News of the World

[kyonides]

USA

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RFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Israel a ‘Moral Nation’
Any Other Would ‘Level’ Terrorist Enemy

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Kr. said in an interview published Tuesday that Israel is a “moral nation,” and he backed its response to Hamas terrorists, opposing President Joe Biden’s anti-Israel drift.

In the interview, conducted by Reuters and published in the Jerusalem Post, Kennedy expressed concern for the humanitarian cost of the war to Palestinian civilians, but said that Israel had no choice but to respond as it had.

From the interview:

“Any other nation that was adjacent to a neighboring nation that was bombing it with rockets, sending commandos over to murder its citizens, pledging itself to murder every person in that nation and annihilate it, would go and level it with aerial bombardment,” Kennedy said.

“But Israel is a moral nation. So it didn’t do that. Instead, it built an iron dome to protect itself so it would not have to go into Gaza.”

He said Hamas gave Israeli leaders no choice after fighters stormed into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Rather than pressuring Israel, Kennedy said, the U.S. should be pressuring states that currently support Hamas.

Several Jewish leaders expressed their support for Kennedy’s position, notably Democrat-turned-Republican Dov Hikind, a former New York State Assemblyman who is the founder and leader of Americans Against Antisemitism...

Democrat on Israel

Biden Co-Chair, Dem Sen. Coons:
‘Almost Impossible’ for Israel to Do Rafah Operation the Way We Want

On Wednesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Biden Campaign Co-Chair Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) stated that it would be “almost impossible” for Israel to go into Rafah “and conduct an operation in a way that isn’t unreasonably dangerous and unsafe and will result in thousands and thousands more civilian casualties.” And the operation definitely can’t “be safely done in the coming weeks.”

Coons said, “Israel has the right, even the obligation, to defend its civilians against Hamas and to continue pursuing Hamas terrorists. But they have to balance that with their obligation to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid going into Gaza. So, a delegation from Israel is now on its way to Washington to meet with our military leadership to consult on how they could possibly conduct a ground invasion into Rafah, where there are still four battalions of Hamas fighters, and allow for civilians to get out of Rafah and conduct an operation in a way that isn’t unreasonably dangerous and unsafe and will result in thousands and thousands more civilian casualties. It’s exceptionally difficult to do, almost impossible, frankly.”

Co-host Steve Inskeep then said, “That was my question — almost impossible, it sounds like you’re skeptical that the Israelis could give you some plan or give the president some plan that would protect civilians and also involve an invasion of this city.”

Coons responded, “They would have to provide for space elsewhere in Gaza where there was shelter set up for nearly a million Palestinians. So, this is not an operation that can be safely done in the coming weeks.”

SOUTHCOM on Haiti

SOUTHCOM Head: ‘We Are Prepared’ to Send U.S. Troops to Haiti if ‘Called Upon’

United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Commander Gen. Laura J. Richardson left open the possibility of sending troops to Haiti as part of an “international solution” to address the ongoing violent situation of the Caribbean nation in remarks given during an event held by the Atlantic Council think tank on Tuesday.

“I think an international solution, a solution that also includes Haiti’s perspective, is very important,” Richardson said. “So I don’t think a U.S.-only solution is where we should be heading.”

Richardson asserted that the Biden administration is trying to “do exactly that, work on an international solution.”
During the event, Richardson was asked if U.S. forces could be part of said international solution. The SOUTHCOM commander answered, “They could be at the end of the day, we wouldn’t rule it out at any time” given “what’s going on in that country.”

“We are prepared if called upon by our State Department and our Defense Department,” she asserted, adding that the United States does not presently have plans to send troops to Haiti and pointing out that SOUTHCOM has a “wide range” of contingency plans and is prepared for possible mass migration from Haiti or elsewhere.

“The military always continues to plan and be ready for any possible situation. Certainly, what’s happening in Haiti is disappointing and is very concerning,” Richardson said. “And so, with US SOUTHCOM and what we are prepared to do, we want to make sure that we take care that our responses are humane in this crisis that is currently happening.”

