. (This is for those suddenly interested in inter-ethnic tensions in Kosovo.)

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1553 ... 40993.html

[ponchi101]

I know. I find it to be even more potentially destructive than Twitter, where, at least, some serious people post information.
This one is basically digital methamphetamines.

[Deuce]

Uh, what?

Doug Ford is Rob Ford's brother (Rob was the mayor of Toronto for a few years).
That explains everything.

(Warning - language... but really funny...)

[ti-amie]

OH the brother of that guy. Now I get it.

[Deuce]

Well, it's a start, I suppose...

[ti-amie]

[Owendonovan]

Missouri was miserable enough without him. He's such a tool.

[ponchi101]

You just commented on a post that has the names Josh Hawley and Rand Paul in it, and said "he is such a tool".
I am puzzled by the use of the singular.
(Not really, I know what you mean).

[Owendonovan]

You just commented on a post that has the names Josh Hawley and Rand Paul in it, and said "he is such a tool".
I am puzzled by the use of the singular.
(Not really, I know what you mean).

The sum of those 2 almost equal a whole human?

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

That is how dictatorships eventually evolve. The Supreme Leader starts seeing enemies all around him. Then, he needs them checked. Then, a few get jailed, then executed. Slowly, the fear spreads too much. Soon, the government is non-operational because everybody is afraid that, regardless of what you say, you end up on the wrong side.
He has to go. He has become a true danger for the planet.

[ti-amie]

17 missing, dozens hurt after lightning, explosions and fire at Cuban oil storage facility

Firefighters trying to prevent fire from spreading in Matanzas, Cuba
The Associated Press · Posted: Aug 06, 2022 11:26 AM ET | Last Updated: 27 minutes ago


A helicopter carrying water flies over the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base on Saturday. (Ramon Espinosa/The Associated Press)

A fire set off by a lightning strike at an oil storage facility raged uncontrolled Saturday in the city of Matanzas, where four explosions and flames injured nearly 80 people and left 17 firefighters missing, Cuban authorities said Saturday.

Firefighters and other specialists were still trying to quell the blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, which began during a thunderstorm Friday night, the Ministry of Energy and Mines tweeted. The government said later that it had asked for help from international experts in "friendly countries" with experience in the oil sector.

Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio said the U.S. government had offered technical help to quell the blaze. On his Twitter account, he said the "proposal is in the hands of specialists for the due co-ordination."

Minutes later, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel thanked Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile for their offers of help.

The official Cuban News Agency said lightning hit one tank, starting a fire, and the blaze later spread to a second tank. As military helicopters flew overhead dropping water on the blaze, a dense column of black smoke billowed from the facility and spread westward more than 100 kilometres toward Havana.


Workers watch a huge rising plume of smoke from the Matanzas Supertanker Base in Cuba on Saturday as firefighters work to quell a blaze that began during a thunderstorm on Friday night. (Ramon Espinosa/The Associated Press)

Roberto de la Torre, head of fire operations in Matanzas, said firefighters were spraying water on intact tanks trying to keep them cool in hopes of preventing the fire from spreading.

The Facebook page of the provincial government of Matanzas said the number of injured had reached 77, while 17 people were missing. The Presidency of the Republic said the 17 were "firefighters who were in the nearest area trying to prevent the spread."

Seven of the injured were taken to Calixto Garcia Hospital in Havana, which has a prominent burn unit.


Cuban authorities say dozens of people have been hurt following the lightning strike, fire and subsequent explosions at the oil storage facility in Matanzas. (Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images)

The accident comes as Cuba struggles with fuel shortages. There was no immediate word on how much oil had burned or was in danger at the storage facility, which has eight giant tanks that hold oil used to fuel electricity generating plants.

Smoke column and a sulphur smell

"I was in the gym when I felt the first explosion. A column of smoke and terrible fire rose through the skies," resident Adiel Gonzalez told The Associated Press by phone.

"The city has a strong smell of sulphur."

Authorities said about 800 people were evacuated from the Dubrocq neighborhood closest to the fire, while Gonzalez added that some people decided to leave the Versailles district, which is a little farther from the tank farm.

Many ambulances, police and fire engines were seen in the streets of Matanzas, a city of about 140,000 people on Matanzas Bay.

Diaz-Canel travelled to the area of the fire early Saturday, officials said.

Local meteorologist Elier Pila showed satellite images of the area with a dense plume of black smoke moving from the point of the fire westward and reaching east to Havana.

"That plume can be close to 150 kilometres long," Pila wrote on his Twitter account.


A vintage car sits parked Saturday as the sky in the background is filled with smoke from the fire at the oil tank storage facility in Matanzas, Cuba. (Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)


https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/cuba-oil- ... -1.6543778