Lovstuhagen

Here they are:

(1) Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Pauli Murray is a poet, writer, activist, lawyer and Episcopal priest.

According to the National Museum of African American History & Culture, Murray was first in her class at Howard University Law school and the only woman.

...

(2) Patsy Takemoto Mink Patsy Takemoto Mink become the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress, according to the National Women’s History Museum. ... (3) Dr. Mary Edwards Walker In all of United States history, there has only been one woman to receive the Medal of Honor. Mary Edwards Walker is that woman.

As a surgeon, women’s rights advocate, abolitionist, and spy, Walker became the first female U.S. Army surgeon during the Civil War. ... (4)Celia Cruz

Celia Cruz, often called the Queen of Salsa, brought visibility to Black Caribbean expression, experience, and history, according to National Park Service. ... (5) Zitkála-Šá

Zitkála-Šá was a Native American musician, writer and activist who fought for women's suffrage and Indigenous voting rights in the early 20th century.

For a second there I was like... "Is some random Croatian woman being honored? Where's her first name?" Lol...

This appears to be just as comonly rendered as Zitkala-Sa and it means 'Red Bird' in Lakota.

Very awesome image of her.

Representatives of the leadership of Western countries are making regular militaristic statements directed against our country. Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who took office on March 1, called on NATO to make “less bellicose” statements about Russia in an interview with The Financial Times.

However, such a statement by Stubb does not indicate that the authorities in Helsinki have “seen the light” regarding the prospects of a conflict with our country. On the contrary, the new Finnish president said that instead of reasoning and statements, the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance need to start preparing their armed forces for a potential conflict with the Russian Federation.

The operational command of the Polish Armed Forces announced the sudden death of Brigadier General Adam Marczak, chief of staff of the allied command of Operation Althea, the EU-led military mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Polish contingent involved, numbering up to 50 soldiers and staff, performs training and advisory tasks and is stationed in Sarajevo.

...

General Marczak until July 2021 was the head of the intelligence and electronic warfare department in the general command of the armed forces. He served in the 6th Airborne Brigade, and then at the headquarters of the Special Forces Directorate. He also held command positions in missions in Bosnia and Afghanistan. As of 2017, he commanded the 25th Air Cavalry Brigade. He graduated from the Higher Officer School of Mechanized Forces in Krakow.

Speculation may be that it could be related back somehow to the conflict in the Ukraine. We are dealing with a guy involved in Air Calvary and formerly a head of intel & electronic warfare...

Might not quite be significant - we had people die of completely unsuspicious heart attacks and such under the age of 50 in the Army when I was in, but it's worth knowing that it happened. Perhaps something will develop out of this.

kinda old but always gold

MYAWADDY - Some 200 Myanmar military personnel withdrew to a bridge connecting the border town of Myawaddy to Thailand on Thursday following a days-long assault in the area by anti-junta Karen rebels.

Myanmar’s military-run government is battling armed rebel groups on several fronts and has suffered a string of defeats in frontier areas.

The retreat of junta troops in Myawaddy, which is adjacent to Mae Sot in Tak province of Thailand, signals the potential loss of another key border trading outpost that has direct highway access to parts...

e cannot afford to waste a single drop of water,” stated Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán during a press conference on Monday, in which the district announced the water rationing measures for the Colombian capital. The city-wide restrictions that go in effect as from Thursday are based on the fact that the Chingaza reservoir that supplies 70% of the capital’s water, has seen its water levels drop to 16%, and lowest percentage since this high Andes reservoir became operational in the mid-1980s.

A prolonged El Niño weather pattern, as well as very dry month of March, has resulted in water rationing for Bogotá’s nine million inhabitants, and which will remain in effect until expected rainfall toward the end of April can replenish the Chingaza reservoir.

The water rationing restrictions will be divided into nine sectors of the capital, with each sector going 24 hours (8:00 am to 8:00 am the following day), without water on an assigned day. Households and business will be able to consult that day in which there will be no running water with a virtual chatbot as from Wednesday. The virtual chatbox “Chatico” will be available on WhatsApp at: +57 (316) 0231524

The objective is to reduce household consumption by 11%. “This is a temporary situation,” highlighted Mayor Galán, “but climate change is a reality that we cannot ignore,” he said. The restrictions also apply to 11 municipalities in the greater Bogotá region that depend on the Chingaza water system. Included in these municipalites are: Funza, Mosquera, Soacha, Chía, Cajicá, Sopó, Gachancipá, and Tocancipá.

TRIGGER WARNING: The linked article includes some graphic descriptions. I do not like this at all and fully disapprove - I am just sharing this to raise awareness.

