USA
So this is one of these unusual occasions where it's better to let the city burn because illegal immigrants needs high quality tuition...
EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST
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!?
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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."
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"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.
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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.
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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.”
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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!”
EUROPE
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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.”
MIDDLE EAST
3 Articles
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.
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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!?
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
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Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE