Ali

Wildlife, Wild Life | photographer | Aquarist | Amateur Mountaineer | steady steps forward

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

Blockbuster episode on #birds #birdwatching #indianbird #BirdsOfTwitter @birdcountindia
@IndiaToday @amazonmusic #podcasts
#peregrinator #AmazonMusic
https://t.co/HzOTKCRvYn

[Black Hole @konstructivizm]

Landscapes of South America as photographed by Scott Kelly from the ISS

[Brian Berletic @BrianJBerletic]

Why isn't China intervening to stop the US war of aggression against Iran?

Somehow this is still a question people are asking, so I will explain.

1. China's military is built to defend China within and along its borders against a massive and growing US military build-up all along its peripheries ongoing for decades.

Its forces are organized around hardware designed specifically for this purpose - not to project military power around the globe like the US does - and the US has these capabilities because it is an aggressor - not for national defense.

China literally has no ability to project the military power required to confront and successfully stop a full-scale US war of aggression on the other side of the planet with the capabilities it has for national defense;

2. In order to launch this war on Iran - the US spent decades building up a network of global and regional bases, logistical networks, ammunition depots, fuel dumps, regional integrated air defense capabilities etc. to first encircle Iran - then attack it.

China would be required to create an equal or greater network throughout the region to stop this- and this simply isn't possible;

3. The US built its network up through both politically capturing nations in the region (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait) and invading/occupying them (Iraq & Syria).

China simply doesn't conduct its foreign policy this way - because if it did - it would be just as bad as the US itself;

4. If you think China could simply project military power over the horizon - this is even more difficult and unrealistic. This requires huge amounts of long-range aircraft, immense aerial refueling capabilities, and long-range munitions as well as forward bases at least near the region to do so.

Sending naval vessels would simply place them at the mercy of a better prepared and more extensive military positions the US has established over decades as explained above;

5. What China has likely done is all that it could do - provide economic support against illegal US sanctions, provide technical/material support for Iran's military industrial production, provide military support through the transfer of weapons and equipment.

All of these have their limits especially in terms of the transfer of military equipment to Iran - which takes YEARS to train Iranian personnel on EFFECTIVELY, as well as to integrate it through training in modern combined arms operations.

This last point regarding the amount of time it takes to effectively integrate new military hardware into a military is exactly why Ukraine has failed to absorb and fully utilize floods of Western weapons and equipment in the US proxy war on Russia being waged there.

CONCLUSION

There are real-world limitations on what nations like Russia and China can do against US wars of aggression elsewhere especially considering the fact the US is waging proxy war on both Russia and China at the same time it wages direct war on Iran.

Russia and China are doing what is realistic and within their capabilities - and are constantly expanding their own capabilities in order to do more when possible.

Do not confuse real limitations with a lack of concern or will - and realize blaming Russia or China for a US WAR OF AGGRESSION simply serves Washington's agenda - not Iran's or any of its allies.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am a diplomatic aide in the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

My job is logistics. When two countries that cannot speak to each other need to speak to each other, I book the rooms. I prepare the briefing materials. I make sure the water glasses are the right distance apart. You would be surprised how much of diplomacy is water glasses. Too close and it feels informal. Too far and it feels like a tribunal. I have a chart.

We had a very good month.

Since January, Oman has been mediating indirect talks between the United States and Iran on Iran's nuclear program. The talks were held in Muscat and in Geneva. The Americans would sit in one room. The Iranians would sit in another room. I would walk between them. My Fitbit says I averaged fourteen thousand steps on negotiation days. The hallway between the two rooms at the Royal Opera House conference center is forty-seven meters. I walked it two hundred and twelve times in February. This is good for my cardiovascular health. It was less good for my knees. Both are in the service of peace.

By mid-February, we had something.

Iran agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. Not reduced stockpiling. Zero. They agreed to down-blend existing stockpiles to the lowest possible level. They agreed to convert them into irreversible fuel. They agreed to full IAEA verification with potential US inspector access. They agreed, in the Foreign Minister's phrase, to "never, ever" possess nuclear material for a bomb. I have worked in diplomacy for seven years. I have never seen a country agree to this many things this quickly. I made a spreadsheet of the concessions. It had fourteen rows. I color-coded it. Green for confirmed. Yellow for pending. By February 21 the spreadsheet was entirely green. I printed it. It is on my desk in Muscat. It is still green.

