Astronomers have for the first time found direct evidence of a black hole spinning.

The discovery was made by studying powerful jets of energy beamed from the first black hole ever imaged by humanity, which sits at the heart of the neighbouring Messier 87 galaxy.

Scientists had long believed that the rotation of a black hole powers these jets, but only now has the theory been proven. 

It is an 'exciting' breakthrough that reinforces Einstein's theory of relativity and could help unravel the mystery of the universe's most enigmatic objects.  

M87 is a radio galaxy located 55 million light-years from Earth which has a supermassive black hole 6.5 billion times more massive than the sun at the centre of it.

The convergence of multiple red-alert warnings is staring us in the face, all pointing to a major “event” of some type in the upcoming weeks or months.

Whatever it is, this new catastrophe will hasten the collapse of the old world system, a collapse of economies and political structures that is already underway, paving the way for the Great Reset or, as some call it, the New World Order. I call it the beast system.

Predicting the timing of such an event is impossible but I do believe we are looking at a major shock event happening roughly within the next three to nine months, a year at most.

The reason is simple. The billionaire globalist oligarchs desire to bring about a situation which involves digitization (of money and human beings), dehumanization (humans replaced by transhuman hybrids), destruction (of all cultural norms, male/female genders, the ability to reproduce without technology, etc.) and depopulation (of those deemed “useless eaters”). These are the “Four Ds” needed to bring about the total control that globalist technocrats seek to extend over all human behavior in a restructured world run by artificial intelligence and based on the elimination of all fossil fuel usage by the common man (non-oligarchs). If only the oligarchs have access to fossil fuels and only the oligarchs are allowed to reproduce and enjoy freedom of speech, what you end up with is a one-world slave state. And that’s exactly the goal.

So the Four Ds are used to get to the fifth and final D, which is dystopia. In the eyes of the globalist predator class, they’re reaching for their utopia, but for the rest of us, it will be a living hell, a dystopia.

Webmaster addition: Take a look at the current US government, with its massive corruption and abuse of the people. Imagine that multiplied into a single world government. Imagine the corruption that will exist then!

The Biden Regime has announced another amnesty of sorts, this is technically allocating refugee slots to Latin America and the Caribbean. The fraud here is that there is no basis for refugee status, an alien of humanitarian interest to the United States who is subject to persecution by their country of citizenship or last habitual residence.

The only nation really participating in persecution of its citizens is Cuba, with Venezuela a less convincing case as the political opposition has been neutralized and open persecution ended. Venezuela does remain an economic basket case, partly because of U.S. sanctions, but also because of typical Third World mismanagement.

Since Cubans have their own illegal family reunification program, a parole amnesty, and the Cuban Adjustment Act, Cuba does not actually produce many bona fide refugees, as all just make use of easier programs that have little or no documentary requirements.

Similarly, Venezuela produces little in the way of actual refugees, most being economic migrants and few actually applying for asylum once they enter the United States. In fact Venezuelans are openly advertising their love of their nation while simultaneously fleeing it.

The largest cultural change in recent years is not transgenderism or mumble rap. It’s the attack on free speech. Among Democrats, support for free speech is a fringe position. According to a new poll from RealClearPolitics, free speech is increasingly unpopular, especially among the young and among Democrats.

Some of the poll findings seem promising. More than 90 percent of respondents said First Amendment protections are a good thing. Just a small minority disagreed with the statement that “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” More than 75 percent thought it was better to allow free speech without government interference than to let the government “decide what types of hateful or inaccurate speech should be banned.” The First Amendment itself remains popular. Perhaps the best finding is that only 30 percent thought the Founders would have approved of private companies setting limits on speech.

However, some of the more specific findings are shocking. More than 61 percent said the government should restrict “hateful posts and disinformation on social media platforms” rather than allow an “open forum of free speech.” About three-quarters thought social media platforms themselves should restrict these things. Majorities said free speech should not extend to groups “like” the Nazi party, the Ku Klux Klan, or the Communist Party. More than 74 percent said social media companies had a responsibility to restrict “hateful posts and disinformation.”

Among Democrats, the findings are worse. About a third of Democrats think Americans have “too much freedom” to speak. Only about half of Democrats think speech should be legal “under any circumstances,” compared to large majorities of independents and Republicans. Three-quarters of Democrats think the government should restrict “hateful” social media posts. Democrats are also more likely to favor censoring “extreme” groups and just 31 percent strongly agree with the famous quotation “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” More than half of Republicans do.

