The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees In The Near East (UNRWA) claimed in a June 10 X post that more than 50% of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed. The destruction in #Gaza is indescribable. More than half of all buildings have been destroyed, according to @UNOSAT. Clearing the rubble will take years. […]

Naumann told the outlet that smoke was ‘really close’ to where his crew was working

'Are we watching a tornado form right there?'

The post 28 Foods You Had No Idea You Shouldn’t Freeze appeared first on Shareably.

News Bando Stone and the New World Donald Glover Is Unprepared for Survival in Bando Stone and the New World Glover’s Childish Gambino alter ego provides the soundtrack. By Molly Templeton | Published on July 1, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share How many of us, in the year of our climate change 2024, have not thought about whether or not we have practical skills for a post-apocalyptic landscape? How many youths raised on YA dystopias have not become aware that they do not know how to use a bow and arrow, nor forage tubers, nor identify non-poisonous mushrooms? When the world falls apart, I will be scrabbling for huckleberries in the woods with the deer, and I know it. It seems that Donald Glover has figured this out, now, too, based on the trailer for Bando Stone and the New World, in which Glover plays a musician (Bando Stone, natch) who seems to wake up in some semi-distant future (given the vines over his front door) where he is one of a few survivors. What they’ve survived is unclear, but there are weird neon boxes and too-big animals and even the regular-sized seem really, really mad. Wisely, after finding the post office empty, Bando Stone hoofs it to the local mini mart for supplies. How he gets from the mini mart to the Lost-esque landscape seen later in the trailer, I have no idea. But first he meets a woman (Jessica Allain) who has several important things: a child, a large gun, and some survival skills. If we are speaking broadly, the ability to make art is also relevant to humanity’s survival, though movies and TV tend to overlook that. Perhaps this movie will be different? Perhaps not. Glover also directed the film, and his alter ego Childish Gambino provides the soundtrack. The screenplay is credited to Evi Wilder, a name that seems only to exist in relation to this film. Another alter ego? Bando Stone and the Lost World is coming as an exclusive IMAX event sometime this year.[end-mark] The post Donald Glover Is Unprepared for Survival in <i>Bando Stone and the New World</i> appeared first on Reactor.

News A Vicious Circle Mattson Tomlin Will Adapt His Own A Vicious Circle Comics as a Screenplay Time-traveling assassins? Sure, why not. By Molly Templeton | Published on July 1, 2024 Image: Boom! Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Boom! Studios If you don’t yet recognize the name Mattson Tomlin, that is likely to change in the next few years. The co-writer of Matt Reeves’ The Batman sequel, Tomlin is also set to write the next Game of Thrones spinoff, Aegon’s Conquest. He’s also the writer of the movie adaptation of the BRZRKR comics co-created by Keanu Reeves; and—and—he’s the showrunner for Netflix’s animated Terminator Zero. Oh, and now he’s going to adapt his own comics. The Hollywood Reporter has the news that Tomlin will write the screenplay for the adaptation of A Vicious Circle, the comic he created with artist Lee Bermejo. What’s more, Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) is producing the film. According to THR, A Vicious Circle has been a hit for its publisher, Boom! Studios, “with over 100,000 copies of the first two issues sold worldwide to date and the book translated in multiple languages.” A Vicious Circle is assassins and time travel. Here’s the comic summary: Shawn Thacker is a trained assassin from the future who seeks revenge on the only other man with his affliction—each life they take forces them both to involuntarily travel between vastly different past and future eras. Spanning from 22nd century Tokyo to 1950s New Orleans to the Cretaceous Era and beyond, the two mortal rivals are locked in a battle of wills that spans millions of years, all to alter the course of history. Two issues of the comic exist; the third is in stores August 7th. No casting or production timeline has been announced for the film.[end-mark] The post Mattson Tomlin Will Adapt His Own <i>A Vicious Circle</i> Comics as a Screenplay appeared first on Reactor.

This time around it’s a two man show as Adam and Chris share their latest finds from thrigfintg and garage sales including vintage action figures, 80’s collectibles, VHS tapes and so much more. Check out CONTINUE READING... The post Thrift Store Horde: Season 3, Episode 9 appeared first on The Retro Network.

