Quote:Bodycam footage from July 13, 2024, captures the sound of sirens screaming following the assassination attempt against Donald Trump and the voice of a Butler, Pennsylvania, officer saying, “I f*cking told [the Secret Service] they need to post a guy f*cking over here,” adding that he did so five days before the shooting.

The bodycam footage, released by CNN, captures the hectic moments after the assassination attempt on former President Trump.

A local officer is pacing in frustration and can be heard saying, “I f*cking told them that they needed to post guys f*cking over here.”

Another officer responds to him, asking, “Told who?”

The local officer said, “The Secret Service, I told them that f*cking Tuesday.”

Someone responded, “I thought you guys were supposed to do it.”

The local officer answered, “No, we’re inside.”

He added, “I told them to post f*cking guys over here.”

Throughout the back and forth talk on the bodycam, it was clear that some officers did not worry about certain locations because they thought other officers were there or, as obvious from the Butler, Pennsylvania, officer, they had purportedly warned the Secret Service to be there.

On July 16, 2024–three days after the assassination attempt–Breitbart News spoke with sources who criticized the Secret Service’s supplemental approach to protection details following the attempt on Trump’s life.

The sources indicated that protective details for a former president are not anywhere as extensive as the details that protect a sitting president. Because of this, when a former president travels or holds rallies, such as the one Trump was holding that Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Secret Service uses “supplemental” protective personnel to fill the gaps that exist in the existing protective structure.

One source explained that this means the Secret Secret relies on using other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents for protection, as well as local police and/or local advanced units and advanced unit personnel. While DHS agents used by Secret Service may be excellent at the jobs for which they are trained, the source noted that protective detail work is not what they are trained to do.

Quote:A California Democrat state senator is defecting to the Republican Party, saying that the current state of the left “is not the party that I signed up for decades ago.”

State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, a longtime Democrat who represents the northeastern portion of California’s Central Valley, took to Fox News on Thursday to break the news of her party switch.

“In the past two years that I’ve been working in the Senate, I have not recognized the party that I belong to,” the legislator said. “The Democratic Party is not the party that I signed up for decades ago.”

“I can’t, in good conscience, with the values that I have and my commitment to represent the voters of California, continue to call myself a Democrat,” Alvarado-Gil continued.

Lamenting fighting an “uphill battle” to make positive changes with her fellow Democrats, she stated that her Republican colleagues “have a plan to fix California, and I want to be part of that.”

The state’s fourth Senate district is largely rural and was represented by a Republican since 1993 until Alvarado-Gil was elected in 2022.

“Since my first day in office, I have put the interests of my constituents first. I was elected to serve the public, not a political ideology,” Alvarado-Gil said.

“The status quo under a supermajority Democratic rule in the legislature is simply not working for this state,” the lawmaker said in a follow-up statement that the New York Post obtained.

Alvarado-Gil was welcomed into the California GOP with open arms, as the State Senate’s Republican caucus called her “Pragmatic. Fierce. Strong. Republican”:

“I look forward to continuing the work we do to secure a safe and prosperous California for all our constituents,” said the caucus’s chair, State Sen. Kelly Seyarto.

California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones ® also celebrated Alvarado-Gil’s party switch, saying it “takes courage to stand up to the supermajority in California, and Marie has what it takes.”

“Her record on tackling crime, protecting communities from sexually violent predators, and prioritizing her constituents speaks for itself,” he added, continuing to say that Republicans need more “pragmatic” Democrats to join them:

The switch has gotten Republicans up to nine seats in California’s 40-member Senate.

Quote:On Wednesday, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order cementing election security protocols in the state, noting that since he took office Virginia has discovered and removed more than 6,000 noncitizen registered voters from voting rolls.

With the national presidential election less than 90 days away, the GOP is pushing for stricter voter regulations to safeguard election integrity. Voting in a federal election without citizenship is a federal crime that is punishable by imprisonment and fines. There is no significant evidence of widespread noncitizen voting.

After signing the order, Youngkin said, "The Virginia model for Election Security works. This isn't a Democrat or Republican issue, it's an American and Virginian issue. Every legal vote deserves to be counted without being watered down by illegal votes or inaccurate machines."

Executive Order 35 mandates a "documented chain of custody for paper ballots," the format in which all Virginians must cast their vote. Youngkin emphasized in the order, "Virginia does not use 'voting machines,' just paper ballot counting machines." The order also stipulates that those paper ballots must be retained by court clerks for 22 months.

In addition, absentee ballots "may not be counted until the last four digits of a voter's Social Security number and year of birth provided on the envelope are matched to the voter's record in the statewide voter registration system." The governor stated earlier in the order that Virginia is one of the few states that require "those registering to vote to provide their full 9-digit Social Security number for registration."

Quote:A man who served in the military with Democrat vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says that Walz was aware his unit would deploy to Iraq before he decided to retire in 2005, despite some claiming he retired before knowing about the upcoming deployment.

Allan Bonnifield, who supports the governor, has told multiple reporters that Walz’s decision to retire weighed heavily on him because he knew his unit was going to deploy.

According to MPR News, Bonnifield, who met Walz in 1999, said in a 2018 interview that Walz debated focusing on a run for Congress or staying in the National Guard, knowing there was an upcoming deployment to Iraq.

MPR News reported:

“He weighed that decision to run for Congress very, very heavy,” Bonnifield said. “He loved the military, he loved the Guard, he loved the soldiers that he worked with, and making that decision was very tough for him. Especially knowing that we were going on another deployment to Iraq. He didn’t take that decision lightly at all.” [Emphasis added]

Bonnifield also told a News Nation reporter on Thursday that accusations that Walz retired to avoid a deployment were “bullshit” but then confirmed that Walz knew an upcoming deployment for the unit was an “inevitability”:

Bonnifield says the entire unit was convinced it was an inevitability that they WOULD be deployed to Iraq soon. They hadn’t been given the orders to deploy yet. But Bonnifield says they, Walz included, assumed it was coming:

“He told us that he wanted to run for Congress, and he was in a tough spot, because he was pretty sure we were going to Iraq. We didn’t have orders. We didn’t have any kind of orders at all. At this time, he was pretty sure we were going, and he was in a position that pretty sure meant we were going.”

Quote:The mother of a 19-year-old soldier who was killed on the Iraq deployment that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) was supposed to lead in 2006 expressed anger at Walz for taking the “coward’s way out.”

In an interview with the DailyMail.com on Thursday, Kathy Miller, mother of Kyle Miller, who was killed in Iraq on June 29, 2006 by a roadside bomb, said she will never trust him again, after he retired two months before the unit deployed.

“My son stepped up to the plate. All our sons stepped up,” she told the outlet. “My son wasn’t even 21 years old. He couldn’t even buy alcohol. Yet he took the step to serve our country, while Walz found the best way to run away.”

She added, “It was the coward’s way out.”

At the time, Walz was serving as the battalion’s top senior enlisted leader, which is a position in charge of the welfare of the enlisted troops under his command. It was an important role, as the unit prepared to head into war. Then, Iraq was an active battlefield, with troops facing the worst combat casualties since the Vietnam War.

While his supporters say Walz did not retire to avoid the deployment, they also acknowledge he knew of the upcoming deployment before he decided to retire.

A man named Allan Bonnifield told MPR News in 2018, “He weighed that decision to run for Congress very, very heavy. … He loved the military, he loved the Guard, he loved the soldiers that he worked with, and making that decision was very tough for him. Especially knowing that we were going on another deployment to Iraq. He didn’t take that decision lightly at all.”

Miller also blasted Walz for misrepresenting his rank when he retired.

Walz for decades has claimed to be a retired command sergeant major, which he was serving as at the time as the battalion’s top enlisted leader. However, he retired at the lower rank of master sergeant, or E-8, not a sergeant major, or E9.

Walz has also claimed to have been “in war,” and failed to correct people who identified him as an Afghanistan War veteran.

In a 2007 video clip recently resurfaced, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is heard thanking Walz for his service on the “battlefield.”

“I don’t think it’s fair that (Walz) takes credit when he didn’t step up to the plate,” Miller said, according to the DailyMail.com.

“Walz claims a rank he never earned. When he was called to serve and protect our country he didn’t,” she said. “‘To publicly present false prestige of his unearned rank, an inaccurate representation, is a falsehood of who he truly is.”

The DailyMail.com report provided heartbreaking details about her son, such as that before his death, he had recurring dreams of being blown up in an explosion in Iraq.

When he told a chaplain, the chaplain said someone else could go on operations instead, but Miller refused, saying he could not bear someone dying in his place.

The next day, Miller was killed after his convoy hit a roadside bomb. He died on the way to the hospital.

Quote:.Minnesota Governor and Vice-Presidential hopeful Tim Walz has an abnormal relationship with China.

“No matter how long I live, I will never be treated that well again…it was an excellent experience,” Walz said upon his return from the first of many trips there. Walz claims that his Chinese hosts lavished him with “more gifts than I could bring home.”

Walz and his supporters would like us to believe that his cozy ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are not unusual. In fact, he is “hawkish” and staunch critic of the CCP’s human rights abuses, his media allies say. The Chinese have an expression for the practice of providing cover for the communist regime while issuing the occasional muted critiques: it’s called “big help with a little bad mouth.”

As Breitbart News reported, Walz first visited China in 1989 under the auspices of a now-shuttered Harvard program called WorldTeach. Walz and became so enamored with the country that he and his wife honeymooned there after their marriage on June 4, 1994, the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Walz “wanted to have a [wedding anniversary] date he’ll always remember,” according to his wife.

The Walz newlyweds brought sixty students with them on their honeymoon, kicking off the first of many student exchange trips to the communist country. Walz and his wife set up a company, Education Travel Adventures Inc., to facilitate the trips to China. They ultimately ended up taking more than thirty trips there.

Walz’s last known trip to China was in 2015, but he continues to meet with communist officials and headline CCP-backed events. Walz’s deep and abiding ties to China—including multiple connections to CCP intelligence front organizations—present troubling national security questions about a potential Harris-Walz administration.

1. The CCP approved and even subsidized Walz’s student exchanges.
   
2. A CCP diplomat and other CCP government officials attended Walz’s gubernatorial inauguration in January 2019.
   
3. The CCP Diplomat left the Walz inauguration to meet with Walz cronies at Minnesota’s premier globalist non-governmental organization (NGO), Minnesota Global.
   
4. Walz has close connections to a Twin Cities-based organization that houses an alleged secret CCP police station—one of only seven secret CCP police stations in the U.S.
   
5. Then-Congressman Walz praised a CCP-backed event that he attended with CCP diplomats in 2018.
   
6. Less than one year into his first gubernatorial term, Walz was an honored guest speaker at multiple CCP-backed influence operation events in 2019.
   
7. Walz has a long history of making outlandishly pro-CCP comments.
   

Quote:Major U.S. banks including Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo collectively closed more than 30 locations during a two-week period in July, a Daily Mail report revealed.

From July 14 to July 28, 33 banks were shut down throughout multiple regions of the country, with Florida being the state with the most closures.

Bank of America axed 11 locations, followed by Chase and PNC which closed seven each.

Axiom Bank, Capitol, Citizens, Dollar Bank, Lemont, and Zions Bancorporation locations also went down across states including Ohio, Virginia, Texas, and Colorado.

Bank of America has become the national bank with the most location closures this year, with more than 100 branches shutting down in just eight months.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, a Bank of America representative explained that the financial institution has recently finished its three-year project to modernize their on-the-ground business structure.

“These shifts in our branch network reflect that, more and more, our clients are using digital banking for their everyday financial needs and coming into financial centers for more significant needs or to have conversations about their finances,” the spokesperson said, adding that many of the closures are the result of consolidating branches.

Bank of America still has 3,800 branches, the representative pointed out.

Wells Fargo also provided a statement to the outlet, saying the corporation has been combining “two older existing branches into one better situated location.”

“Doing so does not take away the importance of our customers and the communities we serve,” the spokesperson assured.

Andrew Murray, the lead data researcher at GOBankingRates, told the Daily Mail that Americans are moving away from brick-and-mortar banking institutions.

“The majority of Americans, from Gen Z to boomers, are in less need of a traditional bank, which may explain the rising number of physical branches that have been closing over the past year,” he explained.

Quote:The situation has reached a boiling point for neighbors of a homeless camp in Southeast Portland, Oregon.

KGW 8 reported Wednesday that the area on Southeast Knapp Street where RVs and tents line the roadway is considered dangerous due to backed-up traffic and drivers allegedly trying to run over the homeless.

A neighbor, Angie Toops, said the camp has worsened in the past few years, noting, “We have garbage and stuff impeding into the street, and it’s getting out of hand.”

Another resident, Nancy Shannon, said she feels deeply for the homeless living there and has called city officials numerous times about the situation to try and get help. According to Toops, no one from the city ever returns their calls, and it makes the neighbors feel “defeated.”

In July, another Southeast Portland resident who spoke with KATU said he does not believe officials “really give a damn” about the homeless situation:
...
In June, Breitbart News reported that an analysis found that in the counties of Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas, local governments and nonprofit groups apparently spent $531 million for homeless interventions in 2023.

The outlet also noted that Portland city leaders bought 100 tiny home pods at $16,510 each for homeless people in the area.

One neighbor concerned about homeless vehicles lined up on Southeast 94th Avenue said his two children have seen drug deals from their home’s window.

“We have issues with human waste and drug paraphernalia in our yard, in our neighbor’s yard. Our kids can’t play out front. There’s a general level of danger pretty much at all times,” the man said. He also claimed some of the people living in the vehicles carry weapons, such as machetes and bats:
...

Quote:On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor dismissed the major portion of a lawsuit brought by Mexico against several American gun manufacturers and a wholesaler.

On August 4, 2021, Breitbart News reported the government of Mexico was suing six U.S. gun makers and one Boston-area wholesaler, claiming “massive damage” created by “unlawful trafficking” of firearms to cartel and criminal elements.

The Mexican Government’s suit opened with trafficking claims and named the six manufacturers and the wholesaler:

Plaintiff Estados Unidos Mexicanos (the “Government”), a sovereign nation, brings this action to put an end to the massive damage that the Defendants cause by actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico. Almost all guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico — 70% to 90% of them — were trafficked from the U.S. The Defendants include the six U.S.-based manufacturers whose guns are most often recovered in Mexico — Smith & Wesson, Beretta, Century Arms, Colt, Glock, and Ruger. Another manufacturer defendant is Barrett, whose .50 caliber sniper rifle is a weapon of war prized by the drug cartels. The remaining defendant — Interstate Arms — is a Boston-area wholesaler through which all but one of the defendant manufacturers sell their guns for re-sale to gun dealers throughout the U.S.

The number of entities being sued eventually reached eight in total.

A district court judge decided against Mexico in September 2022, saying that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) shields U.S. gun manufacturers from such suits. However, Mexico appealed the ruling, and CNN noted that a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled “that Mexico’s complaint plausibly alleges a type of claim that is statutorily exempt from the PLCAA’s general prohibition.”

The BBC reported that “Smith & Wesson Brands and Witmer Public Safety Group remain defendants following the judge’s ruling.”

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has been leading a charge among state AGs to seek Supreme Court intervention in the case against American gun makers.

Following Wednesday’s dismissal, Knudson told Breitbart News, “I’m glad the District Court agreed with us. The Mexican government cannot weaponize U.S. courts in an attempt to deflect from Mexico’s own failed policies. Perhaps now Mexican leadership can focus on the real problems: drug cartels and rampant government corruption.”

Quote:Ukraine’s state-run Ukrinform news service on Wednesday reported that Ukrainians who live in Minnesota are pleased with the “firm pro-Ukrainian stance” of Gov. Tim Walz (D), who is currently embroiled in a scandal due to exaggerating his military service for political gain after being tapped as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate.

Ukrinform’s article was built around an interview with Luda Anastazievsky, who chairs the Ukrainian American Advocacy Committee of Minnesota. Anastazievsky said she met Walz at a rally in St. Paul shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and was favorably impressed by his words of devotion to the Ukrainian community.

“Without Ukrainian residents of Minnesota, there is no Minnesota, and today we are all Ukrainians,” she recalled Walz saying.

Anastazievsky went on to testify before the Minnesota legislature in support of a bill that banned state investments in Russia and its ally Belarus. The bill passed and Walz subsequently ordered Minnesota agencies to terminate their contracts with Russian entities.

“Walz then raised the Ukrainian flag over his residence as a sign of support for Ukraine,” Ukrinform interjected.

Anastazievsky saluted Walz as a “strong supporter of Ukraine” and claimed his true strength is “that he can find, as they say, a middle ground, an opportunity to negotiate with both sides.”

Harris’ opponent, former President Donald Trump, has been skeptical of heavy funding for the Ukraine war. Trump has also expressed confidence he can end the war through negotiations, even before he takes office – a pledge he made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July and repeated in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Thursday.

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared on Thursday that Russia “should feel what it has done to his country,” apparently obliquely referencing an ongoing reported invasion of Russian territory by Ukrainian troops that began this week.

The Russian government claimed on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces entered Kursk Oblast, a previously uncontested Russian territory, and began expanding attacks into towns near the Ukrainian border. On Friday, the Russian government declared a “federal-level” state of emergency in Kursk and announced a robust military reinforcement of the region to respond to the new Ukrainian operation.

Zelensky himself has not directly addressed the reports of Ukrainian military activity in Kursk. In remarks published by the state outlet Ukrinform on Thursday, however, he reiterated that the war “was not our choice” and that Russia must “feel what it has done” to his country.

“Ukrainians know how to achieve their goals. And achieving the goals at war was not our choice. Russia brought the war to our land, and it should feel what it has done,” Zelensky said. “We strive to achieve our goals as soon as possible in peacetime – under just peace conditions. And it will happen.”

Zelensky’s comments have been widely interpreted to be a reference to the decision to move troops into Kursk, forcing Russia to redirect attention away from the Ukrainian territories it has colonized.

Elsewhere on Thursday, Zelensky said that he had received an update from his top military commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, and celebrated the developments of the past week as “exactly what our country needs.”

While Zelensky has not directly referred to Kursk, one of his top advisers, Mykhaylo Podolyak, posted a message on Twitter on Thursday expressing appreciation to the international community for not condemning the incursion.

“Absolutely calm, balanced, objective, and based on an understanding of the spirit of international law and the principles of defensive warfare – this is the international response to the events in the Kursk region of the Rf [Russian Federation],” Podolyak wrote, adding that “a significant part of the global community considers Rf a legitimate target for any operations and types of weapons.”

The Russian government has been in irregular combat with Ukraine for more than a decade following the illegal colonization of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 but formally announced a “special operation” into Ukraine in February 2022, allegedly to “de-Nazify” the country by overthrowing Zelensky. Efforts to topple the government have failed, but Russia has greatly expanded its presence on Ukrainian territory and “annexed” four more regions of the country in September 2022: Donetsk and Luhansk, which collectively form the Donbas region, and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Zelensky appeared to apply the same playbook in January, signing a decree that identified parts of Russia previously uncontested as “historically inhabited by Ukrainians.” The decree identified six oblasts, or Russian state-level divisions, as “historically” Ukrainian, including Kursk.

Quote:US rapper Travis Scott was arrested early Friday over a fight at a five-star hotel in the French capital, prosecutors said.

“Policemen were called to the Georges V hotel and arrested Travis Scott for violence against a security agent. The latter had intervened to separate the rapper from his bodyguard,” the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear if the 33-year-old singer was being detained.

Scott was seen attending the Olympics men’s basketball semi-finals on Thursday evening.

The music star, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster, was arrested in Miami Beach in June for trespassing and disorderly intoxication, records showed.

Scott’s “Utopia” was a nominee for best rap album at this year’s Grammy Awards.

Other endeavours include merchandising deals with Nike, video game maker Epic Games and McDonald’s fast food.

Scott has two children with social media giant and business mogul Kylie Jenner.

Quote:The prime suspect in bomb plot to kill Taylor Swift fans at a concert in Vienna “today or tomorrow” has been revealed, and has made a full confession to police, the Austrian state says.

Two migrant-heritage teenagers are in custody in Austria after a series of Taylor Swift concerts at a Vienna city stadium were cancelled at the last moment, having been meant to have gone ahead tonight and the next two nights. Some 60,000 ticket holders and up to 200,000 fans in total were expected to attend over the three nights, given the large numbers expected to arrive without a ticket but in hope of getting one.

It is these groups of non-ticket holders who were expected to congregate outside the Happel stadium in Vienna that were to be the targets of the alleged attack, it is stated. “Functional explosives” and machetes were found when officers raided properties, it is stated.

19-year-old ‘Beran A.’ [pictured top, right], his full identity strictly protected in line with Austrian law on anonymity before conviction, was revealed at a government press conference on Thursday. He was born in Ternitz, Austria but is of Macedonian heritage. Beran was said to have recently quit his job stating he had “big plans”, and recently adopted a new name of “Mo” — Mohammed — while changing his appearance to take on a more stereotypically Islamist mien.

Beran A. has made a “full confession”, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said. The politician said the security situation “was serious… is serious” but nevertheless stated “Our state security is working!”, reports the nation’s best-selling newspaper Kronen Zeitung.

Also arrested was an as-of-yet unnamed 17-year-old of Turkish-Croatian heritage, allegedly a co-conspirator, who was employed at the Happel stadium where the attack was said to be planned to take place. He has not made a confession. A report in the Kurier newspaper states the company employing the 17-year-old was contracted to provide “cleaning and security” services to the stadium, although what role he performed was not revealed.

Police have also questioned a 15-year-old, but there is no definite indication of involvement yet.

Head of the Austrian secret service Omar Haijawi-Pirchner said of the plan of the confessed would-be Islamist terrorist: “His goal was to kill himself and a large crowd of people today or tomorrow”. Beran A. “has clearly been radicalized and thinks it is right to kill ‘infidels”, Haijawi-Pirchner stated.

The spy chief said it was certain the attack was going to use explosives and bladed weapons, and that it was possible it could have been started by driving a vehicle into crowds first, like many other terror attacks in Europe in the past decade, but that has yet to be conclusively proven. Nevertheless, the press conference stated when officers raided properties associated with the suspects, “functional explosives” and machetes were discovered, as well as hydrogen peroxide, knives, anabolic steroids, blank-firing ammunition, and counterfeit money.

Quote:British legacy media came together to celebrate an evening of left-wing activists turning out across the country to confront a “far-right” that didn’t seem to meaningfully exist, but one of the largest rallies, billed as “preaching a message of peace”, saw one of its speakers shout a call to kill.

An activist said to have been identified as Labour Party politician Councillor Ricky Jones has been suspended by the party after apparently calling for political opponents to have their throat cuts at a left-wing rally in London on Wednesday night. The development has somewhat dented the establishment media narrative that the evening had seen a flowering of brotherly and open-minded feeling across England, in defiance of days of riots.

Hundreds of people gathered in Walthamstow, East London, on Wednesday night after the government claimed it was bracing for “100 riots” across England and Wales, with police reportedly calling the intelligence “a credible picture”. What actually happened nationwide and why remains contested, but like an earlier “far-right” protest in Birmingham which seemed to have been a fake and which only resulted in a group of journalists being intimidated by the “Muslim” counter-protesters, the alarmism over a huge surge in protests appears to have either been seriously mistaken, or an outright hoax.

Who would be faking the existence of right-wing protests and why remains and open question at the time of publication.

While enthusiastic media coverage praised the broadly unopposed counter-rallies as “preaching a message of peace”, easily geo-located footage captured at one meeting by an independent journalist showed a dark side to events, with an organiser handing the microphone to a self-professed trade unionist who went on to call for the killing of their political enemies while making the motion of drawing his finger across his neck.

The activist was later said to have been identified to be Labour politician Councillor Ricky Jones and suspended by the party.

In the footage, a woman wearing a ‘Stand up to Racism’ organisation vest introduced a speaker from the transport worker’s union TSSA, handing him the microphone. Making claims about right-wing extremists planting razor blades on trains to hurt staff and the public, the man said to be Jones shouted: “these people don’t give a shit about who they hurt… they are disgusting, nasty fascists. We need to cut all their throats, and get rid of them all”, before leading a chant of “free free Palestine”.

The crowd enthusiastically cheered and applauded the speaker after he called to cut the throats of their enemies, and a woman wearing a tabard identical to the official garments used by Amnesty International UK activists stood next to the speaker smiled happily. Nevertheless, at least one person at the rally had the presence of mind to realise the speaker had said the quiet part out loud, with who appeared to be the rally convenor — the woman controlling the microphone — immediately pulling a panicked face before bursting into awkward laughter at the remark.

Quote:A now-suspended Labour Party councillor who allegedly called for the throats of right-wing activists to be cut has been charged with encouraging violent disorder.

57-year-old Ricky Jones has been arrested and charged with with one count of encouraging violent disorder, the Crown Prosecution Service has said. The arrest follows the publication of footage purportedly recorded at a “message of peace” rally held by left-wing activists in Walthamstow on Wednesday, where a man appeared to make a “gesture to encourage others to act violently towards far-right protestors.”

A man introduced to the crowd as a trade unionist and handed the microphone by the protest convenor told those present about information he’d received from railway industry colleagues alleging the placement of razor-blades on trains to cause injury to staff and the public. Responding to this news, the man was recorded to have said: “…these people don’t give a shit about who they hurt… they are disgusting, nasty fascists. We need to cut all their throats, and get rid of them all”, while making a gesture of drawing his finger across his throat.

Subsequently, the Labour Party said they had withdrawn the whip from one of their elected politicians, a Kent Councillor, named as Ricky Jones. The party said then: “This behaviour is completely unacceptable and it will not be tolerated. The councillor has been suspended from the party.”

The Metropolitan Police said on Friday that following the arrest, Jones had appeared in court this afternoon and was remanded in custody pending his next appearance, scheduled to be at Inner London Crown Court on September 6th.

Quote:Failed left-wing politician and former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has said that he is considering leaving the United Kingdom with his family as a result of the anti-mass migration riots that have erupted over the past week in Britain.

Humza Yousaf, a member of the far-left Scottish National Party (SNP) and who served as Scotland’s first minister, said that he has questioned if his family can have “an existence” in the UK. Unrest and violence broke out last week in response to the mass stabbing at a children’s ‘Taylor Swift’ dance party last week in Southport, which left three young girls dead and several others seriously injured.

Despite no riots occurring in Scotland so far, the Member of the Scottish Parliament told The News Agents podcast: “It is a strange feeling when your very sense of belonging is questioned.

“I’m about as Scottish as they come. Born in Scotland, raised in Scotland, educated in Scotland, just welcomed my third child here in Scotland, was the leader of the Scottish Government for just over a year.”

“But the truth of the matter is, I don’t know whether the future for me and my wife and my three children is going to be here in Scotland or the United Kingdom, or indeed in Europe and the West, because I have, for some time, really worried about the rise of Islamophobia.”

Yousaf went on to claim that as a child, he had been critical of his father for maintaining his Pakistani citizenship after moving to the UK over supposed concerns about perhaps needing to flee the country back to his homeland, but now he no longer considers it a “ridiculous suggestion.”

The former Scottish first minister, a role similar to that of governor in the United States, maintained that it is not his preference to leave the country, which he hailed for having a “strong history and heritage of multiculturalism,” citing his own time as an elected leader as well as the elevation of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and current London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Quote:Former President Trump’s campaign said some of its internal communications were recently hacked by foreign sources.

The breach was first reported by Politico after the outlet received emails from an anonymous account with documents from the Trump campaign.

The campaign said the leak came from “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” His campaign pointed to a report released Friday from Microsoft that said Iran is targeting the 2024 election.

“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to The Hill.

Cheung said the report from Microsoft found Iranian hackers “broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’” on the presidential campaign in June 2024.

After Trump’s assassination attempt last month at a Pennsylvania rally, the Biden administration claimed that Iran made threats to kill the former president. Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied the reports, calling them “malicious.”

Cheung noted the timing of the campaign hack and the “Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy.”

“The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Cheung said. “Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”

Politico said it began receiving emails from an AOL email account from someone identified as “Robert” on July 22.

Quote:Former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News exclusively on Thursday evening that he intends to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine as President-elect before he even is sworn in as the next president of the United States.

Trump, in an hourlong interview with Breitbart News at his luxurious seaside resort and club, Mar-a-Lago, here in South Florida, said that he wants to see the war between Russia and Ukraine “settled.”

“I want to see it settled,” Trump said. “I want to get it done.”

Trump said he knows Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, and believes he can negotiate peace to end the “death” and “destruction” if elected again on Nov. 5.

“I know both heads of the countries,” Trump said. “I know President Putin very well. I want to see the death stopping. There’s death and there’s destruction. They are destroying the whole fabric of a certain part of the world. I want to get it negotiated, and get it done.”

Trump said his Democrat opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, would keep the war going and keep flowing hundreds of billions of American tax dollars into Ukraine rather than ending it. He said Harris would do nothing, and because of her inaction “millions of people will die” if she were to win the election in November. He also said Harris’s ineptitude could drag the world into a global war.

“I don’t think she has any clue,” Trump said. “She wouldn’t handle it at all. I don’t think she’d do anything. I think it would just go on and millions of people will die. It could evolve into a World War also. She’s got no capability to get it done. I want to get it done. I’ve always had a very good relationship with both men and I think I’m in a very good position. It would have been easier to get done—it would have never started. If I were there, it would have never started.”

Trump also said he hopes he will be able to negotiate the peace deal ending the war in the timeframe between the Nov. 5 election and the Jan. 20, 2025, inauguration, should he win.

Quote:A Pakistani national, now charged with a murder-for-hire plot against former President Donald Trump, was allowed into the United States on “significant public benefit parole” despite reportedly being on the government’s “watch list.”

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced charges against 46-year-old Asif Raza Merchant of Pakistan for allegedly attempting to carry out a murder-for-hire plot against Trump and other politicians.

In an unsealed complaint against Merchant, federal prosecutors allege that he first flew into George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, on April 13 in the hopes of recruiting U.S.-based assassins to carry out the assassination plot.

According to documents that Just the News obtained, Merchant was interviewed, fingerprinted, and inspected following his arrival at the Houston airport. At the time of his inspection, federal agents noticed that Merchant had taken recent trips to Iran, a hotbed for Islamic terrorism.

Just the News reports that Merchant’s immigration records, available to federal agents at the time he arrived in Houston, “clearly stated in bright red that he was flagged by the Department of Homeland Security database with the identifier ‘WATCH LIST’ and denoted as a ‘Lookout Qualified Person of Interest.'”

Despite this, Merchant was released at the airport and allowed to travel within the U.S. under the terms of his “significant public benefit parole,” which was due to expire on May 11. Merchant was ultimately allowed to stay in the U.S. past his parole expiration date.

Officials told Just the News that Merchant may have been allowed to enter the U.S. on such parole in an attempt by federal agents to get him to cooperate in investigations and turn others, implicated in such schemes, into their custody.

While in the U.S., Merchant was allowed to board domestic commercial flights from Houston to New York City, then from New York City to Boston, Massachusetts, and back to New York City from April through June.

Federal agents arrested Merchant on July 12 as he was allegedly attempting to fly back to his native Pakistan before the murder-for-hire plot was carried out. Merchant, prosecutors allege, was planning to lead the plot from outside the U.S., working directly with assassins he thought he had recruited.

Quote:Special counsel David Weiss accused Hunter Biden of working for a Romanian businessman in an arrangement designed to skirt U.S. laws on foreign lobbying and avoid any “political ramifications” for his father.

The allegation — one GOP lawmakers have long fixated on — comes as part of a broader battle by Biden to bar prosecutors in the case over his alleged failure to pay taxes from using evidence detailing his work for Gabriel Popoviciu.

That Biden had worked with Popoviciu has been publicly reported for years, but the details of the arrangement as described in the Justice Department’s filing on Wednesday provided new insight into the alleged arrangement — including an allegation that the deal was structured to avoid the filings required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Biden has not been charged with violating FARA in the broader tax case, much to the chagrin of GOP lawmakers who have argued his work for numerous foreign entities amounted to lobbying.

And prosecutors in the filing do not assert that Biden violated the foreign lobbying law. Rather, they argue the details of the deal show Biden’s “state of mind and intent during the relevant tax years charged in the indictment.”

The filing says Biden and an unnamed business associate arranged for Popoviciu to pay the business partner’s entity, who “would pass approximately 1/3 to the defendant as his compensation.”

All this was done, Weiss said, because “Business Associate 1 and the defendant were concerned that lobbying work might cause political ramifications for the defendant’s father.”

The goal for Popoviciu was “to attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian investigation” into him, paying Biden and his associate more than $3 million to do so.

The filing also includes another detail also aligned with Republican complaints about Biden’s work, attacking his deal with Chinese energy company CEFC and Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

“The evidence will show the defendant performed almost no work in exchange for the millions of dollars he received from these entities,” the filing states.

The DOJ filing, though, does not implicate President Biden in any of Hunter Biden’s activities.

But House Republicans, who have opened an impeachment inquiry into President Biden over his family’s foreign business dealings, responded to the filing by touting their longtime probes into alleged “influence peddling,” with a focus on Hunter Biden.

The House Judiciary Committee responded with a two-word post on the social platform X: “Told ya.”

Quote:Ksenia Karelina, a dual citizen of the United States and Russia arrested in January while visiting relatives in Yekaterinburg, reportedly pleaded guilty to “treason” in a Russian courtroom on Thursday.

Karelina’s “crime” was donating $51 to a U.S.-based humanitarian charity for Ukrainian victims of the Russian invasion.

Karelina, a 32-year-old resident of Los Angeles, moved to the United States in 2012 and became a citizen in 2021. She traveled to Russia to visit her parents and younger sister in Yekaterinburg in January, using a ticket purchased for her as a gift by her boyfriend. She reportedly assured him the trip would be safe and he had no reason to worry.

While she was in Russia, Karelina was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, on charges of “petty hooliganism” for using foul language at an airport. The FSB proceeded to search her smartphone and found a record of her charitable donation to Razom for Ukraine, a humanitarian group based in New York. The exact amount of her donation was $51.80.

Russian prosecutors accused the ballerina of “proactively transferring funds to a Ukrainian organization, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition.”

The small size of her donation and the humanitarian nature of the charity were deemed irrelevant, and Russia does not recognize dual citizenship, so Karelina was treated as a Russian citizen, charged with treason, and threatened with twenty years in prison.

The Russian government rebuffed efforts from Karelina’s family, American officials, and human rights organizations to secure her freedom. A Russian judge denied her appeal and request to be moved to house arrest in March. The U.S. State Department complained that it was denied consular access to the prisoner.

Karelina wrote a letter to her boyfriend, Chris Van Hardeen, in March describing the harsh conditions of her imprisonment in Siberia. She said she was forced to sleep with the lights on and was only allowed to shower once a week. She reported the guards had a habit of locking her outside in freezing cold weather for hours when she went to the roof of the jail for a breath of fresh air.

“It’s a day-by day thing. One day she wakes up very hopeful and very positive, and then other days there is no hope,” Hardeen said, relaying Karelina’s fears that she would spend the rest of her life in a Russian prison.

Karelina was marched into a closed-door Russian trial on Wednesday, where she pled guilty to the charges against her. The charges carry a sentence of 12 years to life. Russian prosecutors have indicated they seek a 15-year sentence for Karelina. Her lawyers argued such a sentence would be excessive because she has fully cooperated with investigators.

Karelina was not included in the prisoner swap deal last week that freed captive journalist Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and several other hostages in exchange for a group of hardened Russian criminals and a convicted assassin.

Quote:A federal court in New York convicted naturalized U.S. citizen Wang Shujun Tuesday of working as an agent for China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS).

Wang was accused of pretending to be a pro-democracy activist so he could spy on people actually opposed to the Communist tyranny in Beijing. He could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison.

“The indictment could have been the plot of a John LeCarre or Graham Greene spy novel, but the evidence is shockingly real that the defendant led a double life, pretending for years to be an activist for democracy while he was secretly passing information to the Chinese government,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said after the verdict was handed down.

Wang, 75, was arrested in March 2022 along with four other individuals for “stalking, harassing, and spying on U.S. residents on behalf of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).” Their schemes reportedly ranged from interfering with U.S. elections to plotting to destroy artwork critical of the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping.

The defendants were accused of maintaining sophisticated electronic surveillance on their victims. Even the petty scheme to trash dissident artwork allegedly involved littering the artist’s studio and vehicle with hidden cameras and GPS tracking devices.