Webmaster addition: Before the majority can be right, one person must be right, and while that individual stands alone, the majority is wrong!

The United States is the most dangerous nation among industrialized states, and increasingly more dangerous than much of the developing world. As violent crime soars, our criminal justice system has revealed itself unable and unwilling to respond.

This year it was announced that the national murder clearance rate, which tracks arrests of suspects but not necessarily convictions, has dropped below 50%, the lowest in history. This figure represents a remarkable and system-wide failure, especially when leaps in forensic science and investigative techniques are taken into account. When we contrast the US with nations suffering from a comparable race and crime problem, such as the United Kingdom, we find that only 20% of murderers escape accountability. In the rest of Western Europe, the clearance rate seldom dips below 80%, while relatively homogenous nations like Finland arrest a homicide suspect in close to 100% of cases.

It’s common knowledge that a disproportionate number of homicides in America amount to blacks killing blacks, but recent years have seen a dramatic rise in interracial homicides as well.

According to data tracked by the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), black on white homicides rose from a total of 2299 in 2019 to 2914 in 2021, a jump of more than 20%. The timing is not a coincidence, interracial murder rate instantly spiked in 2020 following the implementation of policing and prison reforms after the George Floyd riots, as well as the media’s dedication to overtly demonizing white people.

As it turns out, the Department of Justice has a service specifically designed to ensure whites don’t get the wrong idea about minority crimes. The Community Relations Service bills itself as “America’s Peacemaker” for:

communities facing conflict based on actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or disability. CRS works toward its mission by providing facilitated dialogue, mediation, training, and consultation to assist these communities to come together, develop solutions to the conflict, and enhance their capacity to independently prevent and resolve future conflict.

A recent example of CRS activity was interfering with a Virginia school board that upset the transgender lobby. Roanoke County recently implemented clear rules on gender-assigned bathrooms, pronouns, and names used for students. Transgender activists objected to these rules and aggressively protested at school board meetings. The CRS contacted the school board to offer its “services” to reduce community tensions. This interference appeared to favor the transgender lobby over that of parents.

A woman sexually assaulted by Jason Billingsley — the man accused of murdering a 26-year-old tech CEO in Baltimore — feared for her life while the convicted felon considered “armed and dangerous” was still on the run this week, she told The Post.

“I was petrified. When they couldn’t get him, I was petrified,” the victim said in a brief interview Wednesday.

“I thought he was coming for me. I just thank God he didn’t kill me,” the 35-year-old woman said.

Billingsley, whose 2013 attack on her landed him in prison, was arrested by authorities Wednesday night on suspicion of killing Pava LaPere inside her apartment on Monday.

According to the latest round of state exams given in Maryland, there were 13 high schools in Baltimore's public school system that had zero students proficient in math.

The Project Baltimore initiative spearheaded by FOX 45 reported on this alarming development in Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS). The local news channel obtained unredacted state test results for every BCPS public school via a source within the school district, and subsequently analyzed them. According to the outlet, students from 33 BCPS schools took the tests in the spring of 2023.

Of the 33 schools in the Charm City that took the state math exam, 13 high schools had zero students who tested proficient. This amounted to roughly 40 percent of the total number of high schools. But this wasn't the only alarming finding Project Baltimore made.

In those 13 high schools, 1,736 students took the state math test. Of that number, 1,295 students – 74.6 percent – scored a one out of four. One is the lowest level, which means that those students were not even close to proficient.

Dr. Sondra S. Crosby appeared in court to condemn the ‘rectal feeding’ torture method used by the United State’s CIA in Guantanamo Bay.  

Crosby appeared in court for the trial of Abd Al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is accused of participating in the planning of the bombing of the USS Cole. His lawyers are claiming that any confessions he made were under the duress of torture. 

The bombing of the USS Cole by al-Qaeda is an attack that took the lives of 17 US sailors in October 2000.

Mr. Nashiri claims that in 2013, prison staff used ‘rectal feeding’ to torture him. Dr Crosby testified that “he experienced it as a violent rape, sexual assault” and that the experience “was a very, very distressing painful, shameful stigmatizing event” according to The New York Times.

