Thread About my city
On this day last year, the Assad gangs and Russia took control of the city of Maarat al-Numan after it was destroyed with all kinds of internationally prohibited weapons, and unfortunately the world was watching this silently. 1\1

THREAD: tomorrow, Jan 25 is the global day of action for Yemen. Here’s a list of everything you can do to support it 🇾🇪👇🏼👇🏼

Show up in person if you can! there are protests happening all over the world. You can look at the action map here and RSVP to one!

Register for the online rally happening tomorrow featuring @mrdannyglover, @jeremycorbyn, @CornelWest , @shireen818 and more! We will be highlighting the importance of ending US/UK/Canadian etc support for the war and the weight of the crisis!

if you can’t get out to a protest, no worries, social media action is super important too! Use these super easy toolkits to take action online.
Here’s one the entire world can use!

Here’s one for the UK! thank you @STWuk ❤️

THREAD ON CHINA AND GLOB0HOM0

The conventional understanding of right & left, liberal & conservative, breaks down when applied to China

China, while ostensibly communist, differs from other communist countries and from Western leftist ideology in several important ways.

I.

China's "socialism w Chinese characteristics" is heavily nationalist & even racialist, in contrast to the internationalist & anti-racist bent of Western leftism. They have a clear (though somewhat flexible for political expediency) understanding of who is and isn't Chinese

The Han ethnic majority forms the core of Chinese identity, while other (Asiatic) ethnic groups within Chinese territory are still considered Chinese w equal citizen rights but who will be fiercely repressed if they cause problems (Tibetans and Uighurs)

Everyone else a foreigner

II.

China is fiercely protectionist

Their banning of Western social media served 2 purposes: 1) keep glowy foreign subversion out of their cyberspace, and 2) create domestic alternatives such as Weibo and WeChat for greater economic benefit to themselves

China was let into the World Trade Organization thanks to efforts by Bill Clinton (who took CCP $$$) and George W. Bush. They said China would become more liberal and democratic

I have watched with concern the recent development in Oyo and Ondo States in which quit notices were given to Fulani herders, with the subsequent burning of the property of Fulani herdsmen in some parts of Oyo State.

These happenings have increased the tension and unduly raised the temperature in the country.

The ugly development in these two states are symptomatic of the continued threat to the unity of our country that we have witnessed on a higher scale in recent times and in different parts of the country — including the South-East and South-South zones.

I strongly appeal to all of us to work for peace and take initiatives that can douse the tension. All Nigerians have a responsibility to begin to take measures that will reassure people across board that a united Nigeria will benefit everybody better than a disintegrated country.

The deafening silence by key stakeholders, leaders and others who we think should speak out is worrisome. This silence is a dangerous tell-tale sign that things are wrong. This is not good for our country.

THREAD
What is overlooked in analysis of #RussiaProtest after @navalny's arrest? It's sophistication that the Kremlin has developed in addressing such threats, and lack of realistic strategy by Putin's opponents. Let's put together some unpleasant facts 👇

2/ Of course, it's hard not to be impressed by @navalny's and his family's courage, as well as by energy and scale of protests on January 23. Good summary by @yaffaesque for @NewYorker here:

3/ @navalny's investigation about Putin's palace (>96 million views now!) and street protests are seen as a serious challenge by the Kremlin, which is visible in heavy-handed crackdown on Navalny's team&family, as @HenryJFoy & @maxseddon document here:

4/ Jan 23 protest had the widest geographic coverage (>120 cities all across Russia), and the crowd numbers were significant, particularly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It's important to note that the price tag for unsanctioned rallies is now higher than before...

5/... and protesters risk much more than 100k people who came to Bolotnaya Square in Moscow back in 2011. Add COVID, and 40k crowd (@Reuters estimate) in the capital will look like a success. But here comes the tricky part.

BREAKING: 100+ China experts and human rights activists slam “naïve” EU-China deal for “entrenching Europe’s strategic dependency on China”

Maik Baumgaertner and Ann-Katrin Mueller report about open letter for @SPIEGEL_English

🔸What follows is the text of the open letter in full 🔸

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the China-European Union Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) and call on the European Union to withdraw from this agreement

The signal sent by both the timing and the substance of CAI is that European leaders are set on pursuing access to Chinese markets, even if this is at the expense of the bloc’s values and national security.

The deal is not only poorly timed but is also based on a naïve set of assumptions about the character of the Chinese Communist Party. It further entrenches Europe’s existing strategic dependency on China and runs counter to Europe’s core values.

The outcome of seven years of negotiations, the agreement and the hopes attached to it are products of a bygone era. The Chairmanship of Xi Jinping has been marked by a steep deterioration in the human rights situation everywhere from Hong Kong to Xinjiang. 5/32

Last month marked 4 years since the Battle of Aleppo was concluded.

