Quote:A federal judge has upheld as constitutional provisions of the sweeping election law that Ohio put in place last year, rejecting a Democratic law firm's challenge to strict new photo ID requirements, drop box restrictions and tightened deadlines related to absentee and provisional ballots.

In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Nugent determined that the state's new photo ID requirement “imposes no more than a minimal burden, if any, for the vast majority of voters."

Nugent also rejected the other claims asserted by the Elias Law Group, whose suit filed last year on behalf of groups representing military veterans, teachers, retirees and the homeless argued the law imposed "needless and discriminatory burdens” on the right to vote.

The suit was filed the same day Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed the legislation over the objections of voting rights, labor, environmental and civil rights groups that had been pleading for a veto.

The judge wrote that voters have no constitutional right to a mail-in voting option — or, for that matter, early voting — at all. He added that Ohio's new schedule for obtaining and returning absentee ballots remains more generous than 30 other states.

Quote:A federal judge in Nevada has dismissed a lawsuit to keep former President Donald Trump off the state’s ballot, ruling that the political challenger lacked standing because he was “creating his own injury.”

John Anthony Castro, a long-shot GOP presidential candidate, has filed and lost several lawsuits against President Trump’s ballot eligibility in multiple states, citing the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.

In a four-page ruling on Monday, Judge Gloria Navarro determined that Mr. Castro did not have standing to file the lawsuit in Nevada as a political competitor, noting that this was in line with the rulings of “multiple federal courts” that found the challenger “is creating his own injury in order to manufacture standing.”

Judge Navarro cited an October article from The Associated Press in which Mr. Castro admitted he had no serious intention to pursue a presidential campaign. Mr. Castro submitted the article to the court for consideration of his standing; however, it ended up working against his claim.

“To have standing to sue in federal court, a plaintiff must have suffered a concrete, particularized, and actual or imminent injury in fact that was caused by the defendant’s challenged conduct and is redressable by a favorable decision,” Judge Navarro wrote in his ruling.

According to court documents, Mr. Castro claimed the injury of “receiving fewer votes than he would if Trump was prohibited from appearing on the ballot.”

Quote:The challenge to former president Donald Trump’s inclusion on the 2024 ballot is being pursued in a number of states, including Oregon, where the opposing parties have submitted court documents outlining their arguments regarding the validity of the challenge.

The obstacles for President Trump’s inclusion on the ballot stem from a Civil War-era provision of the 14th Amendment that forbids the holding of federal office by anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” Whether this provision applies to the presidency is as yet undecided in the state.

Five voters from Oregon had their case (pdf) taken up by the advocacy group Free Speech For People last month when a suit was filed to prevent President Trump from being represented on the ballot.
According to their argument, Trump is unable to appear on the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment because of his actions on Jan. 6, 2021. Anyone convicted of “insurrection or rebellion” is disqualified from holding public office, according to that provision. After Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade stated that she lacked the power to remove Trump from the primary ballot, the lawsuit was filed in retaliation.

In their Jan. 8 brief filed with the Oregon Supreme Court, plaintiffs outlined their case to prevent President Trump from appearing on the Oregon ballot by arguing that the court should reject the secretary’s request to limit the review to state law questions.

The document challenged President Trump’s reliance on what they deemed unpersuasive and discredited decisions, asserting that the issues in question were not conclusively resolved during the Senate impeachment trial, highlighting potential conflicts in decisions.

Additionally, the brief interpreted Section 3 of the 14th Amendment as not requiring federal legislation and addressed President Trump’s specific claims about its implications for insurrectionists.
...
In a lengthy filing (pdf) submitted on Dec. 29, 2023, President Trump’s representation provides seven reasons why he ought to be included on the ballot in Oregon.

Among these positions are the assertions that the five plaintiffs do not have the legal right to file a lawsuit, that the insurrection clause of the Constitution does not apply to the Executive Office of the President, and that the clause may only be enforced by Congress. President Trump also contends that the protest and riot that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, did not constitute a “insurrection.”

“There is a crucial difference between insurrections and political riots—even riots that disrupt government processes,” the filing reads.

In the days leading up to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, President Trump made several assertions that the presidential election of 2020 was stolen and that he was the rightful winner. He also sought to find a way to reverse the decision of several states to put their electors behind his opponent at the time, Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

Quote:With House Republicans set to start impeachment proceedings against him, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reiterated his stance that the blame for the rapidly deteriorating situation at the U.S.–Mexico border lies with Congress, not with his leadership.

“We will continue to do everything we can, and we will continue to enforce the law. But we need Congress to make the legislative changes and provide the funding that our frontline officers so desperately need,” Mr. Mayorkas told reporters at a Jan. 8 press conference in Eagle Pass, Texas.

Describing U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel as “heroes,” the secretary commended agents for coping with yet another record-breaking month of encounters with illegal border-crossers in December—a situation he blamed on a lack of immigration enforcement in Mexico and the United States’ existing immigration laws.

“We now need Congress to do their part and act. Our immigration system is outdated and broken and has been in need of reform for literally decades. On this, everyone agrees. It is the very reason why President [Joe] Biden submitted to Congress on his very first day in office proposed legislation,” he said.
...
The referenced supplemental funding request included $20 billion for border security but tied those funds to additional funding for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Republicans ultimately shot down the measure, holding that the president’s priority should be securing the borders of the United States, not those of other countries.
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“At the end of the day, Republicans aren’t budging until we secure the border,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told News Nation on Dec. 12. “That’s the question that all America is asking Joe Biden right now: ‘Why do Republicans have to beg Joe Biden to secure the border?’ That’s part of his job.”
...
“That means changing the policy,” he said. “It means Remain in Mexico. It means changing the asylum policy; it means ending all this probation. That means building the wall, [and] more Border Patrol officers. That’s what it means.”

Mr. Mayorkas’s border trip comes ahead of the House Homeland Security Committee’s first impeachment hearing against the secretary since the House referred articles of impeachment to the panel in November.

The full committee hearing, set for Jan. 10, is expected to focus on how the secretary’s leadership has adversely affected the Heartland states of Montana, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

Quote:Following a visit to the southern border last week, some House Republicans urged their colleagues to treat the situation at the border as a major national security risk and to be willing to force a government shutdown to get Democrats and the Biden administration to accept stricter immigration policies and border security measures.

Around 60 House Republicans visited the west Texas border town of Eagle Pass last week. Speaking with NTD’s “Capitol Report” on Tuesday, Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) said that the trip marked his fourth visit to the U.S. southern border and that he agreed to go once again to see “how bad the conditions had evolved over the last year.”

“We have major, major problems and I continue to say this is an imminent national security threat,” he said.

Mr. Rosendale noted reported preliminary estimates that U.S. border personnel recorded about 302,000 encounters along the U.S. southern border in December, which would represent the busiest month on record for border officials.

Mr. Rosendale said that upon arriving in Eagle Pass, he also learned that border officials in that sector were working to process about 10,000 illegal immigrants, of whom 200 were deemed individuals of special interest “meaning that they weren’t sure exactly where they were from, they weren’t sure what exactly their intentions were when they arrived here.” He said these 200 special interest individuals and the broader group of 10,000 illegal immigrants were ultimately “whisked off and distributed around the country” before border officials could perform additional vetting efforts.

Quote:House Speaker Mike Johnson met with the envoy of Taiwan in the U.S. Capitol today, amid increased harassment of the island by communist China.

Mr. Johnson vowed to continue supporting the Taiwanese people as they respond to military provocations from the mainland.

“We stand shoulder to shoulder with the Taiwanese people,” Mr. Johnson told reporters.
...
Mr. Johnson’s meeting with Envoy Alexander Yui, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, is likely to rankle CCP authorities in Beijing, who claim that Taiwan is part of China.

For his part, Mr. Yui said he was looking forward to “further strengthen[ing] our rock-solid friendship.”
...
The CCP has embarked upon a campaign of intimidation and harassment against Taiwan as the democratic island prepares to vote for a new president on Saturday.
Throughout the week, China has launched several balloons and one rocket over Taiwan, which experts believe is part of an attempt to influence the outcome of Taiwan’s upcoming presidential election later this week.

Taiwan’s government issued an air raid alert on Tuesday after China launched a rocket carrying a satellite over Taiwan’s airspace. Its foreign minister described the episode as part of a larger pattern of harassment intended to sway voters ahead of the election.

White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said the Biden administration remained committed to supporting free and fair elections in Taiwan.

Quote:Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin underwent surgery in December 2023 for prostate cancer, the U.S. Department of Defense disclosed on Jan. 9.

Doctors from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, identified the cancer through laboratory tests in early December. They decided to perform an operation to treat and cure it. Mr. Austin went to the center on Dec. 22 and underwent a “minimally invasive surgical procedure” to treat and cure prostate cancer, the doctors said. He was under general anesthesia.

Mr. Austin was released the following day.

After experiencing complications including severe abdominal pain, Mr. Austin returned to the hospital on Jan. 1. Doctors diagnosed a urinary tract infection and transferred him to the intensive care unit for close monitoring. Additional evaluation revealed fluid had collected in his abdomen, which affected his small intestines and resulted in a backup of intestinal content. Doctors placed a tube through Mr. Austin’s nose and drained the fluid.

Since then, Mr. Austin has “progressed steadily,” said Dr. John Maddox, trauma medical director, and Dr. Gregory Chesnut, a urology specialist, in a joint statement. The infection has cleared and Mr. Austin is expected to fully recover, “although this can be a slow process,” they said.

Mr. Austin was still hospitalized, in good condition, as of Jan. 9. He has been working, according to military officials.
...
President Joe Biden did not learn of the cancer diagnosis until Tuesday, John Kirby, a White House spokesman, told reporters in Washington.

“Nobody at the White House knew Secretary Austin had prostrate cancer until this morning,” Mr. Kirby said.

Quote:A U.S. congressman is moving to impeach Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin after the secretary and his staff hid the fact he was hospitalized from the White House and the public.

“Secretary Austin has violated his oath of office time and time again, and has jeopardized the lives of the American people,” Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) said in a statement.

Mr. Rosendale pointed to how the U.S. military allowed a Chinese spy balloon to fly over the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, which holds intercontinental ballistic missiles, and subsequently fly further without shooting it down or taking any other action.
...
“This dishonesty seems to be a repeated pattern for the secretary as he once again lied to our military and the American people about his health last week,” Mr. Rosendale added.

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Austin, 70, a retired general, underwent an elective procedure on Dec. 22, 2023, before being released home, according to the Pentagon. Neither Mr. Austin nor other officials told the White House or the public about the procedure.

Mr. Austin started suffering from “severe pain” on Jan. 1 and was rushed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder has said. Mr. Austin was treated in intensive care and was “in quite a bit of pain” but was conscious, Mr. Ryder said.

A small circle of officials were told of the hospitalization, but not the White House nor Kathleen Hicks, the deputy secretary of defense. Some of Mr. Austin’s authorities were transferred to Ms. Hicks on Jan. 2, but she was not informed of the hospitalization until Jan. 4. National security adviser Jake Sullivan was told that same day.

Quote:Downward revisions of employment data for 10 of the past 12 months show that the Biden administration initially overstated job growth in 2023 by nearly half a million positions.

Touting job growth is a standard talking point for political leaders, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) monthly data releases—so-called nonfarm payrolls—providing an opportunity for presidents to take credit for a strong-performing economy.

December’s nonfarm payrolls report showed that the economy added 216,000 new positions. President Joe Biden called 2023 a “great year for American workers” and bragged that “the economy created 2.7 million new jobs in 2023—a year when the unemployment rate was consistently below 4 percent.”

While the 2.7 million jobs added in 2023 that President Biden touted are already adjusted except for December numbers, which will be revised later, they were overstated by an average of around 44,000 per month when the numbers were first presented.

For 10 of the 11 months last year for which revisions are known, the direction has been the same—down. July 2023 was the only exception to the rule (initially reported 187,00, later revised up to 236,000).