Mr. Nashiri also claims that he had been sodomized by the end of a broom by prison staff. 

In 2018, a Marine general who heads the service's training command wrote about his concern that the "pursuit of ensuring fair and equitable opportunity" had allowed a female Marine candidate demonstrating "dangerously poor performance" to continue a key course.

"This could have resulted in a MISHAP," Maj. Gen. Kevin Iiams, the commanding general of Marine Corps Training and Education Command, wrote in an email to other Marine Corps officers obtained by Military.com through a government records request.

The candidate was undertaking the Corps' grueling 15-week Infantry Officer Course.

"Did we let this 2Lt go to [sic] far before ending her training?" Iiams wrote in the email.

Last week unmarked white buses dropped off more than 3,000 illegal aliens – MOSTLY MILITARY-AGED MEN – on the streets of San Diego.

“Over 3,000 migrants have been street released in San Diego as cartels smuggle massive groups of migrants from Tijuana the majority street releases are males with future court dates in the U.S. and headed to major cities across the U.S.,” Jorge Ventura reported last week.

Shocking video of the illegals aimlessly wandering around 30th Street near the Iris Avenue Trolley Station was posted to social media.

Tulsi Gabbard is a former representative for the state of Hawaii. She ran for president as a Democrat in 2020–and faced strong backlash from the liberal establishment. Recently, she announced her departure from the Democratic Party. She has not announced a new party affiliation.

Gabbard is liked by moderates and conservatives for her “anti-leftist” views. She has been increasingly critical of the Biden administration, pointing to the many failures often discussed by conservative pundits. Recently, she commented on the unprecedented four indictments by Democrat prosecutors against Donald Trump. Gabbard has accused Biden of “political prosecution.”

From Daily Wire:
Gabbard shared a brief video via X, arguing that the prosecutions amounted to a concerted effort — on the parts of both President Joe Biden specifically and the Democratic Party in general — to keep Trump busy and distracted because they were afraid he could potentially win in 2024…

“Anyone who’s looking at what’s happening with clear eyes and an open mind can recognize how overtly they are trying to keep President Trump off of the campaign trail.”

Democrats have opposed House Republicans’ investigations into Joe Biden and his family. When House Speaker McCarthy announced an impeachment probe, the media claimed they had “no evidence” against the senior Biden.

This week, Republicans held their first impeachment inquiry hearing. And they are releasing more information they uncovered during their months-long probes. Republicans have long accused Biden of using his son to bring in money from foreign businesses.

Democrats and the White House have flatly denied it. But a new revelation could paint the Biden family into the corner.

From The New York Post:
First son Hunter Biden received two wire transfers from Chinese nationals worth a total of $260,000 months after dad Joe began his 2020 presidential campaign — and with the elder Biden’s Delaware home listed as the beneficiary address, a key House Republican said Tuesday…

“Bank records don’t lie but President Joe Biden does. In 2020, Joe Biden told Americans that his family never received money from China,” Comer said in a statement.

Democrats are having a bad time after another one of their team members faces a scandal being pursued by federal prosecutors. This latest scandal involves a controversial figure in Alabama state politics.

Alabama State Rep. John Rogers (D) is once again in the national spotlight after the investigation broke open. He previously gained national attention over controversial remarks he made about abortion. Rogers’s comments at the time ignited a firestorm of criticism, and in this unrelated federal case he’s back in the hot seat.

From The Daily Wire:
Rogers was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of obstruction of justice in a case that centers around an alleged scheme to defraud the Jefferson County Community Service Fund.

The case includes charges against several people and various alleged crimes that range from wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, tax related charges, and obstruction of justice. Former Representative Fred L. Plump, Jr. pleaded guilty to conspiring with one of the men in the indictment and resigned from the Alabama House of Representatives.

Rogers gained national attention in 2019 as the Republican-controlled Alabama House voted 74-3 to outlaw nearly all abortion in the state. He was highly criticized for his remarks in defense of abortion.

“Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later,” Rogers said. “You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later.”

This week, Trump ditched the second Republican primary debate. Instead, he flew to Detroit to speak to striking auto workers. One day before, Joe Biden went to Detroit to speak with auto workers. Critics have claimed that Biden rushed to Michigan to beat Trump at the punch. But from all appearances, it does not seem as if Biden had the same kind of turnout.

