A News Aggregator That Covers The World's Major Wars And Conflicts. Military, Political, And Intelligence News Are Also Covered. Occasionally We Will Have Our Own Opinions Or Observations To Make.
* Police snatched the phones out of people's hands as they tried to photograph the ambulance in city of Beed
* It is seen sagging under the weight of 22 corpses piled on top of each other before heading to crematorium
* Another 386,452 infections and 3,498 deaths were recorded on Friday - but medics have warned the true figures could be up to ten times higher - meaning there are 3 million infections and 30,000 deaths every day
* The country of 1.4 billion is in the eye of the world's Covid storm, with funeral pyres burning around the clock in Delhi and Mumbai and hospitals under armed guard to protect oxygen supplies
* Despite emergency gear arriving from Britain and the United States, including a USAF cargo jet with 400 oxygen cylinders on Friday, there remains an acute shortage of oxygen, medicines and beds across India
* Black market is flourishing to profit from desperation of those seeking oxygen and anti-virals for loved ones
India's spiraling coronavirus crisis was today laid bare as images circulated on social media of the bodies of 22 coronavirus stuffed into an overloaded ambulance to be taken to the crematorium.
Another 386,452 infections and 3,498 deaths were officially recorded on Friday - but medics have warned the true figures could be ten times greater, putting daily infections at 3 million.
At that rate the country could see more than 30,000 deaths from coronavirus a day within a few weeks, but the country's poor record keeping means the true toll may never be known.
An ambulance overburdened with Covid victims in Maharashtra state is the latest grim evidence of the carnage unfolding throughout the country of 1.4 billion as the virus rips through the population.
Countries in South Asia are watching out for a potentially more infectious coronavirus variant crossing the border from India. COVID-19 case numbers are currently rising in several countries.
As India's second coronavirus wave surges across the country, neighbors such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan are also reporting a recent increase in new cases.
This has prompted authorities in these countries to close borders and restrict travel.
However, some of these borders are porous, with many people crossing back and forth every day.
Scientists are examining whether a new "double mutant" coronavirus variant is driving India's current outbreak.
From YouTube: Set in London in the early 1970s, it tells the story of former secret agent Robert Elliot who is being promoted to a government advisor. To eliminate any ties to his past, Elliot devises and carries out a clever plan in which his four former associates will unwittingly kill each other on the same night.
The harrowing scenes from India have shocked the world, as the country struggles with soaring cases of Covid.
But the outbreak isn't just a crisis for India - it's a crisis for everyone.
"The virus doesn't respect borders, or nationalities, or age, or sex or religion," says Dr Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization's chief scientist.
"And what's playing out in India now unfortunately has been played out in other countries."
* The US government is finally set to enforce travel restrictions from India but the ban, which only applies to non-US citizens, won't come into effect until Tuesday
* It comes days after the State Department issued a Level 4 travel advisory, which is the highest alert of its kind, urging all Americans to leave India if they can because of the current COVID-19 outbreak there
* Until now, there was no word on whether the US government would issue any travel restrictions despite there still being bans in place on the UK, South Africa , Brazil and a number of European countries
* India is currently experiencing a catastrophic second wave that is, in part, fueled by a deadly Indian variant known as B.1.617
* The Indian variant has already been detected in the US with reports of cases in California and Tennessee
* President Biden added South Africa to the restricted list in January after a COVID-19 variant started spreading there rapidly was detected in the US
* Following the travel advisory, passengers were spotted arriving on direct flights from India in New York, Washington DC and Chicago
* Passengers told of how the majority of their flights were full and how they struggled to even get tickets
* Meanwhile, the TSA announced on Friday that it was extending mask wearing on planes and in airports through September this year
The US government is finally set to enforce travel restrictions from India where medics say 30,000 people are dying every single day, bodies are piling up in the streets and three different types of its homegrown variant are ravaging the country.
The ban, which only applies to non-US citizens, won't come into effect until next Tuesday.
The announcement comes two days after the State Department issued a Level 4 travel advisory, which is the highest alert of its kind, urging all Americans to leave India if they can because of the current COVID-19 outbreak there.
