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Zelensky Says Ukraine Received More Patriot Systems

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev had received additional Patriot missile defense systems from Germany. 

“Today, we can already say there is a good result for our air defense – Ukraine now has more Patriots. I would like to thank Chancellor Merz, I thank Germany, and everyone who helps,” Zelensky said on Sunday. “More Patriots are now in Ukraine and being put into operation.”

Ukraine has relied on its Western backers for Patriot systems, which are in high demand from Washington’s partners across the globe. While the Patriot is Ukraine’s most effective air defense system, the Financial Times reported last month that the American system is failing to intercept Russian missiles at an increasing pace.  

“Ukraine’s ballistic missile interception rate improved over the summer, reaching 37% in August, but it plummeted to 6% in September, despite fewer launches,” the outlet explained. “The Patriot interceptors are the only ones in Kiev’s arsenal capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles. Moscow’s cruise missiles can be taken down with less sophisticated air defences, but the updates have made it harder to do so,” officials speaking with FT said. 

Russian ballistic missiles are far cheaper to produce than the Patriot interceptors. 

After thanking his backers for sending Ukraine the advanced air defense systems, Zelensky asked for more. “Of course, more systems are needed to protect key infrastructure sites and our cities across the entire territory of our state.” He continued, “And we will continue working to obtain them – not only at the political level with states and leaders but also directly with manufacturers of all necessary air defense systems and missiles for them.”

NATO officials continue to claim that the bloc will provide Ukraine with all it needs to fight. However, Last month, the US Ambassador to NATO said that the alliance would only provide Kiev with $12-$15 billion in military assistance, far short of the $60 billion Zelensky says Ukraine will need. 

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Israeli Troops Advance Into Southwest Syria, Infiltrate Multiple Villages

Israeli troops have been launching operations in southwestern Syria on a fairly regular basis of late, and on Monday they carried out multiple incursions into both the Quneitra and Daraa Governorates, entering multiple villages therein.

Israeli tanks and vehicles raided the village of al-Mushayrifa and searched several homes. They went on to the village of Umm Batna and surrounded a house. It is unclear what they were doing, and the IDF has not commented.

Israeli armored vehicles operating out of the village of al-Hurriya moved against the village of Ofaniyah, also in Quneitra. There were no reports of any incidents in this operation, though again the IDF did not comment.

Further south, Israeli forces advanced into the Yarmouk Basin, in Daraa Governorate. The forces briefly entered the village of Ma’araba, though reportedly they withdrew back to the occupied Golan Heights shortly thereafter and seemingly didn’t do anything while there.

A lot of the Israeli operations of late have involved creating checkpoints along major roads, searching locals that try to pass by before packing up and leaving the area. There are sometimes detentions, though seemingly most of the detained are released shortly thereafter and their detentions are for no apparent reason.

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Scientists Use Novel Materials That Mimic Wormholes and Multiple Realities to “Transcend the Limitations of Physical Dimensions”

In Erwin Schrödinger’s most famous thought experiment, a cat is seemingly able to be alive and dead simultaneously, as it exists in superposition within a closed box alongside a radioactive atom, a detector, a hammer, and a vial of poison.

Now, reaching into similar mind-bending territory that blurs the lines between practical science and science fiction, researchers in China report in a new study that they have successfully used nonlocal artificial materials to create what they call “photonic parallel spaces,” emulating the effects of wormholes, and even multiple realities.

At the heart of the new research are optical systems, in which a single material is able to perform the role of two distinct optical devices at the same time—not unlike the bizarre “superposition” of Schrödinger’s cat—whereby light is able to display multiple properties at once.

The experiments, detailed in a new paper in Nature Communications, allowed the researchers to produce invisible pathways and other optical effects that could pave the way toward the creation of a range of new technological applications in the coming years.

Photonic Parallel Spaces

“The concepts of the multiverse and wormholes in dimensions beyond our physical space have long captivated curiosity and imagination,” the authors of the new paper write. However, demonstrating such ideas in an experimental setting has long been challenging.

To overcome such hurdles, the research team relied on special artificial materials that allowed them to develop what they characterize as a “photonic analogy” of parallel spaces, which they describe as conditions where “two distinct effective optical media coexist within a single artificial material,” each of which is accessible using different boundaries in the respective material.

The team’s method, which was complemented with machine learning for their study, successfully helped them to create analogies for what they call “photonic wormholes,” which function as invisible optical tunnels, as well as “photonic multiple realities” where the independent function of two different optical devices occurred within a single location. The effect, the researchers describe, produced optical scatterers that functioned “as if they exist in separate dimensions.”