That phrase took eleven days. "Never, ever." The Iranians initially offered "not seek to." The Americans wanted "will not under any circumstances." We landed on "never, ever" at 2:14 AM on a Tuesday in Muscat. I typed the final version myself. I used Times New Roman because Geneva prefers it. The document was fourteen pages. I was proud of every comma.

Here is what they said, in the order they said it.

February 24: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity." — The Foreign Minister, private briefing to Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors. I prepared the slide deck. Slide 14 was the implementation timeline. Slide 15 was the signing ceremony logistics. I had reserved the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Room XX. It seats four hundred. We discussed pen brands for the signing. The Iranians preferred Montblanc. The Americans had no preference. I ordered twelve Montblanc Meisterstucks at six hundred and thirty dollars each. They arrive on Tuesday.

February 27, 8:30 AM EST: "The deal is within our reach." — The Foreign Minister, CBS Face the Nation. He sat across from Margaret Brennan. He said broad political terms could be agreed "tomorrow" with ninety days for technical implementation in Vienna. He said, and I wrote this line for the briefing card he carried in his breast pocket: "If we just allow diplomacy the space it needs." He praised the American envoys by name. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. He said both had been constructive.

I watched from the Four Seasons Georgetown. The minibar had cashews. I ate the cashews. They were nineteen dollars. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten. But it was a good morning and we were within our reach.

February 27, 2:00 PM EST: Meeting with Vice President Vance, Washington. The Foreign Minister presented our progress. Zero stockpiling. Full verification. Irreversible conversion. "Never, ever." The Vice President used the word "encouraging." His aide took notes on an iPad. The aide did not make eye contact for the last nine minutes of the meeting. I noticed this. Noticing things is the only part of my job that is not water glasses.

February 27, 4:00 PM EST: "Not happy with the pace." — President Trump, to reporters.

Not happy with the pace.

We had achieved zero stockpiling. Full IAEA verification. Irreversible fuel conversion. Inspector access. And the phrase "never, ever," which took eleven days and cost me two hundred and twelve trips down a forty-seven-meter hallway.

Every American president since Carter has failed to get Iran to agree to this. Forty-five years.

Not happy with the pace.

February 27, 9:47 PM EST: The Foreign Minister's flight departs Dulles for Muscat. I am in the seat behind him. He is reviewing Slide 14 on his laptop. The implementation timeline. Vienna technical sessions. The signing ceremony. The pens.

I fall asleep over the Atlantic. I dream about water glasses.

February 28, 6:00 AM GST: I wake up to push notifications.

February 28: "The United States has begun major combat operations in Iran." — President Trump.

Operation Epic Fury. Coordinated airstrikes. The United States and Israel. Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Nuclear facilities. IRGC bases. Sites near the Supreme Leader's office. Israel called their half Operation Roaring Lion. Someone in both governments spent time choosing these names. Epic Fury. Roaring Lion. I spent eleven days on "never, ever." They spent it on branding. The President said Iran had "rejected American calls to halt its nuclear weapons production."

Rejected.

Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling. Iran had agreed to full verification. Iran had agreed to "never, ever." Iran had agreed to everything in a fourteen-page document that I typed in Times New Roman.

The President said they rejected it.

I do not know which document the President was reading. I know which one I typed.

February 28, 18:45 UTC: Iran internet connectivity: four percent. — NetBlocks, confirmed by Cloudflare. Ninety-six percent of a country went dark. You cannot negotiate with a country at four percent connectivity. You cannot negotiate with a country that is being struck. You cannot negotiate. This is not a political opinion. This is a logistics assessment.

February 28: The governor of Minab reported forty girls killed at an elementary school.

I do not have logistics for that. There is no slide for that. The water glass chart does not cover that.

February 28: Lockheed Martin: up. Northrop Grumman: up. RTX: up. Dow futures: down six hundred and twenty-two points. Gold: five thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars. An analyst at AInvest published a note titled "Iran Strikes: Tactical Plays." The note recommended positions in oil, defense stocks, and gold.

The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten was nineteen dollars. The most expensive pen I have ever ordered was six hundred and thirty dollars. The math suggests I have been working in the wrong industry. Defense stocks do not require water glasses. Defense stocks do not require eleven days. Defense stocks require one morning.