According to reports, Biden spoke to struggling auto workers for just 88 seconds. The next day, Trump spoke before a large crowd of striking auto workers. The former president blamed Joe Biden for the conditions that led to this unprecedented event. And, he made a vow to these union workers.

From The Post Millennial:
Noting these losses, Trump said, “they’re going to be closing up and they’re going to be building those cars in China and other places. It’s a hit job on Michigan and on Detroit…”

“Today’s radical Democrat Party wants to legalize drugs, shoplifting, and sexual mutilation of your children but they want to allow your gas-powered Suburbans, Silverados, and Ford F-150s to die… Under a Trump administration, gasoline engines will be allowed and sex changes for children will be banned, is that okay?” Trump said, which was met with cheers from the crowd.

Democrats have launched numerous lawsuits against Donald Trump and his related businesses. The four criminal indictments have received most of the media’s attention. But progressive prosecutors in New York and other states have launched other cases against the former president.

One case has resulted in a New York judge ruling that Trump overvalued his numerous properties. Trump became an internationally renowned billionaire because of his real estate investments.

Yet today, a liberal judge claims Trump lied about how much his properties are worth. In fact, the judge made a bizarre claim about Trump’s famed resort in Florida.

From Twitter:
JUST IN – A New York judge ruled that Trump inflated his property values, including Mar-a-Lago, which the judge determined was worth $18-$27 million from 2011 to 2021.

To put this into perspective, neighboring homes on 0.28-0.89 acres are listed for $18-40 million.

Mar-a-Lago, the 20-acre property in the middle, is worth less despite being 20 to 70 times larger.

@EricTrump: “The real estate circles in Florida are laughing at this foolishness.”

@DonaldJTrumpJr: “If Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 million… I’ll take 10 please!!!”

It has been well-documented that the homeless situation has reached crisis levels in many states. Most of these states are Democrat-run. Critics have blamed liberal policies that have legalized drugs and spent billions on entitlement programs for the reason homelessness has risen.

In many blue cities, residents are forced to live beside large homeless encampments. These “shanty towns” pose a real threat to residents. Many have asked why Democrat leaders haven’t cleared away these encampments.

Some have pointed to city ordinances that prevent police from removing these encampments. Others, like Democrat governor of California, Gavin Newsom, blamed court rulings that denied cities the ability to get rid of these settlements. Now, numerous advocates are fighting back. And they might take it to the highest court.

From The Post Millennial:
Numerous bodies across the US are pushing for the Supreme Court to review a court ruling that prevents cities from enforcing bans on homeless encampments in public spaces…

In Johnson v. Grants Pass, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a permanent injunction that enjoined or stopped, a city ordinance enforcing public camping prohibitions unless the city first provides shelter beds for each homeless individual in the jurisdiction.

Rulings from progressive courts have claimed it was “cruel and unusual punishment” for a city to clear away a homeless encampment. Now, the state of California is joining a variety of cities, municipalities, and organizations petitioning the Supreme Court to rule on the matter.

Elon Musk has not been one to shy away from controversy. The billionaire innovator shook up the social media world when he bought Twitter. He vowed to restore free speech to the platform and exposed how previous Twitter executives worked with the government to censor uses.

Democrats have strongly opposed Musk’s impact on social media. But they have thus failed to stop his progress. Musk has transformed Twitter into “X” and promises to grow the network into a major publishing platform.

Many critics have questioned what role the social network will play in the coming years. Elections are looming, both in the United States and abroad. And Elon just announced a move that could rankle those who were counting on using X to advance their agenda.

From The Post Millennial:
Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that he has cut the Electoral Integrity team at X (formerly Twitter) in half, including the newly brought on board head of the group, Aaron Rodericks.

When the news was reported, Musk replied “Oh you mean the ‘Election Integrity’ Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they’re gone.”

Philadelphia influencer 'Meatball' who posted bail Thursday morning after being arrested for looting while live-streaming has asked her followers for cash. 

The looter, whose legal name is Dayjia Blackwell, posted on her Instagram story and went live after being released. 

According to the New York Post, she told her 196,000 followers that: 'All I want to do is go treat myself' and plugged her Cash App handle for her followers. 

Blackwell also posted on her Instagram asking users to 'go bless her' and said frequently that she wanted to get her 'toes done', the outlet reported.

The influencer's bail was set at $25,000 according to court documents.