“Higher-Dimensional Phenomena” in the Lab

When light enters one boundary in the artificial materials used by the team, it experiences an entirely different set of optical effects compared with light entering from another boundary. Surprisingly, each of these optical experiences can occur without any interference between them.

The researchers liken this effect to C.S. Lewis’s classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where different “doors” could lead to entirely separate worlds located in a single place.

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Internet Archive’s legal fights are over, but its founder mourns what was lost

Last month, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine archived its trillionth webpage, and the nonprofit invited its more than 1,200 library partners and 800,000 daily users to join a celebration of the moment. To honor “three decades of safeguarding the world’s online heritage,” the city of San Francisco declared October 22 to be “Internet Archive Day.” The Archive was also recently designated a federal depository library by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who proclaimed the organization a “perfect fit” to expand “access to federal government publications amid an increasingly digital landscape.”

The Internet Archive might sound like a thriving organization, but it only recently emerged from years of bruising copyright battles that threatened to bankrupt the beloved library project. In the end, the fight led to more than 500,000 books being removed from the Archive’s “Open Library.”

“We survived,” Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle told Ars. “But it wiped out the Library.”

An Internet Archive spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the archive currently faces no major lawsuits and no active threats to its collections. Kahle thinks “the world became stupider” when the Open Library was gutted—but he’s moving forward with new ideas.

History of the Internet Archive

Kahle has been striving since 1996 to transform the Internet Archive into a digital Library of Alexandria—but “with a better fire protection plan,” joked Kyle Courtney, a copyright lawyer and librarian who leads the nonprofit eBook Study Group, which helps states update laws to protect libraries.

When the Wayback Machine was born in 2001 as a way to take snapshots of the web, Kahle told The New York Times that building free archives was “worth it.” He was also excited that the Wayback Machine had drawn renewed media attention to libraries.

At the time, law professor Lawrence Lessig predicted that the Internet Archive would face copyright battles, but he also believed that the Wayback Machine would change the way the public understood copyright fights.

”We finally have a clear and tangible example of what’s at stake,” Lessig told the Times. He insisted that Kahle was “defining the public domain” online, which would allow Internet users to see ”how easy and important” the Wayback Machine “would be in keeping us sane and honest about where we’ve been and where we’re going.”

Kahle suggested that IA’s legal battles weren’t with creators or publishers so much as with large media companies that he thinks aren’t “satisfied with the restriction you get from copyright.”

“They want that and more,” Kahle said, pointing to e-book licenses that expire as proof that libraries increasingly aren’t allowed to own their collections. He also suspects that such companies wanted the Wayback Machine dead—but the Wayback Machine has survived and proved itself to be a unique and useful resource.

The Internet Archive also began archiving—and then lending—e-books. For a decade, the Archive had loaned out individual e-books to one user at a time without triggering any lawsuits. That changed when IA decided to temporarily lift the cap on loans from its Open Library project to create a “National Emergency Library” as libraries across the world shut down during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project eventually grew to 1.4 million titles.

But lifting the lending restrictions also brought more scrutiny from copyright holders, who eventually sued the Archive. Litigation went on for years. In 2024, IA lost its final appeal in a lawsuit brought by book publishers over the Archive’s Open Library project, which used a novel e-book lending model to bypass publishers’ licensing fees and checkout limitations. Damages could have topped $400 million, but publishers ultimately announced a “confidential agreement on a monetary payment” that did not bankrupt the Archive.

Litigation has continued, though. More recently, the Archive settled another suit over its Great 78 Project after music publishers sought damages of up to $700 million. A settlement in that case, reached last month, was similarly confidential. In both cases, IA’s experts challenged publishers’ estimates of their losses as massively inflated.

For Internet Archive fans, a group that includes longtime Internet users, researchers, students, historians, lawyers, and the US government, the end of the lawsuits brought a sigh of relief. The Archive can continue—but it can’t run one of its major programs in the same way.

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FBI Uses Secret Threat Category for Israeli Criminals Operating in U.S.

The FBI’s growing list of domestic threats has mutated in recent years to include every conceivable affiliation of Americans across the political spectrum: right-wing violent extremists, left-wing violent extremists, black identity extremists, and animal rights extremists. The current administration has even added nihilistic violent extremists—those who “believe in nothing”—to the laundry list. The Biden administration, for its part, aided in this exercise by vastly overstating the threat posed by Trump-aligned conservatives in the wake of January 6th. But neither Democratic nor Republican administrations have ever grandstanded about another significant threat group that the FBI secretly monitors on U.S. soil: Israeli Based Organized Crime Syndicates, or “IBOCS”. 