Surges in military aggression near Taiwan since President Lai Ching-te’s inauguration last month are defining a provocative new Chinese military posture. At the same time, violent skirmishes with the Philippines are breaking out in the South China Sea, around Second Thomas Shoal. Beijing’s new commitment to escalation is a marked departure from its signature gray-zone activities, which now raises unprecedented issues for Washington. Namely, how does Beijing’s new behavior in these two spaces fit into its broader strategic ambitions? And, more importantly, what happens next? The most recent Chinese military demonstration followed the inaugural speech by Taiwan’s newly elected president on May 20. Lai has been vilified in Beijing and, as such, China didn’t miss the opportunity to express dissatisfaction with a show of force. For a few days, China’s military presence in the Taiwan Strait remained relatively normal. That changed on May 24, when China began a series of military drills surrounding Taiwan called Joint Sword-2024A. The drills produced this year’s highest recorded activity of People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft near Taiwan. Of the 62 aircraft detected, 47 crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait—an even more provocative action. China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) activity also peaked on May 25, with 27 ships active around Taiwan. That’s the highest single-day PLAN activity since recordkeeping began in November 2020—even exceeding the naval response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan trip in 2022. It also represented an almost 400% increase over the 30-day average. Furthermore, the three-day delay before Joint Sword began was instructive. Looking at past events triggering a military reaction from Beijing, a pattern emerges. Even when Beijing is caught off-guard, as it seems it was with Lai’s speech, it can respond and sustain an elevated military presence around Taiwan within several days. By May 25, Chinese military activity began winding down, only to spike again in response to a U.S. delegation to Taiwan on May 26 led by the House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas. The visit shouldn’t have been a surprise to Beijing, but it took about four days to see the expected Chinese military reaction. On May 30, the PLAAF dispatched 38 aircraft around Taiwan, with 28 crossing the median line. Between June 21 and 27, another surge in activity was witnessed. The highest day saw 41 Chinese aircraft active around Taiwan, with 31 crossing the strait’s median line. That corresponded to a 10-day average of more than 17 median-line crossings, a figure not seen since August 2022. The surge seemingly coincided with clashes at Second Thomas Shoal, but also aligns with increased military training and exercises typically seen in the summer. Additionally, in a stark departure from the past, PLAAF aircraft have crossed the median line almost 70% of the days this year. The consistency has helped normalize this aggressive posture. Before September 2020, the PLA had only crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait four times since the demarcation was established in 1954. Now, each military escalation is perceived as less threatening since the baseline of what is considered ‘normal activity’ has gradually changed—a mindset that complicates predictive and timely action. When military escalations are normalized, one’s threat calculus also adjusts, but it does so to the advantage of the aggressor, giving less time for the defender to react. This troubling trend is broader and involves more than aircraft and warships. On June 18, a Chinese nuclear-armed submarine surfaced in the Taiwan Strait, a possible Jin-class ballistic missile submarine based on Hainan Island. That was only the fourth time a submarine was spotted in the strait since 2019. Moreover, China Coast Guard (CCG) officials illegally boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat in an act of intimidation near Taiwan’s Kinmen Island—another departure from past behavior this year. Prior to that, China always maintained respect for Taiwan’s control of the waters around Kinmen. It follows the introduction of a 2021 CCG law that authorizes deadly force and a new regulation allowing foreigners to be apprehended in China’s declared waters. This leads us to consider developments in the South China Sea—another area that is becoming increasingly central to China’s regional priorities. After decades of concerted efforts, the South China Sea is increasingly resembling a Chinese lake. In the past decade, the PLA has developed several artificial islands that sustain naval and paramilitary presence at numerous contested features far from China. That has occurred despite assurances in 2015 by President Xi Jinping to then-President Barack Obama that China had “no intention to militarize” the artificial islands. Those artificial islands have since sustained the increasingly provocative use of PLAN, CCG, and maritime militia in the South China Sea. Beijing has also strategically imposed fishing bans to reportedly better leverage its repurposed fishing fleets as a maritime militia. All of this has resulted in the increasing frequency of confrontations, injuries, and damage to other nations’ maritime forces. That’s unsustainable, as escalations can quickly unfold into more serious conflicts. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines has already warned that if a Filipino is killed, it will be understood as an act of war: “Almost certainly, it’s going to be a redline.” Insights gained from analyzing data sets from the South China Sea Data Initiative provide a helpful perspective into the general trend of China’s South China Sea activities. For example, the 2015 monthly average of reported instances of Chinese maritime activity in the South China Sea stood at about four. In 2019, the monthly average was about 26, including the strategically important Luzon Strait between Taiwan and the Philippines. This snapshot provides a clear, data-driven rebuttal to Xi’s assurances to Obama. While open-source data further documenting this trend is lacking, China’s most recent escalation serves as an example of an even larger trend. On June 19, unprecedented hostility unfolded around Second Thomas Shoal, a now familiar hot spot. This time, Chinese coast guard vessels engaged in a high-speed ramming of Philippine vessels and even brandished axes and used knives to damage Philippine naval assets and puncture their inflatable vessels—severely injuring one Philippine sailor. Such a clear display of aggression was, until recently, unexpected and uncharacteristic in China’s established pattern of gray-zone provocations. Also alarming was the movement of a large amphibious warship (Type 075) with Chinese marines and helicopters onboard to nearby Sabina Shoal—only 36 miles away. Beijing’s increased appetite for risk should inform thinking about its  willingness to act against Taiwan. U.S. and allied responses to Chinese provocations in the South China Sea certainly inform Beijing’s broader strategic calculus. Beijing’s recent South China Sea activity remains a subject of debate among analysts. However, a critical possibility is often left unconsidered: China is probing to test the limits of U.S. support while refining potential operational responses to a future confrontation. That