IMO it really is an act of War but is it from an individual(s) or is it actually state sponsored  ?

Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the sun looking somewhat shocked or perplexed , who can blame it.

The Sun in 193 Ångstroms, a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.
 
The Sun as it appeared on June 4 in the three ultraviolet wavelengths of 171, 193, and 211 Ångstroms. 

Quote:A giant mouth-like hole in the Sun about as wide as five Jupiters is blasting hot Sun breath in Earth's general direction.
It's not an actual hole in the Sun, but what is known as a coronal hole: a region where the Sun's magnetic field opens up, allowing the wind of solar particles constantly blowing from our Sun to escape more readily, sending a gust of material blasting through the Solar System.
If you look at the Sun in optical wavelengths (we  don't recommend doing this without special equipment), you won't notice anything; but, because these regions are cooler and less dense than the surrounding plasma, if you look at them in ultraviolet light, they appear as large, void-like patches of darkness.
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-giant-mou...-surprised

LOL the joke of the week is out!

White House xPress Spox KJP is dumping her Democrat Reg and goin' "Independent" LOL

Don't fall for this BS.

She's involved in the new Democrat strategy to reshape the Historic fail.

This professionally trained (trained but she failed) Democrat PR LIAR is a horrible failure.

Other (D)s giving the illusions of being xDemocrats or at least changing too. Part of some new strategy setup.

NO WAY. If they ever get power back, look out.

Oh and she's also got a book coming out too! How sweet. Bet she didn't write any of it 

Karine Jean-Pierre Announces She’s Leaving the Democratic Party in New Book Promising Look Into ‘Broken White House’

Some news vids have her explaining, and it's so obvious she's a bigger liar and cheater than ever!!

Quote:[b]Karine Jean-Pierre[/b], who served as White House press secretary in the back half of the Biden administration, has left the Democratic Party.

On Wednesday, Jean-Pierre revealed that she is the author of a book — [i]Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines[/i] — set to be released this October.

“Until January 20, I was responsible for speaking on behalf of the President of the United States,” said Jean-Pierre in a statement. “At noon on that day, I became a private citizen who, like all Americans and many of our allies around the world, had to contend with what was to come next for our country. I determined that the danger we face as a country requires freeing ourselves of boxes. We need to be willing to exercise the ability to think creatively and plan strategically.”

Used to enjoy this when I was younger.

Fry up a pan of corned beef hash, top it with two eggs sunny side up, and add a ration of toast generously buttered.  Washed down just fine with cups of black coffee.

Advisory:  I have been unable to locate cans of corned beef hash in the European Union.  Confounded uncivilized nations 

Now, maybe a lot of people know this, but I didn't until my later adult life.

I think we all identify with Lea & Perrin's as being the original "Worchester-ester-shire" sauce.  It was originally invented in 1837, but its history is kind of interesting.

So, the Brits were in search of a flavoring from India called "Garum".  They narrowed this flavor down to fermented fish and other spices cured in a barrel and Lea and Perrin decided to commission a local pharmacist to barrel some of their own.  They took a bunch of dead herring and spices and threw them in a barrel and aged them for what they thought was appropriate (the exact time is unclear, but is thought to be about 45-60 days).  When opened, the barrel had the stench of something unholy and was completely inedible.  The experiment was a complete failure.  With nowhere to dispose of the putrid contents, Lea and Perrin had the pharmacist re-bung the barrel and it was moved out of their way in this warehouse.

Nearly two years later, the floor space in this warehouse was needed for something else, and the caretakers came across this barrel of fermented fish and spices.  By then, the mixture had mellowed into this delightful sauce we now know today as Worcestershire ("Wurshestur-chester,-ester-shire"-or whatever) sauce.  The fermentation time had allowed the spices, liquids and rotting fish to meld into something which was really flavorful.

Lea and Perrin bottled it, and it was an immediate hit, which became the Worcestershire sauce from Lea & Perrin's, in the brown paper bag, which we know today.

Incidentally, the brown bag was to keep sunlight from getting through the brown glass and causing the flavor of the mixture to fade.  (So, don't leave your Lea & Perrin's sans the bag, out on the counter or the table or too long, and always make sure to shake it to get all the good bits up into the mixture and onto your food!!

Just a fun trivia fact.

edit - The brown paper bag was also used to keep the bottles from breaking during shipping.

Looks like the food forum (later Food & DIY forum) has now vanished completely.

Was this intentional?  

I would certainly request its return...(until then, I will post in Gen. Chit Chat).

Case 1
Lucy Connolly is a mother of a young child and wife of a former Conservative councillor, she was imprisoned for 3 years last year after making a post on social media then deleting it a couple of hours later , the post was in relation to the 3 little girls being murdered in Southport.

Case 2
Mazyar Azarbonyad is an Iranian asylum seeker who arrived in 2020 aged 14 and given leave to remain , on 9 April in the early hours of the morning Azarbonyad was driving his high powered BMW for which he had no insurance or licence decided not to stop for police , his dangerous driving led to this carnage and 7 police officers hospitalised , 4 of whom are yet to return to work due to their injuries.

Further to nearly killing 7 police officers Azarbonyad was arrested a few days after the crash while on a garage forecourt filling up his new car with fuel , of course he had no insurance and no licence.



Last week Lucy Connolly lost her appeal against the sentence she was given , today in Court Azarbonyad was given one year and two months in a young offenders' institution which means he'll be out in 6 months , he was also banned from driving for 3 years (even though he had already been caught driving on an interim ban) and NOT Deported.

If anyone can explain to me how this makes sense I'd be glad to hear it because my head is about to explode thinking about the injustice of our beyond belief Woke justice system.

If that was a white British guy .....

Quote:Azarbonyad was arrested at the scene and later released on bail with strict conditions including an interim driving ban.
Days later, officers received information that he was driving a red Hyundai i10 from his County Durham home to work in Newcastle city centre.
He was arrested on a garage forecourt in Stanley on 16 April after being caught filling up the vehicle.
Appearing before magistrates the following day, he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, two counts of failing to stop a motor vehicle when required by a constable, six counts of no insurance use, and six counts of driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.
https://news.sky.com/story/personal-trai...s-13378035

You know, I really wonder what kind of crazy stuff goes though some people's minds.  As many of you know, yesterday some jackwagon in Boulder decided he was going to go on a anti-Israel rampage and light up some people with molotov cocktails and a flame thrower. I'd really like to know what the daily "to-do" list for a a crazy person like this looks like. ...

I mean, this nutjob had a house, a wife and 3 kids.  I wonder if his "to-do" list looked like this?

• Make breakfast for the kids and pack their lunches
  
• Drive the kids to school
  
• Mow the front lawn
  
• Put in a load of laundry
  
• Light some people on fire in the park
  
• Torch some elderly people with a flame thrower
  
• Pick the kids up at school...Change of plans...Go to Jail and get charged with murder and terrorism
  
• Go to soccer practice
  
• Make dinner
  
• Go to bed
  

Sunday morning wake up to all kinds of war chatter.

The special operation "Spiderweb", as a result of which the SBU reportedly hit 41 Russian strategic bombers, was prepared for more than a year and a half. A strategic setback for Russia? A significant part — maybe even the majority of its airworthy strategic bomber fleet (part of the nuclear triad) appears to have been destroyed today involving FPV drones smuggled into Russia via trucks.

SBU claims that today’s strikes destroyed 34% of Russia’s strategic bombers that can carry cruise missiles. And they supposedly have peace talks in Istanbul tomorrow. LOL! If true I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that meeting!

Any op like this would require ISR only the United States could provide, and constant updates all the way up until the decision to launch the operation was made and then additional ISR from the US to assess the outcome. In other words, the US enabled this attack on Russia's strategic bombers while pretending to mediate amid its own proxy war on Russia. There is also evidence the drones used satellite communication to control them remotely, meaning US-based Starlink.

There are many ways to do this, the ground station might have been located where the drones launched, relaying control signals to the drones using traditional signals after receiving commands from the satellite signal.

A signal would go from an operator in Ukraine -> Starlink satellite -> Starlink ground station at launch site -> launch site signal relay -> drone.

Hence the latency that appears in some of the videos I've seen.

This is speculation at this point, it will take time for all details to emerge.

The threat of drones smuggled into Russia to threaten assets far from Ukraine has been a persistent threat for years regardless of the details of specific attacks.

There may also be AI involved, training involving US-provided satellite imagery could have allowed drones to approach the airport, identify aircraft and attack specific parts like the wings automatically. This would have the added benefit of circumventing electronic warfare employed against traditional drone signals.

Quote:Ukraine carried out a massive drone strike at airbases across Russia on Sunday, claiming to have destroyed dozens of aircraft. There are also indications that Russia’s Northern Fleet headquarters, home of Russian nuclear submarines, was attacked as well. Overall, the attack was clearly aimed at Russia’s most prized strategic aerial assets, which cannot be replaced quickly in any manner and doing so at all would be extremely expensive.

“The Security Service of Ukraine is conducting a large-scale special operation to destroy bomber aircraft in the rear of the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff stated on Telegram. “SBU drones have hit more than 40 aircraft, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3, causing damage of over $2 billion.”

The operation, codenamed “Web,” targeted four key Russian airbases: Belaya, Diaghilevo, Olenya and Ivanovo, the Kyiv Post reported.

There was no immediate response from Russian officials.

While The War Zone cannot independently verify these claims, video has emerged showing Russian bombers being struck by drones. We have geolocated the video to show that the attack was on the Olenya base, even though it was widely reported as the Belaya Air Base in Irkutsk.

The Russian air base in Olenegorsk, Murmansk, was also attacked.

Explosions and flames were observed at Russia’s Northern Fleet headquarters in Murmansk. It is home to some of Russia’s most capable submarines, like the Yasen-M class nuclear-powered cruise missile carrying Kazan.

Russian officials denied that the Northern Fleet headquarters was attacked.

“The information about explosions in Severomorsk, which is being spread on social networks, does not correspond to reality,” the head of the city said, according to the Russian Operation Z Telegram channel. “The situation is currently stable. No threats have been recorded. Do not panic and trust only verified sources of information!”

As all of this was taking place, the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said Russia conducted one of its biggest attacks of the war, launching 472 drones and seven ballistic and cruise missiles across the country. Ukraine says it “neutralised” 385 aerial targets.

Broader Context

As we noted in the opening of this story, the fact that Ukraine went after some of Russia’s most prized aerial capabilities, many of which are directly tied to its nuclear deterrent, greatly ups the ante. We don’t know how many strategic aircraft Russia lost today, but it could be a large portion of its long-range cruise missile carrier aircraft. While these aircraft have rained destruction on Ukraine from afar and are legitimate targets, they also underpin a leg of Russia’s nuclear deterrent. This will undoubtedly provoke a unique response from the Kremlin who has warned that widespread attacks against its strategic capabilities would be a red line.

Update: 11:50 AM Eastern –

The Russian Defense Ministry (MoD) commented on the attacks.

“Today, the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack using FPV drones against airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions,” the MoD stated on Telegram. “At military airfields in the Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions, all terrorist attacks were repelled. In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, as a result of the launch of FPV drones from the territory located in the immediate vicinity of airfields, several units of aircraft caught fire.”

The fires “have been extinguished,” the MoD added. “There are no casualties among military personnel or civilians. Some of the participants in the terrorist attacks have been detained.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “personally supervised the operation, and Vasyl Malyuk and the SBU team implemented the plan. 41 Russian strategic aviation aircraft were hit,” Ukrainian journalist Sergey Bratchuk wrote Telegram. “According to sources, this operation was extremely difficult from a logistical point of view. The SBU first transported FPV drones to Russia, and later – mobile wooden houses. Later, in the territory of the Russian Federation, the drones were hidden under the roofs of houses already placed on trucks. At the right moment, the roofs of the houses were remotely opened, and the drones flew to strike Russian bombers.”

Sources in the SBU “emphasize that the people who participated in this historic special operation have been in Ukraine for a long time,” Bratchuk added. “So, if the Putin regime demonstratively detains someone, it will be another staged operation.”

Irkutsk Oblast Governor Igor Kobzev confirmed that drones were launched from a truck.

“At the moment, it is known that this was a drone attack on a military unit in the village of Sredniy,” he stated on Telegram. “The source from which the drones were launched has already been blocked. It’s a truck. The main thing is not to panic. There is no threat to the lives and health of civilians.”

Meanwhile new video emerged of the attack on Olenya.



The large-scale attack comes ahead of a scheduled meeting in Istanbul that is part of ongoing peace talks.

“We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state, and our people,” Zelensky said on X. “I outlined the tasks for the near term and also defined our positions ahead of the meeting in Istanbul on Monday. First – a full and unconditional ceasefire. Second – the release of prisoners. Third – the return of abducted children. And in order to establish a reliable and lasting peace and ensure security, preparation of the meeting at the highest level. The key issues can only be resolved by the leaders. On Monday, our delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov.”


Update: 12:53 PM Eastern –

Ukraine informed the Trump administration about the attacks ahead of time, according to Axios.

The containers with the drones were assembled in Russia, according to Russian milblogger Sergey Kolyasnikov

“We found a warehouse where containers with drones were collected, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk tract 28A,” he wrote on Telegram. “It was rented for 350,000 rubles (about $4,500). That’s why the truck in the Amur region had Chelyabinsk license plates – they were leaving from there.”

The Russian Rybar Telegram channel lauded local residents who tried to stop the launch of the drones from trucks.