Leaked FBI records and court filings detail widespread money laundering, taxpayer theft, and drug smuggling enterprises operated in the U.S. by Israeli citizens connected or belonging to Israeli crime groups. Despite the trickle of prosecutions over the past 25 years, the FBI has never publicly disclosed the fact that it has designated resources allocated to investigating these criminal organizations. 

A 2020 FBI intelligence report from the “Blue Leaks” hack conducted by the hacker group Anonymous and archived by the nonprofit DDoSecrets describes IBOCS operating in Nevada and Florida embezzling money from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). IBOCS “have defrauded US Government relief programs and manipulated tax documents since at least 2015 to reduce tax liability and conceal money laundering activities, as well as have access to companies and agents, which are necessary to process PPP loan applications,” the report found. 

The report also lists instances of IBOCS committing both disaster relief and tax fraud, and notes that IBOCS are involved in money laundering, extortion, illegal gambling, fraud, and narcotics trafficking in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York, according to FBI investigations.

As far back as 2009, leaked State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks detail one of the reasons why criminals belonging to or associated with Israeli crime families and syndicates have been able to operate inside America with ease: The State Department is not authorized to block their visas. The cables warn of the Israeli mafia taking on a growing role in the American trade of ecstasy, and of the loophole which prevents U.S. embassies from automatically denying Israeli crime figures travel documents. 

While the State Department has formalized powers in its foreign affairs manual to restrict visas for Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, the Italian mafia, the Hells Angels biker gangs, Outlaws, Bandidos, Mongols and two dozen Latin American gangs including Tren de Aragua, Israeli organized crime groups remain absent more than a decade after the State Department cable first warned of the Israeli mafia loophole. 

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Report: US Preparing Mexico Mission Against Cartels That Would Include Troops and Drone Strikes

The Trump administration has begun developing detailed plans to send US troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target cartels in operations that would include drone strikes, NBC News reported on Monday, citing current and former US officials.

The report said that US military personnel have already begun training for the potential mission, though a deployment is not imminent. Many of the troops would come from Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and would operate under the authority of US intelligence agencies, with involvement from CIA officers.

Unlike the current US bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in the waters of Latin America, which the Trump administration is conducting without legal authority, the idea of the campaign in Mexico would be to keep it secret and not publicize attacks.

The NBC report said the administration wanted to operate in coordination with the Mexican government but was also considering conducting the campaign without Mexico’s approval, which would mark a significant violation of the country’s sovereignty. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has increased law enforcement cooperation with the US and has allowed the CIA to ramp up surveillance flights along the border, but she has repeatedly ruled out US military intervention in her country.

“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” Sheinbaum said in August. “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”

The Mexican leader has also condemned US strikes on boats in the region, saying she “doesn’t agree” with the policy. The US recently bombed several alleged drug vessels in the Eastern Pacific, and in one case, the Mexican Navy had to rescue a survivor.

The Trump administration has not provided any evidence to back up its claims that the boats it has been targeting were carrying drugs and has admitted to Congress that it doesn’t know the identities of the people it has killed. Since the bombing campaign began on September 2, the US military has extra-judicially executed 64 people at sea.

The strikes on boats and the push toward regime change in Venezuela have come under increasing scrutiny from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress due to the lack of transparency and lack of legal authority.

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UK Supplies Ukraine With More Storm Shadow Missiles for Strikes Inside Russia

The UK has supplied Ukraine with more Storm Shadow missiles, which are air-launched and have a range of 155 miles, for strikes inside Russian territory, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

The report came about two weeks after the Ukrainian military claimed an attack on a Russian chemical plant using Storm Shadows, which signaled the US was again backing Ukrainian missile strikes on Russian territory since the British-made missiles require US targeting data to be fired.

Ukraine first began firing Storm Shadow missiles into Russia last year, which coincided with the Biden administration giving it the green light to use US-provided ATACMS missiles in strikes on Russian territory. At the time, Russia responded by altering its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, making it clear that the US-backed missile strikes risk a major escalation from Moscow.

It’s unclear how many Storm Shadows or ATACMS Ukraine currently has, and the Bloomberg report didn’t specify how many Storm Shadows the UK has recently supplied. The US has also been backing long-range Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory, according to a report from the Financial Times.

The news about the Storm Shadow supply comes as President Trump has once again said that he doesn’t plan on providing Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, at least for now. Sending Tomahawks would mark a huge escalation of the proxy war since they have a range of over 1,000 miles and are nuclear-capable.

CNN reported on Friday that the Pentagon gave the White House the green light to send Tomahawks to Ukraine if it chooses to, because it determined doing so wouldn’t negatively impact the US military’s stockpiles.

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Under Trump, US Will Not Send High-Level Delegation to UN’s ‘Climate Hoax’ Conference Cop30 in Brazil

No more indulging in climate fairy tales to funnel money to Globalists/leftists.