would explain why China intentionally targets the Philippines, the only country with maritime disputes in Southeast Asia that shares a mutual defense treaty with the U.S. Insight gained from these frequent provocations would likely inform Chinese assessments of how the U.S. might respond in the early stages of a kinetic conflict—including over Taiwan. Beijing is becoming increasingly brazen within the waters it claims as its own. The departures from what were already unsettling “norms” should worry U.S. policymakers. China shows no sign of making peace in the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea. Given Xi’s penchant for using the PLA to send geopolitical signals and influence events overseas, several impending milestones are fast approaching. Rim of the Pacific, a major international maritime warfare exercise, will run from now until Aug. 1 with numerous at-sea drills in the waters around Hawaii. Of course, China is also watching America’s November elections. Given these upcoming opportunities and historical precedents, China is likely to push the envelope even harder and test American resolve more directly. Unless Washington matches diplomatic words with military action and prioritizes the region, Beijing has no reason to slow down. The post China’s Maritime Gamble: A Departure From Gray-Zone Coercion in East Asia appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Pro-housing Democrats won a victory Friday in San Francisco after state authorities declared the city had not met its housing permitting goals in 2023, triggering a law some city Democrats opposed that will expedite approval of new builds, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. San Francisco’s sluggish approval of new projects triggered SB 423, a California law that will allow many new housing builds to avoid undertaking extensive environmental reviews and allow development to proceed without approval from bureaucrats on the city’s planning commission. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed, both Democrats, are supportive of the streamlining of housing approvals. However, the all-Democrat San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which will lose its ability to scrutinize some developments, has been more hostile toward SB 423, which Newsom signed into law. “At the end of the day, eliminating risk from the approval process, not having to run through the political gauntlet to get housing approved … will be a huge net positive for housing production in the city,” Housing Action Coalition Executive Director Corey Smith told the Chronicle. Smith stressed that developers had previously been reluctant to invest in San Francisco due to the city’s byzantine permitting process for new housing. California had required San Francisco to authorize 82,000 new housing units between 2023 and 2031, though the city only approved 3,039 units in the past 18 months, according to the Chronicle. San Francisco’s historical reluctance to build new housing, combined with its population of highly paid tech workers, created a market where demand greatly outpaced supply and led to high housing prices, according to the Chronicle. California’s high cost of living has been a major factor behind the exodus of residents leaving the Golden State, with 45% of Californians saying in a 2023 Public Policy Institute of California poll that high housing costs had them seriously considering moving somewhere else. Newsom, a supporter of SB 423, attempted to address his state’s housing shortage by pledging in 2017 to build 3.5 million new homes by 2035. Between Newsom’s taking office in 2019 and the beginning of 2024, however, California has increased its net housing supply by only about 600,000 units. San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, a Democrat who is running for mayor, opposes many of the new housing projects that SB 423 would fast-track, pressing the city attorney to sue California over the bill in January, the Chronicle reported. Peskin has clashed with Breed, the current mayor, over her desire to allow increased housing density in some parts of the city. Roughly three-quarters of current housing projects in San Francisco are eligible for streamlined approvals, the Chronicle reported. “There is a lot of PTSD in the development community about what it actually takes to build in San Francisco,” Smith said, according to the Chronicle. “It won’t take off all of a sudden but as the economy picks up and the rules become better known, it will be a game-changer.” Peskin did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment, nor did the offices of California’s governor and San Francisco’s mayor. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Dems’ Civil War Over Housing Comes to Head After San Francisco Forced to Allow More Construction appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. America First Legal (AFL) has published another batch of documents (referred to collectively as “Deep State Diaries”) originating from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory outfit, Homeland Intelligence Experts Group. AFL refers to this body as the “Brennan-Clapper committee” since it included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan. The group has been disbanded, judging by AFL’s press release also thanks to its efforts, and now internal notes from meetings, which the non-profit said it obtained through litigation, have seen the light of day. These documents focus on the way the Biden administration and its allies handled the events of January 6, the Mar-a-Lago raid, and social platforms for what AFL says is “targeting and surveillance of political dissent.” The internal notes reveal that January 6 proved useful in expanding surveillance, with one member of the group saying that policies regarding collection and reporting intelligence on Americans changed following the events on that day in Washington. Notably, this has to do with more surveillance powers regarding what’s known as domestic violent extremism (DVE) – to whatever law enforcement decides to apply this label. And the way they apply it, according to AFL’s “Deep State Diaries” material, is to persons who are religious, members of the military, or Trump supporters. It’s easy to see how January 6 might have given momentum to carry out more surveillance of online speech – one of the participants in a conversation revealed in the now-unveiled documents also remarked that the nature of the support for the “mission set” had changed by becoming political. This is interpreted to mean that January 6 was an excuse to change the scope of the activities of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A, a part of the DHS) – by expanding it. As for the source of the support mentioned in the exchange, AFL notes that the group was heavily Democrat-leaning (98% of contributions the members – former intelligence community officials – made went to candidates of that party). An unnamed member of the group at one point made the suggestion that I&A should, post-January 6, adopt practices that “even the FBI says it does not have the authority to do, the Senate has refused to give to any law enforcement agency, and members of Congress generally oppose,” AFL remarked. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Unveiling the Brennan-Clapper Files: How January 6 Shifted Surveillance Powers appeared first on Reclaim The Net.