zulumuster

Archaeology, Politics, CT, Security. Zulumuster: a Light Horse term still used today ie. holding the horses for rest of the troop while they go into action.

[Daniel @VoteLewko]

NGO Monitor's new report should be required reading in Canberra.

40 anti-Israel UK protest groups mapped. 19 of them on the taxpayer's payroll. 11 tied to extremist networks – the IRGC, Hamas, Hezbollah, the PFLP. 13 operating with zero regulatory oversight. Foreign funding from half a dozen governments. Two raising money in crypto.

If Britain's "grassroots" protest movement turns out to be a coordinated, internationally financed machine – ASIC, the ACNC and the AFP need to ask exactly the same questions about the slick machine running here since 9 October 2023.

Same weekly marches. Same tactics. Sydney's started at the Opera House the same week London's did.

If that's what transparency failure looks like at scale in Britain what exactly is the ACNC checking on the groups running Australia's marches?

Who's mapping this?

[Amit Segal @AmitSegal]

Israel had a problem, and Germany had a solution. Israel needs more manufacturing capacity for Iron Dome components. Volkswagen, having failed to establish itself as a leader in electric vehicles and bleeding market share to Chinese imports, has capacity to spare. So the two problems found each other: Volkswagen’s management board green-lit converting a production line to defense manufacturing under a deal with Israel’s Rafael, saving thousands of German jobs in the process. A win-win.

Until the Qataris intervened and sank the deal.

Why do the Qataris have a say in what German factories build? Because, according to Bild, the Qatari sovereign wealth fund holds 10.4 percent of Volkswagen’s shares and 17 percent of its voting rights—and it vetoed the deal for one reason: the company slated to manufacture at the plant is Israeli. Qatar spent years funding Israel’s enemies and is now spending its equity blocking Israel from intercepting the missiles it paid for.

Volkswagen confirmed that its Qatari shareholders vetoed the cooperation at the Osnabrück plant but said it would keep seeking partnerships to save the site. Good luck to the 2,300 workers employed there—all facing layoffs by the end of 2027.

The Qataris had help, of course. Peace activists and opposition parties had criticized the conversion from the start, insisting Volkswagen manufacture only for the civilian market—never mind that everyone in Germany has understood for over a year that tens of thousands of jobs are gone without exactly this kind of reform. The protests intensified once the partner turned out to be Israeli, with radical left-wing activists, backed by the Left Party, declaring it “a deal that the German public cannot accept” given Netanyahu’s military activity across the Middle East.

And this is not just about Volkswagen. According to Bild, the $4.2 billion deal for German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd to acquire Israel’s Zim is also apparently collapsing—and here too, senior Israeli sources point to Gulf money inside the German corporation: the Qatari sovereign wealth fund holds 12.3 percent of Hapag-Lloyd, the Saudi fund another 10.2 percent.

Nor is the creeping problem exclusive to Germany. As FDD’s Natalie Ecanow has documented, the state of 330,000 citizens, half the size of New Jersey, has invested some 400 billion dollars in the United States—roughly 1.2 million dollars per Qatari citizen. From defense and energy to basic infrastructure and manufacturing, the Qatari octopus has slipped its tentacles into countless sectors of the U.S. economy. As the Volkswagen case demonstrates, these investments can pay more than one kind of dividend.

[Clément Molin @clement_molin]

The situation of the Novopavlivka-Ivanivka front is currently the most difficult for Russian 🇷🇺 forces

🔹After months of infiltrations, often covered by OPSEC, the Ukrainians 🇺🇦 liberated a bunch of villages and cleared both Ivanivka and Novopavlivka from previous infiltrations. In this area, around 55 km2 of grey zone are most likely under Ukrainian control, as per high FAB strikes number.

🔹The main Russian problem is logistical. All roads leading to the area are exposed and under fire. The only places used for accumulation are Bahatyr (completly destroyed) and Komar (partially destroyed, hit by Ukrainian airstrikes). After these villages, Russian infantry still need to walk on foot, on open roads from 5 to 10 km to reach "frontline" villages and positions before assaults.

🔹Recent videos showed multiple casualties after Russian infantry were sent across the Vovcha (Bahatyr-Ivanivka), Solena (Novopavlivka) and Mokri Yali (Komar) river. Despite these losses, Russian infantry is still tasked to attack the New Donbas Line section between Novopavlivka and Ivanivka (they need to cross 2 rivers and 3 ditches), which is suicidal, knowing they have been attacking here for 10 months !)

🔹Russian "flaggers" continue to be sighted in Iskra, further west, in an attempt from the 90th tank division to show they control the situation to their command. Regularly on Telegram, Russian bloggers complain about the risk of Ukrainian entrance in Komar, since fighting have been happening in Piddubne for weeks. The situation is not very good for the 29th CAA in this sector, but the danger of further explotation is limited due to rivers.

🔹Ukraine deployed 3 air assault brigades (79th, 80th, 95th) in the direction to push back russian forces behind the Mokri Yali river and further reinforce their lines in the sector. This also gives more losses for Russia forces. The main challenge is the large number of airstrikes falling on their positions. If airstrikes decreased in Hulialpole, they slightly increased here recently, including more than 50 in the large yellow perimeter on the map, inside the grey zone between Komar and Ivanivka.

🔹With Novopavlivka under Ukrainian control and Ivanivka secured, the UAF can move south to pressure and trap russians attempting to attack the New Donbas Line fortified section. But it is probably much more interesting to keep the situation as it is currently, since this is an open kill zone for tens or hundreds of Russians every month. For further exploitation, the Komar/Velika Novosilka directions are much more interesting in order to further slow down or postpone Russian offensive momentum in Hulialpole.

For this situation review, I used @AndrewPerpetua base map and @WarUnitObserver observations about unit deployment.

[Natasha Hausdorff @HausdorffMedia]

The global misinformation campaign surrounding Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has reached fever-pitch.

Time for some home truths!

I examine the publicly available evidence, explain Israel's Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law and address what international humanitarian law actually says.

The international NGOs, politicians, celebrities and media broadcasters pushing this false narrative must be held to account!

[Rohoza (Дев'ятий) Mykhailo 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇨🇦 @Oct7NeverForget]

No, “Magyar’s Birds” are not sinking Russian tankers. They are doing something far more dangerous for Russia: crippling them.

The thing is, sinking a tanker is extremely difficult. The survivability of these sea beasts is astonishing. It is far more effective to aim a drone at, say, the bridge—or another vulnerable spot. Ukrainians know every one of them.

As a result, instead of a combat-capable vessel, the Russians are left with a white elephant: the tanker is badly damaged, cannot be used, and must be repaired. But where?

The only two major repair yards are located far away. Towing a damaged tanker through locks is both slow and expensive.

There are no convenient—and, more importantly, safe—repair facilities on the Sea of Azov. Tow it into the Black Sea, and it may be hit again.

So their tankers end up sitting idle as dead weight. They cannot operate, they are useless, yet something still has to be done with them. They might as well be scrapped.

[Marko Matvikov @MarkoMatvikov]

I think Hughesy captures well how a lot of people feel in this country right now - especially in Victoria.

Like many, I wasn’t paying attention politically before - the economy was okay, we seemed fairly cohesive.

For me, it was the deception and incompetence during Covid that made me engaged - and ever since then, it’s been a rolling series of disappointments and frustrations.

The more I look, the more problems I see.

It used to be that being productive was a healthy distraction - but opportunities and incentives have all but dried up.

The next few years can be a turning point for Australia - but it looks like we’re still in the chaos phase.

Tribalism still dominates debates. Ideology is still broadly favoured over pragmatism.

I think there’s much more pain to come before a potential revival - but we can only build this on a unified culture that seems to be fraying more each day.

[David McMahon @David_McMahon75]

If your response to this is “great, people should trade less anyway” then you are missing the point. Portfolio rebalancing is just a part of investing. Selling winners. Taking losses. The CGT changes punish this type of sensible behaviour.

[Geoff Wilson @GeoffWilsonWAM]

Another nasty #CGT surprise from @AlboMP & @JEChalmers Budget: Young Aussies doing the classic overseas stint, London, NYC, wherever now will lose the #CGT discount/indexation on their investments if they relinquish tax residency.
This is straight-up taxing young Australians rite of passage. Punishing ambition and global experience. This insane #CGT must be stopped.
We must Win the War on aspiration and stop the #CGT
Link: https://t.co/n2qQ2cQAqt

[Hidden History @HiddenHistoryYT]

There was a Royal Navy captain in WW2 whose real name was Johnnie Walker.

In 1939 the Navy had given up on him. Passed over for promotion, marked down by his own superiors, quietly being pushed toward early retirement. His career was a dead end.

Then the Atlantic turned into a graveyard. German U-boats were sinking Allied ships faster than they could be built, sailors were drowning in the thousands, and Britain was months from being starved into surrender. Suddenly the Navy remembered the one man who had spent years obsessing over exactly how to kill a submarine.

They finally gave him a ship. He became the deadliest U-boat hunter who has ever lived.

He didn't wait for U-boats to attack. He invented tactics to go get them. His "creeping attack" had one ship silently guide another over the target so the submarine crew couldn't hear death coming until the depth charges were already sinking toward them.

