Andrew Tate And Brother Arrested in Romania on UK Rape Warrant
Online influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been arrested in Romania on a UK-issued warrant over “sexual aggression” allegations.
Social media personality Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were detained on Monday for 24 hours on allegations of sexual aggression in a UK case dating back to 2012-2015, his PR team has said.
Tate gained millions of fans by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle. He was indicted in June in Romania along with his brother and two Romanian women for alleged human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group to sexually exploit women. They have denied the charges. The court is reportedly set to decide on their extradition to the UK.
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France & Estonia State Agencies Hit by ‘Intense’ Cyberattacks
On Monday the government of France said several of its agencies were hit by ‘intense’ cyberattacks. “Many ministerial services were targeted” from Sunday “using familiar technical means but of unprecedented intensity,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s office said.
The PM’s staff announced that a “crisis cell has been activated to deploy countermeasures”, meaning “the impact of these attacks has been reduced for most services and access to state websites restored.” The statement didn’t directly accuse Russia, but officials have implied it. It comes after Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu last month said that protection against “sabotage and cyberattack” by Russia should be a top priority.
While little in the way of specific details were initially given as to the targets of Monday’s intrusions, the attacks come days after newly appointed French Minister Delegate for Europe Jean-Noël Barrot charged that Russia is ramping up its cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns targeting Europe.
“We’ve been seeing over the past few months aggressivity towards European countries through cyberattacks, through disinformation, misinformation campaigns,” Barrot said of the Kremlin in a Friday interview with state-run France24.
“And this suggests that we need in Europe to display unity and strength and send this signal to Vladimir Putin that we will support Ukraine whatever it takes, and that we will stand alongside the Ukrainian resistance,” Barrot continued. He said this soon after French President Emmanuel Macron floated the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine, which has unleashed immense controversy even within NATO alliance countries.
This past weekend saw one of the largest cyber attacks ever launched against the Baltic state of Estonia, which has also been an outspoken supporter of Ukraine.
Regional media pointed to pro-Kremlin hackers for a devastating DDoS attack:
Over the weekend, the websites of numerous Estonian government institutions were targeted by the largest wave of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks in the country’s history. The attacks, claimed by pro-Kremlin hackers, were reported by the Postimees newspaper on Monday.
“Thanks to the quick actions taken, the impact of the attack on the functioning of institutions was not significant,” the newspaper emphasized.
Dozens of public sector websites were reportedly targeted Saturday and Sunday, including sites for the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), the tax and customs board, and the Ministry of Justice.
Just days ago…
? BREAKING: MICROSOFT HACKED BY RUSSIA
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 8, 2024
Russian state-backed hackers reportedly breached Microsoft’s core software systems, accessing source code repositories and internal systems.
Source: CNN pic.twitter.com/kkgstHAHU9
“Pro-Kremlin hacker groups have been primarily claiming responsibility for the attacks, as was the case last weekend,” said the Estonian agency. Ukraine itself has also long been directly subject of Russian cyber warfare, however, NATO countries have assisted Kiev and have been largely successful in defending the country’s information systems.
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Israel Making Preparations to Launch Invasion of Southern Lebanon
Israel has continued signaling that it is preparing to launch a major new operation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon following months of tit-for-tat escalation. Some 80,000 Israeli residents whose homes are near the border have remained evacuated since October and November, and are essentially internally displaced. Because of this, pressure has mounted on Israeli leaders to do something that would allow their return, and ensure the security of Israel’s north.
Israeli media, particularly YNet News reported on Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is preparing “contingency plans” for a wide-scale attack on Lebanon. Israeli Army Northern Command head Major General Ori Gordin in a meeting with settler leaders from northern Israel stated, “We are preparing contingency plans to launch an attack in Lebanon. Our commitment, mine, is to change the security situation so that the residents can be returned home.”
YNet further unveiled plans to initiate the army’s “Operation Steady Anchor” which aims to protect civilians during the expected escalation in fighting. Hezbollah is widely estimated to possess over 150,000 rockets – some of which can likely reach Haifa and Tel Aviv.