Overall, the downward revisions in 2023 amounted to 443,000.
...
“Dec.’s number is likely to be revised lower next month,” Peter Schiff, chief economist and global strategist at Euro Pacific Capital, said in a post on X. He pointed out that ten “of the last 11 jobs reports have been revised sharply lower” while suggesting something odd is going on.
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BLS says it’s normal for there to be revisions in the job growth data since the numbers are based on surveys, and they’re normally adjusted in subsequent months when more information becomes available.
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[President of Spectra Markets Brent] Donnelly shared a chart going back to 1997 that shows there have been 172 upward revisions and 149 downward revisions over that period, “and the average upward revision is much larger than the downward ones.”

“Revisions go up. Revisions go down. It’s noise, not a complex government conspiracy,” he wrote.

Quote:A report last week from the Court of Auditors, an independent government body responsible for tracking the use of public money, found that combatting illegal migration costs the French taxpayer a staggering 1.8 billion euros per year, representing ten per cent of total police expenses. The revelation fundamentally undermines the premise pushed by the left and globalist forces that mass migration is a net benefit to society.

Meanwhile, the government’s performance was also criticised by the auditor’s report, which found that border controls are “very limited” and that the border police only recorded the identity of migrants who were actually arrested. Even then, border officials regularly refused to enter their identities into a national information system, which the report noted would have assisted the government in being able to deport them later.

In addition, border officials often fail to perform basic police background checks on illegal migrants entering the country, the report found, potentially endangering the country to further violence and terror attacks.

The daming review of the government’s performance and the cost to the public was due to be released to the public on December 13th, however, its publication was withheld until last week by the president of the Court of Auditors Pierre Moscovici, a former member of the Communist Revolutionary League, who later served as Eurocrat and a finance minister for the socialist government of former French President François Hollande.

Quote:Half of all asylum seekers who claimed to be children in Britain since 2020 have turned out to be adults, with dozens even being above the age of thirty.

The practice of migrants claiming to be children, which increases their chances of the UK government granting them asylum in Britain, has increased to such a level that 45 per cent of the 8,766 migrants who claimed to be “kids” were reality adults, equating to 3,944 cases.

According to information from the Migration Watch UK reported by The Sun, there were 1,582 cases of migrants fraudulently claiming to be children in 2022, compared to 227 a decade prior. The think tank went on to reveal that 887 asylum seekers, at least 52 of whom were older than 30, falsely told border officials that they were children between January and September of last year.

The most prevalent country of origin for the fraudster migrants was Afghanistan with 1,361 cases, followed by Iran with 612, and Sudan with 550.

Migration Watch chairman Alp Mehmet told the paper: “That so many still go for this ruse, even when they obviously look much older, tells me it’s a deception that often works.”

The issue of asylum seekers posing as children has been longstanding in Britain, with minors being afforded increased welfare and protections compared to adult migrants and increased chances of being granted the right to remain in the country.

A particularly egregious example came in 2020 after a supposed child migrant who “looked 40” was placed alongside teenage schoolchildren in Coventry, England. “He’s got a receding hairline for God’s sake,” one parent exclaimed at the time.

Quote:Thousands of farmers began a week-long revolt on Monday in response to anti-farmer policies from the leftist government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with slow-moving tractors, trucks and other vehicles being used to bring the country to a halt.

The German government has a budget black hole to solve, and while some areas of spending are enjoying massive boosts — like underwriting the war in Ukraine — domestic spending cuts and tax hikes are going ahead. Among them are ending green tax exemptions for farming vehicles and scaling back agricultural subsidies, sparking outrage among the German farming community who have warned that the government’s policies threaten the very survival of the industry.

Rather than treat the concerns of the farmers with dignity, the political establishment has chosen instead to attempt to tarnish the rural revolt as being a creation of nefarious forces. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who was personally protested against by farmers last week, claimed that Russia was seeking to instigate the protests.

“Social media campaigns, some of which are paid for by Putin, in which you present yourself as a victim in order to justify violence against people and things, political programs that advocate overthrow or even repopulation and always blame others, right-wing radicals who use the protective space of freedom to abolish it… We cannot tolerate that,” Habeck said per broadcaster NTV.

Despite the apparently broad political base of farmers involved in the action, the legacy media in Germany has also attempted to brand the protests as being tied to the “far-right”. Although the farmers have drawn support from centrist political figures, including Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Friedrich Merz, state-owned media Deutsche Welle proclaimed on Monday that “Germany’s far-right exploits farmers’ protests”.

Highlighting the backing of the populist right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has surged in the polls to one of the top parties in the country, surpassing all of the three parties that comprise the coalition government, DW not only branded the party as “far-right” — a label the party rejects — but also openly compared it to the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler.
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While liberal elements in Germany have often branded the AfD as anti-democratic, the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Chancellor Scholz has argued as recently as last week that the surging populist party should be banned outright. It has been argued banning the second-place polling party in Germany is necessary to protect democracy.

It sounds to me like a quick way to get rid of political opponents without filing lawsuits at any state court like other are doing as of late in another country...

Quote:SMERSH, a counter-intelligence agency with its name deriving from an abbreviation of the Russian for ‘death to spies’ appears to be active again, a British intelligence digest notes, stating that Russian “operatives” wearing insignia of the group have now been spotted. Russia had already announced it was reforming SMERSH in 2023, notes Ukraine’s state media organisation Ukrinform, and the UK Ministry of Defence notes that what this means for Russia’s actual capability is unclear, it nevertheless underlines Russia’s “strong focus on the supposed infiltration of external threats into the country”.

The actual official existence of SMERSH only lasted a few years in the 1940s, and for most of the history of the Soviet Union counter-espionage was the responsibility of the intelligence agency known as the KGB. Nevertheless, SMERSH remained well known in the West because it featured in the James Bond books by British intelligence officer Ian Flemming, who worked for the UK’s Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War when SMERSH was active.

Russia has repeatedly made comparisons between its war against Ukraine, the reinvasion now nearly two years old and first invasion now approaching a decade ago, and the Second World War. Russia has used the presence of neo-nazi militias in Ukraine as a justification for the war, linking its supposed “denazification” of Ukraine to Russia’s successful destruction of the Third Reich in 1945 as part of the Allies with the United States and United Kingdom. As noted by the MOD, the return of the Second World War-vintage SMERSH label is another layer to that conscious couching of the conflict “in the spirit” of that historic conflict.

Quote:South Korea lawmakers on Tuesday passed a bill banning the breeding, slaughtering, and selling dogs for their meat. The move ends a centuries-old practice activists have slammed as a national embarrassment.

South Korean cuisine has long featured dog meat and at one point up to a million dogs were killed for the trade every year, according to activists cited by AFP.

But consumption has sharply declined recently as Koreans welcome pet ownership in droves and embrace loving their four-legged friends rather than eating them.

AFP reports official support for a ban has grown under President Yoon Suk Yeol, a self-professed animal lover who has adopted several stray dogs and cats with First Lady Kim Keon-hee — who is herself a vocal critic of dog meat consumption.

The bill, which was proposed by both the ruling and main opposition parties, was passed unanimously by a 208-0 vote.

Under the law, raising or slaughtering dogs for consumption will be banned, as will distributing or selling dog meat. Those found guilty of doing so could be sent to jail.

Those butchering dogs could face up to three years in prison, while those who raise dogs for meat or sell dog meat could serve a maximum of two years.

However, the consumption of dog meat itself will not be illegal, the BBC notes.

Quote:South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) on Monday released a photo of a North Korean F-7 rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) that was reportedly used by Hamas terrorists.

The South Korean government said it is “very seriously concerned about the transfer of North Korean weapons” to hostile overseas forces.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lim Soo-suk noted that any arms traffic with North Korea violates several U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, threatens international safety, and jeopardizes the security of the Korean Peninsula.

The NIS published a photo of a captured Hamas rocket grenade that had Korean writing on its fuse. The NIS said this evidence supported a report published by Voice of America News (VOA) on Friday that revealed North Korean weapons had been recovered from Hamas fighters, as well as the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen.

In addition to the portable rocket grenade, VOA posted a photo of an engine fragment from an intercepted Houthi missile launched at Israel. The fragment appeared to have Korean writing on it.

South Korean officials told the Associated Press (AP) in October that North Korean weapons were used in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, including F-7 RPGs. The F-7 is a copy of a venerable Soviet design that has been modified to inflict more damage against human targets, while the Soviet original was intended for use against armored vehicles.

Quote:India declined to join President Joe Biden’s “Operation Prosperity Guardian” security initiative for the Red Sea, but senior Indian Navy officials said they had dispatched ten warships on Monday to deter the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen and other pirates.

“Indian warships are deployed all over the region to enhance surveillance and deterrence against the twin threats from pirates and drone strikes. The aim is to help stabilize the situation in the Arabian Sea and promote net maritime security,” an Indian naval officer told the Times of India (TOI) on Monday.

TOI reported India has dispatched three more guided-missile destroyers plus two frigates to join the INS Chennai, the guided-missile destroyer that foiled a hijacking attempt by pirates off the coast of Somalia on Thursday. The Indian Navy said the incident, combined with a hijacking and drone attack in December, made it clear that threats were moving closer to India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

“Our warships have investigated a large number of vessels plying in the region,” another Indian Navy officer told TOI. “Several have been boarded by marine commandos.”

The second officer was eager to dispel the “misconception” that Indian warships are not as well-equipped to repel drone attacks as the U.S. and British navies, which have been remarkably successful at shooting down Houthi drones. The officer said India’s ships carry “a variety of guns, short- and medium-range air defense missiles,” and “some jammers that can be used if a situation warrants.”

Quote:A Nevada judge set bail Tuesday at $750,000 for a former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with orchestrating the killing of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur in 1996, saying he can serve house arrest with electronic monitoring ahead of trial on a murder charge.

Court-appointed attorneys for Duane “Keffe D” Davis told The Associated Press after the judge’s decision that they believe Davis can post that amount. They had asked for bail of not more than $100,000 and noted for the judge that the demands of preparing a defense based on two decades of evidence may require a postponement of the current June trial date.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told reporters that he expects Clark County District Judge Carli Kierny will hold a “source hearing” to determine whether money posted for bail is legally obtained. The judge did not set a new trial date but called for a status check Feb. 20.

Prosecutors Binu Palal and Marc DiGiacomo argued Tuesday that Davis has never left gang life, that his 15 years of admissions about his role in Shakur’s killing show he is guilty of murder, and that a jailhouse phone call in October suggested he poses a threat to witnesses.

“There is one constant,” Palal told the judge. “Mr. Davis has consistently admitted to being architect of the murder.”

DiGiacomo called Davis “a very, very high danger to the community.”

The judge, in her ruling, acknowledged that Davis “made a living talking about his past life as a leader of the South Side Crips,” a street gang in his hometown of Compton, California, “and also the killing of Mr. Shakur in graphic detail.”

Quote:There are calls for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to be disqualified from Donald Trump's Georgia election-interference case, following unsubstantiated allegations she has been involved in a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade. He was hired as a special prosecutor for the proceedings.

The claim was made by Michael Roman, one of Trump's co-defendants, in a legal motion filed on Monday. It seeks to have his seven charges dismissed and Willis and her staff members disqualified from the case. Newsweek reached out to the Fulton County District Attorney's office and representatives of Trump for comment by email on Tuesday.

In August 2023, Trump and 18 others were indicted in Georgia over claims they broke the law while attempting to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory in the state. The former president is facing 13 criminal charges in Georgia including an accusation that he violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, initially introduced to combat organized crime. Trump has pled not guilty to all counts and has repeatedly said that the case against him is politically motivated.

Reacting on his Truth Social website, Trump called for all the charges in the Georgia case to be dropped following the allegations against Willis.

The former president wrote: "ALL CHARGES AGAINST ME, AND OTHERS, SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY DROPPED, WITH APOLOGIES, AND MONETARY DAMAGES FOR THE ILLEGAL AND HIGHLY POLITICAL PERSECUTION OF INNOCENT PEOPLE."

But Willis might soon to face a legal battle of her own based on our next article...

Quote:Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has been urged to launch a criminal investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Wilis over allegations she had an "improper" relationship with a special prosecutor involved in the election interference case against Donald Trump.

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch supporter of the former president, filed a complaint Wednesday requesting an inquiry into Willis over the allegations which emerged in legal filings submitted by an attorney for Michael Roman, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others in Willis' RICO probe.