When he charged into battle he blasted "A-Hunting We Will Go" over the loudspeakers. He revived "General Chase," an attack signal so old it hadn't been flown since Nelson's day. And when depth charges weren't enough, he simply drove his ship straight over a surfaced U-boat and rammed it under.

His group once sank 6 U-boats in a single patrol. He helped clear the English Channel so the entire D-Day invasion fleet could cross safely. He was decorated four times, one of the most honored officers in the Royal Navy.

And he carried all of it while broken with grief. In 1943 his own son, a young submariner, was killed when his sub was lost in the Mediterranean. Walker got the news and went straight back to sea to keep hunting.

In the end the war didn't kill him. The work did. Years of standing on that bridge in every storm, refusing to rest, burned him out completely. He collapsed from a stroke and died at 48. The doctors called it exhaustion.

They carried his coffin through the streets of Liverpool while a thousand people stood in silence. Then a warship took him out past the harbor and buried him in the same Atlantic he had spent his life defending.

Uncounted thousands of sailors made it home because of him. His statue still stands on the Liverpool waterfront today, facing the sea, watching for submarines that will never come again.

His name was Johnnie Walker. Don't ever forget it.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Former MI6 chief Alex Younger: Putin is fundamentally invested in adversarial relationship with West.

What's Russia in the end? It's a kleptocracy, headed by Putin, whose only offer to Russian people, from whom they're stealing, is that they'll provide security against a threat.

Now, it follows that for that prospectus to continue, there needs to be a threat.

He needs to be in a state of constant conflict with the West in order to justify his own position.

So I don't think, absent genuine incentives, that Putin changes.

[Daniel @VoteLewko]

@SkyNewsAust In April there was an astonishing data breach of One Nation's confidential policy documents hosted on the parliamentary information system.

It wouldn't surprise me they wouldn't want them floating around.

[Andrew Fox @Mr_Andrew_Fox]

Mehdi, demonstrating once more beyond any doubt that 1) he has no idea what constitutes a genocide, the definition of genocide, or the legal burden of proving genocide, and 2) he will misconstrue anything any Israeli leader says.

[Malcolm Roberts 🇦🇺 @MRobertsQLD]

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Only the ABC could be this idiotic.

Only the ABC could be this dishonest.

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

Meanwhile in Russia’s Stavropol

[Priti Patel MP @pritipatel]

Argentina’s latest comments about the Falkland Islanders are as offensive as they are wrong.

The people of the Falkland Islands are proudly British, and their right to self-determination is absolute. No amount of revisionist rhetoric from Buenos Aires will change that.

Britain will always stand firmly with the Falkland Islanders.

https://t.co/sQhmSRieGM

[Lucy Hunter Blackburn @LucyHunterB]

Amnesty is now in trouble if it destroys any relevant documents.

[Angelica Shalagina🇺🇦 @angelshalagina]

If russia is tired
Of hearing explosions,
There’s a very simple solution -
Leave Ukraine.

[Kadi🇪🇪🌻 @TheFl0orIsLaVa]

I'm sorry you're unhappy with the war you started. Have you tried fcking off?

[Nile Gardiner @NileGardiner]

255 British servicemen gave their lives for the liberation of The Falklands @GaryLineker

Show some respect.

Gary Lineker calls Falkland Islands ‘Malvinas’ on Netflix https://t.co/ntpcXmYIL8

[The Heartlands Tribune @Labourheartland]

We keep saying it, and now the mainstream are allowed to say it too.

Trevor Phillips asked the obvious question: Labour has more than 400 MPs, yet it has had to turn to someone who was not even in Parliament to lead it. Isn’t that damning?

Yes. It is damning.

Damning of a party project that spent years purging dissenters, stitching up selections, blocking troublesome voices, and rewarding nothing but obedience. A project that curated a Parliamentary Labour Party not for statecraft, lobby fodder, trained to nod, brief, and repeat, never to think or lead.

This is what happens when a party stops selecting representatives and starts selecting a clique organised by Labour Together. It fills the benches with people trained to nod, brief, repeat lines, obey the machine and wait for permission.

Then crisis comes. The public refuses the script. The local elections weren't just a defeat, they are a verdict. And the machine, panicking, scans its 400-plus MPs and finds... nobody. No weight. No authority. No public standing. Not one figure with the spine to step forward.

So they wheel out Burnham, kept in reserve for over a year. They had been planning plotting. Not as an instrument of democratic renewal, but as a reserve parachute.

Because the party they built is hollow. Talent was driven out. Rebels were removed. Members were muzzled. The PLP was disciplined into a silence so complete that when leadership was needed, there was no one left to break it.

And now we are asked to applaud this as strength. To celebrate it as change.

It is neither. It is the white flag of a hollowed-out institution, an admission, at last, that the machine ate its own. That the machine is broken...

@PaulKnaggs , The Heartlands Tribune