New York Times report: Attack on Iranian military facility was carried out by a drone

 

The explosion that occurred this week at a structure in the Parchin military technology complex in Iran was hit by a drone, The New York Times reported on Friday.

Three Iranians with knowledge of the attack and a US official told the newspaper that the drone strike targeted a highly sensitive military site.

The strike on Wednesday evening hit the site of the Parchin military complex, located about 37 miles southeast of the capital, with quadcopter suicide drones, according to the Iranian sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The drones exploded into a building used by the Ministry of Defense for research on drone development, killing a young engineer who worked at the ministry and injuring another person, they said.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, The New York Times said that the attack fit a pattern of past strikes on Iran and Lebanon attributed to Israel.

Israeli officials refused to comment. A US official confirmed that suicide drones had attacked Parchin but did not say who was behind it or offer any further details.

The drone attack was launched from inside Iran, not far from the Parchin military base, according to the Iranian sources with knowledge of the attack. Quadcopter drones have a short flight range, and Parchin is a long way from Iran’s borders.

A statement by Iran’s Ministry of Defense on Thursday used the word “incident” instead of “accident” to describe what happened at Parchin and called the engineer who died a “martyr,” a clear indication that his death was viewed as a result of an enemy action. The statement said one of the research units of the Defense Ministry in the Parchin area was hit.

In June 2020, an explosion occurred at the Parchin military site, but it was not clear what caused it.

In 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that some countries were suspicious that Iran had experimented with developing nuclear weapons at Parchin.

Satellite footage from 2012 showed that Iran was carrying out clean-up activity at Parchin, where it was suspected Iran may have conducted high explosive compression related to the development of nuclear weapons.

Iran initially refused to allow IAEA inspectors access to Parchin, but IAEA inspectors eventually gained access to the site in 2015.

Thousands mark 55 years since Jerusalem's reunification, praying and singing 'Sisu et Yerushalayim.'

 

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Jerusalem municipality, Jerusalem and Heritage Ministry, and Authority for the Development of Jerusalem on Saturday evening held holiday prayers in honor of Jerusalem Day, marking 55 years since Israel retook in the Six Day War the areas of Jerusalem which were in Jordanian hands.

A crowd of approximately 10,000 joined the prayers and songs at the Western Wall.

The evening prayer was attended by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites; as well as by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion; the leaders of Israel's youth organizations; and approximately 4,000 youth who are members of those organizations in Jerusalem and who arrived by foot on Saturday afternoon.

Artists Ishay Lapidot, Yitzchak Meir, and Haim Israel accompanied the prayers with songs and joy.

At the start of the event, a large Israeli flag measuring about 1,000 square meters was spread over the youth in the Western Wall plaza.

Speaking at the event, Rabbi Rabinowitz said, "The secret of the eternal chain of generations is that they passed the dream to us, from generation to generation; they preserved for us the dream to return to Jerusalem. Thanks to them, you are here, and you are here, and I am here. This evening I want to say thank you - in my name and in yours - to all of the generations which came before us, which dreamed of Jerusalem, which wrote about Jerusalem, which swore to return to Jerusalem from Ethiopia, from Hungary, from Yemen, and from Spain - despite the fact that they never saw it. Thanks to them, we have come home. Thanks to them, we are praying here this evening, and thanks to them - with G-d's help, we will merit to see the coming of our righteous Moshiach (Messiah) and the rebuilding of our Holy Temple, speedily in our days, amen."

Lion said: "Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, is happy and proud to host these amazing youth in our beloved city. From here, the holiest place to the Jewish nation, we send prayers of unity, cooperation, and brotherhood to the entire People of Israel, wherever they are, and to the entire Jewish nation. This is a great merit, to be standing here together with you on the holiday of our beloved capital. I call on all of Israel to come to Jerusalem and enjoy the amazing variety that our city has to offer."

Zera Shimshon Parshas Bamidbar

 

Not enough Violence ..Winnie the Pooh, Piglet go on bloody ‘rampage’ in twisted horror movie

 

This isn’t the Winnie the Pooh you grew up with.

In an interview with Variety, director Rhys Waterfield teased new details about a new, twisted take on the beloved character in the upcoming horror film “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.”

“No one is going to mistake this [for Disney],” Waterfield said. “When you see the cover for this and you see the trailers and the stills and all that, there’s no way anyone is going to think this is a child’s version of it.”

The formerly lovable yellow bear and his sidekick, Piglet, will now be the “main villains … going on a rampage” after Christopher Robin leaves them behind for a college education.

“Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral,” Waterfield continued. “So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: They’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.”

A few of the stills Waterfield mentioned dropped on Thursday, including a shot of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet creeping up behind a bikini-clad woman in a hot tub.