Large sectors of Haiti continue to be under the control of violent gangs led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, who has openly called for a “bloody revolution” in the Caribbean nation. The gangs have continued to launch violent attacks, killing civilians and looting houses.

Congress & UC Berkeley

Congress Launches Investigation of UC Berkeley for Antisemitism

The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced Tuesday that it had launched an inquiry into the University of California Berkeley for antisemitism, adding it to the list of universities being probed.

The announcement came after a series of antisemitic incidents on campus, including assaults on Jewish students and a recent mob attack in which enraged students, some allegedly using antisemitic slurs, pounded on glass doors to shut down an event with a pro-Israel speaker.

Jewish groups have also sued Berkeley and its law school for antisemitism, including allowing student groups to exclude speakers who are pro-Israel — effectively, banning Jews.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

The committee’s investigation comes just nine days after the U.S. Department of Education announced it would add UC Berkeley to the list of schools being probed for possible discrimination.

The House committee has been investigating several universities for possible antisemitism, including Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the wake of a tense December 2023 hearing involving the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT, all three faced intense pressure to resign. The presidents of Harvard and Penn acquiesced.
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The committee asked the university to provide extensive documentation about its policies for addressing discrimination, all reports of antisemitic incidents, any disciplinary proceedings involving antisemitism or anti-Zionism, funding for Palestinian rights organizations on campus and funding from foreign entities.

Biden's Associate Won't Attend Hearing

Biden Business Associate Devon Archer Refuses to Attend Impeachment Inquiry Hearing

Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s “best friend in business,” refused to attend Wednesday’s impeachment inquiry hearing into President Joe Biden.
Archer’s lawyer told House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) that his client could not attend the hearing due to “short notice.”

“Providing such short notice for a witness’s public appearance before the Committee on a matter of national importance is patently unreasonable,” lawyer Matthew Schwartz wrote Comer, ABC News first reported.

Former Biden associates Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis appeared at the hearing.

Archer previously told the inquiry that Hunter placed Joe Biden on speakerphone multiple times with his business associates.

Galanis confirmed Archer’s testimony. He said then-Vice President Joe Biden was on speakerphone calls with Biden associates, including one call with a Russian oligarch and one-time mayor of Moscow.

Archer’s family remains tied to investments made during Joe Biden’s vice presidency. His wife still owns his stake in BHR Partners, a Chinese investment fund that has deployed billions around the globe. Kevin Morris, Hunter’s lawyer, also controls Hunter’s stake in the fund.

Charges Against Gold Star Father Dropped

Charges Dropped Against Gold Star Father Who Interrupted Biden’s SOTU

The decision to not prosecute Steve Nikoui, father of late Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, was confirmed Tuesday evening by Fox News.

The grieving father attended the SOTU on March 7 as a guest of Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), and was removed after shouting “United States Marines!” and “Abbey Gate!” — a reference to the entrance of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, where Islamic terrorists detonated an explosive, killing his son.

The August 26, 2021 bombing killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghans as American military personnel were evacuating people from the destabilized region in the Biden administration’s pull-out, ABC News reported.

Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office told Fox News that it decided to drop the charges because they don’t typically prosecute similar forms of protest.

The outlet reported that Nikoui was said to be “thrilled and humbled” with tears of joy when he was told the good news by Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA).

The Other Border

Migrant Apprehensions in Northern Border Sector Double Prior Record Year’s Pace

Unofficial Border Patrol reports reviewed by Breitbart Texas revealed that Swanton Sector agents apprehended nearly 900 migrants during the month of February. This is up by more than 105 percent over the prior February. This brings the total for FY24, which began on October 1, 2023, to more than 4,000 migrant apprehensions.

Earlier this month, Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia reported on X that his agents apprehended more migrants in FY23 than in the prior 11 years combined. He added that his agents doubled the record-shattering pace of last year’s first four months. During the first four months of this year, agents encountered 3,192, according to the official CBP Nationwide Encounters Report. During the same period in FY 23, these agents encountered 1,514 migrants. The Swanton Sector covers the Canadian-U.S. border in eastern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

Chief Garcia posted another report on social media a few days later revealing that agents assigned to the Champlain Station in New York set a record for the most encounters in a one-week period. During that timeframe, these agents apprehended 158 migrants from 14 different nations.

In one incident, Champlain Station agents using a K-9 team encountered a group of seven Mexican nationals who illegally entered New York from Canada.

Biden Hates Gas-Powered Cars?

Joe Biden Issues Environmental Rule to Start Phasing Out Gas-Powered Cars

President Joe Biden has issued a new environmental federal regulation to begin phasing out gas-powered cars, requiring American automakers to produce Electric Vehicles (EVs) as part of his sweeping green energy agenda.

On Wednesday, Biden announced the rule to require that a majority of new cars sold in the U.S. market are EVs or hybrids by 2032, the New York Times details:

Nearly three years in the making, the new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency would transform the American automobile market. A record 1.2 million electric vehicles rolled off dealers’ lots last year, but they made up just 7.6 percent of total U.S. car sales, far from the 56 percent target under the new regulation. An additional 16 percent of new cars sold would be hybrids. [Emphasis added]

In a statement to the Times, Biden called his green energy agenda “an ambitious target” and the beginning of “historic progress” on fighting global warming.

“Three years ago, I set an ambitious target: that half of all new cars and trucks sold in 2030 would be zero-emission,” Biden said. “Together, we’ve made historic progress. Hundreds of new expanded factories across the country. Hundreds of billions in private investment and thousands of good-paying union jobs. And we’ll meet my goal for 2030 and race forward in the years ahead.”

The regulation comes even as a survey from Consumer Reports posted last year revealed that American consumers reported about 80 percent more problems with EVs than consumers with traditional gas-powered cars.

EUROPE

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Paris 2024

2024 Paris Summer Olympics Cancel Air Conditioning Due to Climate Concerns

The athletes competing at the Paris Summer Games will have plenty of condoms, but they will not have air conditioning.

“We designed these buildings so that they would be comfortable places to live in in the summer, in 2024 and later on, and we don’t need air conditioning in these buildings because we oriented the facades so that they wouldn’t get too much sun during the summer, and the facades, the insulation is really efficient,” said Yann Krysinski, who is directing the service of infrastructure for the Games.
The buildings housing the athletes will apparently have some sort of cooling system, however. According to Reuters, cooled water will be circulated in the floors of the rooms to generate coolness.

The decision to forego traditional air conditioning is borne of the organizing committee’s desire to make the 2024 Paris Games record-breaking in terms of reducing the event’s carbon footprint.

Once the Olympic Games are over, planners intend for the buildings once used to house athletes to become housing for up to 6,000 Parisians. The attempt to make carbon footprint history does not come without risks. Some 5,000 people died in France last year due to oppressive heat, and forecasters have claimed there is a possibility of similarly sweltering conditions this summer as well.

Immigration

Migrant Stabbed While Trying to Break into Britain on English Channel Small Boat

A freshly landed migrant was transferred directly to hospital in Dover on Wednesday after reportedly having been stabbed while aboard a people smuggler boat at sea, carrying its cargo of irregulars to Britain’s shores.

A migrant was stabbed while aboard a smuggler’s boat taking him to the United Kingdom across the English Channel, having to be taken to hospital for treatment. The injuries were described as not being life threatening and the victim was put onto a smaller lifeboat to be taken ashore while the remaining 60 migrants who had been on the smuggler boat were loaded onto the larger Dover lifeboat, states GB News.