There have been numerous reports in previous years of the inhumane killing of dogs and cats in the Central Asian state, though Turkmen authorities have never officially acknowledged the practice.

But former utility workers speaking on condition of anonymity told RFE/RL's Turkmen Service how they were tasked with killing the animals -- acting on "orders from above" -- as one animal rights activist describes it.

"If you have to, bring [the dog or cat] from home, but the plan has to be carried out," one worker said he was told by his superior.

Officials at public utility companies issue a quota of animals to be killed and demand that employees implement a special plan to carry out the killings, which usually involves poisoning, starving, or beating the animals to death. Others are shot. In order to meet the quota, household pets can also be targeted. Workers who protest the orders are threatened by their bosses.

Those who refuse to carry out the killings are sometimes also made to pay people willing to kill animals, with managers deciding how much should be paid for the job, the former workers told RFE/RL.

...

Initially used as a means to exterminate the rapidly increasing animal population after thousands of residential buildings were demolished in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, the slaughtering of animals spread to other regions. Roundups often intensify in the run-up to important state and government events, such as a visit by authoritarian President Serdar Berdymukhammedov or his father, Gurbanguly, who he replaced in 2022.

...

These incidents are occurring despite a state law adopted in July 2022 against animal cruelty. It includes a provision that regulating the population of stray dogs should be carried out "by methods that exclude cruelty and unnecessary suffering."

The law expands the powers of Ukrainian authorities to issue draft notices, including through an electronic system, a change that is expected to help limit evasion.

The measure was passed with 283 votes in favor in the 450-member parliament early on April 11, lawmakers Yaroslav Zheleznyak from the Voice faction and Oleksiy Honcharenko from the European Solidarity faction reported.

A provision on the demobilization of those currently serving in the armed forces was scrapped from the law -- a move likely to be met with anger by Ukrainian troops and their families.

Fedir Venislavskiy, a lawmaker from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's faction in parliament, said the main goal of the draft law is to register all conscripts and update their data so that the state clearly understands who can be mobilized, who has the right to postpone entering the draft, and who can enter the reserves.

One of its provisions requires men between the ages of 18 and 60 to update their personal information within 60 days with the military or with the civil administrative services responsible for conscription.

Since a major Ukrainian counteroffensive last year failed to make significant gains, Russia has used its significant advantage in manpower and equipment to erode those gains in the east.

General Yuriy Sodol, who commands the troops in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, stressed the need for more troops, telling lawmakers that Russian forces outnumber Kyiv's troops up 10 times on the battlefield in the east.

In 2019, the United States sanctioned the Lebanese man Muhammad Sorour on accusations that he funneled tens of millions of dollars from Iran’s Quds Force to the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Yesterday, he was found murdered in a villa in Beit Mery, near Beirut, after having gone missing for nearly a week.

Sorour was shot more than five times and was found in possession of an undisclosed sum of money which the killers did not take. The immediate suspicion is that he was assassinated by Israel’s Mossad.

The villa he was found in was reported to be rented by an unnamed tenant who had simply “disappeared” after the killing. The body of Sorour shows signs of torture, including having been shot in both the hands and feet.

Sorour, who was employed in a currency exchange shop in Beit Mery, worked for Hezbollah’s money transfer service, Bayt al-Mal. He was reported to be working with Hezbollah operatives to see to it that the money reached the Qassam Brigades.

Israel has regularly pursued Hamas members and supporters since the Gaza War began in October, and Sorour seems a likely target.

That a substantial sum of money was left apparently untouched at the scene leads credence to the conclusion that this was not some one-off robbery, but a direct assassination hit.

Over the past six months in Gaza, Israel has killed civilians on an industrial scale, turned hospitals into strategic military targets and food into a weapon of war.

Blatantly violating basic principles of the laws of war, Israel has deployed the language of international humanitarian law as a form of “humanitarian camouflage,” in the words of independent UN expert Francesca Albanese, in the furtherance of its genocidal campaign.

In her new report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide,” Albanese says that one of her “key findings is that Israel’s executive and military leadership and soldiers have intentionally distorted jus in bello principles, subverting their protective functions, in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.”

Jus in bello refers to the conditions under which states may legitimately resort to war. It regulates the conduct of parties engaged in an armed conflict.

International humanitarian law, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, “is synonymous with jus in bello; it seeks to minimize suffering in armed conflicts, notably by protecting and assisting all victims of armed conflict to the greatest extent possible.”

With its genocidal conduct in Gaza, as per analyst Trita Parsi, “Israel is engaged in a deliberate and systematic effort to destroy existing laws and norms around warfare.”

He added, “Israel is seeking to either destroy these norms or create a new normal in which it – much like the US – will be untouchable above these laws and norms.”