Wang was a visiting Chinese scholar who helped establish a pro-democracy group called the “Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang Memorial Foundation” in his neighborhood of Flushing, Queens.

Hu Yaobang was a reform-minded Chinese Communist Party leader whose death in 1989 ultimately led to the Tiananmen Square protests – and China’s ensuing massacre of the protesters. Zhao Ziyang was a Party leader who opposed the use of deadly force to crush the student protests. Invoking them in the name of the foundation sent a powerful signal to sincere pro-democracy activists.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wang began working as an agent of the MSS around 2015. The MSS saw a golden opportunity to use Wang as a spy against the genuine activists and dissidents he had cultivated a relationship with.

According to DOJ, Wang did not just spy on the people who showed up for meetings of his ersatz pro-democracy group in Queens. He also made contact with dissidents in Hong Kong, Taiwanese advocates for independence, Tibetan activists, and members of the oppressed Uyghur community in East Turkistan, which China refers to as its Xinjiang province.

Wang allegedly began supplying detailed “diaries” of his conversations with all of these people to his MSS handlers, who in turn gave him instructions to target dissidents and activists they found especially troubling. U.S. prosecutors obtained copies of his emails with his Chinese spymasters, including one where his MSS handler gave him a thumbs-up emoji for ratting out a human-rights activist critical of China.

The charges against Wang included lying to federal law enforcement officers when they asked about his contacts with Chinese officials and MSS agents. Wang was busted after spilling the details of his espionage activities to an undercover law enforcement agent.

“The defendant was a perfect stooge for the PRC, a well-known academic and founder of a pro-democracy organization who was willing to betray those who respected and trusted him,” Peace said of Wang on Tuesday.

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for a restrained response to Israel's suspected killing of the leader of Hamas, advising against attacks on Israeli civilians, two senior Iranian sources said.

The message, according to the sources, was delivered on Monday by Sergei Shoigu, a senior ally of the Kremlin leader, in meetings with top Iranian officials as the Islamic Republic weighs its response to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh.

Tehran also pressed Moscow for the delivery of Russian made Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, the two Iranian sources, privy to the meeting in Tehran, the sources told Reuters.

In Moscow, the Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment. State-run RIA news agency reported on Tuesday that Shoigu said he discussed Haniyeh's killing on his Tehran visit.

The two sources with knowledge of the matter did not provide further details on the talks with Shoigu, who was defence minister before becoming the secretary of Russia's security council in May.

They said Shoigu's visit was one of several avenues Moscow had used to relay to Iran the need for restraint while at the same time condemning Haniyeh's killing as "a very dangerous assassination", in a bid to prevent a Middle East war.

The Middle East, the sources said, was on the brink of a major war and those behind the assassination were clearly trying to trigger such a conflict.

Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran since the start of its war with Ukraine and has said it is preparing to sign a wide-ranging cooperation agreement with Tehran.

There was no immediate comment from Iran's Foreign ministry. On Monday it said Tehran did not seek to raise regional tensions but needed to punish Israel to prevent further instability.

DIPLOMACY NO LONGER AN OPTION

In Washington, an official from the Biden administration warned on Monday of the risks of a major regional conflict. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, emphasized that the scale of Iran's and Hezbollah's response would be a key factor in determining the extent of a potential conflict.

Despite efforts by Western and regional states to persuade Iran to retaliate in a measured way, or not at all, Tehran has told foreign officials it will respond "severely" to the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran, where he attended President Masoud Pezeshkian's inauguration, four Iranian sources independently confirmed.

In Lebanon, a prominent Lebanese source close to Hezbollah said "a retaliatory strike is inevitable and diplomacy is no longer a viable option", adding Iran wants the strike to be "severe" but not lead to a regional war. However, he said, this does not rule out the possibility of a war in Lebanon between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.

A Middle East-focused senior U.S. official said Washington was doing all it can "to dissuade all parties from going to a place they can’t get back from," stressing that other states in the region and Europe should do more. A Qatari official said Doha was in constant discussion with Iran to lessen tensions.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Monday that Israel must be prepared for anything, including a swift transition to offense.

Quote:Moscow on Saturday mounted a “counter-terror operation” in three border regions adjoining Ukraine to halt Kyiv’s biggest cross-border offensive in the two-and-a-half-year conflict.

Ukrainian units stormed across the border into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack and have advanced several kilometres, according to independent analysts.

Russia’s army has rushed in extra troops and equipment, including convoys of tanks, rocket launchers and aviation units — though neither side has given precise details on the extent of the forces they have committed.

At least 3,000 civilians have been evacuated from Russian border areas, where emergency aid and medical supplies have been ferried in, while extra trains to the capital Moscow have been put on for people looking to flee.

“The war has come to us,” one woman who fled the border zone told AFP at a Moscow train station on Friday, declining to give her name.

Russia’s army said Ukraine initially despatched around 1,000 troops, and more than two dozen armoured combat vehicles and tanks — but it has since claimed to have destroyed around five times as many pieces of military hardware.

AFP could not verify those numbers and both sides have repeatedly been accused of inflating the number of enemy losses while downplaying their own setbacks.

Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said late Friday it was starting “counter-terror operations in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions … in order to ensure the safety of citizens and suppress the threat of terrorist acts being carried out by the enemy’s sabotage groups.”

Security forces and the military are given sweeping emergency powers during “counter-terror” operations.

Movement is restricted, vehicles can be seized, phone calls can be monitored, areas are declared no-go zones, checkpoints introduced, and security is beefed up at key infrastructure sites.

The anti-terrorism committee said Ukraine had mounted an “unprecedented attempt to destabilise the situation in a number of regions of our country.”

Quote:The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) issued a scathing statement condemning America’s top sports substance testing authority on Wednesday, blasting it as “ironic and hypocritical” for demanding more testing after Chinese athletes were found to have ingested banned substances prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

WADA was responding to a report in Reuters this week revealing that the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the national analogous agency to WADA, had used athletes who tested positive for banned substances as informants, allowing them to continue competing so long as they went “undercover” and helped USADA identify other athletes who were violating doping regulations. It notably mentioned the use of the athletes as informants only in passing, protesting plainly that USADA had allowed the athletes “to compete for years, in at least one case without ever publishing or sanctioning their anti-doping rule violations.”

The tenor of WADA’s condemnation contrasts significantly to the deference the agency has granted the Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA), which allowed athletes to compete at the highest levels of sport, including the ongoing Paris Olympic Games, after testing positive for banned drugs. WADA accepted CHINADA’s explanations and has bristled at mounting pressure from the sports world, led in part by sports legends such as American swimmer Michael Phelps, to universalize testing and regulations to prevent athletes who fail drug tests from competing.

According to Reuters, citing WADA, the USADA allowed three athletes – two “low-ranking” and one “higher profile” – to continue competing after failing a substance test if they agreed to help collect information on others similarly flouting anti-doping rules. The USADA confirmed the report. Its leader, Chief Executive Travis Tygart, told Reuters the measure is “an effective way to get at these bigger, systemic problems.”

“Under the world anti-doping code, to which USADA is a signatory, an athlete who ‘substantially’ assists with a doping investigation can apply to have a proportion of any ban suspended after prosecution,” Reuters noted.

The athletes in question have not been publicly named out of fear for their “safety.”

WADA responded to the report with a statement accusing USADA of attacking the “integrity of sporting competition” by attempting to find as many athletes using banned substances as possible.

“This USADA scheme threatened the integrity of sporting competition, which the Code seeks to protect. By operating it, USADA was in clear breach of the rules,” WADA’s statement read. “Contrary to the claims made by USADA, WADA did not sign off on this practice of permitting drug cheats to compete for years on the promise that they would try to obtain incriminating evidence against others.”

WADA admitted that the world anti-doping code allows for clearance of an athlete offering “substantial assistance” in investigations, but claimed, “there is a clear process for that, which does not involve allowing those who have cheated to continue to compete while they may or may not gather incriminating evidence against others and while they could retain a performance-enhancement effect from the substances they took.”

“It is ironic and hypocritical that USADA cries foul when it suspects other Anti-Doping Organizations are not following the rules to the letter while it did not announce doping cases for years,” the WADA statement continued, “and allowed cheats to carry on competing, on the off chance they might help them catch other possible violators.”

The “other Anti-Doping Organizations” remark appears to be a reference to the ongoing scandal surrounding CHINADA’s clearance of athletes testing positive for banned substances, only made public by a report in the New York Times in April. The left-wing newspaper revealed that at least 23 athletes on the Chinese national swim team tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ), a drug used to treat heart conditions abroad but not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prior to the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Many of them competed, and some were present and competed in Paris.

CHINADA claimed that the athletes consumed the banned drug through contaminated food and thus were not liable to be sanctioned. WADA did not question the conclusion.

Quote:A female resident of Beijing, identified only by her surname, “He,” was arrested for allegedly making “defamatory claims” about a Chinese Olympic athlete and her coach.

Police in the Daxing district of Beijing said on Tuesday that they made the bust in response to “reports from the public” about “some internet users” making defamatory comments after the women’s singles table tennis final on August 3.

“Our investigation revealed that this person maliciously fabricated information and blatantly defamed others, with an adverse impact on society,” said the Daxing Public Security Bureau.

As is often the case in authoritarian China, the speech police did not specify exactly what the detained suspect said or what might have been objectionable about it.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) did a little sleuthing on Chinese social media on Wednesday and concluded He was probably arrested for spreading rumors that one — or both — of China’s female table tennis champions was sleeping with the coach.

The match on August 3 pitted Chinese table tennis champion Chen Meng against her teammate, Sun Yingsha, also a top-rated player worldwide. Chen ended up winning the match four to two, successfully defending her gold medal with exactly the same score she racked up against Sun when she won the gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

Sun, 23, was actually the higher-ranked player in 2024, giving 30-year-old Chen the pleasure of an underdog victory.

Quote:Apowerful blast rocked China's busiest shipping terminal on Friday when a container exploded on a pier-side cargo ship in the country's eastern Ningbo Zhoushan Port, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Images shared on Chinese social media website Weibo and later carried by state news outlets showed smoke rising from the vessel YM Mobility moments before the explosion near its bow at around 1:40 p.m. local time.

Videos captured a large fireball and plumes of dark smoke rising into the sky. Debris, including suspected container goods, was seen scattered across the nearby pier at Beilun terminal, one of several at the port in China's eastern Zhejiang province.

The Liberia-flagged YM Mobility is owned by Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp., a Taiwanese shipping company.

Zhejiang's maritime safety authority said no casualties were reported among the dock workers and ship crew. Local media reports said the shock wave from the blast was felt over half a mile away, with witnesses saying the blast shattered nearby office windows.

Authorities said the vessel was carrying Class 5 hazardous goods, without giving further details. Chinese regulations on air and sea freight list oxidizing substances and organic peroxides in this category.

State news agencies, citing preliminary findings, said one of the containers on board the ship had caught fire, although the cause was still being investigated.

Yang Ming Marine Transport has not commented publicly on the incident and could not be reached for comment before publication.

Quote:Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te on Thursday announced a proposed defense budget of $19.76 billion in U.S. dollars for the 2025 fiscal year.

The proposal would increase military spending by 6.7 percent over 2024, reaching the highest level ever allocated for defense by the Republic of China (ROC).

“We are determined to enhance our self-defense capabilities and strengthen cooperation with our democratic partners to ensure peace and prosperity,” Lai said on Wednesday.

Lai did not specifically mention China as the main threat to “peace and prosperity,” but it is clearly the adversary Taiwan is most concerned with.

Tensions between China and Taiwan have increased steadily ever since Lai was elected to succeed fellow Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Tsai Ing-wen in January. China condemned both Tsai and Lai as “separatists,” and has sought to diplomatically isolate Taiwan ever since Tsai took office.

Lai’s record defense budget proposal was not really a radical departure from Taipei’s normal spending priorities. The new military budget is still considerably less than the three percent of GDP that is generally considered reasonable by international analysts, and Taiwan still spends more on social welfare, education, science, and economic development.

Taiwan’s military budget has increased every year for the past five years, after hitting a low of two percent of GDP in 2019. If Lai’s budget proposal is approved by the legislature before its scheduled December 1 deadline, Taiwan will rank 21st worldwide in military spending, while China is now Number Two, and the United States remains Number One.

The U.S. government has been urging Taiwan to increase spending as the Chinese threat grows. Taiwan currently gets about 99 percent of its military equipment from the United States, which is committed to defend the island if China invades.

Taiwan extended its term of compulsory military service for men from four months to one full year in January. New recruits were also told to expect more vigorous training, including combat training closer to what U.S. soldiers receive. Some Taiwanese youth responded positively to the changes, saying they were eager to defend their country and wanted their year of mandatory service to be meaningful.

Quote:A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida indicted the founder and president of voting machine company Smartmatic, Roger Piñate, on Thursday for his alleged role in a bribery and money laundering scheme related to the 2016 Philippine elections.

In addition to Piñate, the Florida federal grand jury indicted two other “executives of an election voting machine and service provider company” and a former chairman of the Philippines’ Commission on Elections (COMELEC).

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Piñate, a 49-year-old Venezuelan citizen who resides in Boca Raton, Florida, and 62-year-old U.S. citizen Jorge Miguel Vasquez, who resides in Davie, Florida, were allegedly involved in at least $1 million in bribes together with others paid to former COMELEC Chairman Juan Andres Donato Bautista.

The bribes were allegedly paid to obtain and retain business related to the provision of voting machines and election services for the Philippines 2016 elections and “to secure payments on the contracts, including the release of value added tax payments.”

Outsider candidate Rodrigo Duterte, the then-mayor of Davao City, won the 2016 presidential election. That race also saw Philippine boxing great Manny Pacquiao win a seat in the Senate that he would later leverage to make an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 2022.

The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations’ El Dorado Task Force Miami in assistance with the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Miami.

“The co-conspirators allegedly funded the bribes through a slush fund that was created by over-invoicing the cost per voting machine for the 2016 Philippine elections,” the Dept. of Justice stated. “To conceal and disguise the nature and purpose of the corrupt payments, the co-conspirators used coded language to refer to the slush fund and caused the creation of fraudulent contracts and sham loan agreements to justify transfers.”

“The co-conspirators then allegedly laundered funds related to the bribery scheme through bank accounts located in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including in the Southern District of Florida,” the press release continued.

According to Smartmatic’s website, Piñate, the company’s president, “played a critical role in planning and executing the world’s largest election using optical scanners (in the Philippines) and in Smartmatic winning the largest election contract in U.S. history (in Los Angeles).”

Smartmatic stated that it joined efforts with COMELEC to deploy 92,509 Vote Counting Machines (VCMs) during the 2016 Philippine general elections.

Quote:Japan was hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Thursday and officials have issued a “megaquake advisory” to residents.

After the earthquake his southwestern Japan, authorities issued a tsunami advisory, Fox Weather reported. However, NHK World Japan later reported that those advisories had been lifted and a megaquake advisory was put in place.

Per the Fox article:

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck off the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan around 4:42 p.m. local time (3:42 a.m. ET) at a depth of about 15.5 miles.

…

There are no tsunami alerts issued for the West Coast of the U.S., Alaska or Hawaii.

Video footage overlooking a coastal area shows the camera shaking when the earthquake hit, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The clip also shows an numerous areas including an airport being affected by the quake:
...

Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is reportedly closing in on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the Gaza Strip, as he runs out of places to hide and as other senior members of the terrorist organization are eliminated.

The Jerusalem Post reported Friday:

Sinwar is almost alone at the top of Hamas. His close friends in the senior military ranks of the organization, as well as the senior officials, have been eliminated or have disappeared: Mohammad Deif, Rafa’a Salama, Ahmed Ghandour, Raad Saad, and Ayman Nofal.

…

The fact that Sinwar’s entire operational hub has disappeared makes it difficult for him, according to the IDF’s estimates, to move to hiding places, especially above ground.

…

According to the source, Sinwar’s movement area, like that of other senior officials in the organization, is getting smaller and smaller.

Sinwar is now the leader of Hamas after the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran last week.

Separately, the IDF announced Friday that it had killed a Hamas commander in Lebanon, Samer Mahmoud al-Haj.

Hamas is based in the Gaza Strip but has a presence in the Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), as well as branches in Lebanon, Iraq, and elsewhere.

The elimination of Hamas leaders may put pressure on the group ahead of a new round of negotiations expected next week on a potential hostage and ceasefire deal that Hamas has thus far resisted.

Sinwar is thought to be using hostages as human shields to surround him and discourage Israeli attack, though if the IDF is close to him, he may be willing to trade their freedom for his life.

He has evaded Israel for 10 months, but Israel is determined to find him, dead or alive.

Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released the names and photographs of 19 terrorists that were at a school compound that it struck in Gaza Saturday, amid unverified claims by Hamas that 100 people were killed.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement:

Since the beginning of this war, the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations have been systematically abusing civilian population and infrastructures in Gaza for their terrorist activities against the state of Israel. This includes Hamas’s massive network of underground tunnels, which go under towns, hospitals, mosques, schools, and UN facilities, and are use by terrorists to command attacks, store weapons, and hold Israeli hostages captive. It also include hospitals across the Gaza Strip, which have been repeatedly infiltrated and weaponized by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and where terrorists’ tunnel shafts were found.

Increasingly, in recent months, Hamas has focused on exploiting school buildings, often where civilians are sheltering inside, to use them as military facilities, command and control centers, for storing weapons, and to execute terror attacks.

Over the last few weeks, our intelligence has been closely monitoring an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad facility, where approximately two dozen Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating. The names of 19 of the terrorists who were operating in this compound were published by us today. We also have intelligence indications that the terrorist Ashraf Juda Islamic Jihad’s brigade commander of the  central camps, was at the compound. This military facility was embedded inside the Al-Taba’een school building in Gaza City. After we received clear intelligence of the threat posed by these terrorists, and in accordance with international humanitarian law, we took numerous steps to mitigate the risk to civilians, including using aerial surveillance prior to the strike, and selecting very precise munitions to avoid civilian casualties. Early this morning, the IDF conducted a precision strike against the terrorists in one specific building of the compound, an area that according to our intelligence, no women and children were present. You can see in a video published by us today, that the compound is still intact, and that there is no significant cratering or damage to the main structure of teh compound.

This pattern of systematic abuse of schools for military activities by Hamas and Islamic Jihad endangers both Gazans and Israeli civilians. It must be condemned by the international community.