Kent Police said, per The Sun, that “officers are carrying out enquiries to establish the full circumstances, including where, when and how the injuries were sustained”, but made no mention of any arrests having taken place so far.
A total of eight ‘small boats’, as they are called, are reported to have landed on Wednesday carrying some 450 migrants to the United Kingdom. No other day this year has been busier, and trends from previous years suggest as the Spring makes itself felt and better weather arrives, the number of boats and daily migrant totals will rise considerably.

In the late summer of 2023, 872 migrants arrived in 15 boats in one day, and thousand-migrant weeks were not unknown, even in a year where boat arrival levels had fallen compared to previous years.

Brexit leader and boat immigration campaigner Nigel Farage said Wednesday had been a “beautiful day in the English Channel” — attracting the large numbers of boat crossings — and that “these are people being brought into Dover to be processed, they’ll end up living in four-star hotels… none of this is going to change unless we get tough as a government.”

Reflecting on the violence on Wednesday, Farage said: “One of the passengers stabbed another one, so you can see not everyone who is coming is a poor, innocent refugee. Far from it. This is a disaster for our country.”

Muslims Make up Nearly Fifth of All Prisoners in Britain, Govt Figures Show

Muslims make up nearly a fifth of all prisoners in England and Wales as of September of last year, with 15,594 inmates belonging to the Islamic faith, government data has revealed.

While Muslims only make up around 6.5 per cent of the British population overall, they account for around 18 per cent of the prison population according to data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), The Telegraph reports.

In comparison, Christians made up the largest religious group in prisons at 45 per cent, however, according to the 2021 Census, Christians represented 46 per cent of the population of England and Wales, meaning that as a group, people who profess to be Christian are incarcerated broadly proportionately.

Meanwhile, those who were not affiliated with any religious group comprised 31 per cent of the prison population, compared to 37 per cent of the population as a whole.

The Ministry of Justice figures also revealed that white people made up a disproportionate number of Muslim inmates, with 19.9 per cent of Islamic prisoners, or 3,096, being recorded as white. This is compared to white people making up just 7.8 per cent of the Muslim community in the UK.

This comes in contrast to 35 per cent (5,489) of Muslim prisoners being recorded as being “Asian or Asian British” and 27 per cent (4,212) were recorded as “Black or Black British”, while the remainder were either unrecorded or were of mixed background.

The strikingly high percentage of white Muslims within the prison population has been attributed by some as a result of conversions out of fear, with Muslims representing a powerful force within many British prisons.

Former Prison Governor Ian Acheson, who conducted a review of Islamist extremism in prisons for the MoJ, said: “There’s strong evidence that people convert as a pragmatic response to who controls power and space in our prisons.

“This seems to be the case in high-security prisons, in particular, where safety is at a premium and there are also large numbers of violent young men entering custody searching for meaning and belonging. So Islam in this case has gang characteristics”.

Finance Minister Against Boeing

France’s Finance Minister Says He Avoids Flying Boeing Because He Values His Life

Taking a snipe at the American aviation giant’s recent safety record, which has been a matter of massive concern in the United States, French government minister Bruno Le Maire said he’d far rather fly Airbus, the European jet rival.

Le Maire’s comments were made in address to Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury who was present at the same event. He praised the quality of European industry, saying that in the last century the continent had produced “the best machine tools, the best planes, the best cars, the best chemicals”, and for now at least it still made “the best planes… by far”.

The minister said he preferred “the situation” of Airbus to that of Boeing, and preferred to fly on the Europe-made aircraft than American, noting caustically “my family cares about me too”.

As noted by Bloomberg, the Airbus boss did not join in with the gloating over Boeing’s woes, and said the problems of his competitor did not make him happy and that fatal accidents calls for “humility, not complacency”.

Airbus was formed in the 1970s to compete with the American companies then dominating the global commercial jet industry, combining design and construction from several European states including France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The company’s A320 jet liner is, with the Boeing 737, one of the most produced aircraft ever, with other 11,000 made.

