Protesters hold an effigy of Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a rally to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 9, 2024 [Ismail Shakil/Reuters] Alex Cosh is an editor with the status-quo-allergic independent Canadian news upstart, The Maple. Cosh is a young reporter with an old-style muckraker’s temperament. His bunkum antennae are tuned to detect and expose the state-sanctioned flimflam that much of Canada’s establishment media hand-deliver like obedient couriers. So, while the big, corporate mastheads fell promptly and predictably in line behind Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s fulsome support for Israel’s plans to erase Gaza, Cosh has put his experience and dexterous skills to work, revealing Canada’s complicity in that ugly enterprise. This has translated into a stream of stories detailing how military “aid” flows from Canada to Israel through private companies; what type of military “goods” are exported to Israel, often via the United States; and how Canada’s arms trade with Israel has grown exponentially over the past decade and is now worth tens of millions of dollars per year. Cosh has also dissected the rhetorical shenanigans of senior government officials meant not only to deflect questions concerning the nature and extent of Canada’s military exports to Israel, but to deny and sow confusion about whether any permits had been approved since early October that may have helped render Gaza a barren, apocalyptic landscape. Pressed by a coalition of arms-monitoring and peace groups, scores of enlightened Canadians, Cosh and other reporters, Trudeau and company belatedly and grudgingly admitted in late January that Canada had indeed authorised military exports to Israel after October 7. Official Ottawa tried to blunt the stunning volte-face by suggesting that the permits were limited to “non-lethal equipment” – a meaningless bureaucratic concoction that has no legal and hence binding definition. In February, Cosh challenged that exculpatory construct. He obtained export data showing that the Trudeau government had approved at least 28.5 million Canadian dollars ($21m) in new permits for military exports to Israel during the opening months of its killing rage in Gaza. That figure beat the previous record of 26 million Canadian dollars ($19m) worth of weapons and equipment sold in 2021. Some of the permits allowed for the sale of products from a category that includes “bombs, torpedoes, rockets, other explosive devices and charges and related equipment and accessories”. By what cockeyed measure do any of those “goods” constitute “non-lethal equipment”? Cosh’s sleuthing discovered that the permits had been issued quickly, with one processed within four days. The dates on which some of the permits were certified indicate, as well, that Trudeau’s apparatchiks gave the green light to new military exports as late as December 6 after warnings had been issued by genocide scholars and United Nations special rapporteurs that genocide in Gaza was imminent. But the documents Cosh obtained failed to answer a critical question: How long were the permits valid for? This left open the possibility that some of the “goods” were still being shipped to Israel or will be in the future. Cosh’s scoop reverberated in the House of Commons, with New Democrats and Green Party members pressing Foreign Minister Melanie Joly for answers about the scope, scale, and timing of Canada’s military exports to Israel. Then, the leaks began – designed, I suspect, to staunch the disagreeable political fallout and burnish a damaged minister’s doddering image. The first backroom plant was published on March 14. It quoted anonymous sources who claimed that Joly had stopped approving new permits for exports of “non-lethal” military goods on January 8 because of the “extremely fluid” situation in Gaza. Describing genocide as an “extremely fluid” situation is an obscene first, even for career bureaucrats expert in nonsensical doublespeak. On the same day, CBC/Radio-Canada reported that the federal government was “slow-walking” an application to permit a Canadian manufacturer to sell armoured patrol vehicles to Israel. The implicit message: Joly was on the job. Members of the pretend socialist party of Canada, the New Democrats, were not convinced. On March 18, they put forward a nonbinding motion in Parliament calling on Canada to “suspend all trade in military goods with Israel”. Although nonbinding, had the motion been adopted, it would have amounted to a wholesale, two-way arms embargo. Not surprisingly, that motion was gutted, with Trudeau’s Liberals only agreeing to “cease the further authorisation and transfer of arms exports to Israel”. The emasculated, nonbinding motion passed with the government’s backing. Cue the confusion, backlash and hysteria. Foreign Minister Joly reached back to a 1970s tagline for a Coca-Cola ad and told the Toronto Star that the motion is the “real thing” – whatever that means. Lackadaisical editors unfamiliar with the motion’s fine print, penned headlines announcing that Canada had imposed an arms embargo on Israel. A few easily impressed “progressive” US Democrats shouted: Hurray! Meanwhile, a legion of easily upset Israeli politicians and editorial writers dismissed the motion as a performative stunt by a B-movie country with little, if any, influence to deter Israel from pursuing “total victory” in Gaza and beyond – whatever that means. Oh, wait. The arms embargo might not be an embargo at all. On March 20, Cosh wrote a long story pointing out that the military export permits authorised before January 8 will be allowed to proceed. The Trudeau government’s existing policy of pausing approvals of new applications for export permits – but not necessarily rejecting them – remains intact. This was the government’s policy before the New Democrat’s disembowelled motion won the day in Parliament. The rub: Canadian military goods will carry on flowing to Israel. New Democrats MP Heather McPherson confirmed the thrust of Cosh’s discerning analysis, telling The Maple that existing permits will not be subject to any changes; that could mean military exports worth tens of millions could be delivered to Israel. To add lunacy to a failed arms “freeze”, Trudeau et al have not ruled out buying Israeli military hardware, including those flagged by human rights groups as being “tested on” Palestinian civilians. In December, the Canadian military made public its eagerness to spend 43 million Canadian dollars ($31.6m) on an Israeli-made missile the occupation forces have strafed Gaza with yesterday and today. Canada, the true north strong and free – and still complicit. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/3/24/the-canadian-arms-embargo-on-israel-that-was-not

