World News Random, Random

[mick1303]

Missiles are hitting somewhere close. Loud. The windows are trembling...There were six or so hits across the city. I'm back in Kharkov now. For the last month and a half (since mid-December, when I returned) it was the most loud just now.

[ti-amie]

Missiles are hitting somewhere close. Loud. The windows are trembling...There were six or so hits across the city. I'm back in Kharkov now. For the last month and a half (since mid-December, when I returned) it was the most loud just now.

Stay safe!

[ponchi101]

Stay safe, indeed. Hoping that nothing will happen to you or your loved ones.

[ti-amie]

Axios
@axios@mastodon.social
The death toll from the massive earthquakes and aftershocks in Syria and Turkey neared 20,000, as hope for finding survivors trapped under toppled buildings began to fade. https://t.co/UWISeZyjAp


https://mastodon.social/@axios/109836377915449446

[MJ2004]

It's been heartwrenching watching this disaster unfold, it could still get far worse.

[ponchi101]

BTW. Syria was also affected, as it borders the South of Turkey. And those are war torn areas, so whatever was left standing had already been affected by the war.

[ti-amie]

‘High-altitude object’ shot down by military over Alaska, White House confirms

By Justine McDaniel
Updated February 10, 2023 at 3:19 p.m. EST|Published February 10, 2023 at 2:50 p.m. EST


National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced the action during Friday's White House briefing. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

The U.S. military shot down a “high-altitude object” above Alaskan airspace that was much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon that crossed the country before being shot down last weekend, officials said.

President Biden ordered the military to take down the object on the recommendation of the Pentagon, primarily over concerns that its 40,000-foot altitude could pose “a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday at the White House.

Kirby said the United States did not know who owned the object or what its purpose was. It did not appear to have the ability to move around the way the confirmed Chinese balloon did, he said.

The object was the size of a small car, much smaller than the surveillance balloon, which was the size of two or three buses, Kirby noted. The military plans to recover the debris, which may be easier because it landed on ice, he said.

Whether the object was capable of surveillance, Kirby said, the United States has not “ruled anything in or out.”

“We’re still trying to learn more from it,” Kirby said. “I want to stress again we don’t know what entity owns this object. There’s no indication it’s from a nation or an institution or an individual.”

He said he did not know of any outreach to the Chinese government Friday afternoon about the new object.

The military downed the object over frozen territorial waters near the northeastern part of Alaska, near the Canadian border and heading over the Arctic Ocean, about within an hour after 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, Kirby said, and expects to recover the debris.

Biden was told of the object Thursday night after a fighter aircraft assessed the object, Kirby said. But he added that the speed, darkness and small size of the object made it difficult; aircraft surveilled the object again Friday. The military determined the object was unmanned before Biden gave the order to shoot it down.

“They worked really hard to try to get as much information as they could about this object,” Kirby said. “It was difficult for the pilots to glean a whole lot of information.”

The Chinese balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday was capable of collecting intelligence on American sites, the Pentagon has said, and was part of a larger surveillance program.

Biden acted quickly to order the downing of the new object on Friday because it was over water and was much smaller — it was safer to shoot down than the balloon, Kirby said.

The NSC spokesman said the United States is not aware of any other airborne objects flying over the country.

“We’re going to remain vigilant about the skies over the United States,” he said. “And as I said earlier, the president takes his obligations to protect our national security interest. And those of us in the safety and security of the American people is paramount. And … he’s always going to decide and act in a way that is commensurate with that duty.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... wn-alaska/

[ti-amie]

New unidentified ‘high-altitude object’ shot down over Canada
NORAD and military aircraft had spotted and tracked the latest craft, as search continues off Alaska for latest downed balloon

By Dan Lamothe
Updated February 11, 2023 at 5:26 p.m. EST|Published February 11, 2023 at 5:07 p.m. EST


An F-22 Raptor was used to shoot down a high-altitude object over Canada on Saturday, Feb. 11, marking the third such shootdown in a week. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jacob M. Thompson) (Airman 1st Class Jacob Thompson/341st Missile Wing Public Affairs)

A new “high-altitude airborne object” has been spotted and shot down over Canada’s Yukon territory, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday, as U.S. personnel continued efforts to recover the remnants of two other craft shot down over Alaska and South Carolina within the last week.

Trudeau said in a tweet that Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled to respond in the latest incident, with a “U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.”

“I spoke with President Biden this afternoon,” Trudeau tweeted. “Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object.”