The document from Roman's lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, accused Willis of having an "improper, clandestine personal relationship" with Nathan Wade, whom the Fulton County DA hired as special prosecutor in her investigation into Trump. The allegations include Wade and Willis going on vacations together while working on the case.

Merchant also says that Willis hired Wade to work on the case without the required approval by the county and is asking for the case against Roman to be dismissed as a result. The allegations are not backed up by evidence in the legal filings, with Merchant citing unnamed "sources" for her claims.

In her letter to Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr, Greene urged an investigation into the allegations that Willis "illegally hired her secret boyfriend" to work on an "unprecedented, complex, and partisan" investigation into Trump and others.

Will the case and her reputation plummet in the near future?  Time will tell.

Quote:Dr. Anthony Fauci provided ammo to Republicans this week as he reportedly acknowledged that claims that the COVID-19 virus stemmed from a lab leak in Wuhan, China, was not a "conspiracy" theory.

Fauci's testimony this week comes amid ongoing speculation among Republicans that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) previously determined with a "low confidence" rating that the virus likely originated from a lab leak, the Wall Street Journal previously reported.
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"He testified that the lab leak hypothesis—which was often suppressed—was, in fact, not a conspiracy theory," Committee Chairman Representative Brad Wenstrup said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement also included key takeaways from Fauci's closed-door testimony which said, "Dr. Fauci acknowledged that the lab leak hypothesis is not a conspiracy theory. This comes nearly four years after prompting the publication of the now infamous 'Proximal Origin' paper that attempted to vilify and disprove the lab leak hypothesis."
...
"You have to look at the data. I don't see any data for a lab leak...That doesn't mean it could not have happened, and that's the reason I keep an open mind always about that," Fauci said during an interview with the Boston Globe in February 2023.

In 2022, Fauci spoke again about the theory during an interview with NBC's Meet the Press saying, "I have a completely open mind about that, despite people saying that I don't."

In the statement following his second day of testimony this week, the COVID-19 Select Subcommittee also said that Fauci "claimed that the '6 feet apart' social distancing recommendation promoted by federal health officials was likely not based on any data."

"Dr. Fauci admitted that America's vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic could increase vaccine hesitancy in the future. Previously, Dr. Fauci advocated 'that when you make it difficult for people in their lives, they lose their ideological bullshit, and they get vaccinated,'" the statement added.

Quote:Ahead of a thunderstorm Tuesday evening, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) is moving nearly 2,000 border crossers and illegal aliens from Floyd Bennett Field into a Brooklyn high school’s gymnasium — forcing students into virtual classes.

On Tuesday, Adams announced that the border crossers and illegal aliens would be moved from Floyd Bennett Field, where they have been staying, to the gym at James Madison High School in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn.

School faculty were told to take important items with them from their classrooms and offices when they left campus on Tuesday.

As a result, James Madison High School Principal Jodie Cohen notified parents, students, and faculty that they would have to go virtual on Wednesday to accommodate the border crossers and illegal aliens and their gym being turned into a migrant shelter.

“I am writing with an update regarding the activation of James Madison High School as a temporary overnight respite center due to the forecast of potential high winds and flooding conditions beginning this evening through tomorrow morning,” Cohen wrote in a letter posted to the school’s website.:

Quote:Russia's latest onslaught of drones and missiles against Ukraine has been made possible by imports of Western technology through the "widespread and systemic" evasion of sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies, a new Ukrainian study shows.

Russia each month imports billions of dollars in technology for its war effort, evading Western sanctions by routing the trade through China, NATO member Turkey and other countries, according to a new report by the KSE Institute, a think tank at the Kyiv School of Economics, to which Newsweek was given exclusive access.

The sanctions evasion has helped sustain Russia's military as President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks has signaled plans for a protracted conflict in Ukraine. The war has reached a critical stage, with Russian forces dug in in eastern Ukraine and Ukraine struggling to defend its territory without additional military aid from the West.

"The sanctions are not effective enough right now," Olena Bilousova, the senior researcher on military and dual-use goods at KSE Institute, told Newsweek. Russia's barrage of missile and drone strikes inside Ukraine underscore the problem, she said. "They're all made from Western components."

The KSE Institute report was produced jointly with the Yermak-McFaul International Working Group on Russian Sanctions, which is led by Andrii Yermak, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

In the first 10 months of 2023, Russia imported $8.7 billion in semiconductors, communications technology and other high-priority goods produced primarily for military use that fall under export controls put in place against Russia by the U.S., the European Union and other nations backing Ukraine, according to the study.

During the same period, Russia imported $22.2 billion in electronics, computer components and other so-called critical components that can be used for civilian purposes or adopted for military use, the report found.

Quote:The New York Times reported on Thursday that a Pentagon document discussing that a massive military aid package sent to Ukraine has not been properly tracked, prompting concerns regarding its whereabouts.

"It was beyond the scope of our evaluation to determine whether there has been diversion of such assistance," the Pentagon report said.

The package included different military aid to Ukraine amid its war with Russia, such as missiles, drones and night vision equipment. The report was created by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Defense and sent to Congress on Wednesday, the Times said.
...
As many Republicans have continued to criticize the different aid packages the U.S. government has sent to Ukraine, the report on Thursday sparked further backlash.

"We have sent Ukraine BILLIONS in liquid cash and billions more in weapons and ammunition. The kicker? We have no idea where it all went! Yet Speaker Johnson wants to tie securing America's border to MORE aid for Ukraine," Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "I'm a HARD NO!! #AmericaFirst."

"BREAKING: Pentagon report concludes that over 40,000 weapons worth well over $1 billion that the U.S. sent to Ukraine has been lost and can not be tracked. Is anyone actually surprised? What a disaster..." X user Proud Elephant wrote.

Quote:An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday threatened a nuclear attack if Ukraine continues to destroy Russia's missile launchers.

"Certain thickheaded trench monkeys of Banderostan have made a point that the best method to fight Russia is to destroy our missile launchers all over Russia using the Western-provided long-range missiles," Dmitry Medvedev, who serves as the deputy chair of Russia's security council, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"What does it mean? Just one thing: they risk matching Point 19 of Foundations of State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Area of Nuclear Deterrence, (d): '[A]ggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of state is in jeopardy.'"

Medvedev, who previously served as Russia's president and prime minister, claimed that Ukraine's attacks have "nothing to do with the right of self-defense," adding, "it is an unequivocal and obvious ground for us to use the nuclear weapons against such a state.
...
On Tuesday, Ukraine's special operations forces released a video on Facebook claiming to show the military using a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to destroy a Russian TOS-1A, a multiple launch rocket system, in southern Ukraine.

The video showed the TOS-1A camouflaged in a forest and then a fiery explosion. In the caption of the video, Ukrainian forces wrote, translated into English: "see how beautifully it burns."

Quote:The Texas Military Department seized a city-owned golf course located in the busiest border crossing point along the Rio Grande. The Texas National Guard then ejected U.S. Border Patrol agents from the park and took total control of this section of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Border Patrol officials told Breitbart Texas that Texas National Guard units quickly moved into Shelby Park in Eagle Pass on Thursday. The guardsmen erected barriers around the park and instructed Border Patrol agents to leave the area.

“This move only serves to raise tensions at the ground level between the State and Border Patrol agents who are bound by policy set in Washington D.C.,” the official stated. If the number of crossings we saw in December return, we will be the first ones the State calls to deal with another humanitarian crisis of that magnitude.”

The Texas Military Department moved quickly to secure the area under the authority of Governor Greg Abbott’s emergency declaration and Operation Lone Star. It is not clear what the National Guard soldiers will do if any migrants attempt to cross the border into Shelby Park.

Finally, somebody is doing the job but we can't tell for certain for how long they will be able to do so.

Quote:House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) launched an investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Friday for accepting more than $14.6 million in grant funds from President Joe Biden’s Justice Department (DOJ) between 2020 and 2023.

The timeframe of the funds suggests the DOJ granted Willis federal funds to finance former President Donald Trump’s prosecution.

Jordan sent a letter to Nathan Wade, a Willis associate, requesting documents and information about the coordination of Willis’s office with politically motivated probes and alleged misuse of federal funds.

Jordan’s letter comes after a Monday court filing by Mike Roman, a political operative and co-defendant of Trump in the Georgia election case, who alleged four explosive facts about Willis’s conduct while prosecuting Trump:

1. Nathan Wade, Willis’s lead prosecutor in the Trump case, had an “improper” relationship with Willis.
   
2. Wade’s law firm used funds paid by the county to take Willis on luxury vacations by using potentially fraudulent payments.
   
3. Wade was appointed without the required approval by authorities and had little to no prosecutorial experience.
   
4. Wade met twice with President Joe Biden’s White House counsel before indicting Trump in August, calling into question if the White House coordinated prosecuting Biden’s 2024 political opponent.
   

And here's the joke of the week, guys!

Quote:Hunter Biden said Friday he will sit for a closed-door deposition if Congress reissues a subpoena, arguing the prior subpoenas “are legally invalid” because the impeachment inquiry “did not yet exist when the subpoenas were issued,” Hunter’s lawyer wrote in a letter to congressional leaders obtained by Breitbart News.

The letter comes just hours after the House of Representatives set a vote next week to hold Hunter in contempt of Congress for repeatedly defying subpoenas. Hunter failed to appear for a subpoenaed closed-door deposition in December, offering instead to only testify in public before the committee.

In response, the House Oversight Committee voted on Wednesday to advance a contempt of Congress resolution against Hunter to the House floor.

It appears Hunter fears the House will approve holding him in contempt. Abbe Lowell, Hunter’s lawyer, told House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) that Hunter will sit for a closed-door deposition if another subpoena is issued:

Consequently, the November 8 and 9, 2023, deposition subpoenas to Mr. Biden and the contempt resolutions approved by your committees on January 10, 2024, based on those subpoenas were and are legally invalid. You have not explained why you are not interested in transparency and having the American people witness the full and complete testimony of Mr. Biden at a public hearing. If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorized impeachment inquiry, Mr. Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition. We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf.

Quote:According to records reviewed by the New York Post, Streisand’s Barwood Films Ltd. received the COVID relief loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in 2020 and 2021. These loans were later excused by the federal government and Streisand did not have to pay them back.

However, instead of the funds going to support the film company’s staff, some of the cash went to pay for the Funny Girl star’s personal gardener at her Malibu home.

A spokesperson for Streisand has disputed the claim that her gardener was paid by COVID relief funds, but the paper determined that the gardener is listed as an employee of Barwood Films Ltd. and the company took the funding to pay its employees for those few years.

The Post added that Barwood Films Ltd. qualified as a “small business” at the start of the pandemic when it applied for the funding meant to keep small businesses afloat during the Democrat’s constant social and business shut downs.

“Almost all PPP loans have been forgiven: Out of $793 billion issued, the SBA has written off $762 billion,” the Post added.

Quote:On Thursday’s broadcast of ABC’s “GMA3,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) stated that the city has “done a great job” handling the migrant surge and the problem “has nothing to do with sanctuary cities.” It’s because the migrants aren’t being spread across the nation. He also criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ® for “his intentionality of just placing people on buses, compelling them to leave the city.”

Adams said, “This has nothing to do with sanctuary cities. Migrants and asylum seekers are paroled into the [country]. They’re here legally. And so, when you have a national leader talking about [being a] sanctuary city is the reason we’re having this, it’s telling me she’s not knowledgeable on the real topic. The problem is, when you parole someone into a country, you should have a decompression strategy on a national level to spread it throughout the country and not target just certain cities.”

He added, “Cities should not be handling a national crisis of this magnitude. We’re getting an average — and just think of this number — there are weeks we get 4,000 migrants that come into our city. When you have anywhere from 2,500 to 4,000 coming in a week and you have to find housing, food, shelter, clothing, educating the children, health care, that’s not sustainable. It’s a $12 billion hole in the budget of our economy. It’s going to impact low-income New Yorkers and it’s going to impact every service in this city. And I said it last year, we’re going to start seeing the visualization of this crisis. We’ve done a great job, but we can’t continue to sustain this.”

Quote:Tesla stumbles over ‘Just-in-Time’ logistics and suspends production at its Brandenburg, Germany Gigafactory for two weeks as Iran-backed drone and missile attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea interrupt supply chains.