The operation involves setting up dozens of mass shelters utilizing fortified abandoned buildings and underground parking garages. This is to protect civilians in the instance of a mass Hezbollah rocket barrage. The shelters will be equipped to allow families to take refuge anywhere from a few hours to up to several days.
In another key sign of Tel Aviv’s war preparations, the IDF has been conducing a logistics supply drill focused on its northern bases and positions, and in preparation for a Lebanon offensive This has included practice runs delivering ammo, equipment, water, and fuel to simulated “maneuvering forces” operating in southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Army Chief Herzi Halevi has reportedly ordered Brig. Gen. Chico Tamir, the former deputy commander of the northern corps, to draw up “several possible plans for a ground operation in Lebanon.”
Veteran Middle East war correspondent Elijah Magnier reports Monday from the Lebanese side that “Hezbollah (and allies) is training and preparing for a possible war with Israel above and below ground.”
Attacks by Hezbollah have continued to be daily, also amid Israeli return fire. On Sunday a major Israeli airstrike hit a home in south Lebanon’s Khirbet Selm, killing a family of five, including three Hezbollah members.
Last month, an op-ed in Foreign Policy predicted that a broader Israel-Hezbollah war is inevitable. “It is likely that there is going to be a war between Hezbollah and Israel within the next six to eight months,” wrote Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
⚡ Hezbollah’s missiles above Kiryat Shmona. pic.twitter.com/fqOEG7oWrP
— War Watch (@WarWatchs) March 11, 2024
Cook said, “Still, it is not hard to imagine a moment at which the Iranians loosen the reins on their primary proxy. As Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made clear in an early January speech remembering the life and work of Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani—the IRGC Quds Force commander who the United States killed in a drone strike in early 2020—the Iranians have put significant time, energy, and resources into the development of so-called axis of resistance.”
A bigger war in Lebanon would very likely also spill over into Syria and Iraq as well, where US occupying forces have already come under frequent drone and rocket attack, though these instances have been less frequently in the last few weeks.
58% Of Americans Believe Biden Not Respected By World Leaders – Survey
The majority of Americans do not believe that President Joe Biden is held in high esteem by other world leaders, a survey by global analytics and advisory firm Gallup revealed on Monday.
According to the findings, an overwhelming 58% of Americans say Biden is not respected by his peers, while only 37% believe he is. In comparison, in February 2021, shortly after Biden’s inauguration, 58% of respondents in a similar poll said they thought Biden is respected.
Interestingly, Biden’s current ‘respect’ rating, while the lowest in his career, in fact equals the highest performance of his predecessor in the White House and rival in this year’s presidential election, Donald Trump.
According to the agency, the results are on par with Biden’s most recent job approval ratings. A poll in February showed that 38% of Americans were satisfied with Biden’s performance, the lowest rating for any of the last seven presidents at the end of their first term, while 59% were not satisfied.
The latest Gallup poll was conducted through phone interviews with 1,016 US adults.
Biden’s approval ratings have been lagging for months amid widespread concerns over his age and mental state. A former White House physician and 83 US House Republicans even suggested last month that the incumbent president should take a cognitive test to prove his fitness for office. However, Biden’s latest medical exam – which did not include a cognitive test – found him healthy and fully “fit for duty.”
READ MORE: Biden a ‘rare kind of idiot’ – Medvedev
Biden is 81 years old, the oldest president in US history, and has been known to make confusing and embarrassing public remarks, some of which have gone viral and have been widely mocked on social media. One of his latest gaffes happened during an interview with MSNBC this past Saturday, when he said that Washington made a mistake by going into Ukraine, when in fact he was referring to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Zelensky Says ‘Build The Wall’: Ukraine Erecting 2,000km of Fortifications on Front Lines
Ukraine’s President Zelensky has more or less indicated he’s ready to build the wall—to borrow the old Trump phrase…
He announced on Telegram Monday that he has ordered the construction of some 2,000 kilometers of fortifications in order to solidify the front lines with Russian forces. He touted the good “pace of construction of new defense lines.”
He reviewed the status of the fortification in a meeting with military commanders and ministers following approval of a “record amount” of funds allocated for the fortification efforts, at between $500 and $800 million.
According to Ukrainian media reports, “In the fall of 2023, the authorities received criticism for slow progress on fortifying defensive lines. A working group was established in November to coordinate fortification efforts.”