Following the strike, the Hamas-run government information office in Gaza published an unverified casualty count which was then shared around the world. These figures do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, and they do not match the information held by the IDF.

Yayha Sinwar, the mastermind behind October 7th, the day where Hamas brutally massacred innocent Israelis, and started this war, and the man last week appointed as Hamas’s political leader, stated himself that the higher Palestinian death count helps Hamas in its war cause. Where Israel sees harm to civilians as a tragedy, Hamas sees harm to civilians as a strategy.

The IDF will operate in accordance with international humanitarian law in order to dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities, and in order to bring back home all our 115 hostages — men, women, children, and the elderly — who are being held in captive [sic] over 300 days in horrific conditions. We are operating to create the conditions to bring them back home. We call on the international community to everything they can to fulfill this call.

Hamas has a habit of claiming that large numbers of civilians have been killed at hospitals and schools, knowing that the media will parrot those claims, and that Israel will face condemnation from the international community.

Indeed, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris responded by reiterating her call for a ceasefire and hostage deal — one that Israel has agreed to in principle, but which Hamas has rejected for months, hoping to use the hostages to end the war victorious.

Earlier in the war, Hamas falsely claimed that 500 people had been killed by an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. In reality, an errant Islamic Jihad rocket hit the parking lot at the hospital, killing fewer than 50 people.

Quote:The leader of the Ansarullah Yemeni terrorist organization, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, lamented the “big loss” of Hamas “political” chief Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday, vowing revenge after his departure “greatly impacted” the Middle East.

Al-Houthi’s admission that the elimination of Haniyeh from the battlefield had a significant positive impact on the war on jihadists in the Middle East follows a comment from American President Joe Biden that his death was not helpful, as well as his administration’s refusal to directly answer if Hamas losing its most important liaison to top allies — such as the regimes of Iran and Turkey — made the world a better place.
Haniyeh, who lived a luxurious life in Qatar and traveled frequently to secure funding and political support from regional Islamists, died on July 31 in his lodgings in Tehran, Iran. The Hamas leader was in the Iranian capital for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian and had met with both Pezeshkian and the true powerholder in Iran, “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hours before an explosion ripped through his room, turning the presumed assassination into an embarrassment for the Iranian government.

At the time of his death, Haniyeh was a critical actor for Hamas, as he was in charge of brokering relationships with key backers — such as Iran and Turkey — as well as attempting to pressure Israel into an agreement to end its self-defense operations against Hamas in Gaza. Israel declared war on Hamas after October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and engaged in a spree of rape, torture, abduction, infanticide, and other crimes against civilians, killing an estimated 1,200 people. About 100 people are believed to be in Hamas captivity at press time.

Iran immediately blamed the government of Israel, with American backing, for Haniyeh’s death. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility, while the Biden administration claimed it had no foreknowledge of any plots or involvement in the explosion. Iranian leaders have also vowed to retaliate with a devastating attack on Israel but have yet to act at press time.

Iranian officials have also denied reports that a bomb planted in the room killed Haniyeh, insisting that an airstrike killed him. Tehran has not offered any evidence, nor has evidence surfaced independently, of projectiles in the sky before the explosion.

Al-Houthi, who typically addresses the captured nation of Yemen on Thursdays, took time out of his weekly speech to honor Haniyeh’s memory at the helm of one of the world’s most vicious terrorist groups.

Quote:The Chinese Communist Party is expanding its influence throughout Africa, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday, by building Marxist “leadership” schools to train the next generation of dictators and their henchmen.

The newspaper relied on the scholarship of National Defence University’s Africa Centre for Strategic Studies expert Paul Nantulya, who observed that the schools in question are aligned with leftist political parties and dictators that have maintained control of their respective countries for decades, sometimes using brutal repression, and are not open to opposition parties. The flagship institution in the program is the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Tanzania, a country that the same left-wing party has governed since its independence, but Kenya recently signed an agreement with China to build a similar school.

According to the Morning Post, the agreement in Kenya was signed between the Chinese Communist Party and President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA). Ruto has strived to make overtures with China, to which Kenya is heavily indebted for joining the predatory Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) despite Ruto being elected in 2022 on a campaign platform aggressively critical of Chinese influence in the Kenyan government.

The UDA sent a delegation to China in May to cement several collaboration proposals, among them reportedly the construction of a “leadership school,” as the Morning Post referred to it. Ruto himself was in Washington that same week, urging President Joe Biden to expand American financial aid and other cooperation initiatives with his government. Biden upgraded defense ties with Kenya to “major non-NATO ally” status during that visit.

The Kenyan government is somewhat of an outlier, by virtue of holding elections widely considered free and fair to elect Ruto president, in the list of countries working with China on initiatives to indoctrinate future Party leaders. The Nyerere school in Tanzania is a cooperative project with China but takes in students affiliated with the ruling leftist regimes of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, and Mozambique, according to scholar Nantulya. He noted that other countries with similar ideological alliances — namely, Burundi, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Morocco, and Uganda — are also seeking Chinese investment in ideological training.

Quote:Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) requested to examine the body of would-be presidential assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks as part of the House’s investigation into the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, only to discover that the shooter’s body is “gone” and that “the FBI cleaned up biological evidence from the crime scene,” which the congressman says “injure[d]” the investigation.

The FBI released Crooks’ body for cremation on July 23, just ten days after the assassination attempt on Trump, and “nobody knew this” until August 5, including the Butler County coroner, law enforcement, and the Butler County sheriff, Higgins said in a Monday report.

“My effort to examine Crooks’ body on Monday, August 5, caused quite a stir and revealed a disturbing fact… the FBI released the body for cremation 10 days after [July] 13,” the congressman said. “On [July] 23, Crooks was gone.”

“Nobody knew this until Monday, August 5, including the County Coroner, law enforcement, Sheriff, etc.,” Higgins added.

“Yes, Butler County Coroner technically had legal authority over the body, but I spoke with the Coroner, and he would have never released Crooks’ body to the family for cremation or burial without specific permission from the FBI,” the congressman clarified.

Higgins also noted, “The FBI cleaned up biological evidence from the crime scene, which is unheard of.”

“Cops don’t do that, ever,” the congressman asserted in his report.

“The FBI released the crime scene after just 3 days, much to everyone’s surprise,” Higgins observed. “I interviewed several First Responders who expressed everything from surprise to dismay to suspicion regarding the fact that the FBI released the crime scene so early after J13.”

“It should be noted that the FBI was fully aware of the fact that Congress would be investigating J13,” Higgins pointed out.

“The FBI does not exist in a vacuum,” he added. “They had to know that releasing the J13 crime scene would injure the immediate observations of any following investigation.”

The congressman also noted that the coroner’s report and autopsy report are both “late.”

“As of Monday, August 5, they were a week late,” he said. “The problem with me not being able to examine the actual body is that I won’t know 100% if the coroner’s report and the autopsy report are accurate. We will actually never know.”

Higgins said that while he will eventually obtain the reports and photos from the autopsy, “I will not ever be able to say with certainty that those reports and pictures are accurate according to my own examination of the body.”

“This action by the FBI can only be described by any reasonable man as an obstruction to any following investigative effort,” the congressman asserted.

He also pointed out that on the day Crooks’ body was cremated, “both the Homeland Security Committee and the Oversight Committee had begun House Committee jurisdictional investigation into J13, and Speaker Johnson had already stated that he was forming an Official Congressional investigative body.”

Quote:Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) said in a Monday investigative report that a Butler SWAT operator shot would-be presidential assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ gun “from the ground” before the shooter was killed by a U.S. Secret Service sniper during former President Donald Trump’s July 13 campaign rally.

A total of ten shots were fired during Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Rep. Higgins said in a preliminary investigative report to Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), the Chairman of the “Bipartisan Task Force to Investigate the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump.”

The report stated that eight “shots were fired by Crooks from his firing (and dying) position” on the rooftop, and that all eight bullet casings are now “allegedly in proper possession of the FBI.”

“Thomas Matthew Crooks’ rifle is also allegedly in the proper possession of the FBI,” the congressman noted. “I will need to examine all of the physical evidence that has been harvested by law enforcement and is in the possession of the FBI. All of it.”

Notably, the ninth shot fired at the July 13 rally “was from a Butler SWAT operator from the ground about 100 yards away from the AGR building,” Higgins continued in his report.

Shot nine “hit Crooks’ rifle stock” and fragmented into the shooter’s face, neck, and right shoulder area from the stock breaking up into pieces, the congressman said.

At that point, Crooks “went down” from his firing position, “and the SWAT officer was certain of his hit,” but then the would-be presidential assassin “recovered” a few seconds later and “popped back up,” the report added.

“The 10th (and, I believe, final) shot was fired from the southern counter-sniper team,” Higgins stated in his report. “I will not be 100% certain of this until further investigation.”

The congressman also said that he does “not believe it was possible” for a second shooter to be atop a water tower at the rally venue on July 13, “nor have I seen any evidence that supports the theory of a 2nd shooter.”

“I’m not saying conclusively that there was no other shooter somewhere or that no other conspirators were involved in J13, but I’m saying that based on my investigation thus far, there were 10 shots fired on J13, and all shots are accounted for, and all shots align with their source,” he said.

Moreover, “Crooks’ firing position did NOT offer excellent concealment from the southern counter-sniper team,” Higgins added.

“However, it should be noted that the would-be assassin perfectly positioned himself to minimize the threat of counter-fire from the ground or the USSS counter-sniper teams,” the congressman said.

The findings in Higgins’ report are interesting, as Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe made no mention of the Butler SWAT operator during his August 2 press briefing, in which he offered a detailed summary of the events that unfolded during the July 13 rally.

Elsewhere in his report, Higgins said he requested to examine the body of Crooks, only to discover that the shooter’s body was “gone” and that “the FBI cleaned up biological evidence from the crime scene,” which the congressman says “injure[d]” the investigation.

Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris promised Friday that she would build 3 million new homes in four years if she were elected, but she and President Joe Biden barely managed to build eight EV charging stations in two-and-a-half years.

Harris said at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina:

There’s a serious housing shortage in many places. It’s too difficult to build and it’s driving prices up. As president, I will work in partnership with industry to build the housing. We need both to rent and to buy. We will take down barriers and cut red tape including at the state and local levels. And by the end of my first term, we will end America’s housing shortage by building 3 million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the middle class.

Harris did not explain how those new homes were to be built in a high-interest-rate environment. She also did not explain whether she meant 3 million units in addition to those that would already have been built, or three million units total. Nearly 1.5 million homes were built in the U.S. in 2023, so 3 million over four years would actually mean construction had slowed down by 50%. Presumably, she meant 3 million additional homes — 750,000 extra per year.

That would match or exceed the pace of the peak housing boom of the post-World War II period. But Harris has a track record against which to measure her promise, and it is the failure of the Biden-Harris administration to build the electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that it promised to build under the infrastructure bill of 2021. at a cost of $7.5 billion. The goal was 500,000; two-and-a-half years later, as of May 2024, only eight EV stations had been built.

The situation is even worse when it comes to the Biden-Harris administration’s promise to build new broadband Internet connections. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told Breitbart News earlier this week that despite $42.5 billion in the infrastructure bill for broadband, the effort had yet to connect one American to the Internet — and Vice President Harris was supposed to be in charge of the project. The prospects of Harris’s housing boom look doubtful.

Quote:House Republican leadership on Thursday warned that America’s predominant status as the world leader in developing new medicines is now in “jeopardy” due to the Biden-Harris drug price negotiation scheme.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) issued a joint statement after the Biden-Harris administration released the results of the their drug price negotiation scheme, which was mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act. Essentially, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) selected ten drugs covered under Medicare Part D to be negotiated with pharmaceuticals, which the Biden-Harris administration claimed would result in $6 billion in savings on these ten drugs.

Joe Grogan, the former director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, told Breitbart News that the alleged savings of this price negotiation are “totally bogus.”

Many outlets such as Politico have noted that it may be hard for the Harris campaign to tout these alleged savings as a victory, as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), rebates, out-of-pocket caps, and other aspects already help reduce prices for the cost of prescription drugs. The Biden-Harris touted savings come from negotiating down from the drug’s list price; Americans do not pay the list price for drugs.

House Republican leadership contended in their statement that the negotiation scheme, like all price fixing schemes, would not work and may jeopardize America’s ability to be the leader in producing pharmaceuticals:

Two years after the passage of Congressional Democrats’ failed Inflation Expansion Act, Americans continue to feel the disastrous effects the law has had across our economy.

Among the most egregious provisions of the law is the mandate from bureaucrats to artificially set prescription drug prices, which is already doing untold damage to the American health care system. Patients are seeing fewer choices, higher prices, and fewer cures, while the American pharmaceutical industry — which currently leads the world in the development of new medicines — is now in jeopardy of losing its competitive advantage on the rest of the world.

Make no mistake, price fixing has failed in every sector and in every country where it has ever been tried. The Biden-Harris Administration says it wants to lower prices for families, but their prescription drug price fixing scheme has accomplished just two things: driving up health care costs and crushing American innovation in medicine.

The Ways and Means Committee, led by Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), has documented many of the ways that the Inflation Reduction Act has limited America’s ability to create the next generation of cures.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) noted, “The [IRA’s drug provisions] would increase the launch prices for drugs that are not yet on the market relative to what such prices would be otherwise.”

Quote:Soviet-style centrally administered price controls on food and grocery prices will form part of the federal economic proposals U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will unveil Friday when she finally delivers an insight into her 2024 policies.

Her address will mark the first time Harris offers a policy focused speech since she was anointed as the Democratic candidate in July and been roundly accused by critics since as being a policy-free zone, as Breitbart News reported.

The Democratic nominee is promising to institute a first-ever national ban on price gouging and price-fixing within her first 100 days in office in an effort to deflect many voters’ low marks for President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.

Time magazine reports Harris plans to direct the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies to investigate and penalize “big corporations” that violate government rules in a mirror of Soviet command economy diktats.

Other ways of tackling price fixing and selective anti-competitive practices in the food and grocery industries will also come under scrutiny, her campaign said by way of previewing her full set of economic proposals.

Harris will also reportedly detail plans to cut prescription drug and housing costs in the economic address during her visit to Raleigh, North Carolina.

There is no indication yet if she will take media questions after the event, following in the footsteps of President Joe Biden who is also similarly disengaged from talking about his policies.

Quote:Sen. JD Vance’s (R-OH) plane made an emergency landing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after the pilot reported a door malfunction, according to several reports.

After taking off, the Trump Force Two, which is reportedly “operated by Eastern Air” returned to land in Milwaukee around 1:30 p.m., officials from the airport confirmed to WISN ABC.

A spokeswoman for Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, confirmed that the pilot had “advised” that there “was a malfunction with the door seal.”

“The pilot advised there was a malfunction with the door seal,” Taylor Van Kirk, a spokeswoman for Vance, said in a statement. “As soon as the issue was resolved, the plane returned to its originally planned flight path back to Cincinnati.”

Vance’s plane was reported to have departed from Milwaukee around 2:15 p.m., according to the outlet.

The emergency landing of Trump Force Two comes a week after former President Donald Trump’s plane was diverted to Billings, Montana, due to a reported mechanical issue. Trump had been scheduled to land in Bozeman, ahead of his rally that day.

Quote:Twenty-four attorneys general are fighting for Arizona to gain permission to require that voters be U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections.

The attorneys general recently filed amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of an emergency stay, Fox News reported Thursday. The news comes as voters gear up to vote in the November presidential election.

“The Republican Party of Arizona said on Thursday that it had filed the emergency application pending appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit ‘in support of HB 2492, our law requiring proof of citizenship to vote in presidential elections,'” the article read, noting the law requires people to have proof of their citizenship for ballots, even those filed via the mail.

The Fox article also noted:

The brief was backed by attorneys general from 24 other states, including Texas, Florida, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Virginia, along with the two states that filed the brief — Kansas and West Virginia.

Some of the groups who supported the emergency stay are listed as the Honest Elections Project, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, Inc., and Center for Election Confidence, Inc., according to one of the documents.

The Republican National Committee’s emergency application for stay said the problem of non-citizens voting has gotten worse as the number of illegal aliens pouring over the border increases.

Quote:A former provincial-level Communist Party chief who belonged to Fidel Castro’s “coordination and support team” arrived in Miami, Florida, on Thursday through a “family reunification” program – and immediately assaulted a reporter asking him how he got there.

Martí Noticias journalist Mario Pentón confronted Manuel Menéndez Castellanos at Miami International Airport upon his arrival from Cuba, hoping to ask how U.S. officials allowed him into the country given his decades of service to the Communist Party. Menéndez Castellanos has appeared frequently in the pages of the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma, offering supportive propaganda quotes for at least two decades.

Menéndez is the latest in a series of individuals from Cuba with ties to the regime and histories of participating in repression believed to be taking advantage of several immigration programs under leftist President Joe Biden, presumably intended to benefit their victims, to come to America. The incident also follows an embarrassing scene at Miami International Airport on May 20, Cuban Independence Day, when Transportation Security Administration (TSA) gave a Cuban Communist Party delegation a tour of sensitive security areas. Cuba is a U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism with an extensive history of engaging in anti-American espionage and other nefarious activity.

On Thursday, as Menéndez appeared to leave his gate, Pentón approached him and confirmed his identity, but when the reporter attempted to ask him questions, Menéndez attacked him, apparently attempting to seize or destroy his cameraphone. Pentón kept control of his phone and posted the video online.

While refusing to comment, Menéndez told Pentón, “I’m going home,” suggesting he is staying in the United States for the long term.

The incident caused commotion at the airport, the reporter later said in a video posted to social media, recalling that several individuals at the airport expressed outrage at discovering a Fidel Castro crony in their midst. One person reportedly shouted by way of warning, “Communism has arrived!”

The Martí Noticias journalist wrote in his report on the incident that Menéndez was approved to enter America through a “family reunification process.” In his video, Pentón explained that the “family reunification” process in theory should require American officials to question potential beneficiaries about any history that they may have with the Communist Party, leaving unclear how he was approved to come to the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has an active program known as “Cuban Family Reunification Parole” (CFRP) in which American citizens and permanent residents can request entry to the country for their relatives in Cuba.

Quote:Two senior U.S. officials said on Thursday that Russia has diverted “several thousand troops” from Ukraine to defend against the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk.