The Liaoning aircraft carrier is accompanied by frigates and submarines on April 12, 2018, conducting exercises in the South China Sea. (Li Gang/Xinhua)
China's defense ministry on Thursday accused the U.S. of increasing military action specifically targeting Beijing, including surveillance activity and other movements through Chinese-claimed airspace and waters.
The Associated Press reported that a spokesperson for China's defense forces accused the Biden administration of ramping up aerial activities in Chinese-claimed airspace by 40 percent, while naval activity had increased by 20 percent in Chinese-claimed waters.
NAIROBI (Reuters) -The raging state of the COVID-19 pandemic is India is a wake-up call for Africa that its governments and citizens must not let their guards down, the African Union's disease control agency warned on Thursday.
African nations generally do not have sufficient numbers of health care workers, hospital beds, oxygen supplies, and the continent of 1.3 billion would be even more overwhelmed than India if cases surged in a similar way, said John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We are watching with total disbelief...What is happening in India cannot be ignored by our continent," he told reporters.
At least 31 people have been killed, scores injured and 10,000 evacuated after a water dispute led to some of the worst clashes in years on a disputed Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border.
Clashes started on Wednesday when people from both sides hurled stones at each other after surveillance cameras were installed at a water facility.
A truce and troop pull-back were agreed but some shooting appeared to continue.
The casualty figures were from the Kyrgyz side with Tajik numbers unclear.
Kyrgyzstan's health minister Aliza Soltonbekova said in a televised briefing that 31 people had been killed and more than 150 wounded since the violence began on Thursday.
* Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid pointed the finger at Russia over unidentified flying objects spotted by US warships
* The UFOs were seen in images and footage leaked from a Pentagon investigation
* Reid has called on for a permanent UFO program to be established following the sightings
A former senator has blamed UFOs filmed buzzing US warships on Vladimir Putin, saying there was 'no question' that Russia was involved.
Former Senate majority leader Harry Reid called for the US to establish a UFO program, after the Pentagon confirmed evidence of unidentified flying objects over Navy warships off of California in 2019.
In an interview with Mysterywire.com, Reid, who has pushed before for a UFO program, discussed the potential origin of the mysterious flying objects, which the interviewer suggested may be Chinese.
PRESIDENT Joe Biden was heckled by protesters before suffering a brief coughing fit during a drive-in rally in Georgia on Thursday.
Biden was joined by newly elected Sens Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff at the rally, which he attended after paying a visit to former President Jimmy Carter.
Protesters at the rally briefly interrupted Biden's speech, which was given to mark his 100th day in office, to demand that the president "abolish ICE."
Biden briefly engaged with the protesters who were calling for the dismantling of both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and private detention centers.
Protesters chanted, "end detentions now" and "communities not cages," according to ABC.
WNU Editor: What a train-wreck of a rally. Its like watching a Monty Python skit. What was also uncomfortable to watch were his eyes. They were almost closed throughout his speech. My gut tells me that he is not going to finish his term. Time to get ready for President Harris.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said he has not ruled out requiring U.S. service members to get a COVID-19 vaccine, according to an NBC interview broadcast on Friday.
"I'm not saying I won't," Biden said when asked if he would require the men and women in the U.S. armed services to get vaccinated.
"I think you're going to see more and more of them getting it. And I think it's going to be a tough call as to whether or not they should be required to get it in the military, because you're in such close proximity with other military personnel," Biden said in the interview, conducted on Thursday.
WNU Editor: If US military personnel are ordered to take the vaccine, I can easily see such orders spreading to other government organizations. Case in point. A huge percentage of US health workers do not want to get vaccinated, should they also be ordered to get the vaccination .... Should health-care workers be required to get coronavirus shots? Companies grapple with mandates (Washington Post).