Delays to components coming to Europe from the East caused by Shiite Islamist militias in Yemen attacking merchant ships attempting to transit the Red Sea means Tesla has been forced to suspend production at their Gigafactory in Grünheide, Brandenburg on the outskirts of Berlin. The stoppage is expected to last two weeks, the company said per Gemran broadsheet Die Welt.

Production is slated to restart on February 12th at the 11,500-employee factory, they said.

Attacks on cargo ships carrying goods from the workshops of China and the Pacific to Europe through the Red Sea have been ongoing since Hamas launched its massive terror attack on Israel in early November. Houthi militias in Yemen, which are equipped by and operate as a proxy for the Iranian regime, launched attacks on passing ships in solidarity with Hamas, claiming they were targeting Israel-linked ships, although attacks have since devolved to general attacks on the global trade that underpins the prosperity and security of the West.
...
The longer route adds over a week to the delivery time from Asia to Europe or the U.S. East, which not only creates supply bottlenecks for businesses that rely on efficient but fragile Just-in-Time delivery for components, as Tesla is now discovering, but also increases the overall cost of shipping for all users as it saps capacity from the global system.

Quote:German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday sharply condemned alleged plans by members of far-right groups who supposedly met recently at a mansion outside Berlin to devise a plot to deport millions of immigrants, even those with German citizenship, if the groups take power.

The alleged plan, which was published in an article by the investigative journalists’ group Correctiv on Wednesday, has led to an uproar in the country because it echoes the Nazis´ ideology of deporting all people who are not ethnically German.

Scholz said Germany will not allow anyone living in the country to be judged based on whether they have foreign roots or not.

“We protect everyone – regardless of origin, skin color or how uncomfortable someone is for fanatics with assimilation fantasies,” the chancellor wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“Anyone who opposes our free democratic order” is a case for Germany’s domestic intelligence office and the judiciary, he said, adding that learning the lessons from Germany’s history should not just have been lip service.

Quote:Canada and Germany rallied to Israel’s side on Friday, hours after Israeli legal representatives delivered their rebuttal to South Africa’s claim of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands.

South Africa presented its arguments on Thursday, claiming that Israel did not even have the right of self-defense against terror. Israel responded with a demolition of that argument Friday, saying South Africa’s logic would allow Hamas to commit genocide.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who has been faulted by conservative critics for backing a ceasefire resolution at the United Nations — criticized South Africa’s case in harsh terms, implying that it risked the integrity of the ICJ as an institution.

The Times of Israel noted:

“Canada is engaged in five cases at the ICJ because we believe in the importance of that as an institution,” Trudeau says during a press conference.

“But our wholehearted support of the ICJ and its processes does not mean that we support the premise of the case brought forward by South Africa,” he adds.

Germany went even further, saying that it would file a motion to intervene as a third party to argue that Israel was not, in fact, committing genocide in Gaza in defending itself against terrorism by Hamas.

In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office reported that he had personally phoned German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to thank him.

Quote:Police entered the Presidential Palace of Poland to arrest politicians of the recently dethroned right-wing government, after a fresh ruling by a court friendly to the new government.

Former Polish Home Affairs Minister Mariusz Kamiński and deputy Maciej Wąsik were arrested by police on Tuesday, apparently part of a push to tie up loose ends by the newly installed globalist-centrist Donald Tusk government. The pair were taken by officers at the Presidential Palace after President Andrej Duda himself had left the building to attend a meeting.

Duda has expressed his outrage at the “brutal” arrest of politicians at the official building, saying “I won’t rest until Minister Mariusz Kamiński and his colleagues are free people again, as they should be, until they are released from prison”. The President says the arrests were illegal.

Poland’s recently unseated Prime Minister Mateusz Morawicki also spoke out against the arrests, praising his country’s post-Cold War achievements of ending political persecution, saying in the 35 years since the end of the Soviet Union “no one was persecuted in our country because of their political views, and no political prisoners were held”. This has now changed, he said, continuing: “For the first time since the dark days of totalitarian rule we have political prisoners in Poland. They are the former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński and deputy Maciej Wąsik.

“Both are members of the Polish Parliament. Both fought against communists. Both fought for justice in a free Poland… unfortunately, both are victims of political revenge, targeted by Donald Tusk’s government.”

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Latvia, the final stop on his Baltic mini-tour as he attempts to drum up further support and particularly more missiles for his nation’s taxed air defence system.

Ukraine has proven stopping Russia is possible, but it “badly” needs modern air defence systems, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said as he tours European nations again, seeking more arms for his defensive war against Russia. His visits to the first two tour stops Lithuania and Estonia were fruitful, with new support packages announced, and he arrived in Latvia, the final stop, on Thursday afternoon.

As ever, requesting more air defence missiles was a major focus of Zelensky’s trip. He said on Wednesday while in Lithuania that while “we have proven that Russia can be stopped, that deterrence is possible”, the country still lacks “modern air defence systems badly… [they are] what we need the most.” Nevertheless, Zelensky acknowledged there were already shortages and producing more advanced missiles in a hurry isn’t something Western defence contractors were necessarily geared up for.

Quote:U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak traveled to Kyiv on Friday to unveil a new support package for Ukraine, including an increase in military funding for its war with Russia that after 22 months shows no sign of ending.

The 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) in military funding for Ukraine over the next financial year will cover long-range missiles, thousands of drones, air defense, artillery ammunition and maritime security, according to a statement from Sunak’s office.

Those are some of the items that Kyiv officials have been urging Ukraine´s Western allies to send more of, as the grinding war of attrition brings little change along the front line and both sides turn to long-range strikes.

Ukraine and Russia are seeking to replenish their arsenals this year, military analysts say, in anticipation of possible major ground offensives in 2025.

“I am here today with one message: the U.K. will also not falter,” Sunak said. “We will stand with Ukraine, in their darkest hours and in the better times to come.”

Sunak first visited Ukraine in November 2022, soon after he became prime minister. Britain has been one of Ukraine’s most vocal backers.

Quote:The ability of Iran proxy Houthi terrorists to threaten merchant shipping “has taken a blow”, the MOD said after a major strike against 60 targets in Yemen by the U.S. and UK by warships, aircraft, and a submarine.

The United States and the United Kingdom made good on days of warnings that continued attacks on global trade in the Red Sea would incur “consequences” overnight into Friday morning with what had been described as a “massive retaliatory strike” on Houthi targets in Yemen.

Iran-backed Shiite Houthi militias have been striking at civilian merchant ships carrying the world’s trade including cargo containers, cars, and oil through the strategically crucial Red Sea in solidarity with Hamas’s attack on Israel since November. According to the United States, they have launched 27 separate attacks, some of which have hit targets.

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said the strikes targeted “radar systems, air defense systems, and storage and launch sites for one-way attack unmanned aerial systems, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles”. The Associated Press, citing anonymous defence sources, said 60 targets at 16 sites were attacked in the strike.

The strike was committed by a combination of warships, aircraft, and a submarine. U.S. surface ships including an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and submarines launched Tomahawk cruise missiles and F/A-18E Super Hornets from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. The warships of the British Royal Navy (RN) in the area lack a major stated land attack capability, having been fitted ‘for but not with‘ land strike cruise missiles, so the British contribution was land-launched jets from the Royal Air Force (RAF) instead.

The British minister of defence Grant Shapps said in a statement Friday morning that four RAF Typhoons launched from the British sovereign base in Cyprus and “conducted precision strikes on two Houthi military targets alongside US forces”. The distance involved to strike targets in Yemen from the eastern Mediterranean is considerable, and involves complications including air refuelling tankering and overflight of third nations. It is possible the British Prime Minister’s call with his Egyptian counterpart on Thursday was meant to facilitate a corridor.

Quote:The Iranian government said on Thursday it has already arrested 35 people in connection with the deadly bombing on January 3 in Kerman, the hometown of terrorist mastermind Gen. Qasem Soleimani of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), but an international manhunt for more suspects is underway.

The January 3 bombing involved two devices detonated near Soleimani’s grave at a memorial event marking the fourth anniversary of his death. Soleimani was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2020 while he was coordinating terrorist attacks against American troops and attempting to organize an assault on the U.S. embassy.
...
While the Iranian regime floated conspiracy theories that the United States or Israel was behind the bombing, ISIS did indeed take credit for the atrocity the following day.
...
Iranian officials continued to insist the ISIS bombers were “U.S.-backed,” and top officials — including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — vowed revenge.

“Cruel criminals must know that they will be strongly dealt with from now on and undoubtedly there will be a harsh response,” Khamenei said last week.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told reporters at a cabinet session that the “main elements” of the terrorist attack have been taken into custody, including the alleged mastermind, a Tajik national. Vahidi said more arrests would be forthcoming, including some outside Iran’s borders.

On Thursday, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry released a statement identifying the bombing mastermind by the alias “Abdullah Tajiki.”
...
Bazirov Israeli was supposedly recruited to ISIS through the encrypted messaging application Telegram, came to Iran via Turkey with the assistance of “human traffickers,” and received training at an ISIS camp in Afghanistan.

The statement claimed that Israeli, evidently second-in-command of the operation as well as being one of the bombers, and Tajiki were originally planning to blow up Soleimani’s mausoleum, but they changed their minds after sizing up its “strict and multi-layered security” and opted for a nearby detonation instead.

Quote:World leaders congratulated Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for a historic third presidential term even as President Biden warned that the U.S. will not endorse independence for the island.

"We do not support independence," Biden told reporters when asked for comment on DPP candidate William Lai’s victory over the rival Koumintang (KMT) party following Saturday’s election.

Lai, who also goes by his Chinese name, Ching-te, declared victory after a tightly contested election saw him beat KMT candidate Hou Yu-ih, the mayor of New Taipei City. Beijing had not declared a clear preference for any candidate, but Chinese officials framed Lai as "dangerous."

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Atony Blinken posted on social media platform X congratulating Lai as well as "the Taiwan people for participating in free and fair elections and demonstrating the strength of their democratic system."
...
"We condemn Beijing’s attempts to influence the elections through disinformation and military pressure and applaud the people of Taiwan for upholding democratic ideals," the House members [of the Republican Party] wrote in a statement. "We look forward to working with President-elect Lai and Vice President-elect Hsiao to enhance the U.S.-Taiwan economic, cultural, and defense relationship."

British Foreign Minister David Cameron offered his "warm congratulations" to Lai and urged China and Taiwan to continue working on efforts to "resolve differences peacefully through constructive dialogue," The Independent reported.

Quote:This week, Healey said her office will look to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the state’s budget to make up for a $1 billion shortfall for Fiscal Year 2024. As part of those budget cuts, cities and towns will lose out on millions in local fire department funding.
...
Nearly three dozen cities and towns across Massachusetts will be receiving less money from the state than initially expected for their fire departments after the Healey Administration wiped out nearly $2 million in local earmarks this week.
...
In total, 33 cities and towns, including Boston, Everett, Quincy and Worcester, are all receiving less money than expected, MacKinnon said.

The largest bulk of Healey’s budget cuts is eliminating nearly $300 million in funding for the state’s Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) known as MassHealth.

While Massachusetts taxpayers prepare for budget cuts, Healey’s administration has announced a program that will open college financial aid to illegal aliens that it is billing as “tuition equity.”

So this is one of these unusual occasions where it's better to let the city burn because illegal immigrants needs high quality tuition...  

Quote:The committee issued a statement critical of the secretary’s refusal of the latest request and previous invitations, providing Mayorkas multiple dates to appear before the members in a historic impeachment hearing. The most recent invitation from Chairman Green was issued on January 5, 2024, requesting Mayorkas’ appearance on January 18, 2024.

The invitation cites the previous declinations to appear by Mayorkas and reads, “I am in receipt of your responses to my August 16, 2023, and September 18, 2023, letters, declining to appear before the Committee on Homeland Security (Committee) to testify exclusively on the unprecedented border security crisis. I am writing again to reiterate my request.”

The letter goes on to clearly state the purpose of the request, adding, “Also, as you are aware, articles for your impeachment were filed in the House of Representatives and were referred to the Committee in November. Accordingly, we have initiated impeachment proceedings, of which your testimony will be a part.”
...
The impeachment hearings are scheduled for the week of January 15.

