The post Explosions in Crimea: Russians report attack and block Kerch bridge – MSN first appeared on JOSSICA – The Journal of the Open Source Strategic Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis.
Day: June 25, 2024
The fact that the Houthis have been allowed to attack civilian ships for months and block international maritime trade through one of the main maritime choke points on the planet is nothing but outrageous
Unless something is done, the West will look weak pic.twitter.com/pcZYXspiLx
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 25, 2024
The post @visegrad24: The fact that the Houthis have been allowed to attack civilian ships for months and block international maritime trade through one of the main maritime choke points on the planet is nothing but outrageous Unless something is done, the West will look weak first appeared on JOSSICA – The Journal of the Open Source Strategic Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis.
British activist @TRobinsonNewEra has been arrested in Canada by eight undercover and uniformed officers on an immigration charge.pic.twitter.com/rECUTlLIzn
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 25, 2024
The post @visegrad24: British activist @TRobinsonNewEra has been arrested in Canada by eight undercover and uniformed officers on an immigration charge. first appeared on JOSSICA – The Journal of the Open Source Strategic Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis.
BREAKING:
The EU is starting EU accession negotiations with Ukraine today
10 years have passed since the Euromaidan pic.twitter.com/h9cRVdZhTy
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 25, 2024
The post @visegrad24: BREAKING: The EU is starting EU accession negotiations with Ukraine today 10 years have passed since the Euromaidan first appeared on JOSSICA – The Journal of the Open Source Strategic Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis.
Russia-Ukraine war live: Kremlin reacts to Ukraine peace plan reportedly presented to Donald Trump The Guardian
The post Russia-Ukraine war live: Kremlin reacts to Ukraine peace plan reportedly presented to Donald Trump – The Guardian first appeared on JOSSICA – The Journal of the Open Source Strategic Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis.
Yangon, Myanmar — A Myanmar ethnic armed group has seized the country’s most popular beach resort town, with junta troops holed up in a nearby airport, military and local sources told AFP on Tuesday.
Clashes have rocked western Rakhine state since the Arakan Army attacked the military there in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the 2021 military coup.
For days, fighting has raged around Ngapali beach in the south of the state, where upmarket resorts dot the pristine, palm-fringed sands of the Indian Ocean.
The town of Thandwe, a few kilometers from the beach and home to the local airport, was largely deserted as of Monday, a resident who fled that day told AFP.
“Almost everyone in the town has fled… Very few people are now in Thandwe,” said the resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons.
“A rocket shell landed in the town yesterday. We also heard continuous heavy artillery shelling.”
A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP security forces had retreated to the airport and were in control of the site.
A local hotel owner who was no longer in the town told AFP his staff said the military had carried out airstrikes near the airport on Monday.
His employees told him there were “some army and police trapped inside the airport building.”
AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment and has contacted an Arakan Army spokesman.
Thandwe airport has been closed since early this month as Arakan Army fighters launched attacks in the area.
Analysts say many of the hotels and resorts at Ngapali are owned by businessmen close to the junta or are part of the military’s sprawling business empire that includes gems, tourism, tobacco and real estate.
Since launching its offensive in November, the Arakan Army has seized territory along the border with India and Bangladesh, piling further pressure on the junta as it battles opponents elsewhere across the Southeast Asian country.
State capital Sittwe is one of the few holdouts for junta troops in Rakhine state.
The Arakan Army, which says it is fighting for autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population, has vowed to capture the city, home to an India-backed deep sea port and around 200,000 people.
In a win for public health, a unique bill will close the loophole and end the selling of illegal vapes, as the tobacco industry looks on
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A bill before the Australia Senate this week finally closes major loopholes in vaping regulations. Once passed it will put an end to convenience retailers, petrol stations, tobacconists and vapes shops openly selling illegal, lolly-flavoured vapes to young people. Come 1 July, no vapes – regardless of their design or contents – will be permitted for general retail sale in Australia. This is a win for public health, for parents, for teachers and for young people.
