(2) belongings, after their training ground was hit by Russian forces on Monday
Meet Jake Priday, British teacher from Cardiff, aged 25, 6’3” in height, whose Ukrainian adventure lasted 9 hrs - he's been in the British army for 6 years in Estonia, Kenya & Iraqi Kurdistan, where
(3) he helped train local militias in 2017 - his goal was to give Ukrainians basic medical training
he was packed with a bunch of other heroes-in-waiting, incl a Belarusian anarchist & a Bulgarian bouncer & neo-Nazi from London: “My plan is to kill as many Russians as I can”
(4) Jake thought he might be sent to a refugee camp to help the wounded & teach basic first aid, BUT co-ordinators explained that volunteers were expected to fight ON THE FRONTLINE after 5-7 days’ training
(5) details of the 5-7 days' training
(6) Signs emerged that they could be toast as soon as a contract was pulled out after the 1st breakfast - they were told to sign a contract stipulating that they would be paid US$230 a month & would have to remain in the Ukrainian foreign legion for the duration of the war
(7) PLUS: the most disturbing clause of the contract: they would be put under the same obligations as all Ukrainian men: under martial law declared by Zelensky on 24/2/2022 - no man aged 18-60 is allowed to leave, which means people might lose their jobs or houses in the West
(8) the contract also binds volunteers to serve for "an indefinite length of time" - none of these volunteers interviewed had been told about these terms before they crossed into Ukraine - in practice, those who no longer wished to fight could apply for a discharge & between 20
(9) & 30 volunteers have already been allowed to leave after signing on - the Ukrainian ministry of defence denied that the contract requires volunteers to sign on indefinitely but refused to share a copy
Jake ended up persuading 20 other volunteers not to sign
(10) Jake's dream of a war hero was shattered as once he refused to sign, he was immediately asked to leave the barracks
(11) a 21-year-old from Britain with no military experience who has been working dead-end jobs for years flew to Poland without telling his parents - Jake felt like the man was signing his “death warrant” but this youngster did leave Ukraine afterwards
(12) Yet Western 'volunteers" are still flocking to fight in Ukraine: French foreign legionnaires, Baltic ex-servicemen & American gun-nuts
a bulked-up former pilot from Louisiana who did 4 tours in Afghanistan sold his pick-up truck to fund his trip: “I’m just here to shoot”
(13) others: Balkan fighters in cargo pants; German hipsters-turned-gonzo humanitarians; Mormons from Utah, & a middle-aged Norwegian woman determined to ease the burden on Ukrainian mothers & take up a Kalashnikov "in the spirit of solidarity"
(14) another: a a Lithuanian volunteer seasoned in anti-tank warfare with a tattoo of a crusader on horseback across his chest
(21) Also Meet Ben Spann from Warwickshire in the UK, aged 36, who did not tell his wife or teenage son that he was going to Ukraine although he has never served in the military
(22) Ben spent 5 days in a "safe house" with 4 ex-British soldiers, & had a gun pointed at his head after the house was searched by a "Ukrainian SWAT team"
Ben, who runs an anti-knife crime charity & has grown cannabis, admits his Ukraine adventure was "an absolute nightmare"
(23) Ben was not impressed with the safe house.... calling it "a crack den in England", & didn't appreciate the 10 members of a Ukrainian SWAT team pointing AK-47s at their head in the safe house
(24) Ben's son was doubting whether he even cared about him, why he was doing this
he ended up travelling back to the Polish border where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have fled to
(25) The official line of the UK regime
(26) Hey yo, but Ben would still go back one day - that's "probably the ego side of him"
(27) Ukraine: Briton who travelled to warzone to join military fight against Russia leaves over 'suicide mission' fears
(29) Almost 40% of Americans polled by Quinnipiac University said they would rather flee than defend the US, BUT nearly 8 in 10 support U.S. Military Response "if Putin attacks a NATO country"
(1) Meet US scholar, Dr Christopher Rensing, 58, a world's leading microbiologist who was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology for 2021 - he has been working at Fujian Agriculture & Forestry University in Xiamen in China since 2016, where he established his
(2) own microbiology laboratory, in a new chapter of his life - (2) diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease in 1998, Dr Rensing is well supported in China (adapting his accessible apartment, office & lab, & helping him alleviate the financial stress of his medical treatment
(3) in China): "Chinese food, like Chinese people, gives me a warm comfort and superb feeling... we are family"
(1) Must watch banned documentary by French reporter on atrocities by Ukrainian Govt against their own people living in Donbass -children forced to live in basement for 7 years to avoid being killed by bombing, women speaking of finding the corpse of a beheaded pregnant woman
(2) in the mines - the tales are very depressing, please watch with this in mind
the female reporter who filmed this received a lot of personal attacks as the other side tried to smear NZ Herald
(1) Tsai can help - she reckons that imported US pork containing ractopamine feed additive & Japanese food imports from nuclear disaster areas Fukushima & 4 surrounding counties & cities could help to enhance Taiwan's ties with the "international community" (i.e. US poodles)
(1) Today in Hong Kong, a 31-year-old tutor was jailed for 27 years for conspiracy to murder and possession of unlicensed firearms - he instructed a woman he met online to kill a man over a financial dispute - plotting how she could commit the murder & even bought her #RaamWTF
(2) a silencer & taught her how to use it - the convict, 蘇翰韜, claimed in court that he knew the Edward Leung Tin-kei 梁天琦, the infamous independence advocate who coined the slogan "Liberate HK, the revolution of our times" & founded the now-disbanded "Hong Kong Indigenous",
(3) & Andy Chan Ho-tin, how founded the now-disbandedpro-independence "Hong Kong Nationalist Party", & that he used to provide Edward Leung & Andy Chan with "supplies", in an attempt to make the case sound "political" in nature, but the judge ignored the claim
(1) Raam salutes unsung heroes of Hong Kong's anti-epidemic efforts - construction workers from mainland China as well as local ones who are currently working tirelessly to build more makeshift hospitals & quarantine facilities with the support of the Central Government - these
(2) involve hundreds of construction managers & thousands of workers from China State Construction Int'l Holdings
the construction of a temporary bridge linking Lok Ma Chau Loop & Shenzhen city was recently completed to facilitate the construction of a makeshift hospital at Lok
(3) Ma Chau Loop, which involves the building of a hospital with 1,000 beds, as well as quarantine rooms that can accommodate 11,000 people
a number of the mainland-aided facilities have also been constructed & put into use within a short period of time with the help of the