In his statement on Mayorkas’s refusal to attend, Chairman Greene said:

It is deeply troubling that Secretary Mayorkas has refused the Committee’s multiple requests to appear before a co-equal branch of government. For months, we have tried to work with his office to secure his testimony before the Committee so the American people can receive some much-needed transparency about the causes, costs, and consequences of the unprecedented border crisis.

It’s certainly telling that one of the primary excuses Secretary Mayorkas gave us for declining to appear next week is that he must host a delegation of Mexican officials. Yet again, this Secretary is putting the interests of Mexico ahead of the American people. Apparently, he needs to be reminded that Congress is a co-equal branch of government, and our Committee, not Mexico, has oversight over his department.

Quote:Since October 1, 2023, Border Patrol agents apprehended approximately 15,800 Chinese nationals who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry, the report indicates. Official reports from U.S. Customs and Border Protection reveal the apprehension of 9,844 migrants in October and November. This leaves nearly 6,800 who were apprehended since December 1, 2023.

Since President Joe Biden took office on January 21, 2021, the apprehension of Chinese migrants illegally entering the U.S. rose from single digits per month to thousands per month. In February 2021, Biden’s first full month in office, agents apprehended only nine Chinese migrants. That number began to steadily rise to dozens per month in FY21 to hundreds per month in FY22 to thousands per month in FY23 and FY24.

The nearly 6,800 Chinese migrants apprehended since December 1, 2023, more than doubles the annual apprehension rate of any year before the Biden administration in Border Patrol reports dating back to 2007.

The chart below shows the dramatic rise in Chinese migrant apprehensions since the Biden administration began in January 2021.

Quote:Lead Republican Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) worked with his colleagues to craft a border compromise to enable passage of tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid, including to Ukrainians to prolong their war with Russia that has been at a stalemate for months.

According to the Immigration Accountability Project, the proposed Senate deal would:

Increase green cards by 50,000/year
Work permits for adult children of H-1B holders
Immediate work permits to every illegal alien released from custody
Taxpayer-funded lawyers to certain UACs and mentally incompetent aliens
Expulsion authority for a limited number of days only if encounters exceed 5K/day over a seven-day period
Restrict parole for those who enter without authorization between ports of entry
Johnson has told the Senate that the House-passed H.R. 2 border security bill must be the baseline of a deal.

He says that the provisions of the House bill are crafted to work together to fix the problem, and that removal of one or more of the major provisions would render the bill ineffective at stopping the flow of migrants.

“If you don’t end catch and release as a policy, if you don’t reinstitute remain in Mexico, if you only fix asylum or parole and not these other things, then you don’t solve the problem. You don’t stem the flow here,” he told Face the Nation about Senate efforts to pass a watered-down bill with cherry-picked H.R. 2 provisions.

Quote:Paul said he was inspired to speak out against Haley after identifying her as the “outlier” in the debates. Namely, she is someone who seems to care more about Ukraine’s border than the U.S. southern border, he said, putting her in the same wing of the party as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), as well as Dick Cheney and the late John McCain.

“I think every one of the other — I won’t say everyone — Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy have all had significant misgivings and criticism of sending more money to Ukraine. I think all three of those candidates would be less likely to get us involved in a war. And I just have chosen — for, you know, my own reasons — not to get involved other than that, but I didn’t want to sit completely on the sidelines and watch an upset or something like that happen in New Hampshire,” Paul said, explaining that he wants to ensure that true conservative and libertarian voters know that “Nikki Haley doesn’t represent us.”

“And I’m very, very concerned that if she were president that she’d get us involved in foreign wars,” he said, going on to explain where he believes her so-called “surge” is coming from.

“I think there’s definitely a surge in money,” Paul said, adding that large corporate interests are backing her that suffer from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS).

Quote:The retaliatory strike was launched on Thursday by collaborating U.S., U.K., and other allied military forces after several warnings were made to the Houthis to stop their attacks:

Friday’s “Hands Off Yemen” protest occurred at the Permanent Mission of Yemen to the United Nations in Manhattan, with some protesters getting violent, the New York Post reported.

One couple carrying an Israeli flag during the rally was attacked while “attempting to wade through the crowd with their dog.” The man was shoved and their flag was stolen so the terrorist-sympathizers could try to light it on fire.

“Long live Hamas, you piece of shit!” shouted a man waving a “Free Palestine” flag at the couple:

The NYC couple, who chose to remain anonymous, told the outlet they were walking to a local dog park when the mob blocked their path.

The man, who is Israeli, recounted how he ran back to his apartment to grab his flag before trying to make his way through the crowd before he was assaulted.

“Next step, I promise you, the next time they’re going to be supporting ISIS,” the man said. “Because ISIS hates America, therefore, ISIS good. It’s beyond insane what’s going on here.”

The protesters could be heard chanting a spin on a popular antisemitic chant: “From the river to the sea, Yemen will be free!”

Quote:In a statement, the Federal Security Service or FSB [formerly known as KGB], said the person arrested is an employee of a “high-security enterprise” in the Penza region about 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of Moscow.

The suspect had provided information to Poland’s special services about the company’s defense orders in exchange for assistance in obtaining permanent residence abroad, according to the statement.

The FSB said a criminal case has been opened on charges that could bring up to eight years in prison if convicted.

There was no immediate comment from Poland about the claim.

Quote:The Ostankinsky District Court of Moscow said Woodland was taken into custody on January 5 and will be held until at least March 5, pending trial for the “illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, manufacture, and processing of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or their analogues.”

Court documents described Woodland as a dual Russian-American citizen with no legal employment and no criminal record. Investigators said “criminal activity is his main source of income” and justified his lengthy pretrial detention by describing him as a flight risk.

Russia’s Interfax news service said Woodland was arrested while attempting to purchase 4.5 grams of an unnamed drug and was suspected of wanting to resell it. The police said he possessed a synthetic narcotic called mephedrone when he was arrested.

If Woodland is convicted, Russian sentencing guidelines for his alleged crimes call for a prison sentence of eight to 20 years.

The U.S. State Department acknowledged the report of Woodland’s arrest and said it has “no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” but made no further comment.

Quote:Finland said Thursday it would extend the closure of its border with Russia for another month because it suspects Moscow is trying to undermine the Nordic country’s security by sending undocumented migrants across the frontier.

Finland closed the border late last year after 1,300 migrants without proper documentation or visas had arrived across the frontier since September – an unusually high number, just months after Finland joined the NATO alliance.

Finland accused Russia of deliberating ushering the migrants to its normally heavily controlled border. The Kremlin denied the allegation, and says it regrets the Finnish border closures.

The latest closure will last until Feb. 11, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said at a news conference in Helsinki, saying that authorities believe that Russia’s campaign of manipulating undocumented migrants is continuing.

“There are people in nearby areas waiting for the border to open,” Rantanen said.

The migrants who arrived in the later months of last year were mainly from the Middle East and Africa – particularly from Syria, Somalia and Yemen – and the vast majority of them have sought asylum in Finland. They are currently being kept at migrant reception centers across the country while waiting for decision from authorities.

Quote:The Ukrainian National Agency of Corruption Prevention (known by its Ukrainian acronym NAZK) on Wednesday added the Subway chain of sandwich shops to its list of “International Sponsors of the War” list, accusing Subway of helping to fund the Russian invasion because it has over 500 restaurants selling food in the “aggressor’s market.”

NAZK announced its decision in a post on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram that began with emojis of a hamburger and an angry face, which seems like an effective nonverbal means of communicating displeasure with a restaurant that does not sell hamburgers. The point was driven home by concluding the post with a photo of a Subway meal in which the meat of the sandwich was replaced by a Russian missile.

The Ukrainian anti-corruption agency slammed Subway for “paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the budget of the Russian Federation,” using “sanctioned Russian social networks” to advertise, and using Russian food delivery services that “cooperate with state and local law enforcement agencies of the aggressor country.”

“After the start of the full-scale invasion, the company did not report any reduction in its operations in the Russian Federation, and there were no attempts by the company’s management to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine,” NAZK charged.

Quote:American journalist Gonzalo Lira has died in a Ukrainian prison, according to show host Tucker Carlson.

Carlson posted on X on Friday evening:

Gonzalo Lira, Sr. says his son has died at 55 in a Ukrainian prison, where he was being held for the crime of criticizing the Zelensky and Biden governments. Gonzalo Lira was an American citizen, but the Biden administration clearly supported his imprisonment and torture. Several weeks ago we spoke to his father, who predicted his son would be killed.

In early December, Carlson interviewed Lira’s father, who blamed President Joe Biden and the State Department for allowing his son to languish in a Ukrainian prison for criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, the West’s response to the Russian invasion, and President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Lira is a dual citizen of Chile and the U.S., and was living in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv at the time of the invasion last year, as reported by Breitbart News’s Kurt Zindulka. He began giving his on-the-ground perspective of the war, attributing it to Western antagonism to Moscow.

Lira was arrested multiple times, and was last imprisoned for attempting to cross the border of Ukraine and seek asylum in Hungary. He faced multiple years in prison under Ukraine’s wartime propaganda laws, being accused of having “criminal intent aimed at the manufacture, distribution materials containing justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine…as well as justification, recognition as legitimate of the temporary occupation of part of Ukraine territory.”

Quote:The German government has approved the export of air-defense missiles to Saudi Arabia, underlining a softening of its hard line of recent years toward arms exports to the kingdom.

Government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit on Wednesday confirmed a report by news magazine Der Spiegel that Germany’s Security Council, made up of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and several other ministers, approved the export of 150 air-to-air missiles for the Iris-T air defense system at the end of 2023.

The government of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel imposed a ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia following the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom´s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. It later made a conditional exception for systems developed jointly with other countries.

News of the Iris-T export approval comes after Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Sunday that Germany is open to delivering more Eurofighter jets, made by a multinational consortium in which Berlin is involved, to Saudi Arabia. The government had previously opposed doing so in Germany’s current parliamentary term, which is due to end in the fall of 2025.

In their coalition agreement in late 2021, the current governing parties said that they wouldn’t approve weapons exports to countries that are “demonstrably directly involved in the war in Yemen.”

Hebestreit said Monday that Scholz shares Baerbock’s position. He said the government had re-evaluated the impact of the so-called “Yemen clause” on Saudi Arabia in light of developments in that conflict.

Quote:Antonio Tajani, who took over as the leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party following the death of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last year and who currently serves both foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the Giorgia Meloni coalition government, argued that one of the top reforms needed for the European Union is the formation of a collective military among the 27 countries that constitute the bloc.

Speaking to the Italian La Stampa newspaper, Tajani said: “If we want to be bearers of peace in the world, we need a European army. And this is a fundamental precondition for having an effective European foreign policy. In a world with powerful players like the United States, China, India, and Russia, with crises ranging from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific, Italian, German, French or Slovenian citizens can only be protected by something that already exists, and it’s called the European Union.

“Therefore, defence and a common army must become a concrete fact. No longer postponable. National resistance to sharing even these ‘pieces of sovereignty’ will always be strong, but if we remain divided we will always be defenceless sparrows in a world where eagles fly.”

The Italian deputy prime minister claimed that the countries of the EU need to collectivise their military spending or face being “out of the game”. Tajani pushed back on the idea that it would be an offensive force, however, saying that an EU Army should rather be a force for “peacekeeping, monitoring, and deterrence.”

Quote:Turkey carried out airstrikes targeting Kurdish militants in neighboring Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. This comes a day after an attack on a Turkish military base in Iraq killed nine Turkish soldiers.

Turkey often launches strikes against targets in Syria and Iraq it believes to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a banned Kurdish separatist group that has waged insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s.

The defense ministry said aircraft struck targets in Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil in north Iraq, but didn’t specify areas in Syria. It said fighter jets destroyed caves, bunkers, shelters and oil facilities “to eliminate terrorist attacks against our people and security forces … and to ensure our border security.” The statement added “many” militants were “neutralized” in the strikes.

On Friday night, attackers attempted to infiltrate a military base in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, killing five soldiers. Four others died later of critical injuries. The Turkish Defense Ministry said 15 militants were also killed.