“She’s having a good time and then Pooh and Piglet appear behind her, chloroform her, take her out of the jacuzzi and then kind of drive a car over her head,” Waterfield said.

Swiss billionaire behind Dem ‘dark money’ donations despite not being US citizen

 A Swiss octogenarian billionaire has donated tens of millions of dollars to Democratic politicians and progressive causes in “dark money” contributions — and Hansjörg Wyss is likely funneling millions more to influence midterm elections in November, sources say.

One Virginia-based think tank estimates that, since 2016, nonprofits linked to Wyss have funneled more than $253 million to Democratic candidates and related causes, such as voter registration initiatives that benefit the party and efforts to impeach former President Donald Trump, through a dizzying array of related nonprofits.

“The foreign dark money revolving door is at it again, this time with their eyes set on the midterms,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of the conservative Americans for Public Trust. “Wyss has already funneled hundreds of millions through his nonprofits to liberal groups that influence our elections, and now those very same groups are poised to engage in every policy and political fight all the way until November.”

Sutherland said the total amount allegedly funneled by Wyss’ nonprofits to Democratic advocacy groups is likely “much, much higher,” but estimates are difficult to track as cash is often transferred through nonprofits that have more than a year’s lag time to publicly report their donations to the IRS.

Wyss, 86, is not a US citizen or permanent resident, and cannot directly or even indirectly make contributions to federal political candidates, according to a 2021 complaint to the Federal Election Commission filed by Americans for Public Trust. The group is suing the FEC in district court in Washington, DC, alleging that the federal agency has been slow to act on its 2021 complaint against Wyss.

Worth more than $5 billion, Wyss resides in the US under an E-2 investor visa, according to court papers.

LA Times columnist shocked Texas school shooter wasn't a "White Supremacist" but a "Latino"

 

A Los Angeles Times columnist wrote that he initially believed that the gunman who killed 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Texas was a “white supremacist” and that he grew despondent upon learning that the alleged shooter was Latino.

Gustavo Arellano, who frequently covers the Spanish-speaking immigrant community in Southern California, wrote a column in the Times on Wednesday titled, “A Latino-on-Latino mass shooting. What now?”

“When I heard that a gunman had killed multiple schoolchildren in a predominantly Latino town in Texas, I immediately thought: white supremacist,” wrote Arellano, the son of Mexican immigrants.

“How could I not?”

Arellano wrote that his “stomach dropped” when he learned that the suspect in the Uvalde shooting “was named Salvador Rolando Ramos.”

“We live in an America where millions view us as the enemy simply for being Latinos,” Arellano wrote. He cited other mass shootings before lamenting that “a Latino had never been the killer in any of … the 10 worst mass shootings — until Ramos.”

Arellano also mentioned in his column the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where a “white man radicalized by neo-Nazi literature drove hundreds of miles” to a Walmart “with the explicit mission to kill Latinos.”

He wrote: “Twenty-three people died in that massacre, and multiple essays and columns tied the tragedy not just to our current era of racism and violence but to the Lone Star State’s long, shameful history of lynching Latinos.”

Arellano also mentioned the mass shooting in Buffalo just days earlier, when a man from Broome County, New York, allegedly killed 10 black grocery shoppers.

The suspected Buffalo gunman, Payton S. Gendron, was reportedly motivated by so-called “replacement theory” — the conspiracy theory which states that whites are being “replaced” in the US by immigrants and minorities.

Arellano noted that in the case of Ramos, “some saw his Hispanic name and invoked illegal immigration despite law enforcement officials quickly stating that Ramos was born in North Dakota.”

Arellano concluded the column by writing: “The tragedy in Uvalde disproves what white supremacists say about Latinos and other minorities. We’re not unassimilable; we all become part of the United States.”

“What Ramos did — stemming from a pathology found almost nowhere else on Earth — is as American as apple pie.”

No more millions: Julia Haart loses bid to prove she co-owns ex’s company ... Netflix Show "UnOrthodox" May be in Jeopardy

 

Julia Haart has lost her bid to prove that she owns half of her estranged husband Silvio Scaglia’s multimillion-dollar fashion company.

The star of the Netflix reality show “My Unorthodox Life” argued that Scaglia had made her co-owner of Elite World Group — and therefore her firing as company CEO in February was not binding.

But Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn of the Delaware Court of Chancery wrote Thursday in court documents seen by Page Six that a judgment will be entered in Scaglia’s favor.

Zurn ruled in favor of all four counts relating to ownership, adding, “Each of Haart’s claims is predicated on her assertion that she owns fifty percent of all classes of Freedom [the parent company] stock.

Anti-semite "Baldy" Messes with Chassidishe Guy & Driver of "Golden Taste" Gives Him a Sample of his "Dips"

 A young Jewish man was assaulted at approximately 6:30 AM in Williamsburg this morning.