In 2014 Europe was under siege, with millions of African and Arab migrants marching into the EU and using asylum claims to quickly enter the region without vetting.  With the union facing an unprecedented surge of foreigners not seen since WWII or the collapse of Yugoslavia, some among the public called the event a crisis.  EU officials did not see it that way.  Instead of securing their borders and repelling the invasion, top representatives like Angela Merkel announced they would open their borders completely to migrants and refugees in 2015.

Many migrants were given the impression that free housing, welfare and easy employment would be made available to them upon arrival in Germany.  The reality was far more complicated, but the image of a golden land of ease was all that was needed to trigger a tidal wave.  With shared border policies in the EU, Germany's decision became every other nation's problem.

At the time, the decidedly socialist European majority applauded the move; with many leftists meeting migrants at train stations to clap and cheer.  To grasp the mentality of the political left it's important to understand that they were not cheering the migrants so much as cheering themselves – Leftists have been conditioned to believe in original sin, and that original sin is to be a white "colonizing" westerner.  They were really cheering themselves; they saw open borders as an act of self sacrifice and appeasement to the gods of progressive ideology.

The result has been disastrous.

As Chief Justice John Roberts stated:

the Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today.

So far, so good.

The problem is that Harvard and other academic institutions have not lost their desire to base admissions on race improperly, and now they know that they have to go underground to do so. As we reported, SCOTUS “gave universities a narrow opening, and Harvard just announced it’s going to drive an affirmative action truck right through it”:

[T]here is one really important point that came near the end of the majority opinion that is a narrow path to consider applicant’s experience on race (as opposed to their race itself)(emphasis added):

Affirmative Action sure does make strange alliances. In this case, a desire to defend a grant program open only to black women may bring down the entire anti-discrimination legal infrastructure that has been in place for over 150 years, if a District Court ruling that racially discriminatory contracting is “speech and expression” protected by the First Amendment is not reversed.

The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), a group formed by Ed Blum, whose Students for Fair Admissions won the Harvard affirmative action case, sued Fearless Fund in federal court for the Northern District of Georgia over a grant program open only to black women. The claim was brought under a post-civil war statute prohibiting discrimination in contracting, not under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment (which arguably would not apply to a private investment company) or other discrimination statutes. You can read the Complaint and Motion for Preliminary Injunction.

Numerous civil rights groups filed Amicus briefs supporting the defendant and the black-woman-only grant program.

The fallout over the Canadian parliament’s veneration of a Ukrainian Waffen SS veteran spread to the University of Alberta on Wednesday. The institution has apologized and shut down an endowment fund named after the elderly Nazi collaborator, Yaroslav Hunka, just hours after Russian diplomats exposed his connection to the school.

The university admitted on Wednesday night that it held an endowment named after Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian native who was given standing ovations by Canadian lawmakers during President Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to parliament on Friday. Upon the exposure of Hunka's Nazi past, the incident became an international embarrassment for Ottawa, leading to the resignation of House Speaker Anthony Rota, a public apology from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and an admission from Germany that its ambassador had applauded a former member of the Waffen SS.

Hunka’s family donated $30,000 in 2019 to establish an endowment, named after him and his wife, at the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Russia’s ambassador to Canada, Oleg Stepanov, told RIA Novosti that the embassy discovered Hunka’s link to the university and publicized the fact. A few hours later, the institutionl announced the cancellation.

Budapest will block further EU aid to Ukraine if Kiev doesn’t account for the money it has already received from Brussels since the start of the conflict with Russia, a senior Hungarian government official has said.

“There are many technical ways to finance Ukraine and also help in the humanitarian field,” said Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office. He told a briefing on Thursday that Hungary had no objections to individual EU countries providing assistance to Kiev.

He said unanimity would be required regarding any changes to the EU budget, however, which is currently “on the table for amendment.”

Budapest will make sure that Ukraine “will not receive a single penny of new aid” if it can’t account for the funds it has already been given by the EU, Gulyas insisted.

In June, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen requested an increase of €66 billion ($69.9 billion) for the EU’s long-term budget, which includes €17 billion (around $18 billion) for providing grants for Ukraine.

Webmaster addition: An accounting? Well, there is all that money Zalensky "invested" in FTX, which prior to the collapse made heavy donations to Democrats. Then there are all the new high-end cars for top Ukrainian officials, plus the mansions, yachts, and shopping trip to Europe for various wives! Did I miss anything?