The Ukrainians surprised Russia (and the Biden administration) by pushing across the border to invade Russia’s Kursk region on August 6. Ukrainian forces are reportedly still fighting in Kursk ten days later, despite confident Russian pronouncements that the incursion was strategically insignificant and would be quickly repelled.

Many observers deemed the counter-invasion an odd choice given how Ukraine has been desperately fighting to hold back advancing Russian forces on several fronts but one theory advanced was that Kyiv hoped to draw Russian troops out of Ukraine and back into Kursk – and possibly Belgorod, which declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as Ukraine showered it with drones and missiles.

According to the two anonymous “senior American defense officials” who spoke with CNN on Thursday, there are signs the Ukrainian offensive is causing Russia to pull “multiple brigade-sized elements made up of at least 1,000 troops each” out of Ukraine and send them to reinforce the new front in Kursk.

“It is apparent to us that Mr. Putin and the Russian military are diverting some resources, some units, towards the Kursk Oblast to ostensibly counter what the Ukrainians are doing,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.

Kirby added the shift of Russian forces did not mean “Putin has given up military operations in the northeast part of Ukraine, or even down towards the south, towards places like Zaporizhya.”

CNN added that Ukraine “impressed” Biden officials with its daring offensive, including its ability to keep the attack secret from the U.S. government.

On the other hand, analysts noted Russia still has a huge number of troops deployed in Ukraine, and its most effective front-line combat units do not appear to be part of the reallocation toward Kursk, at least not yet. The forces Ukraine sent into Kursk may not be its finest troops either, as those forces are still needed to slow Russia’s advance.

“We haven’t seen a substantial move just yet, and we can’t tell whether that’s just because they’re only just getting started moving forces, or whether they just don’t have the forces to move,” said one of CNN’s senior intelligence sources.

The other source fretted that Ukraine is “committing pretty inexperienced troops” to the Kursk attack and cannot “afford” to lose them. Worse still, the Kursk attack may have left Ukraine’s defenses dangerously thin, creating “opportunities for Russia to seize advantage and break through.”

The New York Times (NYT) reported on Friday that Russian troops have captured several strategic Ukrainian villagers and are now just eight miles from Pokrovsk, one of the last important Ukrainian defensive positions in the eastern Donetsk region.

Quote:Pro-Palestinian protests will take place nearly every day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) next week, while demonstrators will descend on the city for other causes as well.

As the Democratic Party remains deeply fractured due to the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, Pro-Palestinian protests are set for Sunday, the eve of the convention, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the final day of the convention. On Thursday, Harris will accept the nomination at the convention.

Below is a list of scheduled demonstrations that will protest against the Democratic Party over the Israel-Hamas war and other causes. The Chicago Sun-Times first compiled the list.

Sunday, August 18
BODIES OUTSIDE OF UNJUST LAWS MARCH: 5:00 p.m. Central

The pro-abortion group will meet on Wicker Drive and Michigan Avenue, and a march will commence demanding national abortion legislation as well as “an end to US funds to the genocide in Palestine.”

The group believes that “Palestinian Liberation is Reproductive Justice” and links on its “demands” page to the Palestinian Feminist Collective’s condemnation of what it calls “Reproductive Genocide in Gaza.”

Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws also declares it “will not settle for ‘reasonable’ limits on abortion, more benevolent family separation, or gender-affirming care only for some,” adding, “There is no middle ground here.”
The group notes it is suing Chicago through the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) due to the alleged denial of a permit request.

Monday, August 19
MARCH ON THE DNC 2024: 12:00 p.m. Central

A coalition of more than 150 groups will convene in Union Park before marching to the United Center, as the Sun-Times noted. March on the DNC refers to President Joe Biden as “Genocide Joe Biden” and says that his bowing out of the race “doesn’t change the policies of Democratic Party leadership, specifically their support of the genocide in Palestine, so our movement must continue to apply pressure.”

The group’s central demand is the “End of U.S. Aid to Israel” and for the Democratic Party to “Stand with Palestine.”

It also has a number of secondary demands, including “Immigrant Rights and Legalization for All,” a radical policy Harris supported at a Democrat primary debate in 2019. The group also demands the defense of “LGBTQIA+,” abortion access, union and striking rights, and “Community control of the police.”

March on the DNC 2024 has also been at odds with the city due to permits, as Breitbart News noted.

POOR PEOPLE’S ARMY: 4:00 p.m. Central

According to its website, the Poor People’s Army will assemble at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts later in the day and march to the United Center. This protest will not center on Israel-Hamas. The Poor People’s Army website states that the march will happen “because the Democrats and Biden do not care about poor or working people.”

Quote:The House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) over his numerous connections to China, which include a student exchange program funded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Chinese secret police station operating in the Twin Cities, and much more.

Chairman James Comer (R-KY) launched the investigation “following reports detailing the Governor’s longstanding connections to Chinese Communist Party entities and officials,” according to the House Oversight Committee.

“Mr. Walz has visited China 30 times, served as a fellow at a Chinese institution that maintains a devotion to the CCP, and spoke alongside the President of a Chinese organization the State Department exposed as a CCP effort to influence and co-opt local leaders,” the House Oversight Committee said in a statement, revealing that “FBI briefers recently informed the Committee that the Bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force investigates CCP activity that is similar to China’s engagement with Governor Walz.”

“In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Chairman Comer is now requesting information, documents, and communications related to the CCP-connected entities and officials Governor Walz has engaged and partnered with,” the committee added:

“Americans deserve to fully understand how deep Governor Walz’s relationship with China goes,” Comer said in a statement.

“Governor Walz: Visited China at least 30 times. Served as a fellow at a Chinese institution that maintains a devotion to the CCP. Spoke alongside the President of a Chinese organization the State Department exposed as a CCP effort to influence local leaders,” he said, providing a few examples:

Indeed, Walz has a longstanding history of adoration for China, starting with student exchange program funded by the CCP.

“The concerns are, look, you know, you can like China. You can like the Chinese people. The question is, when you set up an exchange program, as he did, to bring students to China, you’re not dealing with the Chinese people — you’re dealing with the Chinese Communist Party,” New York Times bestselling author and Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer said during a recent appearance on Breitbart News Daily, detailing Walz’s numerous connections with China and Chinese entities.

“And in the case of his program, it’s funded by the CCP. It was organized with the help of the CCP,” he said, noting that Walz reportedly told students to “downplay” their Americanness.

“And when you start to look at some of the, you know, activities involving the students, it gets slightly odd. I mean, you know, some of the local press accounts from the Midwest report that students were told by Walz, ‘When you go to China, downplay your Americanness,’ which is, is kind of odd, because if you’re having a cultural exchange, the purpose is to actually learn about the other culture,” Schweizer noted, explaining that, in contrast, it would never be asked of Chinese students to downplay their Chineseness.

But Walz’s connections go far beyond that, as he also has what Schweizer described as an “odd relationship with the Chinese state,” choosing to give a speech in 2019 to an organization which served as a front group for the CCP.

Quote:Rite Aid customers in Michigan and Ohio have been left scrambling to find new pharmacies at which to get their prescriptions after the drugstore hastily closed every location in both states.

The company’s most recent bankruptcy filings, which the Daily Mail obtained, show that Rite Aid has closed a staggering 74 stores so far in August — with all but two being in Michigan or Ohio.

The other two August closures were in California and Washington.

Since the pharmacy and convenience chain filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in October 2023, 2,000 stores have become approximately 1,100, the outlet reported.

In total, 234 Rite Aids in Michigan and 183 in Ohio have either already been shuttered or are in the process of doing so.

On top of struggling with debt and facing fierce competition from online pharmacies, like Amazon, Rite Aid has been hit with more than a thousand lawsuits accusing it of filling illegal prescriptions for opioids, the New York Times reported.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint against Rite Aid and its multiple subsidiaries in March, alleging that the business filled prescriptions for amounts of opioids “that had obvious, and often multiple, red flags indicating misuse.”

Quote:Oil prices slipped on Friday as investors digested the latest downbeat economic news from China, whose immense demand for oil makes it a major factor in worldwide prices.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pointed to weakening Chinese demand when it made its projections for the rest of 2024 on Monday, and the International Energy Agency had a similar forecast for 2025.

These projects cut about two percent off oil prices by the end of trading on Friday, settling at under $80 a barrel. The price change was not large, but it continued a downward trend based on bad news from China, offset by rising anxiety over a potential Iran-Israel war that could disrupt Middle Eastern supplies.

Some analysts predicted oil prices would slip further as the threat of Iran attacking Israel seems to be receding, making lower demand a more dominant factor.

“Provided the situation in the Middle East does not escalate further, the oil price is likely to tread water,” Commerzbank Research said on Friday.

China’s latest gloomy economic news included July data released on Thursday that showed only sporadic flickers of positive growth despite heavy stimulus spending and new regulations.

Quote:U.S. President Joe Biden appeared to agree with the proposal of having Venezuela repeat the July 28 sham presidential election, leading the White House to walk back statements Biden personally made shortly thereafter.

On Thursday, Biden was asked by a reporter from Voice of America (VOA) if he supports new elections in Venezuela. Biden responded to the question by saying, “I do.”

Reuters and the Associated Press reported that Biden’s statement came after far-left Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Gustavo Petro of Colombia suggested that Venezuela hold a second election following the sham vote in July as a means to solve the ongoing political crisis in the country.

Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly insisted that he “won” the sham election despite the continued refusal of the electoral authorities — loyal to Maduro — to publish voter data or any other type of documentation that can demonstrate his alleged “victory.”

The Venezuelan opposition claimed its candidate, Edmundo González, defeated Maduro in a landslide and has published voter tallies collected from voting centers nationwide that demonstrate González defeated Maduro by a margin of more than 35 percentage points.

VOA reported on Thursday that the Biden administration informed the outlet that President Biden had “understood VOA’s question differently.” A National Security Council spokesperson “reiterated the Biden administration’s stance” to VOA through an email, claiming that Biden “was speaking to the absurdity of Maduro and his representatives not coming clean about the July 28 elections.”

“It is abundantly clear to the majority of the Venezuelan people, the United States, and a growing number of countries that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the most votes on July 28,” the spokesperson reportedly told VOA. “The United States again calls for the will of the Venezuelan people to be respected and for discussions to begin on a transition back to democratic norms.”

VOA stated in its report that the spokesperson “did not say definitively where Biden stands on whether the election should be repeated.”

Bloomberg also reported on Thursday that, according to a White House spokesperson, Biden “intended to speak to the absurdity of Venezuelan President Maduro failing to come clean after claiming victory in the July 28 vote, with data suggesting that opposition candidate Edmundo González prevailed.”

White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a social media post that “Maduro & his representatives must come clean about Venezuela’s July 28 elections.”

“It is abundantly clear that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the most votes,” Savett’s message read. “We call for the will of the people to be respected & for discussions to begin on a transition back to democratic norms.”

Maduro accused the United States of wanting to “become the electoral authority” of Venezuela after the U.S. government reiterated that it considered González the winner of the sham election. Maduro urged President Biden to focus on the “many problems” that the United States has.

The socialist dictator also commented on the White House backing down from Biden’s statements over the proposal of repeating the election.

“President Biden made an interventionist statement on Venezuela’s internal affairs and, half an hour later, some spokesmen denied it,” Maduro said. “In the end, who rules in the United States?”

Quote:Military authorities in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk on Friday urged civilians to speed up their evacuation because the Russian army is quickly closing in on what has for months been one of Moscow´s key targets in the war.

The call for people to get out as soon as possible came as Kyiv´s forces are trying to divert the Kremlin´s military focus to Russian soil by launching a bold incursion across the border into the Kursk region.

The urgency also underscored the high-stakes gamble Ukraine is making by taking the war into Russia with its ongoing assault that started Aug. 6. The attack was a daring attempt to change the dynamics of the 2½-year conflict, but it could leave Ukraine’s shorthanded defense at the mercy of Russia’s push.

The Kremlin’s forces have had battlefield momentum and superior forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region since the spring.

Evacuations in the Donetsk region around Pokrovsk have become increasingly urgent in recent weeks.

Pokrovsk officials said in a Telegram post Friday that Russian troops are “advancing at a fast pace. With every passing day there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned on Thursday that Pokrovsk and other nearby towns in the Donetsk region were “facing the most intense Russian assaults.”

“Priority supplies – everything that is needed – are being sent there,” Zelenskyy said on X.

That same day, authorities told people to start evacuating the town.

Quote:Croatia will reintroduce a two-month compulsory military service starting January 1 next year, the country’s Defense Minister Ivan Anusic announced late Thursday.

The move comes amid heightened tensions in Europe following the Russian aggression against Ukraine as well as an apparent arms race and military buildup in the Balkans which went through a bloody war in the 1990s.

This decision marks a return to conscription, which was suspended in 2008 when the country shifted to a volunteer-based system.

“We increased the salaries of soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers, their material rights not only through personal income but also through daily wages and everything they are entitled to,” the minister told the Croatian broadcaster RTL on Thursday.

“The modernization and equipment of the Armed Forces is proceeding as planned and in accordance with the agreement with our allies and the NATO leadership,” the minister said, adding that there will be no saving of funds in this area.

Other countries in Europe are considering similar measures or have reinstated mandatory military service in response to heightened regional tensions.

Last year, Latvia reinstated military conscription in response to the threat posed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Serbia, Croatia’s biggest rival in the Balkans, is also mulling to reactivate conscription.

Quote:A 16-year-old has been arrested after the stabbing of an Irish Army chaplain at a barracks in Galway city late Thursday evening.

UPDATE 1800: Despite initial reports that terrorism was not suspected, the Special Detective Unit of the Irish Police is now involved in the investigation to help determine whether there was a terror motive behind the attack.

Padre Father Paul Murphy, a member of the clergy attached to the Renmore barracks in Galway, Ireland, reportedly suffered multiple stab wounds after being approached by a young male at around 10.45 pm on Thursday night.

According to a report from the Irish Times, the attack is believed to have occurred as the chaplain was in his car while waiting for the gate to the barracks to open. The paper reports that Father Murphy is understood to have been wearing civilian clothes at the time.

Army sentries are said to have fired five warning shots during the incident and used a baton to ultimately subdue the suspect, who has only been identified as a 16-year-old male and an Irish national.

The alleged attacker is reportedly currently in custody at a Garda (police) station in the North Western Region, but due to his age, he will not be able to be interviewed until a parent or other custodial adult signs off.

Ireland’s The Journal newspaper reports, citing police sources, that the alleged teenage attacker had made comments about the country’s military involvement in the Middle East at the scene of the incident.

However, while examining previous police interactions with the suspect, the police are said to believe that the attack is non-terror related. A mental health assessment of the suspect is also expected to be conducted.

Thankfully, despite the attack, Father Murphy’s condition is not life-threatening.

Quote:Iran’s “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned his underlings in a meeting on Wednesday that making a “nontactical retreat” would meet the “divine wrath” of Allah as the world awaits a highly touted attack by Tehran on neighboring Israel.

Iranian officials have been boasting that they would attack Israel for all of August following the elimination of Hamas “political” chief Ismail Haniyeh on July 31. Haniyeh was killed by a yet-unexplained explosion in his lodgings in Tehran, which he was visiting to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iran is believed to be one of the top funders and political supporters of Hamas, the genocidal terrorist organization responsible for the massacre, torture, and abduction of hundreds of Israeli civilians in an unprecedented siege on October 7.

No party has taken responsibility for the explosion that killed Haniyeh, including the government of Israel, which has not commented on the incident. The government of leftist American President Joe Biden denied both that it had participated in the attack and that it had any prior knowledge that it was going to happen.

The promised revenge has yet to occur at press time, however, and by Friday Iran’s top diplomats were calling for “all-out diplomatic efforts” to stop Israel’s self-defense operations against Hamas, taking a much more measured tone than the dictator of the country.

Khamenei made his remarks on Wednesday while meeting with legislative officials for an event commemorating “the Martyrs of the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province.”

“Since the victory of the Revolution, the enemies have been instilling fear in our nation through various means, suggesting that we should be afraid of the US, the UK, and the Zionists,” Khamenei told the assembly, according to an English-language translation of his remarks on his official website.

“Our nation realized that by relying on its inherent strength, it could accomplish great feats, and the enemy’s power was not as formidable as it seemed,” he asserted.

Khamenei warned that the Quran would frown upon a “retreat” against Israel.

“As the Quran states, a non-tactical retreat in any domain—whether military, political, or economic—will incur divine wrath,” he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Khamenei claimed that America and Israel were waging “psychological warfare” against the Iranian people to fuel “feelings of weakness, isolation, and submission to the enemy’s demands.”

“He pointed out that governments, whether of large or small nations, which currently capitulate to the demands of the Arrogant Powers [the West and Israel], could avoid submission if they relied on their people and capabilities, and recognized the enemy’s true power without exaggeration,” Khamenei’s website summarized. “Imam Khamenei underscored the significant consequences of amplifying the cultural practices propagated by enemies, warning that such narratives can lead to a sense of passivity, causing individuals to become infatuated with the enemies’ cultures while belittling their own.”

Khamenei was among the first to threaten a significant attack on Israel following Haniyeh’s death, calling it a “duty” to bring about “severe punishment” for Israel on the day of the incident. The Iranian government has insisted that the Israeli government was responsible for the attack, with American backing but has not produced any evidence corroborating that claim.

Israel has braced for an attack on its homeland for two weeks, but Iran has yet to execute on its threats. Tehran also spent much of this week condemning the idea of ceasing its consistent threats to kill Israelis, claiming that Iran has the sovereign right to attack Israel over Haniyeh’s death even though it has produced no proof that Israel played a role in it.

Quote:Nationwide protests in India attracted thousands in support of doctors striking to protest rampant violence against them on Tuesday and into Wednesday, when the nation marked its Independence Day.

The doctors’ strike began on Monday in response to a particularly repulsive crime: the rape and killing of a 31-year-old trainee doctor at a public hospital in Kolkata, allegedly committed by a local civilian police volunteer who regularly impersonated a police officer and behaved inappropriately at the hospital. It is not clear that the suspect, who reportedly confessed, had any reason to be at the hospital.

The doctor’s body was found in a seminar hall at the hospital, fueling outrage at the lack of security the government provides to health workers, especially women, in a crisis experts have described as a “rape epidemic” in the country. Rape is so common in India, including rape-murders and gang rapes, that the United States government has issued travel warnings for India in the past due to the high incidence of rape.