February 28: Israel closed its airspace and its schools. Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward US bases in the Gulf. The Supreme Leader promised a "crushing response." Israel's defense minister declared a permanent state of emergency. Everyone is using words I recognize in an order I do not. I recognize "permanent." I recognize "emergency." I do not recognize them next to each other. In diplomacy, nothing is permanent and everything is an emergency. In war it is the reverse.

February 28: The Foreign Minister has not made a public statement.

The briefing card is still in his breast pocket. It still says "within our reach."

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@Nermeenalswaisi .

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@ghadaa231 .

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@nadaa01012 .

[Save Our Citizenships 🔻 @LetsStopC9]

Philanthropy as Plunder

Bill Gates doesn’t donate to save the world, he invests to own it. By capturing seed banks, gutting global protections, and weaponising “net zero,” land becomes collateral and life becomes property. This isn’t climate action; it’s enclosure, updated for empire.

“It’s a land grab.” Watch till the end…

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@nadaa01012 .

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

Feb 14, 1990: Voyager 1 spacecraft takes this stunning photograph of the Earth suspended in the sunbeam. Carl Sagan's brilliant monologue as mentioned in his 1994 book, Pale Blue Dot:

'From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.'
📷NASA

[ANI @ANI]

#WATCH | On Opposition to move no-confidence motion against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal says," "I am not part of that Opposition...In the last 18 years, I haven't seen this House run the way it is today. I request the government and the Speaker that the MPs here have been elected and sent by the people... but if you won't even let them speak, then why is the people's money being spent on running House?...How can you silence the entire Opposition? This important issue: the country has been misled about the India-US trade agreement... You can't prosper by ruining the country's farmers...I urge the government to let the Opposition speak; if the Opposition isn't even allowed to speak, then why was this Parliament made?"

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@MamataOfficial RIP

[Mamata Banerjee @MamataOfficial]

Deeply shocked and stunned by the suddden demise of Ajit Pawar! The Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and his co-passengers have died in a disastrous plane crash at Baramati today morning, and I am feeling a deep sense of loss.

My condolences to his family including his uncle Sharad Pawar ji, and late Ajitji's all friends and followers.

The incident needs proper investigation.

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@curiosityonx What is the impact on birds and other flying species?

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@tallmetommy @curiosityonx What is the impact on birds?

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@dinesh_chauhan Pinky 100%

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@Nermeenalswaisi .

[कबीरा @SecularTrainee]

Example Starts from

1) Levis Belts US version vs Indian Version
2) Coke/Fanta etc US/Europe version vs Indian Version
3) Oils, Veggies, Fruits
4) Milk & Milk Products
5) Chocolates, Dairy Milk brands etc

And these are not even Counterfeit Products. Companies taking undue advantages as no Rules/Regulations exists.

Imagine whats the scenario with Fake products.

This country is beyond repair

Source : Insta - SanjayArora

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

Truly Amazing transformation in Aurangabad

[Nithin Kamath @Nithin0dha]

I was watching this video by @RainmatterOrg about how Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) cleaned up the Kham river in 5 years. It had become a sewage drain, and they turned it back into a flowing river. Made me think about especially of Delhi's air quality problem.

They mapped 249 waste entry points with drones and installed traps. Rerouted sewage to treatment plants and built new ones. Set up a facility for textile waste from factories. Cleaned the river and discovered springs that were buried under debris. Fixed waste collection across the city, removed 170 dump sites. The municipal commissioner joined weekend cleanups himself. Citizens showed up every Saturday. The key was stopping waste from entering the river in the first place, not just cleaning it.

If a smaller city can pull this off in 5 years with the municipal corporation, NGOs, and citizens working together, I was wondering if governments, businesses, NGOs, and citizens actually collaborate, can't they make a difference in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and many other cities where the Air quality is really bad.

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

Faced funny behaviour and attitude of the staff member at Jawai Bandh in August 2025.
I enquired about Sabarmati train and he printed the ticket, then would not issue the ticket for the train I wanted.
Initially I was shocked and surprised
@NWRailways @GMNWRailway @RailMinIndia

[Ali @abstrakshuns]

@adarpoonawalla Your clean initiative as part of csr in Pune is fantastic. Do keep it up.

However, noticed this (see image). Hope, this misuse is not rampant.