Zelensky is busying trying to paint an optimistic picture of how his forces are fairing on the battlefield, after months of Western media reports that the Ukrainians have steadily lost ground, especially after abandoning Avdiivka in the east to the better-armed and more numerous Russian army.
The Wall Street Journal has detailed that “West of Avdiivka, excavators more common to a construction site than a battlefield are carving up the earth to create antitank ditches and trenches. The Ukrainians are attempting to replicate the physical obstacles that Russia created on its side of the front more than a year ago, with deadly effectiveness in stymying Ukraine’s offensive last summer.”
Zelensky has been urging private donors to fund the ambitious undertaking: “On all the main fronts, we need to dig in, speed up the pace of construction,” he has underscored. “The priority is obvious.”
It became evident starting last summer that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had failed, but now it’s becoming more clear by the day that Kiev forces are being steadily pushed back. The WSJ acknowledged this in an investigative report days ago…
“But Western officials and Ukrainian soldiers say that the campaign hasn’t yielded significant results, and the absence of progress is proving a liability for Ukraine as Russia steps up its assaults,” WSJ wrote. “In recent days it has pushed Ukrainian forces out of a string of villages west of Avdiivka, although hills and bodies of water a little further west can serve as natural obstacles for Kyiv that are easier to defend.”
With not enough troops to hold and advance positions, front line areas resemble large construction sites…
“Dig, dig, dig”: Ukraine enters new phase of war – trench warfare – WSJ
— Slava ?? (@Heroiam_Slava) March 7, 2024
With Ukrainian troops trained for combat missions forced to dig trenches in anticipation of a major Russian offensive this spring, the frontline now looks more like a construction site than a battlefield.… pic.twitter.com/cSpWtMaUSx
So this means the half-billion dollar plus “wall” or military fortifications could prove too little, too late in terms of preparing the battlefield space. Ukraine is bracing for another major Russian ground assault at some point this spring.
On the Russian side, the Kremlin’s aim has been to solidify gains, particularly over the four annexed territories in the east, while sending sporadic major air assaults in retaliation for Ukrainian cross-border attacks on Russian cities and energy infrastructure. These operations have stepped up particularly in Crimea and the Black Sea, where Russia has reportedly lost a couple of small warships.
Pilots Fell Asleep Mid-Flight With 157 People Onboard – Report
Both pilots of a domestic Indonesian flight from Kendari to the capital Jakarta on January 25 were asleep for almost half an hour during the two-hour and 35-minute-long flight, a preliminary investigation has found.
The plane veered off its designated course during the 28 minutes that both the pilot and co-pilot were asleep, according to the report.
The country’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) probe into the Batik Air flight, which carried 157 people, acknowledged that the plane eventually landed safely at its destination.
The KNKT report did not identify the pilots, only describing the captain as a 32-year-old and second-in-command as a 28-year-old. Both are Indonesian citizens and both had reportedly passed health checks and tested negative for alcohol.
However, according to media reports, the co-pilot had notified the captain earlier in the day that he had not had “proper rest.” The KNKT report highlighted that the man had one-month-old twins and had moved residences the day before the flight and was thus struggling with a lack of sleep.
According to the report, about 30 minutes after takeoff the captain asked his co-pilot for permission to rest and woke up just under an hour later. He then asked whether his cockpit mate wanted to sleep himself but after receiving no for an answer went back to sleep while the latter remained in control of the aircraft.
Meanwhile, the co-pilot later “inadvertently fell asleep” after making contact with Jakarta’s air traffic control center. According to the report, air traffic control repeatedly tried to contact the cockpit but received no response for 28 minutes until the captain woke up and realized that the aircraft “was not on the correct flight path.”
READ MORE: US aviation safety agency hiring people with ‘severe intellectual disability’
The pilot put the flight back on track, and the plane went on to safely land in Jakarta. No one was injured and there was no damage to the aircraft.
According to the news agency AFP, Indonesia’s civil aviation director, Maria Kristi Endah Murni, said the Transportation Ministry “strongly reprimands” Batik Air over the incident and that the two pilots have been placed on leave according to standard operating procedure pending a further investigation.
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