The Prophecy is much more than seeing into the future. For the Prophecy sees without the element of time. For the Prophecy sees what is, what was, and what always shall be. 11:11 LLC
said Randall Jibson, USGS scientist and lead author of this study. “Not every earthquake will trigger landslides, but we can use landslide distributions to estimate characteristics of earthquake energy and how far regional ground shaking could occur.”
“Scientists are confirming with empirical data what more than 50 million people in the eastern U.S. experienced firsthand: this was one powerful earthquake,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “Calibrating the distance over which landslides occur may also help us reach back into the geologic record to look for evidence of past history of major earthquakes from the Virginia seismic zone.”
This study will help inform earthquake hazard and risk assessments as well as emergency preparedness, whether for landslides or other earthquake effects.
“What makes this new study so unique is that it provides direct observational evidence from the largest earthquake to occur in more than 100 years in the eastern U.S,” said Jibson. “Now that we know more about the power of East Coast earthquakes, equations that predict ground shaking might need to be revised.”
It is estimated that approximately one-third of the U.S. population could have felt last year’s earthquake in Virginia, more than any earthquake in U.S. history.
About 148,000 people reported their ground-shaking experiences caused by the earthquake on the USGS “Did You Feel It?” website. Shaking reports came from southeastern Canada to Florida and as far west as Texas.
In addition to the great landslide distances recorded, the landslides from the 2011 Virginia earthquake occurred in an area 20 times larger than expected from studies of worldwide earthquakes. Scientists plotted the landslide locations that were farthest out and then calculated the area enclosed by those landslides. The observed landslides from last year’s Virginia earthquake enclose an area of about 33,400 km2
, while previous studies indicated an expected area of about 1,500 km2
from an earthquake of similar magnitude.
“The landslide distances from last year’s Virginia earthquake are remarkable compared to historical landslides across the world and represent the largest distance limit ever recorded,” said Edwin Harp, USGS scientist and co-author of this study. “There are limitations to our research, but the bottom line is that we now have a better understanding of the power of East Coast earthquakes and potential damage scenarios.”
TOKYO – There has long been a desire among South Koreans for domestic nuclear weapons capability, but a poll shows that in the face of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and an assertive China, that view has ballooned to more than 70 percent of the population – most of whom want to go nuclear even when the potential drawbacks are explained.
The poll, released Tuesday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, found robust support for nuclear weapons in South Korea: South Koreans want nuclear weapons even when they feel confident about the country’s alliance with the United States and about the strength of their own military. And those who support nuclear weapons now see a level of prestige associated with them.
South Korea is preparing to elect a new president on March 9 in a neck-and-neck race, and the debate over nuclear armament was reignited during the fall primary among conservative candidates as a potential party platform idea. The poll shows that domestic support for nuclear weapons is squarely in the mainstream view – and that the incoming president may need to contend with it.
Throughout much of the Cold War, the United States had stationed nuclear-armed weapons in South Korea. Then, in 1991, President George H.W. Bush initiated the withdrawal of all tactical nuclear weapons deployed abroad. South Korea remains under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, which guarantees that the United States would use its nuclear weapons to protect South Korea if needed.
The return of tactical nuclear armament has seemed out of reach for many years, but the debate has cropped up repeatedly. In 2016, then-South Korean President Park Geun-hye reportedly asked the United States to redeploy the tactical weapons but was denied. Currently, South Korea has ambitions for a nuclear-powered submarine.
The poll found that 71 percent of South Koreans supported nuclear weapons – slightly higher than in previous findings. Researchers sought to dig deeper to understand how intensely South Koreans feel about their support and found it has considerable staying power.
For example, when asked to choose between a domestic nuclear weapons program and the stationing of U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea, similar to that of the past, the public overwhelmingly preferred an independent arsenal, underscoring the desire among South Koreans for greater autonomy over how and when nuclear weapons would be deployed on their behalf.
Experts say the findings suggest that U.S. policymakers need to have a deeper understanding of South Koreans’ views.
“We can’t just ignore this. We can’t treat it as, ‘the public is emotional on these issues,’ ” said Toby Dalton, co-director and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment’s Nuclear Policy Program and a co-author of the report.
Pronuclear South Koreans saw armament as a way to increase the country’s prestige in the international community. When presented with potential consequences for going nuclear – such as international sanctions or a U.S. troop withdrawal from South Korea – pronuclear respondents largely remained supportive.
South Koreans’ desire for nuclear weapons is often viewed as a way to counter threats from North Korea, a nuclear-armed state that is now working to expand and diversify its arsenal. But the poll found that South Koreans increasingly view China as a long-term threat to the country. They also view Japan as less of a military threat than their two nuclear neighbors.