The incident occured in the area of Park Ave and Spencer Street in Williamsburg.

Security footage shows a young man crossing the street, when a bald male approached him from the opposite direction. Immediately the man started assaulting the young man.

But before he knew what hit him, a Jewish man driving a Golden Taste truck jumped out into the street, and quickly sent him face first onto the concrete.

The thug quickly retreated.

Biden Administration Purposely Endangered Israel by Leaking that Israel killed senior Iranian operative

 

“This kind of publicity endangers Israel,” said the country’s defense officials.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel is reportedly demanding that the Biden administration explain an intelligence leak to The New York Times Wednesday regarding the assassination Sunday of a top Iranian terrorist operative.

Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei was reportedly shot five times in his car outside his home in Tehran by men on two motorcycles who then fled the scene and have yet to be caught.

While the mullahs immediately blamed “the hand of global arrogance” – code for Israel and the United States – Jerusalem remained mum, as it has for other sudden deaths of senior Iranian officials such as scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program.

An unnamed intelligence official told the Times that Israeli officials had informed the administration that they were behind the targeted killing of Khodaei. Arutz 7 identified the official as being involved in a secretive communications channel between the allies dedicated to operations in Iran.

The purpose of the hit, the intelligence official said, was to send a message to the Iranians that it must halt the activities of Unit 840 in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.

While the IRGC said that Khodaei was involved in Syrian operations, some media reports have tagged him as second in command of the unit. The IDF says Unit 840 is in charge of planning and carrying out kidnappings and assassinations of Israelis and other foreigners outside of Iran.

According to an Iran International TV report based on European security sources, the senior Quds Force commander was behind a series of bombings in February 2012 aimed at Israeli diplomats in the capitals of Thailand, Georgia and India. He was also reportedly involved in unsuccessful plots to attack Israelis in several Central Asian countries and Africa.

Speaking diplomatically to the Hebrew press, Israeli defense officials said, “Professional authorities were updated as part of a working relationship regarding the assassination of the senior Iranian official.”

While the Times report had not mentioned the nationality of its source, the officials said point-blank, “The Americans are behind the article” in the paper.

This is “a serious and worrying process and it should not happen,” they continued. “This kind of publicity endangers Israel, it must not happen. Similar messages have been passed on to the Americans.”

The immediate concern is that while Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has already promised to retaliate for Khodaei’s murder, having American confirmation of the perpetrators – or at least those who sent them to do the job – could only increase Tehran’s desire to repay Israel for its loss.

Rabbi Moshe Yazdi from the "36 Holy Tzaddikim" Arrested and Charged With Rape

 A community rabbi from Jerusalem was indicted on Thursday for repeated sexual crimes against newly religious women.

Rabbi Moshe Yazdi is suspected of raping, sexually assaulting and sodomizing the women while fraudulently obtaining their “consent” [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-04-27/ty-article/.premium/jerusalem-rabbi-arrested-for-rape-told-women-it-was-a-spiritual-act/00000180-7eec-df8d-a1c4-feeeec0c0000; https://groups.google.com/g/child-protect-18/c/f57pJ4fxd_4/m/wcdFUt8KAwAJ] by telling them these were religious acts and therefore they had to submit to his demands. He is also suspected of exploiting them financially.

So far, 10 women from his community have filed complaints against him. Police found that he presented himself to them as one of the 36 righteous people who, according to Jewish tradition, ensure the world’s continued existence at any given moment. He then told them the sexual acts were a form of spiritual rectification. Some of the crimes were committed against brides on their wedding day, police said.

At a court hearing on Tuesday, a police officer said the evidence revealed “a man who controlled his victims highhandedly and with an iron fist, separating them from their families and even demanding that they separate from their spouses.”

Yazdi provided various justifications for having sex with them, including by saying “the sexual acts were meant to save Jewish lives and even prevent terror attacks,” the officer said. “It’s impossible to call his actions and character anything but pure evil.”

The crimes continued for years, police said, with some committed more than 10 years ago and the most recent a year and a half ago.

Yazdi’s attorney, David Halevi, said the police were “demonizing” his client. He noted that the statute of limitations on some of the alleged crimes has already expired and accused the complainants of being motivated by “financial interests.”

Nevertheless, Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Amir Shaked refused to release Yazdi on bail, ordering him held for another three days.

The first police complaint against Yazdi was filed in 2007. Three years earlier, evidence of his sexual behavior had reached a rabbinical court, which responded by barring him from meeting with, advising or teaching women. Nevertheless, the crimes continued, according to police.

In 2016, Yazdi was convicted of misdemeanor charges under a plea bargain for trying to flee the country despite an order by the bailiff’s office barring him from leaving. He did this by buying a ticket from a student who went through passport control for him and then gave the rabbi the slip showing that passport control had approved his exit. He was given a suspended sentence and a fine.