Once Donald J. Trump achieved his historic return to the US Presidency, everyone knew he was going to break the backbone of the main Globalist Hoaxes in place, from ‘open borders lunacy’ and unchecked migration to criminal gender propaganda for children – going through all the other narratives, including the ‘Net-Zero’ Obsession of the Climate-Hoax proponents.

And Trump’s combat of these demented ideas is not limited to destroying these legislations and regulations – he is also prompting his European ‘allies’ to the same, and is also deflating the international accords and conferences.

You can read our reports in TGP on NO MORE CLIMATE HOAX: Trump Ramps Up Pressure on the EU Against Its ‘Corporation Greenhouse Gas Pollution’ Regulation, and Bullet Dodged: Attempt by United Nations to Force Massive Climate Tax Down the Throats of Americans Goes Down in Flames Thanks to President Trump.

So, now, no one is surprised as it arises that Trump will not send top officials to Cop30 Conference in Brazil.

The Telegraph reported:

“Donald Trump will not send any top officials to the Cop30 climate talks in Brazil this month as he goes all-in on fossil fuels.

The US president, who withdrew from the Paris climate agreement for a second time upon his return to the White House, called climate change a ‘hoax’ and a ‘con job’ at a speech to the UN General Assembly in September.”

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Government Shutdown Could Delay Home Heating Aid for Millions of Low-Income Families

A critical federal home heating assistance program that provides billions in relief to low-income families every year is at risk with the government shutdown now in its fifth week.

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) provides $4.1 billion in funds to 5.9 million households to help heat and cool their homes, for energy crises and home weatherization, and minor energy-related repairs. Now that temperatures are dropping across the country, some states are cautioning that the funds for the program are being delayed by the shutdown.

This comes as low-income Americans are also grappling with the sudden postponement of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamp program, which provides  food to 41 million Americans every year.

SNAP funds might start rolling out as soon as Nov. 5 after judges last week ordered the Trump administration to tap into emergency contingency funds the government said was illegal to access for this purpose.

The administration had said it couldn’t use the emergency funds for food stamp benefits during a shutdown after removing a Sept. 30 memo from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website that stated the opposite, that “these multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”

While the Trump administration said on Sunday it will not appeal the ruling on SNAP, that doesn’t address the funding shortfall for LIHEAP.

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Giffords: Increase in Defensive Gun Uses ‘Must Be Stopped’

When I covered the WSJ’s hit piece on Stand Your Ground laws on Wednesday, I wondered if the reporters had any behind-the-scenes help from gun control activists. 

It’s not proof of anything, but since the story appeared online only one gun control group has promoted the story on X or Bluesk

The premise of the WSJ story is that Stand Your Ground laws have led to a 59% increase in the number of justifiable homicides in some states between 2019 and 2024, and that the law is allowing some folks to literally get away with murder. 

As we discussed yesterday, though, none of the anecdotal cases cited by WSJ in support of that premise are slam dunk examples of murders that were deemed justified as a result of SYG laws. The data set used by the paper is also suspect, since it did not include the significant number of states where Stand Your Ground exists in common law but not specifically in statute. 

There are only 11 states that impose a general duty to retreat before acting in self-defense. The vast majority of states don’t require you to present your back as a target to your attacker while you try to run away; instead, they allow you to act in self-defense so long as you have a reasonable belief of imminent death or great bodily harm. 

Stand Your Ground laws also aren’t really a new thing. Florida’s statute, for instance, has been in place for two decades. If the law automatically led to more unjustified shootings being deemed justifiable homicides by the courts, we would have expected to see that phenomenon occur long before 2020, but there’s no evidence that’s the case. 

We saw a huge spike in violent crime in 2020, along with a big spike in new gun owners. That’s the most likely reason for an increase in justifiable homicides since then; with more crimes being committed and more people carrying for self-defense, there are more occasions when legally armed citizens will use a firearm to defend themselves. That doesn’t mean, however, that people are getting away with murder just because they tell police that they were in fear for their lives. Every time a life is taken a police investigation is going to take place, and charges may very well be filed even when there’s evidence of self-defense. 

Even using the WSJ’s own flawed dataset, the percentage of homicides deemed justified in SYG states has climbed from about 2.8% in 2019 to 3.8% in 2024. We don’t know how many self-defense claims were raised in the 96.2% of homicides that were deemed murder, but we know the number isn’t “zero.” Stand Your Ground laws aren’t a “get-out-of-jail free” card for armed citizens, despite the slanted reporting from the WSJ and Gifffords’ wild suggestion that many or all of these justifiable homicides are actually murder.

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