ASIA

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China & Hamas

China Tells Hamas Chief It Is ‘Keen on Relations’ in First Meeting Since October 7

China sent a delegation to Qatar to meet with the head of the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, the Foreign Ministry revealed on Tuesday, reportedly telling him that Beijing is “keen on relations” with the genocidal group.

The encounter is the first of its kind between the Chinese government and Hamas since October 7, when the terrorists executed an unprecedented siege of Israel that resulted in an estimated 1,200 deaths, the abduction of an estimated 250 people, and a spree of torture, gang rape, and the desecration of the dead. The “al-Aqsa flood,” as Hamas terrorists refer to the attack, is widely considered the largest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

Hamas is a Sunni terrorist organization that enjoys funding from key China ally Iran and has openly called for the destruction of Israel and the elimination of Jewish people from the territory. The Chinese Communist Party has been largely favorable to Hamas since October 7, particularly at international venues such as the United Nations and BRICS coalition meetings, despite Beijing orchestrating an ongoing genocide of Turkic Muslims in occupied East Turkistan and justifying it by claiming it is necessary to prevent terrorism. China has similarly supported the geopolitical goals of other jihadist terrorist groups despite its claim to oppose radical Islamic terrorism, most notably the Afghan Taliban.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the meeting with Haniyeh on Tuesday in a statement that offered almost no information beyond the fact that the meeting occurred.

“On March 17, 2024, Ambassador Wang Kezhuo of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met with the President of the Hamas Political Bureau, Haniyeh, during his visit to Qatar and exchanged views on issues such as the Gaza conflict,” the statement read.

During its regular press briefing on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry refused to offer any more information, Newly minted spokesman Lin Jian addressed the situation in the Middle East only in the context of the Palestinian Authority appointing a new “prime minister,” Mohammad Mustafa.

“Any arrangement concerning the future and destiny of Palestine must follow the principle of ‘the Palestinians governing Palestine’ and fully reflect the Palestinians’ aspirations,” Lin said. “China stands ready to work with all parties to deescalate the current tensions and bring the Palestinian question back to the right track of the two-State solution.”

Prior to the confirmation on Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reportedly that the meeting between Haniyeh and Wang occurred on Sunday. It claimed that Wang told the Hamas terror leader that China believed Hamas “is part of the Palestinian national fabric and China is keen on relations with it.”

MIDDLE EAST

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Israel & Hamas

Israel Eliminates Senior Hamas Operatives in Rafah, Despite U.S. Opposition

Israel struck five senior Hamas operatives in the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Monday, despite the public opposition of the Biden administration to Israeli attacks there, and a demand for prior approval by Washington.

As Breitbart News reported, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday at the White House that President Joe Biden opposed attacks in Rafah had summoned Israeli officials to D.C. for discussions.

At most, Sullivan suggested, the U.S. might support limited, targeted strikes within Rafah against specific Hamas targets. He strongly implied, however, that such operations would need to be cleared with the United States first.

Nevertheless, on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or “Shin Bet,” or “Shabak”) were conducting a secret mission in Rafah, killing four senior Hamas officials and wounding another.

In a joint announcement, the IDF and ISA said:

On Monday, IDF fighter jets acting on IDF and ISA intelligence eliminated senior Hamas operatives in Rafah who assisted its military wing in establishing continued control, as well as operations in the field.

The operatives struck were Sayid Katab Alkhashash, Osama Hamd Zaher, Muhammad Aud Almelalakhi, the heads of Hamas’ Emergency Bureau in Northern and Eastern Rafah, alongside Hadi Abu Alrus Kasin, an operations officer.

The senior operatives were the representatives of Hamas’ leadership in Rafah. As part of their roles, they managed the terror organization’s activities in humanitarian zones and were responsible for coordination with Hamas operatives in the field.

Furthermore, Nidal Aleed, the Head of Hamas’ Rafah Emergency Bureau, who managed all of its operations in the area, was eliminated in a strike last week.

Of the five, all were confirmed dead except Muhammad Aud Almelalakhi, whom the IDF described as “struck.”