🇯🇵🍼 Interesting correlation with Sanseito voters and Southern Japan, which has Japan’s highest birth rates. The ones having kids vote Sanseito

🔗 CTC

🍻📉 Alcohol consumption is at its lowest rate since 1939, with Republicans leading the way.

🔗 AF Post

🇮🇱❌🇵🇸☦ — Israeli police have banned the Feast of the Transfiguration on August 19 at Mount Tabor. The event usually draws thousands of Orthodox pilgrims.

➡️Archbishop Atallah Hanna condemned the move as unjustified and part of wider restrictions on Christian celebrations, similar to the Holy Saturday.

📝Archbishop Atallah Hanna said:
[click to expand]

Our Orthodox Church will celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration next Tuesday, August 19 (according to the Eastern calendar), with the main celebration taking place at the Monastery of the Transfiguration on the summit of Mount Tabor.

Yesterday, the Israeli police issued a statement announcing a ban on holding the celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration, citing—as they claim—security reasons and matters related to public safety.

I warn against the consequences and dangers of this action, which infringes upon one of the important Christian feasts, recalling that something similar also happens on Holy Saturday in Jerusalem—as if there were a deliberate targeting of Christian holidays, aiming to disrupt these feasts and intimidate believers from reaching the holy sites where these spiritual occasions are held.

The Israeli police decision to ban the celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration is extremely serious. It is not within the police’s authority to decide whether a religious celebration takes place or not, and the so-called security and other pretexts cannot be believed in any way.

In past years, the mountain was crowded with worshippers and pilgrims—tens of thousands of them—coming from various regions. During that time, visitors from all over the world came to participate in this celebration and witness the cloud that appears on the night of the Feast of the Transfiguration.

We call for rejecting this decision and not surrendering or submitting to such arbitrary measures.

We respect the issue of public safety and understand the security situation, but this must not come at the expense of the feast or this religious occasion, which takes place only once a year on the summit of Mount Tabor.

Many are asking why our feasts are being targeted in this way and with pretexts that have no basis in truth. Is it an attempt to marginalize Christian religious occasions? Or an attempt to disrupt any Christian gathering at feasts and celebrations linked to this land—occasions through which Christians affirm their attachment to this holy land and their deep roots in its soil?

We demand the cancellation of this decision. Security and public safety concerns can be addressed by other means, not by canceling the celebration and preventing believers from reaching Mount Tabor on this sacred night.

Archbishop Atallah Hanna
Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia

Jerusalem, 15 August 2025

🇷🇼🇨🇩 M23 launched an offensive against the Congolese army (FARDC) and allied militia fighters in South Kivu in early August, violating the mid-July Qatari-brokered ceasefire.

M23’s offensive undermines the US-backed peace framework between the DRC and Rwanda and escalates the risk of large-scale fighting breaking out again in the eastern DRC.

M23 launched the offensive in the Walungu district in South Kivu on August 7 and reportedly aims to capture Nzibira—an FARDC logistics hub and gateway to the Shabunda district—20 miles south from Walungu town.

Both sides have reinforced their positions in several areas in North and South Kivu and traded accusations that each has violated the ceasefire and provoked military confrontation since August 10.

M23 likely aims to gain more leverage after direct peace talks with the DRC government stalled.

The DRC and M23 have remained at odds over the ceasefire’s long-term implementation and prisoner releases, which is a key confidence-building measure intended to create favorable dialogue conditions.

The two sides did not dispatch representatives for a second stage of talks by August 8 aimed at reaching a final peace deal, and it remains unclear when and if those talks will occur.

A complete breakdown of the ceasefire would undermine the US-brokered peace deal.

The US-brokered peace agreement mandates that the DRC and Rwanda “take all possible measures” to prevent nonstate armed groups from engaging in fighting and “not allow any military or hostile activities against each other on or from their respective territories or provide support for such activities abroad.”

Military escalation in South Kivu could lead to renewed Rwandan military action in the eastern DRC.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s recent rhetoric has set conditions to justify renewed Rwandan engagement, especially given the front lines in South Kivu are along the Rwandan border.

🔗 Critical Threats

—❗️🇷🇸 WATCH: Protesters were, for the second day in a row, gathered in front of the SNS building in Novi Sad, which has been vandalized.