The crime in Kolkata and protests in response overshadowed Independence Day festivities, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not avoid the subject in his Independence Day speech. Modi used his remarks to condemn violence against women, declaring that perpetrators of “demonic” acts such as rape would be swiftly “hanged.”

“As a society, we will have to think seriously about the atrocities against our mothers, sisters, and daughters. There is anger among common people because of this. I can feel that rage,” Modi told those assembled before Delhi’s historic Red Fort. “Crimes against women should be probed swiftly, and stringent punishment given to those who commit such demonic acts.”

“Those who commit such sins should know that they will be hanged,” Modi continued, according to the Indian newspaper the Hindu.

Modi reportedly used the address to discuss women’s rights more generally, beyond the pervasive issue of criminal violence. The prime minister declared that he would support extended maternity leave for working women and praised Indian women for “becoming economically self-reliant.”

The broader context of Modi’s speech was a national protest that organizers described as “for women’s independence on the midnight of independence,” beginning on Tuesday evening and continuing into the early morning hours of Wednesday. The assemblies attracted thousands of people, multiple media outlets reported, demanding that Indian law enforcement authorities take the rape and murder of women seriously and crack down on criminals.

While the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, Indian media reported that a group of individuals attacked the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata – the site of the recent rape and homicide – destroying police vehicles and hospital property, as well as physically assaulting the protesters themselves.

Quote:Chinese social media users discovered they are no longer allowed to discuss a disturbing story about a medical supply company, Shanxi Aurui Biomaterials, caught selling dead human bodies and body parts.

The Chinese Communist Party’s vast army of social media censors began cracking down hard on the story three days after it broke, deleting a string of posts on the microblogging platform Weibo that lawyer Yi Shengua, president of the Beijing Yongzhe Law Firm, wrote.

Yi broke the story on August 7 with Weibo posts accusing funeral homes of sending vast numbers of human remains to Shanxi Aurui Biomaterials, which used the corpses as raw materials to produce dental bone implants.

According to Yi’s sources, the company took what it needed from the bodies, cremated the leftovers, and sent them back to families who had no idea their loved ones had been defiled. The company was accused of supplying its bone implant customers with forged consent paperwork from imaginary donors.

The story drew attention on Chinese legal social media because more than 70 families became aware of the scheme and are suing the biotech firm. Yi added to his account as he received information from lawyers across China who said they had become involved in the lawsuits.

More than 4,000 cadavers are believed to have been illegally diverted to the bone graft scheme, stolen from a dozen cities in seven provinces, generating $53 million in revenue over the past eight years.

The corpse-stealing scandal briefly received attention from Chinese state media, which claimed government investigators were all over the case, and some 75 suspects had already been taken into custody. One report said police seized more than 18 metric tons of human bones and 34,000 finished bone grafts from Shanxi Aurui Biomaterials as evidence in the case.

However, almost every state media report on the scandal abruptly disappeared, as did Yi’s original posts and many Weibo posts discussing the horrifying scandal. State media reports pertaining to investigations in the affected provinces have been changed to say officials are looking into “petty corruption” and “small-scale malfeasance” rather than body snatching.

“I can still see my Weibo post, but nobody else can. It seems that moves are afoot from higher up,” Yi said on August 9.

Yi said the scandal had been completely deleted from Weibo’s list of trending topics and Internet search engines. He was then dragged into a meeting with legal regulators, after which he began refusing to discuss the grave-robbing story any further with either Chinese social media users or foreign media.

Some observers suspect the Chinese Communist Party decided to censor the story because Shanxi Aurui Biomaterials is a subsidiary of the state-owned, Beijing-based China National Nuclear Corporation.

The Shanxi company is among China’s largest suppliers of bone grafts and substitutes, and demand is extremely high, so the communist government would not want the company to be ruined by a scandal. The case could also be extremely embarrassing for the regime, which has been aggressively pushing its subjects to forego burial in favor of cremation and burial at sea in order to conserve valuable real estate.

The Economist added suspicions that the Chinese Communist Party wanted to kill the story before it expanded to include state-owned medical giants, like Sinopharm, which may have purchased some of the tainted bone grafts. Sinopharm issued a statement on August 9 denying it was involved in the scandal.

Quote:The City of Chicago is feverishly erecting miles of security fencing all around the downtown area as the city gears up for the Democratic National Convention (DNC), which kicks off on Monday.

The security fencing is not only going up around the United Center and McCormick Place, but fencing is also being erected up and down retail areas along Michigan Avenue, also known as the “Magnificent Mile.” In addition, fencing is going up around the areas designated as protest zones.

Road closures are already in place, practically shutting down the area from traffic.

The security zones were officially enacted on Friday to give workers more time to erect the fencing, and to put up concrete barriers to deter errant vehicular traffic, needed for Monday’s convention kickoff.

Social media is filled with images and video of the barriers being erected to keep Democrats attending the convention isolated in their secure zone.
...
At the same time, many downtown businesses contracted with board-up services to lockdown their retail outlets to deter the sort of mass destruction suffered during the riots in 2020 that wiped out so many of the Windy City’s retail outlets.

Quote:Anti-Israel protesters were seen gathering outside of where the Democratic National Convention (DNC) will take place this week, with some present even calling on voters to reject Kamala Harris.

The anti-Israel rally reportedly unfolded at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Dr. on Sunday afternoon — the first of many demonstrations that will happen this week.

“WGN News found one demonstration organized by ‘Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws,’ a coalition comprised of various feminist and pro-Palestinian groups; the latter issue will also be front and center come Monday,” per WGNTV.

Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesperson for the coalition, told reporters that “tens of thousands” of people will be marching in the street.

“Almost 270 organizations from across the U.S. have joined the coalition to March on the DNC,” Abudayyeh said. “Tens of thousands [of people] will be out on the streets starting tomorrow, August 19 at noon, right here at Union Park to say, ‘Stop the genocide now, end U.S. aid to Israel and free Palestine.’”

“Up until 2 p.m. when we step off, we’re going to be fighting for our rights and we’re going to be fighting for that route,” Abudayyeh added.

Photos and videos of the protests began to circulate on social media.
...
During one speech, which Breitbart News broadcasted during a Facebook live, a woman denounced the Democrats for failing to deliver on promises.

“My issue with the Democratic Party is they tell us lies … Every time, they lie to us,” the woman said. “So why should we come out and vote for these Democrats? They’re not doing nothing for us. And I’m sick and tired of them lying to us. Every single time.”

Quote:Morton Salt has joined the growing list of major companies to ditch Chicago for safer and more business-friendly cities ahead of the Democratic National Convention’s kickoff on Monday.

The company, easily recognizable by its iconic umbrella girl logo, started in Chicago nearly 180 years ago and grew to become the biggest salt producer in North America.

In 2021, the company had to slash 40 percent of workers at its headquarters in order “help meet our business goals,” ABC 7 Chicago reported.

Morton is now set to relocate to Overland Park, Kansas, according to Illinois Policy.

According to CNBC, Illinois is ranked at 33 in the U.S. for business friendliness.

“Morton Salt moving its headquarters from Chicago to Kansas makes sense,” reacted one X user:
...
“Not only has Morton Salt been mined and refined in Kansas for more than 125 years, but Chicago has a terrible economic climate due to democrat policies. Plus, less crime in Kansas!”

The DNC convention, slated to begin on Monday morning, has prompted multiple businesses to board up their windows in anticipation of out-of-control protests, Breitbart News reported.

Before Morton Salt, several other household-name companies left Chicago for greener pastures:

Boeing

Aerospace manufacturer Boeing announced in May 2022 that it would move its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia in order to repair soured relationships with lawmakers and regulators in Washington, DC, after two deadly 737 Max crashes, CNBC reported.

“The region makes strategic sense for our global headquarters given its proximity to our customers and stakeholders, and its access to world-class engineering and technical talent,” Boeing President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun said at the time.

Then-House of Representatives Transportation Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D) blasted Boeing’s decision, saying “failures of management” led to the crashes that killed 346 people.

“Moving their headquarters to Chicago and away from their roots in the Pacific Northwest was a tragic mistake,” DeFazio said. “Moving their headquarters again, this time to be closer to the federal regulators and policymakers in Washington, D.C. is another step in the wrong direction. Boeing’s problem isn’t a lack of access to government, but rather its ongoing production problems and the failures of management and the board that led to the fatal crashes of the 737 Max.”

Caterpillar Tractor Company (CAT)

Construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar announced in June 2022 that it would relocate its headquarters from its longtime home state of Illinois to Texas, the Associated Press reported.

After spending over 90 years in Peoria and about five in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, CAT said it would transfer its global base to the Dallas suburb of Irving.

“We believe it’s in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move,” CEO Jim Umpleby said at the time.

Quote:While speaking at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to stumble over her words while explaining what the 2024 presidential election is “about” and what the United States stands “for around the globe.”

“Our election is about understanding the importance of this beautiful country of ours in terms of what we stand for around the globe as a democracy,” Harris told the crowd. “As a democracy, we know, there’s a duality to the nature of democracy.”

Writer Greg Price posted a video of Harris’s speech on X, and commented, “Kamala word salads are so back.”

“On the one hand, incredible strength when it is intact,” Harris added. “What it does for its people to protect and defend their rights, their liberty, their freedom. Incredibly strong, and incredibly fragile.”

As Breitbart News reported, Harris has made “word salads” in her speeches before, where she has mentioned “odd phrases and explanations for simple ideas.”

In March 2022, during a speech in Louisiana, Harris marveled about the “significance of the passage of time.”

During a trip to Poland, Harris appeared to stumble over her words and stated she was standing in “the northern flank.”

“I am here, standing here on the northern flank, on the eastern flank, talking about what we have in terms of the eastern flank and our NATO allies, and what is at stake at this very moment,” Harris said at the time. “What is at stake this very moment are some of the guiding principles around the NATO alliance.”

Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris voted against the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act when she was a senator in 2017, which doubled the child tax credit, a tax credit she now hopes to dramatically raise.

In 2017, Harris voted in lockstep with Senate Democrats to oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which doubled the child tax credit to $2,000.

In a lengthy statement after voting to oppose the historic tax reform package, Harris wrote:

The tax plan approved tonight by my Republican colleagues is shameful. Tonight, corporations and the top 1% of Americans won at the expense of middle class families. This is wrong and does not reflect the best of who we are as a country.

At a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high and pay for workers has stagnated, my Republican colleagues have given corporations and the top 1% of Americans a permanent tax cut. This plan does this by adding $1 trillion to the deficit and asking workers and middle class families to pay for it. We should not explode the deficit and pull the rug out from the middle class to give billions to those who already have so much.

Under this bill, 572,000 tax payers making over $1 million a year will get $34 billion in tax cuts in a single year. If you’re a senior relying on Medicare, this tax plan puts you at risk by slashing Medicare by up to $410 billion over a decade, with more than $45 billion of those cuts hitting California. And because Senate Republicans couldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act, they’re trying to take away the health care of millions of Americans and increase the premiums for millions of Californians, by repealing the individual mandate.

Instead of playing politics with people’s lives, we should be delivering for the American people who have spoken loud and clear that this isn’t what they want. There is a better way to reform our tax code, one that is bipartisan, transparent, and fair for all Americans. [Emphasis added]

Harris wrote in 2017, “The Republican tax bill that passed the Senate is a travesty. It gives even more tax breaks to the top 1% and permanently cuts corporate tax rates at the expense of middle class families. This isn’t what Americans wanted, and it’s up to us to fight back at the ballot box in 2018.”

Quote:A former federal prosecutor slammed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and stated that Walz “has to answer” for commuting the sentence of a man who was convicted of murdering an 11-year-old girl.

During an interview on Fox Business, Joe Teirab, who is running as a Republican candidate for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, spoke about how Walz has been an “utter failure,” adding that the governor had “sat on his hands for multiple days” during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.
Teirab added that Walz needed “to answer” for commuting the sentence of Myon Burrell, who was convicted and sentenced to serve life in prison regarding the 2002 murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards.

“I think Tim Walz has to answer for this: there’s a man in Minnesota, a criminal named Myon Burrell, and some people might know his story because Myon Burrell’s a Bloods criminal street gang member. I charged the Bloods in a more recent case,” Teirab explained.

“Myon Burrell shot and killed an 11-year-old girl who was doing her homework on her kitchen table in Minneapolis,” Teirab continued. “He was convicted and he did almost 20 years in prison. And, after — he maintained his innocence, which he definitely wasn’t. Guess who commuted his sentence? Tim Walz commuted his sentence.”

“And, not long after being off of probation for three months, this criminal, Myon Burrell, got picked up for having drugs and a gun in his car,” Teirab continued. “And guess who bailed him out? Because he was set free. Guess who bailed him out? The Minnesota Freedom Fund. The same fund that Kamala Harris was soliciting funds for during the riots.”

Burrell had been 16 years old at the time that he was convicted and sentenced, according to the Daily Mail.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who had been serving as the district attorney for Hennepin County, led the case against Burrell.

In December 2020, Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea voted to commute Burrell’s sentence, according to the Minnesota Reformer.

Quote:A New York Times reporter in Australia leaked the names of Jews in Australia on a WhatsApp group that was then leaked to pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activists who “doxxed” and targeted them for harassment and vandalism.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

Early this year, the contents of a WhatsApp group for Jewish creative professionals and academics, set up in Australia after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, leaked and fell into the hands of pro-Palestinian activists.

The activists posted snippets on social media, along with the names, photos and social-media page links of many of the group’s 600-odd members. Before long, members of the chat group faced online and in-person harassment—including threats and vandalism—repercussions that for some have continued several months later.

Throughout the crisis, it has remained a mystery how the chat thread leaked in the first place. The events were set in motion in January by a New York Times reporter, according to a Wall Street Journal review of the incident and statements from the Times.

The New York Post added:

Natasha Frost, a Times reporter who was based in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this year, downloaded and shared 900 pages of content from the private WhatsApp chat that was launched by Jewish professionals in response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists that claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 Israelis.

…

Frost told the Journal that she shared the information with one person who then disseminated the details without her permission.

“Its subsequent dissemination and misuse happened entirely without my knowledge or consent,” Frost said. “I was shocked by these events, which put me and many others at terrible risk.”

Frost apologized and said that she would not be making further comments.

The Times said it had no knowledge of its reporter’s actions.

Jews around the world have experienced a rise in antisemitism since the Hamas terror attack of October 7.

Quote:New York City’s government has distributed $5.5 billion in taxpayer funds to landlords, companies, and city agencies since 2023 to help illegal migrants settle into New Yorkers’ housing, workplaces, schools, and communities.

The taxpayers’ expenses are growing rapidly: “New York City taxpayers have spent $308 million on migrants since July 1,” the New York Post reported on August 15.

That migrant funding is a gusher of cash for the city’s  CEOs, landlords, and city employees, according to the city’s “Asylum Seeker Funding Tracker,” which was quietly updated by Mayor Eric Adams on August 15.

The winners include the more than 200,000 migrants — many of whom sneaked past U.S. border guards — and the city’s investor community that celebrates the city’s extraction of poor migrants from their home countries. Meanwhile, the middle-class population share has dropped to 48 percent, down from 61 percent in the early 1970s, which was just after Congress restarted mass migration in 1965.

Since 2022, — or “fiscal 2023” — landlords and the city’s restate industry have raked in $2.19 billion of taxpayer funds via the migrants invited by President Joe Biden and his compliant Vice President Kamala Harris.

Companies offering a grab-bag “services and supplies” took in $2.22 billion, as the migrants crowded into shelters and jobs that would otherwise have helped lift Americans out of poverty.

White-collar city workers and their contractors got $520 million for “IT, Administrative Costs, and Other” work.

Food companies were paid $388 million to help feed the migrants, so nudging up food inflation for the city’s families.

Medical centers got $139 million that otherwise would have gone to sick and ailing New Yorkers.

Quote:The leaders of the French far-left have threatened to impeach President Emmanuel Macron over an “institutional coup against democracy” for so far refusing to nominate a leftist to become the next prime minister.

With the ‘Olympic Truce’ now over, former and current presidents of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Mathilde Panot have threatened to launch proceedings to “remove” President Macron for allegedly refusing to “take note” of the legislative elections in July.

Macron had partnered with the leftist New Popular Front coalition, which includes the far-left LFI, in a desperate last-minute bid to block the surging right-wing populist National Rally (RN) party of Marine Le Pen during the elections, with Macron’s neo-liberals and the leftists strategically standing down candidates to back the candidates with the strongest chance of defeating RN in the second round of voting last month.

While the move was successful in preventing the populist party from gaining a majority, despite RN gaining the most votes of any party, after the election, Mr Macron immediately shunned the idea of nominating a prime minister candidate from the far-left for fear of fracturing his centrist base.

With seemingly no consensus candidate, the situation has left France without an actual government for the past month, with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal merely serving in a caretaker role without the ability to pass legislation and only the power to act in emergency situations.

The varying factions mostly laid down their arms while Paris hosted the Olympics, however, with the games complete, the battle for control of the Hôtel Matignon has once again commenced.

Quote:A fire broke out Saturday at Somerset House, a large arts venue on the River Thames in central London.

Smoke billowed from the building and flames could be seen coming from the roof as firefighters on tall ladders showered it with water.

The cause of the fire was not yet known, the London Fire Brigade said. Fifteen engines and about 100 firefighters were deployed.

Somerset House said all staff and the public were safe and the site was closed. The venue had been scheduled to host a breakdancing event.

The neoclassical building, which is nearly 250 years old, houses the Courtauld Gallery that features works by Van Gogh, Manet and Cezanne.

Quote:At least 23 people were injured when two gondolas of a Ferris wheel caught fire at a music festival near Leipzig in eastern Germany, news agency dpa reported Sunday.

The fire started in one gondola and then spread to a second one on Saturday night, police said. Four people suffered burn injuries and one suffered injuries from a fall. Others, including first responders and at least four police officers, were to be examined in the hospital for possible smoke inhalation, dpa reported.

The accident took place at the Highfield Festival at Stoermthaler Lake near Leipzig. Police are still investigating what caused the fire.

On Sunday morning, police were still unable to provide any concrete information about the condition of those injured. The exact number of casualties had also not been determined, dpa reported.

The operator of the Ferris Wheel told dpa that no passengers were sitting in the gondola in which the fire started.

Quote:Germany has halted future aid to Ukraine amid Berlin’s budget struggles, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reports.