Since then, over 500 projects have been implemented in the city, and 2500 projects in the governorate.

An extensive thread of the progress that has been made over the past four years:

4.2 million m2 of rubble and debris has been removed, and the removal of circa 6070 destroyed or burnt vehicles.

117 water sanitation projects have been implemented, in addition to the implementation of asphaltation projects amounting to 1.2 million m2 of asphalt.

Circa 4650 lamp-posts have been rehabilitated or installed to relight the city. Many of these run on solar lightning.

47 green spaces and parks have been rehabilitated, including the Central Park of Aleppo. This year (January 2021), Aleppo City Council has already begun rehabilitating three more parks - Seif Al Dawla Park, Al-Ansari Park, and Al-Sukari Park.

#CentralAfricanRepublic (THREAD)

1) 200 to 300 rebels attacked the capital #Bangui today (PK9, PK11, PK12 & Bimbo areas).

Govt, #Russian & #Rwandan troops repelled them. But the rebels remain in the hills & areas surroundings the capital.

Read @CrisisGroup statement 👇

2) The rebels were generally equipped or light weapons (including #AK47 & grenades), several #RPG & probably mortars.

No report of the casualties yet.

3) It's unlikely that they really wanted to size the capital, if not they would have come in bigger number.

They seem to be trying to isolate the capital from the rest of the country that they already control largely & install an attrition warfare just at the capital doors.

4) Its not excluded they may also be trying to play with the psychology of the Constitutional Court which will proclaim the final results of the elections in the coming days.

5) One thing is sure, with the new offensive of the rebellion, including at the capital doors, it becomes more difficult, if not unwise, to organize the second round of the elections for National Assembly.

I guess with the selection of Service Chiefs, our troublemakers have moved on from evicting each other over the farmer-herdsmen clash to another topic. I run a ranch @owonikokofarms & it has both a farm & livestock section. So have some interesting insights #NigeriaCattleProblem

1-/ First, let us agree that avoiding Beef or its byproducts is like avoiding air. It is everywhere from your food to household items. It is called CASH COW for a reason. Even the film for food wrapping use Fatty Acids. Hence you should care about #NigeriaCattleProblem

Smart countries build smart livestock value chain. It is a critical ingredient for building smart voter base as well. The milk, meat and byproducts are necessary products in connecting the brain neurons of a child (future voter)

3-/ As usual, with the #NigeriaCattleProblem we’ve been problem finders not solution makers. The crisis of next week will be different from last week’s. After skirmishes, we will move on for future replay. Funny is that even smart people don’t understand the problem.

4-/ The focus often is on the Farmer-Herdsman clash and the avoidable deaths, blood and tears that underline that conflict. The farmer-herdsmen clash is just a symptom of #NigeriaCattleProblem

The subject of true and false prophesying has been raised recently. See @derekradney especially. It’s important because as @PLeithart notes in his fine commentary on 1&2 Kings, Israel’s history is not so much political as it is prophetic.

One example - Ahab. Not only does he despise & reject the three prophets God mercifully sends him, but he embraces the hundreds who falsely prophesy in God’s name. That latter fact is the issue. It’s not that the false prophets are invoking Baal but YHWH.

Ahab’s prophets are false for numerous reasons but let me cite just one. They aimed to reinforce an unholy alliance between Judah’s future king and Ahab’s daughter Athaliah, a disaster that resulted in the attempted destruction of the Messianic hope.

Prophetically backing unholy alliances - defending the union of what God has separated - nearly led to the disastrous destruction of Judah. They are false not simply because of false predictions but because of errant theology.

I’m going to put this as plainly as I can. The Church today is disturbed, divided, and misled because of false prophets. They aren’t false in an obvious sense (or only in a narrow ‘charismatic’ sense) because they operate within otherwise orthodox settings & use orthodox terms.

Good day my fellow Nigerians. This what happened this morning on our way going to Lekki (Along Anthony Ikeja) we are heading towards Ikorodu road when these rogue men in uniform stopped us again. They started searching our car uncontrollably. they checked our paper and everything

Was Completed. they told us to come down from the car which we did.the next thing d other man said we should go and meet their oga. that's where I started shouting what is our offense why would we meet your oga. bcos I already sense that all their effort trying to find anything

Incriminating was futile so they want to forcefully extort us. We reluctantly meet the oga. I asked the oga pls what is our offense, oga said we used the "wrong u-turn" which is a lie, bcos about 4 to 5 motors made a u-turn there, our car was the only one they stopped bcos they

Sense maybe we were Yahoo boys so that they can exhort us as usual. That's when I brought out my phone to start recording dem. One guy said "call the anti-robbery Squad I was saying to myself which offense did we commit. However, SARS is the Only Anti-robbery squad I know and

They had banished dem so whc SARS again are we talking about here. I nvm I continue my video, in the course of it one of dem even slapped me but I continue. To cut the long story short: one of us called a fellow Police officer that speaks to dem b4 they let's go

POLICE ARREST ABDUCTOR/KILLER OF A SIX-YEAR OLD IN KOGI
•       AS 25 CRIMINAL SUSPECTS MEET THEIR WATERLOO, 5 AK47 RIFLES RECOVERED

Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force have arrested one Friday Domozu, 23years native of Jarkama Village, Bassa LGA of Kogi State, the leader of the kidnap gang responsible for the abduction and killing of a six year old, ...

Farida Yahaya ‘m’ at the Gabije Area of Kogi State on 2nd November, 2020. The victim was abducted alongside one Abdulraheem, ‘m’ 14years old who narrowly escaped from the kidnappers den.

Investigations by the Police team revealed that the kidnappers demanded a huge sum as ransom from the family of the little girl before she could be released, but eventually killed her owing to the inability of the family to meet up with their demands.

Efforts by the Police team to rescue the little girl led to the arrest of the principal suspect, Friday Domozu who led the Police Team to a deep forest at Gabije area of Kogi State where the remains of the little girl were recovered.

The Lagos State Government has issued a suspension order on all approvals in respect of land extensions into the Lagoon at Banana Island and Osborne Foreshore, Ikoyi.
@jidesanwoolu @drobafemihamzat @idreezsalako @ud_mpp @gbenga_omo
#LASG #ForAGreaterLagos

A statement was jointly signed by the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako and his counterpart in the Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development,  Arc. Kabiru Ahmed Abdullahi.
#LASG #ForAGreaterLagos

The statement noted that there has been increasing and continuing degradation of the Lagos shoreline as a result of indiscriminate illegal dredging, reclamation and land extensions into the Lagos Lagoon.
#LASG #ForAGreaterLagos

It said, “Of particular concern to the State Government are the extensions being illegally carried out at Banana Island and Osborne Foreshore, Ikoyi”.
#LASG #ForAGreaterLagos

It pointed out that such land reclamation and extension activities had resulted in gross violation of the Physical Planning Laws of the State and impinged on the ecosystem of the entire area.
#LASG #ForAGreaterLagos

Revelations of Former FO Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam regarding the role of INGOs endorse James Peck's claims about convergence of US Foreign Policy & Human Rights.

[1]
How INGOs suspiciously operate in Pakistan | A discussion with ex-civil ... https://t.co/zxQWuCEZVy via @YouTube

James Peck in his book, “Ideal Illusions: How the U.S. Government Co-opted Human Rights” argues that US Foreign Policy and human rights industry is interconnected and is being used as an ideological weapon.

[2]

From the moment when Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been signed in 1948 in response to Nazi atrocities, human rights are being used to extend American global reach.

By condemning Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups

[3]

with legal outfits for downplaying economic and social discriminations, Peck reveals that humanitarian interventions in US military adventures in Vietnam, Iraq and other places serve as pretexts for invasions to ‘legalize’ US prerogative of intervention while ignoring

[4]

the illegitimacy of intervention and the violence it causes.

In words of Peck, “The widely heralded rise of human rights is not free of such complications. For the history of human rights in the United States—as a movement, as an impassioned language of good intentions,

[5]

Essence/existence distinction in Maximus?

Here is the Greek

“Existence” in the Greek is “to einai”. Literally “the thing being”. Same as what St. Thomas uses in the Latin (esse).

He even discusses how form cannot create existence and existence must be added to form to make form actual.

This is hundreds of years before St. Thomas.

PMF PERSONNEL SUCCESSFULLY REPEL AMBUSH ATTACK ON THEIR CONVOY IN BIRNIN-GWARI

​· Inflict heavy casualties on Tens of the Bandits as IGP Commends Officers for gallantry in repelling the attack

The Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has commended the Police officers attached to Police Mobile Force - 9 PMF Squadron, Kano for displaying uncommon gallantry and repelling the attack on their convoy by bandits numbering about hundred

along the Birnin Gwari - Funtua Highway on Friday, 15th January, 2021, on their way back to their base in Kano after the completion of their special duty.

The officers are personnel attached to Operation Puff Adder and deployed to Niger State in the sustained operation to reclaim the public space and tackle incidents of banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes in the area.

Contrary to unconfirmed reports in some sections of the media stating that eighteen (18) officers were kidnapped, only sixteen (16) officers were attacked in the ambush. The officers successfully repelled the attack accordingly and neutralized the bandits in their tens