Tues - The USS Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Is Sinking

Don't Do the Crimea If You Can't Do the Timea

On Tuesday, there were reports of at least two large explosions in occupied Crimea, well beyond the range of Ukrainian artillery or of any HIMARS ammunition known to be in Ukrainian hands. This time the primary target appears to have been a stockpile of ammunition and equipment near a railway, and if that description makes it seem less significant than previous strikes on warehouses and buildings, videos of the site indicate otherwise. Russia appears to have a lot—a lot—of materiel, from ammunition to vehicles, sitting right beside the tracks at a site near of the city of Dzhankoi.


A second explosion appears to have taken out an electrical substation in the same area. The railway leading south into Crimea is electrified, so taking out this electrical station may have been targeted at preventing trains from moving in a large section of Crimea.

The distance of these explosions from the nearest area of Ukrainian control, like a previous strike in Crimea, generated immediate speculation on just how Ukraine accomplished this blow. Russian-related sources initially attributed the explosion to a drone attack. Others immediately jumped to the conclusion that Ukraine is in possession of longer-range HIMARS rockets. At roughly 200 kilometers from the nearest areas under solid control by Ukraine, this new explosion is twice as far inside Russian territory as a previous explosion which devastated a Russian air base at Novofedorivka last week. This would still be in the range of the ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System), which can be fired from HIMARS, but despite widespread speculation, there is still no evidence that Ukraine has been sent any of these missiles.

If this was a drone strike this far into Russian territory, the major signal it sends is simple: Russian air defenses are ****ed. Good luck to Vladimir Putin in his recently announced initiative to sell more Russian weapons systems if this is the level of protection they provide.

Russia’s Defence Ministry has blamed saboteurs for explosions at a military warehouse in northern Crimea that forced the evacuation of more than 3,000 people, Russian state media has reported.

The explosions on Tuesday rocked an ammunition storage facility near the village of Mayskoye and disrupted train services and power supplies although nobody was seriously injured in the blasts, the ministry said.

India Forgives Rape and Murder

Eleven men serving life imprisonment for gang rape and murders during the 2002 Gujarat riots have been freed, Indian media reports said.

The 11 convicts in what came to be known as the Bilkis Bano case were freed on Monday from jail in Gujarat’s Godhra town after the state government approved their application for remission of sentence, said the reports.

In one of the most horrific episodes of large-scale anti-Muslim violence, Bilkis Bano was gang raped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha was among 14 people killed by a Hindu crowd on March 3, 2002, in Limkheda area of Dahod district in Gujarat.

Saleha was killed by smashing her head on the ground, the court said in its ruling. Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant at the time. She survived by playing dead during the carnage and then lost consciousness.

The 11 men convicted were from Bano’s neighbourhood, she later told the prosecutors.

Afghanistan, One Year After

The future looks bleak for the vast majority of Afghans.

At least 43% of the population is living on less than one meal a day and 97% of Afghans are expected to be living below the poverty line by the end of this year. Some families have resorted to selling their organs to eat and others have sold their own children in order to survive.

Does This Make It DogPox?

A dog in France has tested positive for the monkeypox virus, the first suspected case of human-to-pet transmission, according to a medical journal.

The Lancet published a study this month after the dog, a 4-year-old Italian greyhound, was infected after living with two men in France that were diagnosed with the disease.

The dog had no previous medical disorders but presented with lesions and pustules on its abdomen 12 days after the men. The pair said they had kept the dog away from other people and animals, but that it had slept in their bed with them.

DNA testing showed the lineage of monkeypox between one of the men and the dog matched.

Is Weisselberg the Tip of the Iceberg?

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg is expected to plead guilty to criminal charges tied to his indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in an investigation of former President Donald Trump's businesses, according to two people familiar with the matter and a public court filing.

Weisselberg is expected to be sentenced to 5 months in jail as part of that plea which could come as soon as Thursday morning, the two sources said.

Other terms of the plea were not immediately disclosed, but the sources said that Weisselberg is expected to cooperate against the Trump Organization itself. There is no indication he will cooperate in any investigation into the former president, however.