Nagorno-Karabakh

BBC News

Heavy fighting has erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, with both civilians and combatants killed.

Accusing Azerbaijan of air and artillery attacks, Armenia reported downing helicopters and destroying tanks, and declared martial law.

Azerbaijan said it had begun a counter-offensive in response to shelling.

The region is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians.

They broke away in the dying years of the Soviet Union. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan were part of the communist state, which sought to suppress ethnic and religious differences.

Amid the clashes, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said he was confident of regaining control over the breakaway region.

Martial law has also been declared in some regions of Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur, and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains.

The major cities of the region are Stepanakert, which serves as the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and Shusha, which lies partially in ruins.

Petroleum industry in Azerbaijan

The petroleum industry in Azerbaijan produced about 873,260 barrels (138,837 m3) of oil per day and 29 billion cubic meters of gas per year as of 2013. Azerbaijan is one of the birthplaces of the oil industry. Its history is linked to the fortunes of petroleum. It is poised to become an important oil and gas producer once again.

In April 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Baku supported anagreement between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other non-OPEC oil-producing countries to cut production in an effort to stabilise the oil market. Under the new agreement Azerbaijan would be expected to reduce its output by 164,000 barrels per day for the next two months. During this period, Azerbaijan would keep average daily crude oil production at a level not exceeding 554,000 barrels and the country would have to maintain daily oil production at the level of 587,000 barrels during the July-December period and 620,000 barrels between January 2021 and April 2022

Section 'France' in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum / Wikipedia On Marshal Pétain

As part of the armistice agreement France signed with Germany on June 22, France was divided into occupied and unoccupied zones. Germany occupied northern France and all of France's Atlantic coastline down to the border with Spain. 

A new French government was established in Vichy in the unoccupied southern part of the country. The Vichy government declared neutrality, but it was committed by the armistice provisions to cooperation with Germany.

Vichy administrators promulgated antisemitic legislation, “Aryanized” Jewish property, interned thousands, and periodically rounded up thousands of foreign and French Jews to transport to transit camps and, later, usually to Auschwitz, where most were murdered.

After the German invasion of France in 1940, Marshal Pétain became the head of the Government.

After The War

At the end of Pétain's trial, which took place from 23 July to 15 August 1945 and was held under the auspices of provisional government headed by De Gaulle, he was convicted on all charges.

The jury sentenced him to death by a one-vote majority. Due to his advanced age, the Court asked that the sentence not be carried out. De Gaulle, who was President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic at the end of the war, commuted the sentence to life imprisonment due to Pétain's age and his military contributions in World War I. After his conviction, the Court stripped Pétain of all military ranks and honours save for the one distinction of Marshal of France.

A Point Of View

People bang on about benefit culture, all that. There are piss-takers, no one doubts that but I know plenty of people on benefits who work hard, it’s just they don't get paid enough to cover the basics.

Now you can say “Get off your arse & get a better job." All right, say everyone does that. Whose gonna actually do the shitty jobs then? If you're working 40 hours a week and can't cover the bills, that ain't your fault. It's the fault of the slags paying you. So if you have to claim benefits then claim ‘em & don't feel bad about it. It's not you that is actually getting the benefit anyway, it's your employer. They pay you shit all & expect the State to pick up the tab.

Quote seen on Twitter

Atrributed to Danny Dyer

Bye Bye Custom Domain

 The world moves on, and I have other fish to fry. And some to not fry at all but to leave in their nascent state. Short story short, I did not renew the custom domain for this blog. And in order for this blog to show properly and to stop it trying to redirect to the domain that I no longer owned, I ....

I, what? How do I do it? I googled for how to do it and eventually found that I was just a short step away from doing it when I first guessed how to do it. And the way to do it is to go to settings / publishing / custom domain and click on that and you will then see an option to un-direct.