A majority of South Koreans believe it is unlikely that North Korea will denuclearize, which has also hardened their desire for a nuclear program, said Lami Kim, a co-author of the report and a national security professor at the U.S. Army War College.
“Some may have held out hope during the last diplomatic engagement with the North in 2018 and 2019, but after that failed, most feel their skepticism toward North Korea’s denuclearization has been vindicated,” she said.
S. Paul Choi, principal at the Seoul-based consultancy StratWays Group and a former South Korean military officer who was not involved in the research, warned against reading too much into hypothetical questions about alliance matters and consequences, given the complexities of the issue aand the fact that wording choices can make a big difference across polls.
But Choi said a robust debate on the topic is overdue, especially given that a majority of South Koreans have expressed support for a domestic nuclear weapons program for more than a decade.
“South Koreans, the South Korean public, are very aware of the volatile regional security environment in which we live, and the nuclear North Korea threat that we face,” Choi said. “With that understanding, they’re increasingly supportive, or open to, a domestic nuclear program but believe in pursuing that with a strong U.S.-ROK alliance,” he said using the abbreviation for South Korea’s official name.
“For me, as a South Korean, if we didn’t have this debate, that would be worrisome. Given the environment in which we live, we need to examine, review and consider all options and decide which one supports, most effectively, our security interests,” Choi said.
Hamas might not have enough money to keep the lights on and electricity flowing consistently in Gaza, but it somehow has plenty of funds to equip a small military, both to maintain its own position of power and to harass Israel.
2 / 8Waiting in ambush. A jihadist takes cover with his bazooka. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash903 / 8Hamas even rolled out a model of an Israeli tank to fight against. They’re lucky there weren’t any actual Israelis inside. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash904 / 8Boom! Explosions from Hamas mortars as they battle a mock Israeli tank. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash905 / 8Hamas gunmen stand atop the fake tank in apparent “victory.” Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash906 / 8Days later Hamas forces held an event in Gaza City where they showed off their “skills” to the general public. Photo: Atia Mohammed/Flash907 / 8Hand-to-hand combat. Photo: Atia Mohammed/Flash908 / 8Why all this training? So when they come across a Jew, they’ll know what to do. Photo: At
For two solid decades, Sunnis felt threatened, weakened, and headless. But now, the Sunni Muslim community now seems to be on a rebound, united under the leadership of two figures: Businessman-turned politician Khamees Khanjar and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al Halbousi.Image Credit: AFP
Damascus: It’s been almost 20 years since the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003 following the US-led invasion of Iraq. Iraq’s Sunnis have had to pay a high price for being the community that produced the deposed president. Since then, they have seen de-Baathification, systematic persecution, faced paramilitary death squads, while being collectively prohibited from top posts like the presidency and premiership.
Behind closed doors, Khanjar and Halbousi are rumoured to be “close” to Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Halbousi is often considered Riyadh’s man in Baghdad, while Khanjar is frequently associated with Ankara, although nothing in their careers points to such affiliation.
Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al HalbousiImage Credit: AFP
It would be only natural for them to reach out to Sunni heavyweight states to maintain a threshold in Iraqi politics, especially given that most of their counterparts in the Shiite community were parachuted into their jobs by Iran, including all former premiers, or been on Iranian payroll since the 1980s.
Although Khanjar is better known to the outside world for his wealth, Halbousi is no less successful as a businessman, and no less rich. Before entering politics, he had made a fortune as head of the Al Hadeed Co, handling major reconstruction projects, including the sewage matrix of his native Falluja. At 41, he is young, well-connected both regionally and internationally, and hails from a prominent tribe that was never close to Saddam or Daesh.
Khanjar is older, at 56, and sanctioned by the US since 2019, on charges of corruption. Among other things, he is accused of amassing a fortune through a tobacco business partnership with Saddam’s son Uday. He parted ways with Uday in 1996 and moved to the Gulf, working in real estate development, financial services, and industry, before returning to Iraq in 2003.
When the 2003 invasion happened, the two men stood at opposite ends of the spectrum, Khanjar bankrolling the ‘Sunni insurgency’ while Halbousi was working with American contractors on reconstruction. Khanjar was later accused of collaborating with Daesh, prompting him to set up a 3,000-man army of tribal figures (all Sunni Muslims) to fight Daesh in Iraq.
Khanjar has raised eyebrows by calling for a three-way federalisation of Iraq, between Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. The Sunni region, he says, would become a hub for regional investment while southern Iraq would remain in Iran’s orbit.
Image Credit: Seyyed Llata/Gulf News
Collectively, the two Sunni politicians won 51 seats in last October’s parliamentary elections (37 for Halbousi’s Taqqadum Party, 14 for Khanjar’s Azm Movement). Iraqi Kurds, who are also Sunni Muslims, won 63 seats, bringing the community’s share up to an impressive 114 out of 329 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
That’s not enough for secure a majority, however, which requires 165 votes in Parliament.
Last January, Halbousi and Khanjar teamed up with Moqtada Al Sadr, the powerful Shiite militia leader-turned-politician, who controls 73 seats in the Iraqi Chamber. Backed by a collective vote with Sadr’s MPs, they managed to secure a second term for Halbousi as speaker, making him the first Sunni to serve for two terms in parliament since 2003.
Sadr is increasingly relying on them to dictate state policy, given that bad blood brewing between him and rival Shiite parties, the Iran-backed Coordination Framework. Those parties, including the Fateh Alliance and Badr Organisation, lost their majority in Parliament and collectively walked out on the chamber’s first session on January 9.
Sadr is planning to name a member of his Sairoun Party as Iraq’s next prime minister, citing the numerical majority of his parliamentary bloc. To do that, he needs parliamentary allies.
Thirty-one Kurdish MPs support him (from the Kurdistan Democratic Party), along with the Sunni bloc of 51 MPs. If combined with the 73 seats that he controls, that adds up to 155 seats — 10 votes short of a majority — which can be filled with support from smaller parliamentary blocs.
If Halbousi and Khanjar stand up Sadr until curtain fall — and they have no reason not to — then they will undoubtedly be rewarded with a greater share of seats in the future government. Since the toppling of Saddam, the Sunnis had been banned from key positions like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Interior, although compensated with one sovereignty portfolio, being Defence.
Whether that changes in the upcoming period depends on the politics of Khanjar and Halbousi, and what strings they will pull in the upcoming weeks and months.
Russia and the US top the list with a combined arsenal of close to 12,000, reflecting the hangover from the Cold War.
Initially, the United States had hoped to maintain a monopoly on nuclear weapons but the secrets and the technology for building the atomic bomb soon spread.
The United States conducted its first nuclear test in July 1945 and dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.
Four years later, the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear test. The United Kingdom followed in 1952, France in 1960, and China in 1964.
The United States and other like-minded countries negotiated the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968 and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996.
India, Israel, and Pakistan never signed the NPT and possess nuclear arsenals. Iraq initiated a secret nuclear programme under Saddam Hussein before the Persian Gulf War in 1991. North Korea announced its withdrawal from the NPT in January 2003 and has successfully tested advanced nuclear devices. Iran and Libya also pursued secret nuclear activities in violation of the treaty and Syria is suspected of having done the same.
At the time the NPT was concluded, the United States and the then Soviet Union had tens of thousands of nuclear stockpiles. Beginning in the 1970s, the US and Soviet/Russian leaders negotiated a series of bilateral arms control agreements and initiatives that limited, and later helped to reduce, the size of their nuclear arsenals.
According to Arms Control Association, the US currently deploys 1,357 while Russia deploys 1,456 strategic warheads on several hundred bombers and missiles, and are modernising their nuclear delivery systems.
During a speech at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Sunday, Bennett said the deal could lead to more violence in the region if negotiations between both sides come through.
The U.S. and Iran reached a landmark deal in 2015 which limited Iran’s enrichment of uranium, making it harder for the nation to produce material for nuclear weapons, according to Reuters.
“The emerging deal, as it seems, is highly likely to create a more violent, more volatile Middle East,” Bennett said.
Bennett shared his concerns about the ongoing negotiations, saying the biggest problem he has is the possibility of a shorter timeline before Iran can freely operate advanced centrifuges due to the fact the original timeline may not be extended.
“Israel will not accept Iran as a nuclear threshold state,” Bennett said. “Israel will always maintain its freedom of action to defend itself.”
This comes as the initial nuclear deal was called off three years later by former President Trump, who reimposed far-reaching sanctions on Iran, Reuters reported.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday that there is “significant progress” made with nuclear negotiations with the U.S., adding nothing is agreed to yet.
The goal of the latest nuclear talks is to return to the original bargain of lifting sanctions against Iran in exchange for nuclear activities that extend the time it would need to produce enough enriched uranium for an atomic bomb, Reuters noted.
These are the messages that were recently sent to the Palestinians by Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh. Mashaal and Haniyeh are sending the messages from their five-star hotels and luxurious villas in Qatar.
Hamas leaders are not sitting among their people in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. It is easier and safer for them to call on the Palestinians to send their children to carry out terrorist attacks against Israel while they are relaxing in the comfort of their hotel rooms, villas and gyms in the Qatari capital of Doha. The Hamas leaders are not going to send their own sons and daughters to engage in the jihad against Israel.
In the past, Arab journalists have criticized and ridiculed the Hamas leaders for choosing to live in luxury hotels in Qatar instead of being amongst their people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Ahmed Musa, an Egyptian journalist, presented a photo of Mashaal working out in Qatar, and reminded the Hamas leader that “the jihad is in Gaza.” Musa challenged the Hamas leader:
“If you’re a man and a hero, get on the first plane tomorrow and enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing. Your followers in Gaza will greet you.”