There was no immediate comment from the PKK, the government in Baghdad or the Kurdish region’s administration.

Quote:The Palestinian terror group Hamas has agreed to allow Israel to transfer lifesaving medicines to Israeli hostages in Gaza, under an agreement brokered by Qatar. In return, Israel has agreed to increase medical aid to Gaza — presumably for Hamas’s benefit.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Friday evening:

At the directive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the director of the Mossad, David Barnea, approached Qatar with a plan to deliver much needed medicine for the hostages held in Gaza by the terror organization Hamas. This effort is part of Israel’s humanitarian aid mechanism for the Gaza Strip. The medicine will be delivered in the next few days.
...
Israel has agreed to expand the entry of medications as part of the humanitarian aid entering Gaza for Palestinians as part of the agreement Qatar brokered with Hamas that will see medications transferred to the hostages in the coming days, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.

Negotiations were complex, as Hamas doesn’t want the transfer of medications to the hostages to lead to Israel discovering where exactly they’re being held, the official says.

Quote:During a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority refrained from displaying an American flag behind the U.S. official in a move that was seen as “humiliating” for the United States.

Following discussions with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv, Blinken visited Ramallah on Wednesday to meet Abbas and discuss postwar plans for Gaza.

Surrounded by aides, the two shook hands before a photo of Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock and a Palestinian flag.

But what stood out was the absence of the U.S. flag behind Blinken, especially in contrast to the presence of the Palestinian Authority (PA) flag behind Abbas. The only semblance of an American flag that appeared was a mini one that rested on the table between the two figures.

The move stands in opposition to the common protocol of displaying flags of the nations or entities represented by the officials during such diplomatic meetings.

After the meeting, Blinken said he trusts PA President Mahmoud Abbas to “reform” the PA so that it can take over governing functions in Gaza at the end of Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists there.

They show him no respect for his visit and his own country, and still, Blinken expects them to reform a political party by doing what they've always done!?  Does that make any sense at all!?

Quote:Pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed the White House fence on Saturday, forcing the Secret Service and D.C. Police to get involved.

The protesters were seen shaking the fence as they yelled, “Fuck Joe Biden.” Secret Service agents dressed in riot gear were seen behind the fence.

At one point, the protesters shook the fence so hard that they forced it back.

In another instance, protesters climbed the Rochambeau Statue in Lafayette Square to wave Palestinian flags.

The protesters were later dispersed.

According to The Guardian, thousands of protesters swarmed Washington DC on Saturday “to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to protest US aid to Israel.”

Quote:A federal judge in Florida ruled on Jan. 12 that the U.S. government’s decision to arrest a man for possessing a firearm in a post office violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle for the Middle District of Florida cited the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen case, in which the high court said that the Second Amendment protects a U.S. citizen’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense purposes.

That ruling also set up a new test for judging firearms laws, stating that such legal restrictions should be consistent with the country’s historical tradition of firearms regulation.

Postal worker Emmanuel Ayala was indicted by the United States on charges of violating Section 930(a) of the U.S. Code, which regulates the possession of firearms and dangerous weapons in federal facilities. Mr. Ayala argued that the law is “unconstitutional as applied to him” since historical records don’t support a law banning firearms in post offices.
The United States responded to the Ayala case by stating that “the Second Amendment allows it to punish the bearing of arms inside any government building.”
“But the Supreme Court has been clear: the government must point to historical principles that would permit it to prohibit firearms possession in post offices,” Judge Mizelle wrote.

Quote:If you think the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit once floated the notion of turning singer Taylor Swift into an asset for psyops then you’d be wrong. No less an authority than the U.S. Department of Defense says so.

The official denial came after Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested this week pop star Swift could be “a front for a covert political agenda.”

Politico reports during his show Jesse Watters Primetime, the host told viewers, “around four years ago, the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset.”

His allegation came with a clip from a 2019 conference organized by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence, where a presenter appears to name Taylor Swift merely as an example of a powerful influencer, further enhancing her previous efforts to make herself known beyond entertainment and in politics.

“It’s real. The Pentagon psy-op unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset for combating misinformation online,” Watters said.

Well, maybe not, as Politico points out.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh pushed back against Watters claim, referencing one of  the left-wing singer’s big hits by saying in a statement, “as for this conspiracy theory, we are going to shake it off.”

Quote:Rapper Yo Gotti’s brother, Anthony “Big Jook” Mims, was gunned down and killed Saturday outside a Memphis restaurant, and police say he was the target of the attack.

The Memphis Police Dept. responded to the scene outside Perignons Restaurant & Event Center around 4:15 p.m. on January 13 and found two men shot, according to the New York Post.

Mims (pictured, right) was rushed to St. Francis Hospital where he was soon pronounced dead.

A second shooting victim was driven to the hospital but was later airlifted to Regional One Health in Memphis in critical condition.

Mims had been in attendance at a funeral for a relative that same day, police reported.

Investigators did not reveal a motive or a list of suspects, but they feel that Mims was deliberately targeted.

“We do feel that the individual that was shot was possibly targeted by the suspect,” Memphis Deputy Police Chief Paul Wright said at a Saturday press conference.

White did not tie the shooting to the “I Am” rapper., though it was not ruled out.

Big Jook worked for Yo Gotti’s Collective Media Group on the business side of the label.

Quote:During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Wall Street Week,” Steve Rattner, who served as counselor to the Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration, stated that President Joe Biden “conveyed a sense that we wanted people to come here back from the first day of his Inauguration, and the result is you have 3 million people a year now crossing the southern border and going through our crazy, convoluted system.”

Rattner said, “We take in a million a year legally, and if you just want to maintain our population, given our fertility rate, you have to take in 4 million a year, or else our population will start to decline. So, we need these people. We have a 3.7% unemployment rate. They are not going to take away American jobs. But it is the most divisive political issue. And frankly, President Biden didn’t say open borders, but he conveyed a sense that we wanted people to come here back from the first day of his Inauguration, and the result is you have 3 million people a year now crossing the southern border and going through our crazy, convoluted system. And the Republicans, therefore, have no political incentive really to solve this problem. Biden owns it. The country, including Democrats, are very unhappy with our immigration policy. And there could be a deal in Congress.

Quote:The Pentagon said in a Jan. 13 update on Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s condition that he remains in the hospital.

The update comes two weeks after the 70-year-old was secretly moved to an intensive care unit after suffering from a post-surgery infection.

“Secretary Austin remains hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and is in good condition,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in the update.

“He’s in contact with his senior staff and has full access to required secure communications capabilities and continues to monitor DOD’s day-to-day operations worldwide.”

Over the past two weeks, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have been criticizing the Pentagon for its lack of transparency and delays in disclosing Mr. Austin’s Jan. 1 hospitalization and the nature of his condition.

Complications from a urinary tract infection and fluid collecting in his abdomen following a surgery caused Mr. Austin, 70, to return to the hospital on Jan. 1, when doctors transferred him to the intensive care unit for an expelling procedure and close monitoring.

Quote:The House will move forward during the week of January 15 to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress despite his offer to sit for a deposition if once again subpoenaed, committee chairmen said Friday.

The denial of Hunter’s offer suggests House investigators do not trust the president’s son. He and his lawyers frequently engage in delay and public relations tactics.

Hunter proposed on Friday to sit for a closed-door deposition if Congress reissued a subpoena, arguing the prior subpoenas “are legally invalid” because the impeachment inquiry “did not yet exist when the subpoenas were issued.”

Hunter’s offer appeared to be another public relations ploy to provide Attorney General Merrick Garland with a reason not to prosecute him upon a successful contempt vote.

The vote remains set for the week of January 15 despite Hunter’s offer, which the committee chairmen deemed another delay tactic.

“For now, the House of Representatives will move forward with holding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress until such time that Hunter Biden confirms a date to appear for a private deposition in accordance with his legal obligation,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) said Friday.

“While we will work to schedule a deposition date, we will not tolerate any additional stunts or delay from Hunter Biden. The American people will not tolerate, and the House will not provide, special treatment for the Biden family,” they explained.

Quote:On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston stated that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ® doesn’t see people crossing the border as people “who are trying to do exactly what the Statue of Liberty says, which is, send us your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” He also stated that he hopes Texas stops sending migrants to Denver during the winter storm and “A strategy of having folks just sent to New York and Chicago and Denver I think is not setting them up for success or setting our cities up for success.”

Host Kaitlan Collins asked, “[T]he Governor of Illinois, Gov. Pritzker (D), he sent a letter to a fellow Gov., Greg Abbott of Texas, asking him to stop sending migrants during the dangerous winter storm, warning that it could kill people. Do you expect that Gov. Abbott — who’s also sent migrants to Denver, I should note — do you expect that he’ll heed that warning?”

Johnston answered, “I would hope that he would. It is incredibly dangerous for us to have folks arriving in the middle of this polar vortex where we’ll have record-low temperatures, but we also think this underscores part of the challenge that the country is facing right now, which is — what we need to make this work is not to have a system where one Governor decides where every migrant in the country gets sent, but instead, a place where we have federal dollars that support new arrivals, they arrive with the ability to work when they get to cities like Denver, and we have a coordinated entry plan so actually all of the cities and states in the country can figure out what their capacity is and take up to that capacity. A strategy of having folks just sent to New York and Chicago and Denver I think is not setting them up for success or setting our cities up for success.”

Quote:Anti-communist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te won Taiwan’s presidential election on Saturday, defeating his two leftist rivals on a campaign emphasizing Taiwan’s sovereignty in the face of mounting threats from China.

Lai, sometimes referred to by his Western name, William Lai, is the current vice president and the first candidate to secure a third term for a political party in the young history of Taiwanese democracy. As a former physician, Lai rose to prominence as an authority figure during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, during which Taiwan distinguished itself as the first nation to alert the World Health Organization – in vain – to the spread of a novel disease in China and for its performance in containing infections and preventing widespread death.

Lai will succeed current President Tsai Ing-wen in an inauguration ceremony on May 20.

By the way, go check out the Encyclopedia Britannica webpage on Taiwan's history to learn how the island has never been an actual Chinese province as the CCP loves to claim.

Quote:China’s state-run Global Times reported on Wednesday that several cities have “ramped up their efforts for the reimbursement of medical bills for fertility services,” including in vitro fertilization (IVF), in China’s latest bid to arrest crashing birth rates.

China’s demographic crisis goes far beyond couples with biological fertility problems, but the Global Times noted infertility rates climbed from 12 percent to 18 percent between 2007 and 2020, presenting a problem that might actually be soluble with policy changes and financial investments.

IVF is expensive, with “costs amounting to tens of thousands of yuan as it often takes multiple attempts to achieve success,” so Chinese municipalities have been reluctant to cover the procedure until now. The capital city of Beijing joined the list of cities offering IVF benefits in 2023, and the big central provinces may follow suit in 2024.

The Global Times reported other aspects of childbirth are receiving more medical benefits as well, including prenatal exams, outpatient care, reimbursement for female employees who need time off for birthing, and subsidies for hospital expenses.

Quote:North Korea’s communist dictator Kim Jong-un declared that his country has “no intention of avoiding war” with South Korea on Tuesday during an inspection of a military munitions factory.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea’s flagship government propaganda outlet, referred to South Korea as the “Republic of Korea,” a change in style that appeared to acknowledge that South Korea is a separate state from the North. For years, KCNA would refer to the country as “south Korea,” a territory under the dominion of a rogue faction that North Korea considered rightfully territory under Pyongyang’s rule.

KCNA’s summary of Kim’s remarks relayed that the dictator declared that “the time has come at last” to recognize South Korean sovereignty in anticipation of the return of active hostilities.

“Saying that the historic time has come at last when we should define as a state most hostile toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea the entity called the Republic of Korea (ROK),” KCNA narrated, “which has pursued a history of vicious confrontation with bloodshot eyes to overthrow our regime … he stressed that our state should recognize this unavoidable and irrevocable reality as it is.”

Kim reportedly added that Pyongyang must “properly settle the historic problem.”

North and South Korea – and its allies, China and America respectively – are technically in a state of war that began in 1950. The Korean War’s active phase ended with an armistice agreement that did not result in a peace treaty or surrender. American troops remain in South Korea to help preserve the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the border between the Koreas, to this day.

