The goal of this column is to present news from around the world that is not often – if ever – covered by more mainstream entities, using local sources wherever possible, but occasionally using news aggregators not used, again, by the mainstream media. Also, please note that we do use links to Wikipedia; while Wikipedia is well-known as a largely-useless site for any kind of serious research, it does serve as a launch-pad for further inquiry, in addition to being generally free of malicious ads. As with anything from Wikipedia, always verify their sources before making any conclusions based on their pages.
This column will cover the preceding week of news.
To make it easier for readers to follow story source links: anytime you see a bracketed number marked in green – [1] – those are the source links relating to that story.
North America, Central America & the Caribbean
United States
The “Strategy of Tension” continued in the United States this week, with what can only be described as a “swarm attack“, hoax bomb threats were called in to dozens of locations around the country, again primarily to college campuses (including as far out as Hawaii, and another in Canada), but also to businesses and public buildings, repeatedly overloading emergency services in the impacted areas. The focus of the ‘swarming’ this week was the State of Florida – although smaller swarms occurred in Ohio, New Jersey and Virginia – as opposed to the states of Texas and Louisiana, last week. And, also as with last week’s reporting, although there are 21 news links, these represent as many as a dozen additional hoax threats, as some stories report on multiple threats. [1]-[21]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9] – [Source 10] – [Source 11] – [Source 12] – [Source 13] – [Source 14] – [Source 15] – [Source 16] – [Source 17] – [Source 18] – [Source 19] – [Source 20] – [Source 21]
Additionally, an increasing number of actual explosive devices are being disarmed and recovered by police and military bomb-disposal teams, throughout the nation, including three actual explosive devices found in Calaveras County, CA this week, alone. [1]-[3]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]
Haiti
In Haiti, reports from the global medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (“Doctor’s Without Borders”) are coming out that thousands of residents in the capital of Port-au-Prince’s notorious Cité Soleil slum have been cut off from food, water and medical aid, as rival gangs – some reportedly allied to various factions within the police and military – battle each other in what is rapidly spiraling into a war-zone/collapse scenario. The protests had begun in May of 2022, over a lack of fuel for generators, as Haiti’s electrical grid has never recovered, following a series of massive earthquakes over the last twelve years, due to endemic instability and corruption in the tropical nation, that included the assassination of the country’s President, Jovenel Moïse in July of 2021.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]
Mexico
In Mexico, the long-running drug war continues, as police recovered remains – many beheaded – of drug cartel victims across the country. [1][2] This, as police in Mexico City rescued two kidnap victims being held for ransom, in a furious shootout with cartel members armed with automatic weapons, including a belt-fed machine gun, that freed the victims and resulted 14 arrests, although four officers were wounded in the shootout. [3]
Meanwhile, in the state of Sinaloa, on the country’s Pacific coast, police and military forces conducted a joint operation that resulted in the arrest of Rafael Caro Quintero, co-founder the Guadalajara cartel. Although the 69-year old was found hiding in the bushes by a tracker dog named “Max“, tragically, a Blackhawk helicopter of the Mexican Navy crashed during the operations, killing 14 of the 15 occupants, leaving the survivor in serious condition. Quintero remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for the 1985 kidnapping, torture and killing of US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, after he escaped custody following a botched court hearing in 2013 that attempted to free him after 28 years in prison on a technicality, but which was dismissed by Mexico’s high court…but not before Quintero was spirited away. [4][5]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
South America
Colombia
The week saw a sudden uptick of violence in Colombia, as one government soldier was killed and four others wounded in an ambush in the town of Chigorodó, Antioquia. The ambush was reportedly carried out by members of the so-called “Clan del Golfo (The Gulf Clan)” drug cartel.
Brazil
In Brazil, authorities responded to a suspicious package discovered following a threatening call to the Russian Embassy in the capitol of Brasilia on the 14th. Authorities isolated the package, then removed it to a secure location and detonated it safely. Examinations of contents and the investigation into the incident continue at press time.
Europe
In England, the passport office in Newport, Wales was evacuated after a suspicious package was received that contained a white powder. The building was sealed off, and staff were medically examined. The powder was determined to be non-toxic, and the facility reopened later in the day. [1]
In Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands, several town council members and administrative staff were evacuated following what police termed a “credible bomb threat“. A police investigation discovered no devices, nor suspicious persons, despite an earlier report of a man with a bomb. Investigations continue. [2]
Finally, in Moldavia, the Chisinau International Airport – Moldova’s main international air transit facility – was temporarily closed following an emailed bomb threat against the airport. operations resumed after some three hours, while security checked the airport buildings, but no devices were found. Chisinau International has been the target of several hoax bomb attacks in the previous weeks.[3]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]
Africa
Once more, fighting in Nigeria dominates the African news scene, as repeated violence continues around the country. Gunmen, variously reported as either “bandits” or as “terrorists“, have continued a vicious campaign of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations of state-level politicians and random murders, design to incite fear among the population, even as police try to increase security for targets deemed most at risk, specifically schools and churches. [1]-[12]
In somewhat better news, relatively speaking, Nigerian troops in the northern state of Borno, reacted swiftly to reports of Boko Haram terrorists blocking roads in the state, and kidnapping people. The troops reacted, and drove the terrorists off, reportedly killing at least ten. [13]
Nigeria has been struggling with a so-called “bandit war” and a bitter Islamist insurgency since 2009.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7] – [Source 8] – [Source 9] – [Source 10] – [Source 11] – [Source 12] – [Source 13]
Across the border, in Cameroon, Boko Haram reportedly killed two civilians in an attack on a village in the country’s far north, as the government sought to tighten internal security after a bomb blast rocked a crowded market in the nation’s capital. Although no injuries were reported, this is the second such attack in as many weeks.
Further south, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), ceasefire negotiations in the Kivu region of the country’s far east are on the verge of collapse, as a Chinese ex-patriot worker was killed in an attack in South Kivu, as rebels reportedly abducted up to 50 people in the region, including as many as 30 children.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3]
In Benoni, South Africa, police arrested a “Mozambican man” on charges of possessing explosives on the 13th, as attacks by Islamist insurgents continue to increase in number and violence, even as the Mozambican government insists that it is winning its war with Muslim insurgents that has been raging since 2017. [1]-[4] This is in stark contrast to the assessment of veteran defense journalist John Stupart, Director, African Defense Review, who points out that the current situation is, if anything, worse than it was a year ago. [5]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
Middle East
The ever-shaky ceasefire in Yemen may be about to collapse completely, as a sudden burst of attacks this week threaten to renew fighting on a large scale. Yemen has been trapped in the throes of a civil war since 2014, part of the wider Iran-Saudi Arabia Proxy War.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5]
In Syria and Iraq, scattered skirmishing and assassinations continued this week, as the US State Department warned that the situation in the region would worsen, even including a possible Islamic State “resurgence”, if non-Syrian/non-Iraqi foreign fighters for IS were not returned to their home nations. [1]-[6]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6]
In Afghanistan, Taliban forces clashed with Iranian border guards, as scattered fighting destroyed infrastructure and killed dozens, including religious scholar Sheikh Sardar Wali Saqib. Elsewhere, the increasingly unstable Taliban are beginning to fight amongst themselves, as internal skirmishing killed several, and the Taliban began arresting their own officers because of “internal disputes”. [1]-[6]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6]
In Pakistan, Balochi militants of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) murdered kidnapped Army officer Lieutenant-Colonel Laeeq Baig Mirza, as a rescue team closed on the insurgent’s position. The team managed to kill two of the terrorists, but the remainder escaped. LtCol Mirza was kidnapped on the 12th by the militant group. Balochis have been fighting for their independence from Pakistan and Iran off and on since 1948. [1][2]
Elsewhere, Pakistani forces killed a reported dozen terrorists in various operations, with one soldier being killed. [3][4]
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4]
Finally, in India this week, outside of Jammu & Kashmir, the nation remained largely quiet, with little security activity outside of the on-going Jammu & Kashmir terrorist insurgency that has plagued the region since 1947.
[Source 1] – [Source 2] – [Source 3] – [Source 4] – [Source 5] – [Source 6] – [Source 7]