A report published last month by the Ynet news website revealed that at least eight senior leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) left the Gaza Strip over the past two years in favor of the good life abroad.
The first to leave was Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, who left this home in the Shati refugee camp in favor of luxury hotels in Qatar. Haniyeh justified his departure due to his candidacy for the overall leadership of Hamas. Although the Hamas internal elections ended several months ago, Haniyeh has not returned to the Gaza Strip. Instead, he put pressure on the Egyptian authorities to allow his wife and children to leave the Gaza Strip so that they could join him in the wealthy Gulf state.
Another senior Hamas figure who left the Gaza Strip is Khalil al-Hayya, who until recently served as deputy head of the terrorist group in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave. Al-Hayya decided to leave for Qatar after he was appointed as head of the Hamas bureau that manages the group’s relations with Arab and Islamic countries.
Salah Bardaweel, Sami Abu Zuhri, Fathi Hammad and Taher a-Nunu, also senior and veteran Hamas officials, have also left the Gaza Strip together with their families. They are shuttling between Qatar, Lebanon, Turkey and other Arab and Islamic countries.
In addition to the Hamas leaders, senior representatives of Palestinian Islamic Jihad have left the Gaza Strip. They include Nafez Azzam and Mohammed al-Hindi, who are spending their time in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.
It is not clear if these Hamas and PIJ leaders are planning to return to their homes in the Gaza Strip. In fact, there is good reason to believe that these spoiled leaders are not in a hurry to return to Gaza, where two million Palestinian residents continue to live in harsh economic conditions, where unemployment is estimated at more than 50% and, where the rate of poverty is extremely high.
The Iranian-backed Hamas and PIJ are the two largest groups in the Gaza Strip. Instead of investing their resources and efforts in improving the living conditions of their people, the Hamas and PIJ leaders have brought on them one disaster after the other. They have brought war and destruction on the people of the Gaza Strip by firing thousands of rockets towards Israel, forcing Israel to fire back to defend itself.
Instead of building schools and hospitals, the Hamas and PIJ leaders have chosen to invest tens of millions of dollars in a network of tunnels along Gaza’s border with Israel, to attack and kill Jews.
The leaders of Hamas and PIJ left scorched earth behind them and chose to lead luxurious lives in Doha, Istanbul and Beirut. Strangely, however, instead of hiding their faces in shame, they are calling from their gyms, private jets and jacuzzis for the Palestinians to pursue the fight against Israel.
Just last week, from Qatar, Mashaal renewed the call to the Palestinians to continue sacrificing their children in the jihad against Israel. Mashaal boasted that the number of terrorist attacks against Israel in the West Bank and Jerusalem doubled in 2021 compared to 2020.
“The upcoming phase will witness an accumulation of the resistance and the development of its capabilities,” Mashaal said. When Hamas talks about “resistance,” it is referring to the use of various terrorist attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings, rocket launchings, stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. “We want everyone to be involved in the growing resistance.”
Everyone, of course, expect the children of Mashaal, Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders who are now enjoying the life in a number of Arab and Islamic countries while the Palestinians they left behind in the Gaza Strip struggle to feed their children. Some have become real beggars who are now knocking on Israel’s door for help.
Thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip are applying to work in Israel. The rate of unemployment in the Gaza Strip exceeded 50% in 2021, according to Maher al-Taba’a, director of Gaza’s Chamber of Commerce. The unemployment rate has soared to even 78% among graduates aged between 20 to 29 years who have a certificate with an intermediate diploma or a bachelor’s degree, he added.
Some Palestinians, it seems, refuse to be duped by the deception of the Hamas and PIJ leaders. These Palestinians have finally realized that their leaders care only about their personal interest and the well-being of their families and are enjoying the good life in Doha and Istanbul.
This is encouraging news, which shows that there are Palestinians who are fed up with the corruption of their leaders and their five-star jihad from luxury hotels around the world. Recently, these Palestinians took to social media to launch a campaign called “They (Hamas) Hijacked Gaza.” For now, this campaign has enlisted only a limited number of people.
Unless more Palestinians join such campaigns and start speaking out against the corruption of their leaders, there is zero chance that their lives will improve — not even if the international community continues to shower hundreds of millions of dollars on them.
Above all, the Palestinians need to boot out the thieves who masquerade as their leaders, the butchers responsible for the deaths of the young men and women in the Hamas-incited jihad against Israel. The Palestinians will never move forward with their lives as long as their leaders are relaxing in hot tubs in Qatar and Turkey while sending them orders to bathe themselves in yet more Jewish blood.
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