I'd like to propose a thread of all USA material right here. Please feel free and actually just do it or face the wrath if you don't.

Anything USA only should go here. Everyone happy?????????????

Mods...Admins...Boss...I ask you to make this a sticky for those who have a problem with US posts.

Fur removal machines, cat traps and measuring scales were among items confiscated during investigations into the alleged cat-stealing ring in Ho Chi Minh City.

Consumption of dogs and cats is legal in Vietnam, where many restaurants openly advertise the meat, but vendors are required to obtain certificates showing the origin of the animals.

Media reports have said that stolen cats can be sold at restaurants for at least 70,000 dong ($2.70) per kilogram.

The 12 men were arrested on allegations of property theft and admitted "to stealing and trafficking approximately 2,700 cats of various types", police said in a statement.

Criminal proceedings began on Sunday, but it was not clear when the men were detained.

The suspects pounced between 11:00 pm and 04:00 am, roaming residential areas on motorbikes in small groups to steal local cats, state media said.

The network was first discovered in July, with police seizing 50 live cats alongside 55 cat traps, two scales and two fur removal machines.

Each team was estimated to have stolen between four and 10 cats per night.

Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested 18 people earlier this year accused of being part of two separate cat-stealing rings.//AFP. LINK

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I should note, that I have had "Chicken" that could a been feline, in Laos and Cambo.

Also that Australia and NZ are suffering huge feral cat problems that are threatening native wild life across the board.

So perhaps a societal change that sees cute and cuddly "fluffykins" transform into "that looks delicious" is needed.

How the nation of Ukraine ranks:

1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores;
2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves;

2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world's reserves);

2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons);

2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves;

3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)

4th in the world by the total value of natural resources;
7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)

Ukraine is an agricultural country:

1st in Europe in terms of arable land area;
3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world's volume);
1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil;
2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports;
3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world;
4th largest producer of potatoes in the world;
5th largest rye producer in the world;
5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons);
8th place in the world in wheat exports;
9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs;
16th place in the world in cheese exports.

Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.

Ukraine is an industrialized country:

1st in Europe in ammonia production;
2-е Europe's and 4th largest natural gas pipeline system in the world (142.5 bln cubic meters of gas throughput capacity in the EU);
3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;
3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km);
3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment;
3rd largest iron exporter in the world
4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world;
4th world's largest manufacturer of rocket launchers;
4th place in the world in clay exports
4th place in the world in titanium exports
8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates;
9th place in the world in exports of defense industry products;
10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons).

On the 125th anniversary of the prize's inception, the Norwegian Nobel Committee sought "to remind the world that the rule of law, national and international, underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts nonviolently. Peace requires justice," committee Chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes said.

The Norwegian committee said it sought to strengthen international law at a time of conflict, and Watne Frydnes said Pillay’s award was a message to those seeking to undermine “the international rules-based system and the institutions.”

While her career has been global in scope, criticism often has been fiercely local, notably in places like Israel and in apartheid-era South Africa as she and peers took on some of the world’s most painful and sensitive legal issues and most vulnerable populations.

Pillay, 85, received the news while attending a forum in Nuremberg, Germany, the location of the trials of Nazi war criminals that helped lay the foundations of international law.

“Firstly, at this venue, your applause means a great deal to me,” she said to a standing ovation. “You know, you don’t want to receive an award, prize or anything unless the public agrees that you deserve this.”

And, joking, she added: "But being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify this information.” ...

South African-born jurist and former UN human rights chief Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, centre, after the announcement she had been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
Photo: Daniel Karmann/dpa via AP

Russia I feel will be getting more attention soon.

And to kick it off:

Shirtless Putin takes icy religious plunge

Note the religious Toadies chanting:

"Oh Putin, Oh Vladimir, Oh Putin, you are so very great, so enormously huge, so very very powerful. Make Our Russia Great Again. MORGA"...

https://www.washingt...m=.1218554bf28c

https://www.bbc.com/...litics-44774702

And now Theresa has to make nice with the Donald, whom is due in a few days.

This is gonna be good TV, get the beer in...

Below are two links that seem to to give a more or less accurate picture of Laos today and with reference to the virus situation.

Foreign diplomats briefed on COVID-19 situation, preventive measures

Though these are announcements, and who know what is actually being put in place, I can report that on the ground, MLG's family and friends are taking the situation very seriously. They have cancelled the Lao New Year parties, which normally involve everyone in the whole country.

Public Notice

Leavng aside the argument of Capitalism vs Communism etc, this is a good statement from the leaders. I can't see much of this from any Western Leader. 

He had his own declaration too. It outraged so many people. It was great!

Zachary (@ZedAyySeeKay)

Protests are escalating around the world. Seems no longer about the Israelis v Palestinians. Both sides appear guilty of  war crimes.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/have-war-crimes-been-committed-in-israel-and-gaza-and-what-international-laws-apply

The 80-minute film, NAZA, was directed by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who won an Oscar in 2025 for No Other Land, a documentary on Israeli settler pogroms in the occupied West Bank, made with Palestinian co-directors Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal.

The result of a nearly three-year investigation, the film is built on testimony from Israeli military and intelligence sources who spoke on the condition that their identities be concealed. Their voices and faces were digitally altered, and they were filmed at night on Tel Aviv rooftops.

“We are letting the soldiers and the officers speak about what they did,” Abraham told the AFP news agency. “The goal was very simple: we wanted to hear, in as much detail as possible, how the systems of killing in Gaza looked, how they operated,” he added.

The film’s title is a Hebrew intelligence euphemism used to indicate the number of civilians expected to be killed in a given air strike. Interviewees describe an AI-assisted system known as “Lavender”, which drew on Gaza’s monitored telecommunications network – phone calls, movements and interactions – to identify assassination targets.

“It was done on a mass scale, like a factory,” one interviewee says in the film, while another involved in identifying targets says the process is “like a video game, because everything is done remotely” and is “insanely fun”.

Germany: Migrant Decapitates Baby, Government Tries To Cover It Up

Authorities raid home of man who posted video

The Dutch central bank announced Wednesday that it has moved billions of dollars worth of its gold reserves out of North America in a move it described as “crisis preparedness” in a time of global political unrest.

It said that between March and August, some 86 metric tons (94.8 tons) of gold were transferred to London from the combined total of around 313 metric tons (345 tons) held in New York and Ottawa, Canada. Before the move, New York housed 31.3% of the Dutch gold and Ottawa held 19.7%. After the move, both cities now hold 18.5%, the bank said.

The bank owns 612.4 metric tons (675 tons) of gold that was worth 72.2 billion euros (about $83.6 billion) at the end of 2025.

“With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves,” the bank’s governor, Olaf Sleijpen, said in a written statement. “We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness.”... LINK

... Jeez, Donald will be angry, someone taking his gold ...  wait, you'll see a truth social post soon ... 

Insane 😳

New Zealand 'should not have' given aid to Clinton-linked project

New Zealand should not have given aid money to an agriculture initiative in Africa because of an association with Hillary Clinton, the Taxpayers' Union says.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mfat), through the NZ Aid Programme, has given $7.7 million to a project run by the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and designed to strengthen agricultural production in Rwanda and Ethiopia and reduce childhood malnutrition....

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11780357

Wish there were more like Chris Mowrey

Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ as Trump-linked oil firm prepares to drill

Island’s government says no approval given after Greenland Energy brings kit ashore for exploratory drilling

LINK

An American oil company connected to Donald Trump is preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland despite not having received permission from the local authorities.

As the US president renews his threats to claim the vast Arctic territory, materials to prepare for drilling were brought ashore in recent days on Greenland’s eastern coast.

That has prompted Greenland’s government to issue a “strong warning” that no approval had been granted to land the kit. “All future logistical matters must be advised and approved by the mineral resources authority – before they are carried out,” the government said in a statement.

Two days later, Trump made his latest menacing post on Truth Social, showing himself looming over a Greenlandic village.

.....

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/violence-against-myanmar-demonstrators-draws-us-condemnation-20210210-p5713w.html