Over the last few years vaping rates among young Australians have skyrocketed. Claims by the vape and tobacco industry that vapes are for adult smokers who need them to quit smoking have proved increasingly hollow as child-friendly flavoured products, sold in vape shops near schools, have multiplied across the country.
The now famous Channel 4 lesbian kiss became a symbol of LGBTQ+ progress that resonates to this day
As my Brookside co-star Anna Friel and I prepared to film our on-screen kiss 30 years ago, I could never have anticipated the cultural significance this simple act would have.
It was 1994, when section 28 was in full force, prohibiting the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools, when Channel 4 aired the now famous lesbian kiss between my character, Margaret Clemence, and Friel’s, Beth Jordache, on the popular soap opera; the first time a kiss between two women had aired pre-watershed. It would for ever change the British media landscape and society’s perception of LGBTQ+ relationships.
Nicola Stephenson is a TV, film and theatre actor
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Russia reports downing 30 Ukrainian drones
UNITED NATIONS — The United States and its key European allies clashed with Iran and Russia over Tehran’s expanding nuclear program, with the U.S. vowing “to use all means necessary to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran” in a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday.
The U.S., France, Britain and Germany accused Iran of escalating its nuclear activities far beyond limits it agreed to in a 2015 deal aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, and of failing to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran and Russia accused the U.S. and its allies of continuing to apply economic sanctions that were supposed to be lifted under the deal and insisted that Tehran’s nuclear program remains under constant oversight by the IAEA.
The clashes came at a semi-annual meeting on implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran and six major countries — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Under the accord, Tehran agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for the peaceful use of nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018. Trump said he would negotiate a stronger deal, but that didn’t happen.
The council meeting followed an IAEA report in late May that Iran has more than 142 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade level of 90%. The IAEA said this was an increase of over 20 kilograms from February.
The IAEA also reported on June 13 that its inspectors verified that Iran has started up new cascades of advanced centrifuges more quickly enrich uranium and planned to install more.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council that the IAEA reports “show that Iran is determined to expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible civilian purpose.”
Wood said the U.S. is prepared to use all means to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, but said it remains “fully committed to resolving international concerns surrounding Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy.”
The three Western countries that remain in the JCPOA — France, Germany and the United Kingdom — issued a joint statement after the council meeting also leaving the door open for diplomatic efforts “that ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.”
They said Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium is now 30 times the JCPOA limit and stressed that Iran committed not to install or operate any centrifuges for enrichment under the JCPOA.
Their joint statement also noted that “Iranian officials have issued statements about its capacity to assemble a nuclear weapon.”
Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani blamed “the unilateral and unlawful U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA” and the failure of the three European parties to the deal “to honor their commitments,” saying it is “crystal clear” they are responsible for the current non-functioning of the agreement.
In the face of U.S. and European sanctions, he said, Iran has the right to halt its commitments under the JCPOA.
Iravani reiterated Iran’s rejection of nuclear weapons, and insisted its nuclear activities including enrichment are “for peaceful purposes” and are subject to “robust verification and monitoring” by the IAEA.
The Iranian ambassador strongly endorsed the JCPOA, calling it a hard-won diplomatic achievement “that effectively averted an undue crisis.”
“It remains the best option, has no alternative, and its revival is indeed in the interest of all of its participants,” he said. “Our remedial measures are reversible if all sanctions are lifted fully and verifiably.”
But France, Germany and the UK said some of Iran’s nuclear advances are irreversible.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said U.S. promises “to abandon the policy of maximum pressure on Tehran and to return to the nuclear deal remained empty words.”
He accused some other JCPOA parties, which he didn’t name, of “doing everything possible to continuously rock the boat, jettisoning opportunities for the implementation of the nuclear deal.”
Nebenzia urged the European parties to the agreement and the United States to return to the negotiating table in Vienna and “demonstrate their commitment to the objective of restoration of the nuclear deal.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the coordinator of the JCPOA, said the compromise text he put forward two years ago for the U.S. to return to the JCPOA and for Iran to resume full implementation of the agreement remains on the table.