“The ROK scums are our principal enemy,” Kim reportedly said, according to a translation of KCNA’s Korean language reporting by the U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA). “While we will not unilaterally decide on a major upheaval in the Korean peninsula through the overwhelming force of ours, we also have no intention of avoiding war.”

Quote:Chinese dictator Xi Jinping ordered the Communist Party’s discipline agency to engage in a more intense campaign against the “cancer” of corruption, the state news outlet Xinhua reported on Wednesday, calling the situation within the Party “grave and complex.”

Xi made his remarks on Monday at the opening of a meeting of the Central Commission of Discipline Inspection (CCDI), a body that Xi revitalized following his ascent to power in 2014 and has used to purge thousands of Communist Party officials at all levels of authority for the past decade. Xi announced a “mass line” campaign in 2014 – reviving a Mao Zedong-era term for the purge of government workers and officials deemed insufficiently loyal to the communist cause or otherwise corrupt.

The CCDI’s mandate is to identify and punish officials accused of abusing their power, engaging in corruption, or failing to uphold “family virtues.” It is one of China’s most secretive and feared bureaucratic bodies.

Xi suggested that he would expand the mandate of the CCDI even further this week, as corruption was a “cancer threatening the vitality and ability” of the Chinese Communist Party, the largest organization of its kind in the world.

Xi has both empowered the commission and attempted to brand it as a beloved institution. The Chinese government aired a state-run propaganda “documentary” on Sunday narrating the alleged successes of Xi’s corruption purges, featuring imprisoned former officials offering effusive apologies to the camera.

Quote:The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, declared a 60-day nationwide state of exception and curfew on Monday in response to a new wave of gang violence that erupted following the disappearance of José Adolfo Macías, Ecuador’s “most-wanted criminal.”

Macías seemingly vanished from the prison housing him in Guayaquil over the weekend.

Macías, commonly known as “Fito,” is the leader of Los Choneros, one of the most dangerous gangs in Ecuador, with extensive ties to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. Macías was serving a 34-year sentence that began in 2011 on organized crime, drug trafficking, and murder charges.

Macías was missing from his cell on Sunday just before he was scheduled to be transferred to a maximum security prison, automatically prompting the dispatching of 3,000 law enforcement agents to search for him throughout the Guayaquil regional prison system. Local authorities announced on Monday that they do not know Macías’s current whereabouts.

Sunday’s incident marks the second time Macías has escaped prison. In February 2013, the gang leader briefly escaped captivity until local authorities captured him again three months later.

Macías’ disappearance prompted riots in several of Ecuador’s prisons. Argentine news outlet Infobae reported on Monday that it had reviewed and confirmed footage of prison staff being subdued by inmates and being forced to deliver a statement to Noboa urging him to reconsider broad security measures he announced in the new year.

Quote:Penitentiary authorities in Ecuador confirmed on Thursday that violent gangs are holding at least 178 people hostage across seven prisons in the country as part of a wider war between the nation’s organized crime syndicates and the newly minted government of President Daniel Noboa.

Noboa, the 36-year-old son of a banana magnate, began his presidential term in November, committing to policies intended to eliminate organized crime in the country. On January 4, Noboa announced that he had greenlit a plan to build two new “mega-prisons” in the country modeled after a sprawling prison complex built in El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele has similarly waged war on Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and other violent gangs.
...
Inside the prison system, organized inmate uprisings have resulted in the mass abduction of prison guards and office staffers. Ecuador’s National Service for Whole Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Violators (SNAI), the national-level agency in charge of prisons, confirmed on Thursday afternoon that 178 people remained hostage in seven prisons around the world:

“Due to the disturbances and incidents in the penitentiary system, at the moment security operations and protocol are in place to liberate 158 penitentiary security agents and 20 administrative services personnel who are detained,” a statement published online by SNAI reported. “We are working permanently, continuously, and responsibly to safeguard the integrity of the [hostages].”

“We request that citizens follow reports from official channels and do not generate disinformation while work continues to safeguard human lives,” the agency added:

SNAI also confirmed the escape of three prisoners on Wednesday, a number expected to grow as prison authorities subdue prison riots and begin confirming who remains in the facilities.

Quote:Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) acted to fulfill 46 search and seizure warrants and one arrest warrant on Monday against people suspected of financing the January 8, 2023, Brasilia riot.
...
Monday’s police warrants are part of the 23rd phase of Operation “Lesa Pátria,” (a Portuguese idiom that roughly translates to “crimes against the state”). The operation is a broad permanent investigation against individuals or organizations suspected of having financed, organized, and/or participated in the January 8 riot. The warrants in this latest wave were issued for locations in 11 of Brazil’s 27 States.

Brazil’s TV Globo reported on Monday that the preventive arrest warrant was issued against Wagner Ferreira Filho, a Brazilian citizen accused of paying 24,000 Brazilian reais ($4,917) to charter a bus for the January 8 protesters. According to local police investigations, Ferreira Filho’s fingerprints were found on a glass frame inside the Brazilian Congress.

The Brazilian police did not disclose the identities of the targets of the 46 search and seizure warrants.

The broad permanent operation was authorized by STF Minister and self-styled “anti-fake news crusader” Alexandre de Moraes, who has issued over 6,200 orders since January 8, 2023, related to the riot investigation.

As of September, Brazilian courts have sentenced over 30 people convicted of participating in “undemocratic acts,” “violent abolition of the democratic rule of law,” “staging a coup d’etat,” and other charges related to the January 8 events.

Reported on Jan. 4, 2024

Quote:The police have given prosecutors a file on two alleged spies, including a well-connected parliamentary researcher, according to the Metropolitan Police.

The men in their 20s and 30s, who allegedly spied for China, were arrested in March last year and released on bail. The researcher has previously denied all allegations against him.
In a statement to The Epoch Times, The Met said a file has been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The investigation into the allegations “is being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, which has responsibility for investigations relating to allegations of Official Secrets Act and espionage-related offences,” a spokesperson said.

“Officers have been in liaison with CPS in relation to this investigation and a case file has now been passed to them for consideration. Both men remain on police bail at this time and enquiries continue.”

The men, who have not been officially named, were arrested on March 13, 2023 on “suspicion of offences under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act, 1911, according to the Met.

The man in his 30s was arrested in Oxfordshire. The parliamentary researcher, who is in his 20s, was arrested in Edinburgh.

Police officers have also searched both men’s homes, as well as an address in London.

They were initially on bail until early October last year, but the bail period was later extended to a date in January. The Met didn’t confirm whether it has been extended again.

Quote:Denmark’s prime minister proclaimed Frederik X as king on Sunday after his mother Queen Margrethe II formally signed her abdication, with massive crowds turning out to rejoice in the throne passing from a beloved monarch to her popular son.

Margrethe, 83, is the first Danish monarch to voluntarily relinquish the throne in nearly 900 years. Many thousands of people gathered outside the palace where the royal succession took place, the mood jubilant as the Nordic nation experienced its first royal succession in more than a half-century, and one not caused by the death of a monarch.

Denmark’s monarchy traces its origins to 10th-century Viking king Gorm the Old, making it the oldest in Europe and one of the oldest in the world. Today the royal family’s duties are largely ceremonial.

Margrethe signed her abdication during a meeting with the government at the Christiansborg Palace, a vast complex in Copenhagen that has been the seat of Danish power for centuries. It now houses the Royal Reception Rooms and Royal Stables as well as the Danish Parliament, the prime minister’s office and the Supreme Court.

Quote:A disgraced former Russian mayor convicted over bribery had his prison sentence cut short after signing a contract to fight with Russia’s military in Ukraine, local media reported Sunday.

Oleg Gumenyuk, who served as mayor of the far eastern city and cultural hub of Vladivostok between 2018 and 2021, was convicted last year of accepting bribes worth 38 million roubles (about $432,000) and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

However, he was released after agreeing to bear arms and fight as part of his country’s military operation in Ukraine that started nearly two years ago, his lawyer Andrei Kitaev told Russian news outlet Kommersant.

He said that the politician’s whereabouts were unknown, but that Gumenyuk was instructed to report to his military unit on Dec. 22.

Local officials for the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Primorsky region where the former mayor was held did not confirm the reports.

Photos circulating on social media show a man resembling Gumenyuk carrying a gun while being surrounded by other servicemen.

Russia has gone to extraordinary lengths to replenish its troops in Ukraine, including deploying thousands of prisoners directly from the country’s jails. Inmates who sign up for six months on the frontline are pardoned upon their return.

Quote: volcano has erupted in southwestern Iceland for the second time in less than a month, sending semi-molten rock spewing toward a nearby settlement.

The eruption just before 8 a.m. Sunday came after a swarm of earthquakes near the town of Grindavik, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. The community was evacuated overnight, Iceland’s RUV television reported.

“Lava is flowing a few hundred meters north of the town, this is 400 to 500 meters,” Kristín Jónsdóttir from the Icelandic Meteorological Office told Iceland’s RUV television. “Lava flows towards Grindavik.”

Residents of Grindavik were previously evacuated from their homes in November and had to stay away from the town for six weeks following a series of earthquakes and an eventual volcanic eruption. They were allowed to return on Dec. 22.

Quote:Four people were found dead overnight in another suspected drowning of migrants trying to cross the dangerous English Channel from northern France, authorities said Sunday.

Another person rescued in critical condition is being treated in a hospital in the French coastal town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, according to the French maritime authorities for the English Channel and the North Sea.

The maritime prefecture said the drama happened in the early hours of Sunday near Wimereux, a coastal village north of Boulogne, and that people appeared to have been trying to reach a boat off the beach there.

It said it had no immediate details about those who died.

Quote:The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is working to hire people with psychiatric problems and other concerning issues in order to be more diverse and inclusive, Fox News reported Sunday.

On the FAA’s Diversity and Inclusion webpage, the agency claimed, “Diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond,” adding diversity is “critical.”

Under its People with Disabilities tab, the FAA laid out its People with Disabilities Program (PWD) that offers those individuals equal job opportunities. The site continued:

The FAA meets the goals of the PWD Program through a variety of practices:

Targeted Disabilities
Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring. They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.

Near the bottom of the webpage, the FAA said it was last updated on March 23, 2022.

On its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility webpage, the agency quotes Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (D). “At its best, transportation can be a powerful engine of opportunity, connecting people to jobs, education, and resources—whether they live in a big city, a rural community, or anywhere in between,” he said. “Ensuring equity and accessibility for every member of the traveling public is one of the Department of Transportation’s highest priorities,” he continued.

The House recently approved a bill to reduce Buttigieg’s salary to $1 after he repeatedly failed Americans, Breitbart News reported November 8.

“The measure, introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), was passed by a voice vote Tuesday as an amendment to the 2024 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,” the outlet said.

It is also important to highlight that in June 2018, aviation attorney Michael Pearson told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson the FAA was placing diversity before public safety when hiring air traffic controllers, according to Breitbart News.

Quote:The House passed a short-term spending extension only hours after the bill cleared the Senate, pushing the next shutdown threat to March and surrendering Republican leverage on enacting a border security package.

The continuing resolution (CR) passed 314-108, extending spending levels and priorities set by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in December 2022 during a lame-duck session of Congress.

The outcome was not in doubt, although many Republicans made clear their opposition to yet another CR.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faced a last-minute push from conservatives to attach border security measures to the CR, a process that likely would have delayed House passage of the bill until Friday and sent it back to the Senate, which, in all likelihood, would have not even brought the bill up for a vote.

But with two to three inches of snow expected in the capitol on Friday, Johnson opted to advance the CR as passed by the Senate and send the House home for the weekend.

Republicans aimed frustration at the CR toward Democrats, who refused to address the border. Yet many decried it “business as usual” of yet another short-term funding fix.

Quote:The principal of a Brooklyn, New York City, high school is now attacking parents who opposed the school closing its doors to its students on Tuesday to accommodate migrants during a storm.

As Breitbart News reported, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) moved nearly 2,000 border crossers and illegal aliens into the gym at James Madison High School in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn late at night.

To accommodate the border crossers and illegal aliens, James Madison High School Principal Jodie Cohen said all classes would be virtual for the following day. In response, parents protested outside the school, accusing Cohen and Adams of putting foreign nationals ahead of students.