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) had said earlier in a statement that it had “positively identified” the latest object, but offered few additional details. The organization includes both U.S. and Canadian military officials, and protects the skies over North America.

The disclosure came as U.S. military officials said searches continued Saturday near the Alaskan town of Deadhorse for an object shot down Friday just off the coast, and off the coast of South Carolina for a suspected Chinese surveillance airship that made a cross-country journey ending with a shoot-down on Feb. 4.

“Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight, are a factor in this operation, and personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety,” U.S. military officials said of the object shot down over Alaska. “Recovery activities are occurring on sea ice."

Military officials said they had no new details to provide about the origin, capabilities or intended purpose of the object shot down over Alaska. It was shot down over the state’s North Slope on Friday at 1:45 p.m. Eastern by an AIM-9x Sidewinder missile fired from an F-22 Raptor, one of the U.S. military’s most advanced fighter aircraft. Defense officials said its remnants landed in a mix of snow and ice near Prudhoe Bay, a community of about 2,000 that is home to North America’s largest oilfield.

Military personnel in helicopters and an HC-130 search-and-rescue plane immediately began looking for pieces. While the object, described as about the size of a small car, came down off Alaska’s northern coast, the water was frozen, complicating any effort to recover the craft by boat.

The object was first spotted Thursday at an altitude of about 40,000 feet and traveling northeast across the state, Pentagon officials said. Two F-35s from Eielson Air Force Base in central Alaska were dispatched to assess what the object was, and two F-22s from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage were sent up Friday to shoot it down.

John Kirby, a White House spokesman, said President Biden was notified of the situation Thursday night and, on a recommendation from the Pentagon, ordered it to be shot down Friday. At such an altitude, he said, it posed a risk to civilian air travel.

Friday’s encounter bookended a week in which the Biden administration faced scrutiny over its decision to allow a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon to traverse the continental United States before shooting it down Feb. 4 off the South Carolina coast. The balloon — roughly the size of three buses and soaring at an altitude above 60,000 feet — was first spotted by the U.S. government off the coast of Alaska on Jan. 28. Gen. Glen VanHerck, who oversees the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said in the aftermath of that incident that he did not initially shoot the balloon down because it showed no hostile intent.

The Chinese airship shot down Feb. 4 was first detected near the Aleutian Islands. It crossed above mainland Alaska and into Canada before appearing over the continental United States, first in northern Idaho on Jan. 30 and then in Montana the following day.

The administration weighed shooting it down then, and even temporarily imposed a stoppage on flights in and out of the airport in Billings. Biden has said that his advisers talked him out of shooting down the craft in Montana, fearful that falling debris could harm civilians and property on the ground.

Administration officials also have said that by allowing the Chinese craft to traverse the country, military officials had days to observe it and gather intelligence that has informed their understanding of what they now say is a sprawling surveillance program overseen by the People’s Liberation Army. The shootdown over water, they said, also would aid in collection, rather than dealing with challenging mountainous terrain.

Those explanations have not appeased lawmakers, however. At a Senate hearing this week, Republicans and Democrats pressed senior defense officials about why they had not acted sooner to thwart the Chinese balloon incursion and whether they have taken appropriate measures to enforce the boundaries of U.S. airspace.

“I don’t want a damn balloon going over the United States when we could have taken it down over the Aleutian Islands,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D.-Mont.)

The balloon shot down last weekend fell into the Atlantic Ocean, landing in relatively shallow water measuring about 50 feet deep. Salvage efforts, U.S. officials said, are ongoing.

This is a developing story.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... ng-object/

[ti-amie]

[Deuce]

^ What is this - some sort of bizarre competition to see who can 'shoot down' the most flying objects all of a sudden?
It's getting rather ridiculous.
What's next - a kid's drone? A hummingbird?

[JazzNU]

Erdogan’s political fate may rest on his response to the earthquake

By Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN


Abu Dhabi, UAE (CNN) — A devastating earthquake in southern Turkey could change the electoral equation for Turkish strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who hopes an upcoming election will extend his rule well into a third decade.

While the 68-year-old leader faced the strongest opposition yet to his presidency, the 7.8 magnitude earthquake – which also hit northwest Syria and sent aftershocks across the region – could be a gamechanger for his political career, analysts say.

Erdogan has been visiting impacted areas, consoling victims and pledging to rebuild the thousands of flattened homes. On Tuesday, he announced a state of emergency in the ten hardest-hit provinces of the country’s south, many of which have traditionally supported him and his AK Party.