A satellite image shows an aerial view of the city of Sevastopol after a missile attack struck the headquarters of Moscow's Black Sea Fleet in Russia-annexed Crimea on September 2023 [File: Handout Planet Labs PBC/via AFP] The Ukrainian military has said it hit two large Russian landing ships in overnight attacks on the occupied Crimean peninsula as well as other infrastructure used by the Russian navy in the Black Sea. “The defence forces of Ukraine successfully hit the Azov and Yamal large landing ships, a communications centre and also several infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in temporarily occupied Crimea,” Ukraine’s military said on Sunday. The military’s statement did not say how it hit the targets, but a Moscow-installed official in the region reported a major Ukrainian air attack, and said air defences had shot down more than 10 missiles over the Crimean port of Sevastopol. “It was the most massive attack in recent times,” the Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said in a Telegram post. He said that a 65-year-old man was killed and four people were injured and that transport infrastructure including passenger boats and buses were partially damaged, with windows broken on five boats. Three passenger buses, 13 school buses and one trolley bus were among the vehicles damaged, he added. Footage shared on social media showed a large blast in the city sending a fireball and plume of black smoke into the air, as well as what appeared to be Russian air defences intercepting incoming projectiles. Ukraine has claimed to have destroyed around a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, usually in attacks at night using sea-based drones packed with explosives. Satellite images show Russia has moved much of the fleet further east, to the port of Novorossiysk, amid the spate of attacks. Patrick Bury, defence and security analyst at the University of Bath, said the attack would not have a strategic impact on the war. “Up until a few weeks ago, this would have been really important because the Russians were using those landing crafts to resupply troops down south. But it looks like they have now engineered a railway line, so it won’t have a strategic impact,” Bury told Al Jazeera. “But by pushing the Black Sea Fleet back further east and out of the Black Sea essentially, it is allowing Ukraine to get more grains exports out which is important to the war economy,” he added. Increased frequency of Russian attacks Russia has significantly escalated its air attacks against Ukraine in recent days, in what it says is retaliation for a wave of Ukrainian strikes on its border regions. In the early hours of Friday, Moscow launched its largest aerial barrages against Ukraine’s energy sector since the start of the war. Moscow has also resumed targeting the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. On Sunday, Kyiv and the western region of Lviv came under a “massive” Russian air attack, according to Ukrainian officials. They said that while there were no casualties, Russia had fired 29 cruise missiles and 28 drones at its territory overnight. Russian forces are also seeking to press their advantage in manpower and ammunition as Kyiv faces delays in supplies of additional Western aid. On Saturday, Moscow claimed to have seized a village on the western outskirts of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Its capture last month of Adviivka, near the Russian-held stronghold of Donetsk, was the first major territorial gain made by Russia since the devastated city of Bakhmut was seized 10 months ago. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed that success as a sign that Russian forces were back on the offensive. “[Ukraine’s President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy himself said that Russia has won the winter, and I think the momentum has shifted to the Russian forces on the ground at least. Adviivka is proof of that,” Bury said. “The big question now is whether there is something brewing in probably the month of May once the mud starts to dry in that area of Ukraine. So we will have to wait and see,” he said, adding that the Russians will be doing their absolute best to camouflage any kind of troop build-up if a spring offensive is on the cards. Russian missile breaches Polish airspace Meanwhile, Poland’s army said that one of the Russian missiles fired at western Ukraine had entered its airspace. “Polish airspace was breached by one of the cruise missiles fired in the night by the air forces… of the Russian Federation,” the army posted on X. “The object flew through Polish airspace above the village of Oserdow [in Lublin province] and stayed for 39 seconds,” it said. Poland, which has been a staunch ally of its neighbour Ukraine in the two years since the invasion, said on Sunday that it would demand an explanation from Moscow. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/24/ukraine-says-it-hit-two-russian-ships-off-occupied-crimea

NO! @Cs__MAFIA-__-?