In a virtual meeting on Zoom, according to the New York Post, Cohen attacked those parents who protested and opposed the school’s closing to house border crossers and illegal aliens:

“I don’t understand how people who never come on a Zoom like this could take an opportunity like this evening to throw mud,” Cohen said, her voice breaking.

“This [emergency] is for one night, one night!”

The principal explained she decided to have students attend school remotely on Wednesday because it wasn’t clear how quickly the building would be ready for classroom use after the migrants were bused back to their shelter.

Yeah, one night only that soon becomes one week only. Then one month only...

Quote:Politicians are demanding answers following the recent revelation that a billionaire Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member is the second-largest foreign owner of U.S. farmland, somehow going under the radar for nearly a decade.

Chen Tianqiao, who has an estimated net worth of $1 billion according to Forbes, made an $85 million purchase of nearly 200,000 acres of Oregon farmland in 2015, the Daily Caller revealed Wednesday.

Chen, 51, is a cofounder of Shanda Interactive Entertainment and a longtime CCP ranking member.

According to China Youth Daily, the newspaper of the Communist Youth League of China, Chen joined the CCP at 18 years old and was elected to the youth league’s central committee in Shanghai. In 2008, the businessman was appointed to the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

For reasons unclear at this time, the billionaire’s purchase of U.S. farmland does not appear in government records of land ownership by foreign investors, the Daily Mail reported Saturday.
...
The 2015 purchase was reportedly made by Chen via the investment ­vehicle Whitefish Cascade Forest Resources LLC, acquiring the land from Fidelity National Financial Ventures at $430 per acre.

This remained a secret from the public until December 2023, when Oregon tax records revealed that the 198,000-acre block is ­currently owned by Shanda Asset ­Management LLC, Chen’s investment company.

Quote:Hunter Biden will sit for a closed-door interview on February 28, along with five Biden family associates at various dates, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced Thursday.

The announcement came as a surprise to some Republicans. Last week, the chairmen went through procedural hurdles to prepare for a House vote to hold Hunter in contempt of Congress for failing to sit for the deposition.

Hunter proposed last week to sit for the deposition if Congress reissued a subpoena, arguing the prior subpoenas “are legally invalid” because the impeachment inquiry “did not yet exist when the subpoenas were issued.”

The Republican chairmen initially accepted the offer but warned the House would move forward with contempt proceedings for this week.

The chairmen deemed Hunter’s offer to be another delay tactic. Hunter’s offer also appeared to be a public relations ploy to provide Attorney General Merrick Garland with a reason not to prosecute him upon a successful contempt vote.

After wrangling with Hunter’s lawyers, Comer and Jordan changed their strategy. They did not schedule a vote to hold Hunter in concept of Congress and agreed to a deposition.

Quote:On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” House Homeland Security Committee member Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) stated that while there are problems on the border and with fentanyl, “Alejandro Mayorkas is not the reason” and is “doing a good job” because we haven’t had any terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and we’ve “essentially minimized” cyberattacks on the U.S.

Correa said, “Well, think about what’s going on around the world right now. We have two wars. We have fentanyl [on] our doorstep everywhere on Main Street across the country. We have challenges of fentanyl, sad, tragic deaths, parents mourning. And then, of course, we have a worldwide refugee challenge. So, naturally, we want to find out why this is happening. But Alejandro Mayorkas is not the reason. Alejandro’s doing his job. If you think about those two world wars going on in the Middle East and in Europe…what you’re not talking about is the fact that we haven’t had a terrorist attack, thank God, on our soil, the fact that we’ve essentially minimized any attack — cyberattacks on our society. So, Mayorkas is doing a good job. But we still have a lot more to do in this country. And, in my opinion, instead of spending our time going through these hearings to impeach the guy, he hasn’t committed any crimes. Let’s focus on working together.

Would some group of independent investigators agree on the claim that there has not been any terrorist plots and actual attacks?  Once again, time will tell.

Quote:Leaked classified documents from the German military have warned of a potential full-blown war between Russia and NATO in which hundreds of thousands of troops are deployed in Europe.

Germany’s Bild, the largest circulation newspaper in Europe, has claimed to have obtained classified documents from the Bundeswehr labelled “Classified Information – For Official Use Only” in which the Defence Ministry lays out details for a possible “path to conflict” between Russia and NATO beginning as soon as next month.

Under the scenario laid out by the German military, the Kremlin would begin a mobilisation of 200,000 soldiers in February and launch renewed efforts to capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, which it failed to do so at the outset of the invasion in 2022. This would be followed by a series of cyber attacks and other forms of hybrid warfare waged by Moscow intended to destabilise the Baltic states.

Using the destabilisation and potential clashes in border regions as a pretence, Russia would then — the Gemran planning assumptions state — deploy 50,000 soldiers to western Russia and Belarus by September, with massive troop buildups along the Polish and Lithuanian borders as well as the deployment of medium-range missiles to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad between Lithuania and Poland to pre-empt an alleged NATO attack.

The German military then predicted that by December, when the United States will likely be in the transition period between presidents — assuming the defeat of President Joe Biden — a border conflict with “riots with numerous deaths” will be artificially sparked by Russia in the Suwałki Gap, a strategically important corridor between Lithuania and Poland that separates Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.

The border crisis would be used as justification for Russia to send soldiers onto NATO territory to seize the Suwałki Gap while the United States will be in a state of flux. In the plans,  the German army predicted that this would ultimately spark a full-scale war between the West and Russia, with hundreds of thousands of troops being mobilised throughout Europe and fighting to break out by the summer of 2025.

Quote:Aircraft flying over Poland and the Baltic once again reported major discrepancies in their GPS signals this week, only the latest in several apparent attacks on the navigation system on the edge of Russia’s war in Ukraine on which the modern world has come to depend.

Half of Poland and much of the Baltic Sea pinged as suffering from interference with the U.S. military-backed Global Positioning System (GPS), a satellite-based navigation aid made available to the public in the 1980s and now present in everything from cell phones and cars to enormous oil tanker ships and passenger jets. It is passenger jets which revealed the unreliability of the signal, given their unshielded position in the sky makes them more vulnerable to sources of interference.

GPSJAM revealed the extent of the interference by mapping publicly available data from passenger jets flying over Europe, showing areas where aircraft couldn’t get a good GPS signal. While areas near fighting in the Ukraine war always suffer from bad GPS reception — as well as other conflicts worldwide including over the Eastern Mediterranean and Israel — there have been several incidences of apparent GPS interference over Poland and the Baltic in recent weeks.

Polish news magazine Wprost reports the phenomenon has been experienced several times in recent months, but recently the interference has been more widespread. Other recent periods of interference have been described as “massive” and theorised the source of the issue was Russian jamming equipment in the Kaliningrad Oblast — a small, separate piece of territorial Russia surrounded by European Union member states.

The latest incident on the 17th came as Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST) said it was investigating the issue amid complaints to the authorities by airlines their navigation systems were being jammed.

Quote:NATO will launch next week its biggest military exercises in decades with around 90,000 personnel set to take part in months-long wargames aimed at showing that the alliance can defend all of its territory up to its border with Russia, top officers said Thursday.

The exercises come as Russia´s war on Ukraine bogs down. NATO as an organization is not directly involved in the conflict, except to supply Kyiv with non-lethal support, although many member countries send weapons and ammunition individually or in groups, and provide military training.

In the months before President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022, NATO began beefing up security on its eastern flank with Russia and Ukraine. It´s the alliance´s biggest buildup since the Cold War. The wargames are meant to deter Russia from targeting a member country.

The exercises – dubbed Steadfast Defender 24 – “will show that NATO can conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months, across thousands of kilometers (miles), from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe, and in any condition,” the 31-nation organization said.

Troops will be moving to and through Europe until the end of May in what NATO describes as “a simulated emerging conflict scenario with a near-peer adversary.” Under NATO´s new defense plans, its chief adversaries are Russia and terrorist organizations.

“The alliance will demonstrate its ability to reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area via transatlantic movement of forces from North America,” NATO´s Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Christopher Cavoli, told reporters.

Cavoli said it will demonstrate “our unity, our strength, and our determination to protect each other.”

Quote:French manufacturers have reduced the manufacturing times for some of the weapons systems they supply to Ukraine by half or more, as France increasingly switches away from its previous policy of dipping into its own military stocks to support the war effort against Russia’s invasion, France’s defense minister said in an interview published Thursday.

“The logic of ceding materiel taken from the armies’ stocks is reaching its end,” the minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in the interview with Le Parisien. “From now on, the solution is to directly connect French defense industries with the Ukrainian army.”

He cited the Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzer, made in France by Nexter, as an example of how French defense contractors are adopting a war footing. Caesars are among an array of Western-supplied artillery systems that have given Ukrainian gun crews an edge, especially when paired with high-precision munitions, against Russian artillery batteries using older Soviet-designed systems.

Nexter used to take 30 months to make one Caesar but now requires half that time, Lecornu said. The aim is to produce 78 Caesars this year, and Ukraine intends to pay for six of them itself, he said. France will also help finance Caesar deliveries and hopes other backers of Ukraine will also provide funding, he added.

Ammunition production is also being ramped up. From the end of this month, France will supply Ukraine with 3,000 shells per month for its 155 mm guns, up from 1,000 shells in April 2023. Lecornu said. Thales now takes six months – down from 18 months – to deliver one of its GM200 radars that have been provided to Ukraine for its air defenses, and MBDA’s production time for the Mistral short-range air-defense missile has also been substantially reduced, he said.

Quote:The number of births in France has fallen to its lowest level since the Second World War in a grim indicator of Western demographic collapse.

Figures released this week from the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) reported that 678,000 babies were born in France last year, a decline of 48,000 over 2022 and the lowest of any year since 1946.

As with other countries in the West, France has long faced a declining birth rate, falling nearly every year since 2010 when 832,799 babies were born in the country, approximately 20 per cent higher than in 2023. However, according to Insee, the speed of decline has been increasing, with the birth rate standing at 1.68 children per woman in 2023, compared to 1.79 in 2022 and 1.99 in 2013.

A rate of 2.1 babies per woman is typically considered the baseline requirement for a modern nation to maintain its population rate. While France was well below this rate, the population did not in fact decline, given a 6.5 per cent decline in deaths, which stood at 631,000.

This was driven by an increase in life expectancy to 85.7 for women and 80 for men, representing a 0.6-year increase for women and a 0.7 per cent rise for men over 2022. While welcome news, the ageing population will likely put further strain on the pension and healthcare systems, with one in five people in France now being 65 years of age or older and one in ten being 75 or older.

The population, which grew by 0.3 per cent to 68.4 million, also increased due to mass migration, with 183,000 foreigners becoming residents last year. Neo-liberal governments, including in France, have often touted immigration as the solution to demographic decline and as a means to prop up their generous welfare states.

Quote:Action star and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was left furious after being detained for more than three hours at a German airport Wednesday after officials accused him of tax evasion for not declaring a $21,000 watch he was preparing to auction off for charity.

Schwarzenegger was preparing to enter Germany when Munich airport authorities found a Swiss brand Audemars Piguet wristwatch in his luggage during an inspection, according to the German newspaper, Bild.

The Terminator star freely admitted the watch was an item he planned to auction off for his Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative charity auction which is to be held in Kitzbuhel, Austria, on Thursday.

It was reported that Schwarzenegger was friendly and cooperative at first, but as the inefficiency and incompetence of the customs officials worsened with every minute, the movie star began getting frustrated.

The paper added that officials demanded the action star pay a fee for the potential taxes on the watch, but when the agent tried to use a credit card reader in the office, he couldn’t get it to work.

Then they demanded he accompany them to a local bank to withdraw the money for them in cash. But the bank was closed and his debit card had a limit on it that would not let him take out the amount the customs cops wanted.

After that, officials took him back to the airport where another official then transported him to yet another bank — one that was open — and he was able to withdraw the amount they were demanding.

Thomas Meister, a German government customs agent, told the media that the state is initiating “criminal tax proceedings” against the Expendables star.

So now you don't own your own watch and are forced to pay taxes or else you'll get charged for not paying those taxes!?  What the heck is going on at Germany's customs?