Children are disappearing from northern Ohio in record numbers, with more than 1,000 minors reported missing so far this year.

More than 45 children have gone missing in the Cleveland-Akron area this month alone, and in August, there were more than 35 missing minors, according to the Ohio attorney general’s missing children website.

The disappearances are creating a disturbing trend in northern Ohio, which began in May, when nearly 30 children went missing in just the first two weeks.

Officials at the time called it an “extraordinary surge” in disappearances.

Webmaster addition: Both of the Walmarts we shop at have these display boards showing photos of locally missing children. It's probably a company-wide program. But I look at these photos every time we shop. they are constantly changing! Now, some are probably just runaways, but I have to wonder how many are not, and what has happened to them.

The European Elites have a stunning new plan to defeat the fearsome Russian hordes marching toward Central Europe again. EU grand strategists will reinvent Adolph Hitler’s idea of Lebensraum. French Europe Minister Laurence Boone told POLITICO recently that the only way to combat Putin’s yearning for conquest is for the EU bloc to expand. No, I am not joking.

According to the news, the EU is preparing for a potential wave of expansion that could extend the bloc by as many as eight new members, including Ukraine and six Balkan countries. Boone spoke by phone with reporters and said:

“Vladimir Putin, in addition to his territorial ambitions, also aims to weaken the European Union. That’s a factor we need to take into account and fight against.”

As for Hitler’s grand plan of ‘Lebensraum,’ which he laid out in his book Mein Kampf (banned in Russia), the German Reich would gain power and control of nations to the east to colonize them with German settlers. The Slavs who lived in these territories were to be wiped away by expulsion, enslavement, and slaughter. And Westerners still wonder at Vladimir Putin’s warnings about Nazis in Ukraine and having a neutral zone between the EU and Russia. Russians and Ukrainians are brother Slavs, genetically.

Today, the Serbs, Bosnians, Belarussians, and Ukrainians are in the crosshairs of EU President Ursula von der Leyen (who I lovingly refer to as von der Clucky) and her handlers, the Western oligarchs and the Royal houses of central and Western Europe.

Russian commando units involved in the special operation in Ukraine have used the newest robotic sniper detector Sosna-N, a source in the defense-industrial complex has told TASS.

"A batch of anti-sniper systems Sosna-N was purchased for special units and it has been successfully tested in the area of the special miliary operation," the source said.

The remote-controlled Sosna-N scans an area for optical devices such as sniper rifle scopes, binoculars, or anti-tank missile targeting systems. Upon detecting such a device, it generates an acoustic signal and releases a special laser beam to impair it. This sophisticated detection system can identify a sniper within a range of 3 kilometers while its laser countermeasure has an effective range of up to 2 kilometers. The device comes with a portable control pad, weighing around 1.1 kilograms, offering easy maneuverability for soldiers in the field. The product was first demonstrated during the Army-2021 forum.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken embraced the creative soul of Muddy Waters on Wednesday to help launch a global initiative to elevate music as a diplomatic tool, picking up a guitar and singing the American blues legend’s iconic ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ at the state department.

The Global Music Diplomacy Initiative aims to support the U.S.’ broader foreign policy goals, noted a fact sheet ahead of the event.

The plan also aims to leverage public-private partnerships to create a music ecosystem that expands “economic equity and the creative economy, ensures societal opportunity and inclusion, and increases access to education.”

To that end Blinken thought of nobody better suited to the task than himself.

Playing rhythm guitar to a house band and turning his usually soft-spoken voice to a lower-set warble, Blinken offered his rendition to cheering subordinates at the department.

Russian forces have gained more territory in Ukraine this year than the Ukrainian side despite the Ukrainian counteroffensive that was launched in June, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The report noted that despite nine months of heavy fighting in Ukraine, only about 500 square miles of territory have changed hands this year. Russia has gained 331 square miles while Ukraine has gained 143, a difference of 188, which amounts to Russia’s net gain in territory so far this year.

Most of the fighting in the first half of the year focused around the Donbas city of Bakhmut, which Russia fully captured in May after a brutal battle that started in August 2022. Ukraine’s counteroffensive has focused on the south, but fighting has continued near Bakhmut and across the entire eastern front.