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Music title: قل يا عبادي الذين أسرفوا على أنفسهم | الشيخ مشاري العفاسي والشيخ سعيد الكملي | برنامج آية وحكاية 3 Signer: Alafasy Release date: 2024/03/15 Official YouTube link:

yes @Cyberpsycho?

Yes @WHAT IS GOING ON?

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You have good activity and nice posting, keep going on it! Good luck haibib!

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وعليكم السلام حالياً مش بنبحث عن ادمنز لما ينفتح التقديم راح نعطيك خبر ادخل في سيرفر الدسكورد عشان تعرف

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A Burmese python in Miami, Florida, in 2021. Photograph: Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel via Getty Images Wildlife experts in Florida recently captured 500lb worth of Burmese pythons after finding two large snake “mating balls” in the south-west of the state, as part of a continued effort to prevent the non-native species from harming Floridian wildlife. The catch of a total of 11 pythons was a record for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida (CSWF), the Miami Herald reported – and it adds to the total of 34,000lb of pythons captured in that part of the state since 2013. Pythons, which are native to south-east Asia, made their way to Florida through the pet trade beginning in the 1970s, according to the CWSF. They have since established themselves as the apex predator across the Everglades region and are responsible for a 90% decline in native mammal po[CENSORED]tions. “For 10 years, we’ve been catching and putting them down humanely,” CWSF biologist Ian Bartoszek wrote in a post on Facebook. “You can’t put them in zoos and send them back to south-east Asia. Invasive species management doesn’t end with rainbows and kittens. These are remarkable creatures, here through no fault of their own. They are impressive animals, good at what they do.” The CWSF found three snakes coiled in one mating ball. There were six in another “writhing’”, 7ft-wide mating ball, the Miami Herald reported. Two more pythons were captured nearby. According to an article titled Animal Sex: How Snakes Do It on the website Live Science, snakes will form a mating ball in the days after they emerge from hibernation. “Within the snake mass, each male will try his best to get the female to open her cloaca (waste and reproductive orifice) so that he can insert his penis and mate with her,” Live Science wrote. “Sometimes, males will resort to force by suffocating the female and inducing a stress response in which she opens her cloaca to release feces and musk – giving sneaky males an opportunity to mate.” BBC Wildlife reported that male snakes “are equipped with two penises” and can “use either to mate”. Studies have shown that pythons, which can grow to 19ft long, are eating “at least 24 species of mammal, 47 species of bird and three reptile species in south Florida”, the Miami Herald reported. That includes deer. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/19/florida-burmese-pythons