According to the FAZ report, all future requests from the Ministry of Defence for Ukraine aid will not be approved by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as his leftist government seeks to cut costs to address the 12 billion euro budget shortfall.

The paper said, however, that most of the money and physical aid already allocated to be sent to Ukraine will continue to be sent. This year, some 8 billion euros have been earmarked for Kyiv, while next year an additional 4 billion has already been approved after aid was slashed in half for budgetary reasons.

Past that, a government source told FAZ that “the pot is empty.” Government communications obtained by the paper said that “new measures” will only be approved if fresh “financing is secured” for upcoming federal budgets.

With Germany representing Ukraine’s largest single financier in Europe, the cessation of further aid payments could represent a significant hurdle for Kyiv to continue the war against the much larger and richer Russia.

Although the payment freeze is technically for future budgets, the effects of the cutoff are already having an impact on present-day aid transfers, with money for an IRIS-T air defence system offered by German manufacturer Diehl Defence recently being denied by the federal government.

This is because the €8 billion allocated for this year has already been spent, and the € 4 billion slated for 2025 has reportedly been surpassed. According to the report, while Ukraine will receive supplies previously agreed upon, “hardly any” new orders from Germany will be possible until 2028.

Quote:Ukraine has destroyed a key bridge in Russia’s Kursk region and struck a second one nearby, less than two weeks into its stunning cross-border incursion, disrupting Russian supply routes and possibly signaling that its troops are planning to dig in.

Russia’s pro-Kremlin military bloggers have acknowledged that the destruction of the first bridge, which spanned the Seim River near the town of Glushkovo, will impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces repelling Ukraine’s incursion, although Moscow could still use pontoons and smaller bridges in the area. Ukraine’s air force chief, Lt. Mykola Oleshchuk, on Friday released a video of a Ukrainian airstrike that split the bridge in two.

Less than two days later, Ukrainian troops hit a second bridge in Russia, according to Oleshchuk and the Russian regional governor, Alexei Smirnov.

As of Sunday morning, there were no official reports on where exactly the second bridge attack took place. Russian Telegram channels claimed that a second bridge over the Seim, in the village of Zvannoe, had been struck.

According to Russia’s Mash news site, the attacks left the area with just one intact bridge. The Associated Press could not immediately verify these claims – but if confirmed, the Ukrainian strikes would further complicate Moscow’s attempts to replenish its forces in Kursk and evacuate civilians.

Glushkovo lies some 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, and approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) northwest of the main battle zone in Kursk. Zvannoe is located a further 8 kilometers (5 miles) northeast.

Kyiv has been tight-lipped about the planned scope and goals of its lightning push into Russia, the largest attack on the country since World War II, which took the Kremlin by surprise and saw scores of villages and hundreds of prisoners fall into Ukrainian hands.

The Ukrainians drove deep into the Kursk region in several directions, facing little resistance and sowing chaos and panic. Ukraine’s Commander in Chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed last week that his forces had advanced across 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles) of the Kursk region, although it was not possible to independently verify what exactly Ukrainian forces effectively control.

But the strikes on bridges, apparently aimed to stymie a Russian counterpush in Kursk, could mean that Kyiv intends to seek a foothold in the region – or at least signal to Moscow that it plans to do so.

Analysts say that although Ukraine could try to consolidate its gains within Russia, it would be a risky maneuver given Kyiv’s limited resources, because supply lines extending deep into Kursk would be vulnerable to Russian strikes.

Quote:A Russian missile strike sparked a blaze in the Ukrainian city of Sumy Saturday, while Ukrainian forces continued to push into Russia’s Kursk border region.

Two people were injured in the Sumy strike, which also damaged cars and nearby buildings, said Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. It said that the hit had involved an Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb.

Ukraine’s air force also said it had shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, including over the Kyiv region.

Meanwhile, fighting continued in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since Aug. 6 in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine.

Alexander Kots, military correspondent with the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, said that Ukrainian pressure in Kursk “is not weakening yet.”

“In the main sections of the ragged front, the situation has stabilized. But there are areas where the enemy continues to try to expand its bridgehead,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Friday that Ukraine had destroyed a bridge across the Seim River in the Glushkovsky district with U.S.-made HIMARS rockets, marking their first use in the Kursk region.

Zakharova’s statement couldn´t be independently confirmed, although the Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said that geolocated footage published on Aug. 16 showed that the bridge had collapsed following the strike.

Russian military bloggers said that the destruction of bridges would impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces, but not cut them off completely.

“No one has canceled the pontoons,” said Kots, stressing that the Seim River is smaller than Ukrainian waterways such as the Dnieper River. “And there are still smaller bridges.”

Quote:A volcano in southeastern Russia has erupted following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, state-owned media announced.

The Shiveluch volcano began spewing ash and lava on Friday after the earthquake shook the coast, the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences told TASS.

Shiveluch, one of the largest volcanoes on Kamchatka at a height of 10,771 feet, has produced an ash column reaching nearly five miles above sea level, scientists said.

The nearest settlement from the volcano, Klyuchi, is about 31 miles away.

No injuries have been reported, according to CNN.

Images published by Eastern European media outlet NEXTA show the enormous amount of ash pouring out of the volcano’s mouth:
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The earthquake took place about 63 miles east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a town on the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and occurred 18 miles below the surface of the ocean, according to the Associated Press.

Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that pressure — from the U.S. and from domestic opposition — for a hostage deal needs to be on Hamas, not the Israeli government, due to the terror group’s ongoing obstinacy.

Netanyahu at the beginning of a meeting with his governing coalition, after negotiations wrapped up in Doha, Qatar, on Friday without Hamas representatives present. Hamas, under its new leader Yahya Sinwar, boycotted the talks.

The Israeli government has been under pressure from the U.S. to agree to a deal — though it has already accepted the terms laid out by President Joe Biden in May. (Secretary of State Blinken will visit Israel this week, for the ninth time since the October 7 terror attacks.)

The domestic political opposition in Israel has also held weekly demonstrations for a deal, even though most Israelis also want to see Hamas defeated and reject a deal that would allow it to rearm.

There were reports that negotiations made progress, and that Israel had shown flexibility on the issue of withdrawing its forces from the Philadelphi corridor, the road that runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel took the corridor when it attacked Rafah in May, and has uncovered dozens of cross-border smuggling tunnels.

Hamas, however, refused to attend the talks, accusing Israel of adding new demands, which Netanyahu has denied.

In a statement Sunday, Netanyahu said:

[W]e are engaged in negotiations for the release of our hostages. This is a national mission of the highest order. We are holding very complex negotiations in which the other side is a murderous terrorist organization that is unbridled and obstinate.

However, I would like to emphasize: We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give. There are things we can be flexible on and there are things that we cannot be flexible on, which we will insist on. We know how to distinguish between the two very well.

…

Once again, I would like to emphasize: Up until now, Hamas has been completely obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure needs to directed at Hamas and Sinwar, not the Government of Israel.

Strong military and diplomatic pressure are the way to secure the release of our hostages.

Israel has refused to agree to a Hamas demand that it withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and agree never to attack Hamas again. Israel’s goal is to destroy Hamas as a military threat and governing authority.

Quote:Dubai-based port operator DP World reported Thursday its half-year profits fell by nearly 60%, in part over the ongoing attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over the Israel-Hamas war that have affected shipping through the Red Sea.

DP World reported profits of $265 million this year, down from $651 million the same time last year. DP World Group’s chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, acknowledged that the Red Sea disruptions affected the firm’s revenues.

“The year 2024 has been marked by a deteriorating geopolitical environment and disruptions to global supply chains due to the Red Sea crisis,” he said in a statement included in the results. “While the near-term trading outlook remains uncertain due to macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds, the resilient financial performance of the first half … positions us well to deliver stable full year adjusted” profits.

Bin Sulayem did not elaborate on what specific effects the Houthi attacks had been having on DP World, a government-owned shipper that in recent years removed itself from the Nasdaq Dubai stock exchange.

The Houthis since November have been targeting shipping through the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The assaults have disrupted the $1 trillion of goods that flow annually through the region, while also sparking the most intense combat the U.S. Navy has seen since World War II.

The rebels maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or the U.K. as part of a campaign they say seeks to force an end to the war. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict.

Shippers have begun going around the Cape of Good Hope off Southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea entirely. The rerouting has affected shipping through Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, the home of DP World and the world’s largest manmade harbor.

DP World already had faced challenges through the coronavirus pandemic, but the Houthi attacks have seen it affected while the long-haul carrier Emirates, another Dubai government-owned entity, have soared.

Quote:A journalist in Mexico who made headlines for her tough questions aimed at the country’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pointed the finger at him, claiming that if she suffers any attacks in the future is because of him and his rhetoric. The Mexican politician shrugged her off with indifference and asked if she was done.

During one of Lopez Obrador’s morning news conferences this week, Reyna Haydee Ramirez claimed that the president’s divisive rhetoric led to his supporters chasing her and screaming insults at her. She claimed that Lopez Obrador’s spokesman, Jesus Ramirez Cuevas, favored journalists who praised Lopez Obrador and censored or tried to keep out those who asked hard questions.

Ramirez showed a video on her cell phone where various individuals could be heard yelling, “eres una chayotera (you are a sellout),” as they surrounded her and chased her down the main plaza square in Mexico City. She claimed that police officers had to intervene.

Ramirez had made headlines in Mexico for routinely asking hard questions during Lopez Obrador’s morning news conferences, leading to several heated exchanges between the two.

According to Ramirez, the incident occurred in June when the country held its presidential election. She claimed that the issue was tied to Lopez Obrador’s rhetoric that journalists who question him are his opposition or paid mouthpieces of “conservative” politicians.

After she showed the video, a visibly upset Lopez Obrador asked if she was done and dismissed her concerns, claiming journalists were free to voice their opinions.

Quote:Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced he would write to U.S. President Joe Biden to complain about his administration financing non-governmental organizations that have been critical of his government.

The politician made the announcement during one of his morning news conferences. He pointed out that his Foreign Relations Ministry had just sent a diplomatic notice about the issue and added he was personally drafting a letter for Biden about it.

The diplomatic note is the second one Mexico’s diplomats have sent on the same issue. During the news conference, officials said the first diplomatic note had been sent in 2021. The message went unanswered.

Lopez Obrador complained that the Department of State has helped finance the group Mexicanos Contra La Corrupcion y La Impunidad (Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity) through USAID programs.

The NGO gained much notoriety in recent years for compiling reports and statistics about crime and corruption in the country. According to MCCI, when Lopez Obrador was trying to win the presidency, he would quote their reports. However, now that his party is in office, he considers the NGO part of the opposition for questioning high-level corruption, contract rigging, and other alleged improprieties reported by them.
...
Earlier in the week, Mexico’s Financial Crimes Unit (UIF) released information that the U.S. government has reportedly sent more than 97 million pesos (approximately $5 million USD) to MCCI since 2018. Officials also singled out several U.S. private donors, including funds from the Rockefeller and Ford foundations.
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During that information release, Lopez Obrador and his staff also divulged the personal tax and financial information of private citizens who had donated to MCCI. The group claimed that in doing so, Lopez Obrador broke Mexican law.

Quote:Nigerian presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga on Thursday accused a Chinese company called Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. of using “unorthodox means” and “subterfuge” to seize Nigerian government property abroad, including aircraft belonging to the presidential office.

Zhongshan says Nigeria owes it millions of dollars for a never-completed construction project.

Zhongshan signed a contract with Nigeria’s southwestern Ogun State in 2007 to develop a 10,000-hectare industrial park known as the Ogun Free Trade Zone (OGFTZ). Zhongshan acquired the rights to a substantial parcel of land in the OGFTZ in 2010 and created a Nigerian corporate entity to manage the project in 2011.

The deal went south and was terminated by Nigeria in 2015. The details of what went wrong are hotly disputed between the two parties. Zhongshan claims its Nigerian entity spent years building infrastructure in the park, including roads, sewers, and power, plus extensive marketing to persuade several companies to build factories in the OGFTZ.

Nigeria, on the other hand, angrily claimed Zhongshan did little more in the span of five years than building a fence around part of the industrial park. Ogun State refused to pay the compensation demanded by Zhongshan for the work completed to date.

Zhongshan executives claimed the Nigerian government used strong-arm tactics to drive it out of the country, including sending the police to harass company personnel and threaten them with prison time. Chinese managers said their immigration papers were improperly nullified, preventing them from working in Nigeria. One senior Zhongshan manager claimed he was “arrested at gunpoint” and held by the police for ten days, during which time he was beaten and deprived of food and water.

Zhongshan and its Nigerian subsidiary, Zhongfu, initiated arbitration proceedings in international court against Nigeria in 2018. Several other companies from various countries have filed similar charges against Nigeria, which does not have a good track record of winning arbitration battles.

Nigeria lost this one, too, as an arbitration panel in London ordered the Nigerian government to pay $70 million in damages to Zhongshan, an amount later increased to $81 million as Nigeria refused to pay and interest accumulated on the debt.

A British judge subsequently wrote an enforcement order allowing Zhongshan to seize two properties owned by Nigeria in Liverpool, valued at several million dollars apiece.

Donald Trump on August 15, 2024 Wrote:California law lets you “rob a store as long as it’s not more than $950” and “not get charged.” Kamala Harris “did that.”

Quote:At a news conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, former President Donald Trump blamed  Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for a 2014 California law he falsely said allowed shoplifters to steal from retailers without consequence.

"You're allowed to rob a store as long as it's not more than $950. Has everyone ever heard of that?" Trump said Aug. 15. "You can rob a store, and you have these thieves going into stores with calculators, calculating how much it is, because if it's less than $950 they can rob it and not get charged. That was her that did that."

Trump was referring to Proposition 47, a 2014 California voter-approved law, "which makes the theft of stolen property worth less than $950 a misdemeanor charge rather than a felony," Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson said, linking to a June 12 San Francisco Chronicle article about the law and a new ballot initiative that could roll back some of its provisions.

That article mentions neither that Harris was involved in creating the law, nor that thefts of less than $950 bring no charges. The article also noted that other states, including Republican-led Texas at $2,500, have higher financial thresholds to meet felony charges for theft.

California’s law did reduce some nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and did include a $950 felony threshold on retail thefts.

But Trump’s comments mislead about the law and Harris’ role in its creation.

What is Proposition 47?

Proposition 47 was a ballot initiative created in response to a court ruling that ordered California to reduce its prison population because of overcrowding.

Then-San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and former San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne co-authored the bill, with collaboration from nonprofits such as Stanford’s Justice Advocacy Project and Californians for Safety and Justice, said UC Law San Francisco professor Hadar Aviram.

Proposition 47 downgraded some nonviolent drug and property crimes to misdemeanors. A summary Harris’ office prepared in 2014, said the law "requires misdemeanor sentence instead of felony for the following crimes when amount involved is $950 or less: petty theft, receiving stolen property, and forging/writing bad checks."

Under state law before Proposition 47, shoplifting property worth $950 or less was often a misdemeanor, but such crimes could, in some cases, also be charged as a burglary, which could be a felony, Harris’ summary said. Proposition 47 said shoplifting property under that threshold would always be considered a misdemeanor.

The proposition defined "shoplifting," a misdemeanor, in the state’s penal code as "entering a commercial establishment with the intent to commit larceny while that establishment is open during regular business hours" and the value of property taken is $950 or less. Entering a retail store with the intent to steal when a store is not open is burglary, which could be a felony.

The $950 threshold in Proposition 47, however, was not new to state law.

The California Legislature in 2010 passed Assembly Bill 2372, which set a $950 threshold between petty theft (a misdemeanor) and grand larceny (a felony), raising it to account for inflation from $400, a threshold set in 1982. Then-Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed that change into law.

Proposition 47 essentially affirmed that threshold and addressed a few more theft categories, such as auto thefts and thefts of some agricultural products, that the 2010 legislation didn’t address, experts told PolitiFact.

Quote:As the new Democratic standard bearer, Vice President Kamala Harris has described her contest with former President Donald Trump in blunt terms — tough prosecutor versus civil and criminal defendant.

“I took on perpetrators of all kinds, predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own game,” Harris said at a rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday. “So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”

But critics say that Harris’ record as a prosecutor, first as the district attorney in San Francisco and later as the California attorney general, reveals a political chameleon rather than a tough-on-crime top cop, according to interviews with current and former law enforcement leaders across the state, civil rights advocates and politicians.

In a statement, Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer said, “During her career in law enforcement, Kamala Harris was a pragmatic prosecutor who successfully took on predators, fraudsters, and cheaters like Donald Trump.”

Harris has written two books about her time as a prosecutor and attorney general. In her 2009 book, “Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer,” published near the end of her tenure as DA, Harris described herself as a prosecutor who was “tough on crime by being Smart on Crime,” said she promoted programs to fix recidivism and made “improving my office’s felony conviction rates my number one priority.”

Five years later, after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, which vaulted the Black Lives Movement onto the national stage and made criminal justice reform a top issue, Harris embraced the calls for change.

In her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” published while she was senator, Harris described herself as a “progressive prosecutor.”

“I knew I was there for the victims. Both the victims of crimes committed and the victims of a broken criminal justice system,” Harris wrote. “For me, to be a progressive prosecutor is to understand — and act on — this dichotomy.”

Trump and his allies are now trying to emphasize the “progressive” part of Harris’ identity. On Tuesday, the former president attacked Harris as a “radical left person” and blamed current crime in the city on her tenure as district attorney.

“Really, what you should do is take a look at San Francisco now compared to before she became the district attorney, and you’ll see what she’ll do to our country,” Trump said.
...
Prison reform

Several years after Harris was elected state attorney general in 2010, California voters passed a ballot measure that enacted sweeping sentencing reforms across the state. In an effort to relieve overcrowding in the state's prison, the proposition reclassified a list of felonies as misdemeanors, including certain drug crimes and theft — including shoplifting of property valued at less than $950.

The attorney general’s office under Harris released a summary of the law, called Proposition 47, which predicted that prison and jail populations would decrease while funding for truancy reduction programs and mental health services would rise. It also predicted that the state criminal justice system would save hundreds of millions of dollars due to the changes, and local prosecutors and sheriffs would have reduced workloads.

As of last week, prison officials reported, there were 92,480 people locked up in California’s prison systems, down from a height of more than 156,000 inmates during the early 2010s before the law was passed. But as NBC News reported last year, California’s reforms created a prison-to-homelessness pipeline, as counties were overwhelmed with an influx of returning inmates.