“In attacks like today’s, one can often observe the stupid behavior of the native civilian population, when in the fourth year of the SVO they race to film the landings and post them on the Internet, in fact helping the enemy,” Rybar wrote. “Fortunately, there are also examples of the opposite: a video has gone viral on the Internet showing how caring drivers in a parking lot in the Irkutsk region climbed onto a truck from which drones were taking off and tried to destroy them with stones and improvised means. People risked their lives: the drone’s warhead is not the smallest, and what would happen if it detonated is a rhetorical question. But the men still tried to save others, even though they were ordinary civilians.”

“We hope that their merits will be duly noted, fortunately there have already been precedents,” Rybar added. “However, the picture is clear: the failures of some lead to the fact that the last line of defense is ordinary men, forced to break drones with their bare hands.”



Update: 1:20 PM Eastern – [Zelensky going rogue?]

Axios is backtracking on its original story, now saying the attack was a surprise to the Trump administration.

“Ukraine did not notify the Trump administration of the attack in advance, a Ukrainian official said,” the outlet is now reporting. “A U.S. official also told reporters the Trump administration was not made aware of the attack.”

Earlier today, The War Zone reached out to the White House and we will add any pertinent details provided.

Quote:For over a decade I have outlined the exact scenario as we just saw in Russia. It could happen in the U.S. tomorrow. This was a pivotal event. U.S. military and political leadership cannot live in partial denial of this threat anymore. Our most prized aircraft are sitting ducks.

I have focused on this issue above all else in my career. I care deeply about it. The failure of the DoD to foresee what was totally foreseeable, with obsessions with yesterday's threats is such a failure. We need to educate our non military leaders on what this is, a huge issue as well (see New Jersey). So much work to be done. Hardened aircraft shelters is still be debated in the Pacific. We are really in a bad spot here.

The biggest challenge with this issue is education. Many just don't take the time to learn the ins and outs of the UAS threat, there are many layers and nuances, emerging technologies. There are high up people in the military that don't even really understand these basics. Then really terrible assumptions fill the gaps. Our pilots, our troops, our generals, our local officials, need a crash course on all this NOW.

We have produced hundreds of articles on this issue and those surrounding it. Many hundreds, but some critical reading that pulls from a lot of it:

Adversary Drones Are Spying On The U.S. And The Pentagon Acts Like They’re UFOs

Written in 2017 (date stamp is wrong):
America’s Startling Short Range Air Defense Gap And How To Close It Fast

CRITICAL piece from 6 years ago:

The Strike On Saudi Oil Facilities Was Unprecedented And It Underscores Far Greater Issues

This is where we are currently at in terms of homeland defense which is very alarming:

Lasers, Microwaves, Missiles, Guns Not On The Table For Domestic Drone Defense

We have broken every drone incursion over US bases story ever posted but one that I am aware of. For years we reported on this when nobody else would or believed it.

Mysterious Drones Swarmed Langley AFB For Weeks

And our most important naval assets as well:

Drone Swarms That Harassed Navy Ships Off California Demystified In New Documents

A couple bases that are high risk are trying to do what they can:

Protective Nets To Shield F-22s Eyed For Airbase Swarmed By Mystery Drones

Plans For New Hardened Aircraft Shelters Notably Absent From New USAF Base Modernization Strategy


Finally, the most important read of them all because the problem is about to get way, WAY worse:

Drone Warfare’s Terrifying AI-Enabled Next Step Is Imminent

This story is not for everyone as it is about the observations on cultures and the people Herodotus encountered during his amazing 4th century B.C. travels. Kinda surprised he came back alive....
 

Quote:In the 4th century BC, a curious Greek man travelled the entire Ancient World. He wasn’t a warrior… Or a king… He was something even rarer in the ancient world; A storyteller. He travelled for 8 years visiting the world’s most important cities, experiencing countless adventures along the way. His name was Herodotus, and in this video, we’re going to be exploring the stories and writings from his travels in Ancient Greece, The Persian Empire, Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Ethiopia, India, Arabia, Scythia and Libya. His travels began in Ancient Egypt, where he writes about visiting the Pyramids of Giza, and the translated conversations he had with Ancient Egyptian Priests describing the construction of the magnificent ancient wonder. After his travels, Herodotus composed all of his writings into one extraordinary book: ‘the Histories’, one of mankind’s greatest literary achievements - not lost to translation or time. Presenting it to the Athenian Assembly, its greatness was immediately recognized. For his efforts, Herodotus was awarded 250 kilograms of gold. But long before he’d be known as the father of history, Herodotus was just a curious young boy, born in the Greek city of Halicarnassus.