Cages full of red wine grapes are seen during harvest in Barolo [File: Stefano Rellandini/Reuters] Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect identities. Piedmont, Italy – One of the first words that Sajo* learned in the Langhe, Italy’s northeastern wine country, was “Anduma!” In Piedmontese, the language spoken in the Piedmont region, it means “Let’s go!” Sajo, a 36-year-old from The Gambia, used to hear it constantly while working 12-hour shifts in the vineyards, rain or shine, weekends included, for 3 euros ($3.27) to 4 euros ($4.36) an hour. He had no contract and no legal status. “Anduma!” his supervisors – local wine entrepreneurs and employees of wine production companies – yelled at him and at other African migrant workers as they picked grapes to produce Barolo and Barbaresco, two of Italy’s most expensive and most exported wines. On average, a bottle of Barolo sells for 50 euros ($55), but prices for the highest quality can range from 200 euros ($220) to an eye-watering 1,000 euros ($1,090). Called the new Tuscany, the Langhe – a UNESCO heritage site since 2014 – has been featured in the lifestyle pages of international newspapers and magazines, from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times. The vineyard-covered hills of the Langhe are described as a dreamlike destination where “wine tastes like violets”. One hectare (2.5 acres) of land can cost up to 1.5 million euros ($1.63m) But for many living and working here, the reality is far from idyllic. Since April, local authorities have uncovered more than 30 cases of “caporalato” in the Langhe vineyards, a form of exploitation in which migrant workers are recruited by intermediaries – often other migrants – and forced to work in inhumane conditions for Italian companies. Union workers and activists believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Confagricoltura Cuneo, or the General Confederation on Italian Agriculture, estimated there are 2,500 viticulture companies that hire seasonal workers with various contracts. More than half of them are migrant workers, the group said. Labour rights activists estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people work in the vineyards and at least two-thirds of them face the risk of exploitation. Sajo arrived on the Sicilian coast in April 2015, dreaming of a good job that paid him enough to send money home to his wife and two children. “I’m Muslim,” he told Al Jazeera. “I don’t even drink wine.” Vineyards are seen in Barolo, Italy [File: Stefano Rellandini/Reuters] Sajo was granted asylum but lost his status in 2018 when the Italian government passed the so-called Salvini decree – a law named after Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League party – which abolished humanitarian protections. After his legal standing and, with it, his job and apartment were lost, Sajo began looking for casual work – day-labour jobs in agriculture. He slept rough and worked long hours for a few euros. One day in 2021 while he was in Sicily for the olive harvest, another seasonal worker, also from The Gambia, told him of an opportunity in Alba, a small town in the heart of the Langhe. It was grape season and a new workforce was needed. As soon as Sajo got off the train in Alba, he was approached by a man, a so-called caporale, or gangmaster, who offered him a job in the vineyards. In a mix of English and broken Italian, Sajo accepted wages of 3 euros ($3.27) an hour. He settled in a small makeshift camp that had been built in the woods by other vineyard workers from Africa on a bank of the Tanaro river. They had no toilets, no running water and no electricity. When they couldn’t afford bottled water, they used the muddy river water to wash themselves and cook. “That was the hardest time since I left Gambia,” he said. “I couldn’t even recharge my phone. I couldn’t call home.” Each day, Sajo woke before dawn and walked to the train station, where a gangmaster or one of his drivers picked him and others up in a van and drove them up into the hills to the vineyards. The workers were constantly watched. “We couldn’t take breaks to go to the restroom or drink water,” he said. The gangmaster’s men yelled at the farmhands to speed up and “threatened to fire us if we slowed down or spoke up”, he recalled. Balla*, another undocumented worker from The Gambia, worked in the vineyards around Alba from 2021 to the end of last year. “They called us bad names. Some even said racist words,” he said. He said payments were often late and lower than what was promised. “Some days, I didn’t have enough money to buy [food] for the next day,” he said. “When they paid you late, you couldn’t eat.” Access to water in the vineyards was also inconsistent. “Sometimes they gave me water. Sometimes they didn’t,” he said. Matteo Ascheri, president of the Consorzio Barolo Barbarossa, the main organisation representing Barolo producers, acknowledged the perils of the caporalato system, saying he worried about the potential impact of an exploitation scandal on the Barolo brand. “If a company breaks the law, it discredits all other companies,” he said. “It’s a huge problem.” Exploitation in the Italian winemaking industry isn’t limited to the Langhe. Caporalato in this sector traces back to the early 2000s when the government passed reforms that allowed labour outsourcing. A plethora of small intermediary companies were then able to offer cheaper manpower for hire in Italy’s wine country. “Within three or four years, the labour organisation in the agriculture sector completely changed,” said Fabio Berti, a sociologist at the University of Siena who has researched exploitation in the Tuscan winemaking industry. As international demand for Italian wine grew – international exports spiked by 74 percent from 2006 to 2016 – a lack of accountability and transparency requirements in subcontracting practices exposed workers to higher risks of exploitation, and undocumented workers were the most vulnerable. “The system works so well that producers no longer have any direct contact with workers,” said Piertomaso Bergesio, a representative of CGIL, one of the country’s main unions. “The dirtiest part of the job is done by someone else [intermediary companies] who takes up the risks [of hiring them] and the opportunity of profiting off the back of people who are completely at their mercy.” In recent years, caporalato cases have been documented in the northeast, where Prosecco is made, as well in the Chianti area. But compared with other sectors, there has been less scrutiny on vineyards. Employment officials said investigating caporalato in the winemaking industry requires more resources because of the vastness of the hills where the vineyards are located. But Bergesio and others believe there’s a code of silence. “Nobody wants to talk about it,” said Francesca Pinaffo, a journalist in Alba who’s been reporting on exploitation cases in the Langhe wine country for the past three years. “Viticulture is a huge business.” An anti-caporalato law that the Italian government approved in 2016 punishes convicted gangmasters with one to five years in jail and grants asylum to survivors who report them. But experts said the implementation of the law is difficult. Undocumented migrants are often afraid to file criminal complaints against their employers because it puts their incomes at risk. “These criminal proceedings can take years, but these people need answers now. They need to send money home,” said Marco Paggi, a lawyer specialising in exploitation in the Prosecco industry. Even when workers summon up the courage to report their exploiters, the law isn’t always implemented. In 2022, Sajo reported his woes to local law enforcement. But his case fell through the cracks, and his asylum request was never processed. To this day, he doesn’t know if his affidavit led to an investigation. But he has moved on, thanks to the help of local immigration rights activists. He has his legal status back and now has a job and an apartment. “I see a future now,” he said. Since Sajo filed his complaint, awareness has grown. In late 2022, local officials launched an outreach project with labour inspectors and cultural mediators from the International Organization for Migration to inform migrant workers of their rights and support those who want to file legal complaints. But experts said there is a long way to go. “[Caporalato has] become a system to control labour costs. Companies have no interest in changing anything,” Paggi said. The reporting for this piece was supported by Journalismfund Europe. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/19/migrant-workers-exploited-abused-in-italys-prized-fine-wine-vineyards