More News On President Biden Saying He Will Not Rule Out Ordering The U.S. Military To Get Vaccinated
President Joe Biden, center, speaks to a joint session of Congress on April 28 at the U.S. Capitol as Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (watch. (Doug Mills/via AP Pool)
Removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan won’t endanger national security but will demonstrate “American leadership” by halting the cycle of endless armed conflict, President Joe Biden argued in his address to Congress on Wednesday night.
In his first formal speech to lawmakers since becoming president nearly 100 days ago, Biden focused largely on his domestic spending and economic plans, including measures to raise the national minimum wage, make college classes more affordable and expand job training programs.
But the commander in chief also devoted a sizable section of the national address to his recent decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, nearly 20 years after fighting began there.
Kabul — In his first address before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening, President Biden underlined his plan to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan after nearly 20 years — America's longest war.
The final pullout begins in May, and with the Taliban expected to ramp up violence, CBS News' Charlie D'Agata met some of the U.S.-trained Afghan forces who will soon face the insurgents on their own, ready or not.
The Taliban has been gaining ground in Afghanistan for months. Traveling by road in the country has never been more dangerous, so D'Agata and his crew were flown by helicopter to a military base where Afghan soldiers have been training and putting on a show of force.
The elite Afghan troops have been staging military exercises, with weapons and training provided by their U.S. military allies.
Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint near the a US military base in Bagram, some 50 kilometers north of Kabul, on April 29, 2021.
A new quarterly U.S. report has documented a staggering 82% increase in “insider attacks” on Afghan government security forces in the first quarter of 2021, resulting in 115 personnel killed and 39 wounded.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reported Thursday to the U.S. Congress that overall Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) casualties also were substantially higher than during the same period last year.
SIGAR is not allowed to include full ANDSF casualty data because U.S. forces in Afghanistan keep it classified at the request of the Afghan government.
Given the Taliban’s incessant rise, debating America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan is increasingly irrelevant and harmful.
When the Trump administration announced in 2020 that it would begin a full withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, many were quick to conclude that after almost two decades the United States was, in effect, conceding defeat in its longest war, capitulating to an insurgent group. A number of indicators certainly pointed in that direction. Signing the agreement with the Taliban served not only as a sober admission that, despite years of fighting, the Taliban remained undefeated. More importantly, as the United States bound the Afghan government to negotiate with the group, Washington effectively acknowledged that, in one way or another, the insurgent group was non-excludable from shaping the country’s future. To realize that the path towards stability leads through sharing power with an enemy may be an enlightened thing to do, but the human and financial costs of the twenty-year campaign hardly make it a cause for celebration in either Washington or Kabul.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), speaks during a defense hearing on Capitol Hill on March 25. She is criticizing President Biden's plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in September.
Andrew Harnik/Pool/Abaca Press/TNS
Lawmakers in charge of the money say they'll cut it off if the group rolls back progress on human rights in Afghanistan
Senior Senate authorizers and appropriators on Tuesday warned that they would oppose continued foreign aid to Afghanistan if the Taliban retake control and roll back human rights advances in the country.
Following President Joe Biden’s announcement earlier this month that all American troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, lawmakers are grappling with what that will mean not only for U.S. counterterrorism operations but also for the future status of Afghan women and minorities as well as the billions of dollars in annual foreign assistance that taxpayers provide to the country.
WASHINGTON - Troops and equipment are leaving Afghanistan, days ahead of the official start of the U.S. withdrawal, the White House said Thursday, marking the beginning of the end of America’s longest war.
“A drawdown is under way,” White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One, as President Joe Biden headed to Georgia Thursday for a rally.
“It will be deliberate and conducted in a safe and responsible manner that ensures the protection of our forces,” she said. “Potential adversaries, should they attack us, our withdrawal, we will defend ourselves, our partners, with all the tools at our disposal.”
Also Thursday, a NATO official confirmed to VOA that some of the 7,000 troops sent to Afghanistan as part of the multinational Operation Resolute Support had also left the country.
* Al Qaeda has been in retreat since Osama Bin Laden's assassination in May, 2011
* Operatives claim the group is preparing to make a comeback and strike the US
* Joe Biden has pledged to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by September
Al Qaeda has vowed to 'wage war on all fronts' against the US unless they retreat from the entire Islamic world.
Speaking ahead of the tenth anniversary since Osama Bin Laden's death, two operatives said the terrorist network is planning a comeback as President Joe Biden prepares to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by September 11.
The Islamist group, now headed by the Egyptian jihadist Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been seen as a diminishing force by the West since Bin Laden's assassination by US special forces on May 1, 2011, with the focus since turning to ISIS.
India has registered a record daily rise in coronavirus cases and the death toll in Brazil has hit 400,000. Germany, meanwhile, has detected its first cases of the Indian variant.
DW has the latest.
Worldwide COVID-19 cases have exceeded 150 million, with the US, India and Brazil reporting the highest number of infections, according to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University.
The US on Friday reported a total of 32,288,689 cases with 575,193 deaths, India logged 18,376,524 cases with 204,832 deaths, and Brazil reported 14,590,678 infections with 401,186 deaths.
India's jump in coronavirus cases has prompted the army to open up its hospitals due to a nationwide shortage of beds, medicines and oxygen.
India has set another global record with 386,452 daily coronavirus cases. The Health Ministry also reported 3,498 deaths in the last day, bringing the confirmed total to 208,330. Globally, India's deaths rank fourth behind the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. https://t.co/YSr5LSeo8k
India on Friday posted another global record for daily coronavirus infections, pushing worldwide cases past 150 million as a pandemic that has killed almost 3.2 million worldwide continues to wreak devastationhttps://t.co/rQGd09Yvgl
Virus Update: • India's COVID-19 human crisis spirals with record new cases; • As virus engulfs India, diaspora watches with despair; • Brazil backs away from the virus brink, but remains at risk. https://t.co/rfgs036UIo
Thousands of ethnic Karen villagers in Myanmar are poised to cross into Thailand if, as expected, fighting intensifies between the Myanmar army and Karen insurgents, joining those who have already escaped the turmoil that followed the Feb. 1 coup https://t.co/dTSFtFVHxOpic.twitter.com/FmToknAMnh
Were the semiconductor industry grind to halt in Taiwan, so too would the global electronics industry. The costs would be incalculable https://t.co/Fa8TBVQqrz
Sixty women began training in January, but seven dropped out because of injury. The remaining 53 went on to become Marines. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks during a joint news conference with Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard following their talks in Moscow, Russia, on April 28, 2021. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)
Russia's top diplomat voiced the hope people in the West were aware of how precarious this situation was
MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Relations between Moscow and the West are worse than in the Cold War era, because before there were certain communication channels between the parties concerned and no obsession with Russophobia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the BBC in an interview. An extract from the interview was published on Monday.
The Taliban are strong and well-armed. The elected government is weak, corruption is rife, and government security forces are struggling. What could go wrong?
President’s Joe Biden’s decision to bring all U.S. troops home from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 has provoked enormous controversy across the political spectrum.
Opinion divides between those outraged by what they see as a potentially disastrous “cut and run” decision and those who insist that keeping troops there would just prolong an unwinnable war that has already consumed 20 years and many lives.
Critics and supporters are about equally divided, and each side can make a good case, so let’s peel back the arguments to see what’s underneath.
More than 65 injured, many in critical condition as ambulances, helicopters evacuate victims from largest gathering held in Israel since COVID outbreak; IDF sends rescue team
At least 40 people were crushed to death and more than 65 people hurt, including many in critical condition, in a stampede after midnight Thursday at a mass gathering to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday at Mount Meron, medics said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident “a terrible disaster.”
The military’s top uniformed officer said April 28 it’s difficult to predict what will play out in Afghanistan as Afghan forces prepare to take sole responsibility for the country’s security following the U.S. withdrawal.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion that there’ll be an automatic fall of Kabul, so to speak,” said Gen. Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a virtual McCain Institute event. “I think that we, the United States, are going to continue to support diplomatic efforts to come to a negotiated outcome between the insurgents and the regime, and that would be best for the people of Afghanistan and best for our region.