But there is disgruntlement with the government’s response in those areas, where some people complain that scores of bodies are yet to be collected, causing the stench of death to spread.

“There are no organized relief efforts in here,” Sinan Polat, a 28-year-old car dealer in Hatay province, told CNN. “There are so many bodies in front of the hospitals, there’s not even enough shroud to cover them. Cemeteries are full. What are we going to do, throw the bodies of our families into the sea? It’s not what we expected and hoped. Under these conditions, we’re not hopeful about the future.”

Nuran Okur, a 55-year-old resident of the southern city of Iskenderun, told CNN there was no sign of the state in the city. “It’s been four days, and there’s no one here.”

Erdogan’s response to Monday’s earthquake, which has so far killed more than 22,000 people across Turkey and Syria, may determine the results of an election that is scheduled for May 14.

Erdogan is likely aware of that. On Wednesday he acknowledged “shortcomings” in the government’s early response. The next day, he reminded Turks of government efforts in previous disasters, promising to rebuild homes in less than a year and pledging to support victims with 10,000 liras ($531) each.

“For Erdogan, the next 48 hours will be definitive,” Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy told CNN on Thursday.


Erdogan’s strongholds hit


Whether his efforts will salvage his chance at re-election is unclear. Most of the quake-stricken provinces in Turkey’s south are socially conservative and are strongholds of Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party, said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and chairman of Istanbul-based think-tank EDAM.

“The average AK Party performance in those provinces has been above their national average,” he said, adding that AK Party provinces have generally received more support from the central government, in comparison to opposition-held ones.

The ten provinces that were most affected by the earthquake represent around 15% of Turkey’s population of 85 million and a similar proportion of the 600-seat parliament. During the 2018 vote, Erdogan and the AK Party won the presidential and parliamentary elections, respectively, in all of those provinces but one, Diyarbakir. That region voted for the pro-Kurdish HDP party, and its candidate Selahattin Demirtas, who ran for elections from prison.

One of the strongest to hit the region in more than 100 years, the earthquake has so far killed 19,000 in Turkey alone, where the toll is expected to rise.

Emotions have been running high as many, including those in non-affected provinces, have expressed anger at what they feel was a lack of readiness for the disaster, especially since Turkey is no stranger to earthquakes.

In 1939, an earthquake of the same magnitude as Monday’s killed 30,000 people, and in 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in the country’s northwest killed more than 17,000 people.

For Turkey’s rulers, quakes have been gamechangers in the past. In what later became a defining moment for Erdogan’s ascension to power, the 1999 quake – and the slow relief efforts that followed – only added to the sense of disillusionment many felt toward the nationalist, secularist state in power at the time, analysts say.

After the 1999 earthquake, the state “collapsed like a house of cards,” Cagaptay told CNN. “And that basically destroyed the ideological hold of the state over society.”

The government has particularly been criticized for its lack of preparedness to minimize damage from such disasters, said Ulgen, especially since the state has since the 1999 earthquake been collecting taxes aimed at sheltering the country from potential future disasters.

The Turkish opposition is already speaking out about the government’s perceived shortcomings in dealing with the tragedy.

Following a nationwide restriction on social media after the earthquake, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party said: “This insane palace government cut off social media communication.”

“As a result, crying for help is less heard,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “We know everything you’re trying to hide.”

While there have been no official announcements to postpone the May 14 elections, some analysts expect Erdogan and the opposition to agree on a later date.

It’s unlikely that conditions in the impacted provinces will allow for the vote to be held, said Ulgen.

“It is going to be a very complicated thing to be able to even orchestrate elections in these provinces,” he said.


With additional reporting by Yusuf Gezer in Iskenderun, Turkey.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/10/middleea ... index.html

[JazzNU]

^^ Article I read the other day that I found interesting and thought others might as well. Didn't remember that Erdogan's rise to power was on the heels of poor response to a previous earthquake.

[ponchi101]

So, it boils down to his response over a natural disaster? Nothing about his appalling human rights record?
I'll never get it. Never.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Julia Davis Share
@Julia_Davis_share
16 Feb 2023

Another Top Russian Official Found Dead After Apparent Plunge From High-Rise Apartment

Marina #Yankina, 58, was the head of finance and procurement of the #Russian Defense Ministry’s Western Military District.

#RussianWorld

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-senior-o ... 74330.html