Violent crime, meanwhile, has increased across the state. The state attorney general’s office reported that from 2014 to 2023, violent crime had risen by more than 30% — including jumps in rapes, aggravated assaults and murders.

Although Harris didn’t take a formal position on the measure, Republicans accused her of misrepresenting Proposition 47 to the public. Steve Cooley, who served as the Los Angeles County district attorney from 2000 to 2012, blamed the rise in crime on Harris and the referendum.

Quote:Soros-backed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx preemptively announced that she will not prosecute protesters who are “peaceful” at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

This sudden turn toward leniency runs against what she claimed in April, Wirepoints reported.

Despite the attention to “peaceful” protesters, Foxx also announced ahead of time that she will not prosecute anyone arrested for misdemeanors — such as disorderly conduct, public demonstration, unlawful gathering, criminal trespass to state-supported land, and even curfew charges.

The policy is not new, though. The prosecutor, who was given a $408,000 donation from a George Soros super PAC in 2016, has maintained this policy at least since the riots in 2020 and has released hundreds of protesters over the years — even those who perpetrated property damage.

Despite this announcement of leniency, Foxx was talking tougher in April when she told the Chicago Tribune that her past policy, confirmed in a November 15 memo, would be set aside and hinted that protesters could expect to be arrested.

The Tribune reported that Foxx “was clear that her Nov. 15 memo wouldn’t apply during that time.”

That, though, does not seem to be the case now. It appears that the lenient November 15 policy is back in effect.

On Sunday, Foxx told the Triibe that her office does not prosecute protesters. “Whether it’s the O’Hare 40, or the educators at Northwestern, or the students at the Art Institute. We are consistent. We don’t prosecute these cases,” she said. “So this is not a policy that has been stagnant since 2020. It’s certainly a policy that we will continue to take into the DNC.”

According to the site, Foxx only vaguely promised to prosecute “specific cases involving an act of vandalism or violence.” However, Wirepoints added that some prosecutor’s office sources say that offenses including resisting/obstructing arrest, assault, misdemeanor aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery to a police officer, reckless conduct, mob action, and obstructing identification will still be prosecuted.

All this seems to run contrary to claims from the City of Chicago that authorities will not tolerate violent protests and that errant protesters will be prosecuted. The Chicago Police Department (CPD), for instance, rewrote its arrest policy in June specifically to cover the convention, the Associated Press reported at the time.

Chicago’s top cop, Superintendent Larry Snelling, even noted that the department is authorized to conduct “mass arrests” if things get out of hand.

Quote:Establishment media outlets are signaling that Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’s honeymoon phase is over after the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) saw major issues with logistics and operations.

Several media figures from across the spectrum began publicly criticizing and even openly mocking Democrats for their mistakes at the DNC, particularly with regard to press operations and workspace but also with regard to the flow of convention programming that went far too long on Monday evening. The derailed convention programming, which was far behind schedule, led to President Joe Biden–the sitting president of the United States–being pushed until nearly 11:30 p.m. eastern time before he finally took the stage late Monday evening. Democrats even canceled planned speeches from Reps. Grace Meng (D-NY) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and a planned performance from award-winning musician James Taylor.
...
Some in media even mocked Democrats for giving New York Gov. Kathy Hochul so much time for a pretty widely panned speech:
...
What’s more, the logistical failures of Democrats as compared with the much-more-smoothly-run Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last month were apparent:

Akela Lacy Wrote:The scene to get into United Center is absolute chaos. Line after line - there are hundreds of people waiting to get in 1.5 hours after programming started. Staff, delegates, media all stuck outside

Josh Dawsey Wrote:Lots of gripes in Chicago about the logistics on day one. RNC seemed to be a better managed affair, at least getting to and inside the arena, per a bunch of people who attended both conventions.

Quote:“We don’t want no two states; give us all of ’48!” That was one among many anti-Israel — and anti-American chants shouted by pro-Palestinian protesters Monday outside the Democratic National Convention.

President Joe Biden would later tell his party, from the stage, that the protesters “have a point.” But their point was not that “[a] lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides,” as Biden said. Their point was: destroy Israel.

At the front of the procession Monday from Union Park to the perimeter fence outside the United Center — which protesters soon broke through — were several extremist flags, including the flag of the Hamas terrorist organization.

Protesters chanted the familiar “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which refers to the destruction of Israel and its replacement by a Palestinian state (under current conditions, an Islamist one, controlled by Hamas).

Other chants targeted President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, whom protesters accused of “genocide” and “killing children.” In another refrain, protesters likened the Chicago Police Department to the Ku Klux Klan.

But the target of most of the chants was Israel. There were no chants for peace, or even for a ceasefire in the ongoing war in Gaza, which started October 7 when Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis, most of whom were civilians.

Quote:A pro-Israel group that was denied a permit to march during the Democratic National Convention gathered in a makeshift “Hostage Square” in the West Loop on Tuesday to make their voices heard.

The original “Hostage Square” is front of an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel, and was given that name after it became a gathering place for the families of kidnapped and missing Israelis in the wake of the Hamas terror attack of October 7.

Like its namesake in Israel, the “Hostage Square” in Chicago features art installations that draw attention to the victims of Hamas — in particular, to U.S. citizens who were murdered or taken hostage. Five American hostages remain: Keith Siegel, 65, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, Omer Neutra, 22, Edan Alexander, 20, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23.

One art project, by Israeli designer Neil Salti, is a tree that honors the 403 victims of the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival. Visitors were invited to contribute by writing messages, or the names of victims, on rocks nearby.

Salti told Breitbart News that he lost 25 friends at Nova who were DJs or art designers for the festival. His tree included a rope around the trunk, like the ropes found onsite, which were thought to have been used on rape victims.

His girlfriend, Orly Birnbaum, said that one of her friends, Karla, was burned so badly at the festival site that she was only identified using dental records.

Other art projects focused on hope persisting, despite the horror.

Andrea Weinstein, the younger sister of Judih Weinstein, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz who was murdered with her husband, Gadi Haggai, told reporters that she had come to visit Hostage Square without knowing that her sister’s photograph would be prominently displayed.

Quote:Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump promised to block Japan’s Nippon Steel Corporation from buying the United States Steel Corporation during a speech in York, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

“It’s an honor to be here at Precision Custom Components, a company that has helped build and defend America for nearly 150 years,” Trump said:

With the help of companies like this one, we will rebuild our hollowed-out defense industrial base — ensuring that America is never in a situation where we don’t have the tanks, missiles, and raw materials to fight and win a war. [Emphasis added]

Upon taking office, I will invoke the Defense Production Act wherever it is necessary to quickly ramp up capacity of essential products, and I will stop Japan from buying U.S. Steel. [Emphasis added]

As Breitbart News reported in 2023, executives with U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel Corporation announced a nearly $15 billion deal, which would have the iconic American steel giant sold off to the Japanese company.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), has been a leading voice opposing the foreign acquisition of U.S. Steel. Vance, along with Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John Fetterman (D-PA), and Bob Casey (D-PA), have warned of Nippon Steel’s deep ties to China.

The sale of U.S. Steel, founded in 1901 by Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Charles Schwab, to Nippon Steel is significant, as the steelmaker served a critical role in the nation’s “Arsenal of Democracy” during WWII.

Among several American companies that helped the Allies defeat the Axis Powers, which included Imperial Japan, U.S. Steel made the U.S. the world’s largest steel producer during the war, with Pennsylvania becoming the nation’s steel capital.

Quote:Actor Michael Madsen, star of films including the Quentin Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, was arrested and charged with domestic violence in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The L.A. Police told TMZ that Madsen was charged with a misdemeanor domestic violence charge late on Saturday night.

It is alleged that Madsen pushed his wife, DeAnna, then forced her out of their home before locking her out.

The reason for the marital spat was not revealed, but when police arrived, DeAnna, who has been married to the actor since 1996, was safe with a security guard. She refused medical attention when the L.A. Police offered to call an ambulance.

Officers spoke to the pair and then arrested the actor and took him off to lockup.

“It was a disagreement between Michael and his wife, which we hope resolves positively for them both,” Madesn’s representative told TMZ in a statement.

Madsen has a long history of altercations and arrests.

Most recently, he was arrested and charged with trespassing last year after he entered a neighbor’s property without permission.

In April of 2019, Madsen was arrested and charged with drunk driving. He was later sentenced for a four-day jail stint for the incident.

The 2019 arrest cost him a $100,000 paycheck for a role in the film Confessions of a Serial Killer after the production decided not to include him in the film.

The Kill Bill star also had legal troubles for drunk driving back in 2012 when he was arrested after police observed him driving erratically. The actor struck a plea deal for the arrest and promised to attend AA meetings. Unfortunately, he failed to uphold the agreement and his probation was revoked.

Quote:Socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro announced on Monday that his regime would host a world congress “against fascism, neo-fascism, and similar expressions.”

Maduro said that the yet-to-be scheduled event will seek to “exchange strategies” to “fight fascism,” which he has often defined broadly to mean any opposition to hardline socialism. Maduro has for over a decade used “fascism” as a reason to violently repress political dissidents in the country. The dictator made the announcement during a Monday evening event with leaders of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allied parties.

“A very good idea has been proposed to me, I want us to set a date very soon, to hold a world congress against fascism, neo-fascism and similar expressions, with guests from all continents,” Maduro said. “Let’s invite thinkers, intellectuals, artists, social leaders and political leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe, the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, etcetera, etcetera.”

“We are going to hold here in Venezuela, the world epicenter of the fight against fascism, the great congress to nourish ourselves with ideas, proposals, and refine the strategies of Venezuela, which is defending its right to live, to peace, to the future,” he continued.

Maduro suggested that the event should take place before October 18, when the PSUV is scheduled to hold a national congress in which the dictator will “receive proposals” from his sympathizers on his “agenda” for the next six years once he takes office for a third term in January 2025.

The Venezuelan dictator claims that he was “reelected” for a six-year presidential term after Venezuela’s National Electoral Center — loyal to Maduro — proclaimed him the “winner” of the July 28 sham presidential election. The Venezuelan electoral authorities have continuously refused to show voter data that can corroborate his claims. The nation’s top court — also loyal to Maduro — is presently undergoing a “review” of the results following a request made by Maduro.

Maduro’s claimed “victory” has been heavily called into question by the international community and the Venezuelan opposition, who have published voter data that they claim can prove that their candidate, Edmundo González, was the actual winner of the election after defeating Maduro in a landslide.

Throughout his rule, Maduro has repeatedly accused both the Venezuelan opposition — which is mostly composed of center-left parties — and dissidents of his regime of being “right-wing” and “fascists.” Maduro has accused the opposition of allegedly engaging in a “fascist coup” by contesting his “victory” in the July 28 sham election.

Maduro has also accused “international Zionism” of being behind a purported plot to oust him and his authoritarian regime.

Quote:The Venezuelan newspaper Tal Cual reported on Sunday that the United States received 12 shipments of crude oil and asphalt from Venezuela after the July 28 sham presidential election, which socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro claims he “won” and the United States does not recognize as legitimate.

Tal Cual reported that, according to data it reviewed from maritime transport monitoring websites, the 12 ships departed from Venezuelan ports after the sham election. The tankers carried cargo belonging to California-based Chevron and the Spanish company Repsol — two of the companies that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has issued licenses to that allow them to resume oil production in Venezuela and sell Venezuelan oil in the U.S. and other markets.

The U.S.-bound shipments reportedly contained Merey and Boscán crude oil, as well as fuel oil and asphalt. Tal Cual reported that Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, received gasoline, diesel, and diluents in exchange. Each oil tanker reportedly carried a cargo of between 1.6 and 2 million barrels.

The United States, during the administration of former President Donald Trump, imposed sanctions on PDVSA in 2019 as a response to the Maduro regime’s ongoing human rights violations against its own people. Biden temporarily lifted the sanctions between October 2023 and April 2024 as part of a now-failed effort to entice Maduro to allow a “free and fair” election to occur in Venezuela.

In addition, Biden issued licenses to companies such as Chevron, Repsol, Shell, and BP that allow them to resume operations in Venezuela, including new deals involving joint ventures that these companies have with PDVSA, such as PDVSA and Repsol’s Petroquiriquire joint venture.

Venezuela held a sham election on July 28 that the Maduro regime’s electoral authorities claim dictator Maduro “won.” The United States is among the list of countries that do not recognize Maduro’s claimed victory as legitimate. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has recognized opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of the election.

Tal Cual points out that while Maduro has rejected the United States’ stance on the sham election, PDVSA continues to export oil to the United States, its erstwhile top buyer.

“PDVSA has to continue invoicing in some way and even more after the disaster generated by the PDVSA-Cripto corruption scheme with which billions of dollars were lost,” an oil expert who preferred to remain anonymous told Tal Cual:

Of course there is the possibility of new sanctions or greater restrictions in the oil market and that also makes them hurry to send the cargoes as soon as possible, and I am not only talking about PDVSA, but also about Repsol and Chevron, which must collect what Venezuela owes them.

Quote:Nicaragua’s communist regime collected more than 359 million Nicaraguan córdobas (roughly $9.76 million) in “safe-passage” fees from U.S.-bound migrants that pass through its territory as of June, the local newspaper Confidencial reported on Monday.

The nearly $10 million collected between January and June already represents 163 percent of the regime’s established goal for that income.

Since 2022, communist dictator Daniel Ortega has engaged in a policy widely derided as the “weaponization” of migrants against the United States, sporting near non-existent entry visa requirements and allowing U.S.-bound migrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia to pass through the Central American nation. Additionally, the Ortega regime authorized charter flight routes connecting it to countries such as Libya, capable of transporting hundreds of migrants per flight.

Experts have speculated that Ortega is seeking to force Washington into talks toward potential U.S. sanctions reliefs for his communist regime.

As part of the dictator’s plans, the Ortega regime is charging migrants taxes and other fees for the use of the facilities of Managua’s international airport, presently the country’s only international terminal. The communist regime received several loans from China in 2024, including a $400 million loan for the renovation of an abandoned military airport that Ortega aims to turn into Nicaragua’s second international airport.

Ortega’s use of migrants against the United States has also resulted in record profits for the nation’s airport authority that have allowed it to overturn more than ten years of continued fiscal deficits.

Confidencial’s report stated that the nearly $10 million collected by Nicaragua’s General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME) during the first six months of 2024 came from the collection of  “safe-passage” fines imposed on migrants seeking to reach the United States, who are charged with an amount ranging from $150-200 per person to be able to pass through the country.

The “safe-passage” fines, according to Confidencial, are concealed by DGME’s income reports under the “other service fees” category, which, the newspaper explains, is a category whose origin has not been properly justified by the corresponding authorities.

During 2023, DGME was reportedly able to collect more than 1.664 billion Nicaraguan córdobas (roughly $45.2 million) in fines and other miscellaneous charges to migrants, of which the “safe-passage” fine amounted to 64.3 percent of the total collected during that year.

Confidencial stated that the Ortega regime projected that it would collect roughly 586 million córdobas across all fines and charges to migrants throughout 2024 but that it had already collected 96.9 percent of the total by June.

Quote:Argentina’s Federal Police forces dismantled this weekend what they described as an Islamic terrorist cell allegedly planning attacks against the Jewish community in the western province of Mendoza.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced on Friday evening that federal police officers carried out eight raids on the homes of the group’s members to dismantle the radical Islamic terror cell, resulting in the arrest of seven individuals.

The terrorist cell was identified after it issued threats against a local Jewish journalist, who denounced the threats to the Delegation of Israelite Associations of Argentina (DAIA), prompting local authorities to launch an investigation. Bullrich explained on social media that the now-dismantled cell used messaging platforms to spread hateful messages and attack plans against Mendoza’s Jewish community as well as content from terrorist groups such as ISIS and the Taliban.

“The person responsible [for issuing the threats against the journalist] was identified, and then the group was identified. The police raided the place and brought them all to justice. Inside [a prison],” Bullrich’s message read.

“We are going to get rid of each and every one of these criminals who try to sow fear in Argentines, and they will pay,” the message concluded.

Officials from the local police’s anti-terrorist unit were reportedly able to seize a large number of firearms in the eight raids such as shotguns, rifles, and revolvers, as well as bladed weapons such as knives, daggers, and katanas. The officials also seized electronic devices and a bibliography of Salafi origin.

The investigators determined that the apprehended suspects were actively involved in private groups on the instant messaging services Telegram and WhatsApp where they spread messages with “anti-Christian and anti-Jewish expressions.” There they also reportedly discussed the now-thwarted attack plots against Mendoza’s Jewish community.

Some of the alleged members of the radical Islamic terror cell were arrested at the Cristo Redentor Border Crossing and at the Ezeiza International Airport, which, according to the investigators, suggested that they were attempting to flee the country.

Prior to the discovery of the alleged terror cell, officials with the nation’s Federal Police — following an alert from the FBI — were able to apprehend a 16-year-old in Villa de Mayo in April who stands suspected of accessing an ISIS-related website to obtain information on how to manufacture explosives, reportedly with the intention of staging terrorist attacks.

While the authorities did not list explosives among the discoveries in the raids this weekend, the minor was in possession of tools such as pliers, glue guns, and testers that are compatible with the manufacture of explosives or the repair of electronic equipment, in addition to chemical materials.

“Now we will have to determine if he was actually making explosives, if he was a lone wolf waiting for orders, or if he was a kid messing around,” a source related to the case told the Argentine news outlet Infobae at the time.

Quote:Colombian President Gustavo Petro signed a decree on Sunday outlawing exports of coal to Israel, the latest in a series of aggressive actions against the Jewish state — a country he has repeatedly compared to Nazi Germany — by his radical leftist administration.

Petro, a hardline socialist who belonged to the Colombian terrorist guerrilla M19 in his youth, dramatically escalated his hostility against Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas massacre of hundreds of civilians on October 7, 2023, which prompted Petro to declare himself a staunch supporter of the “Palestinian” cause. After months of condemnation for his repeated comparison of Israeli self-defense actions against Hamas in Gaza to the Holocaust, Petro cut diplomatic ties with Israel in May, severing a previously uninterrupted positive relationship begun in 1957. Israel has since deleted its informational page on bilateral ties to Colombia.

Coal and crude oil are Colombia’s top exports and Israel has long been a reliable customer. In addition to his vitriol against Israel, Petro is a vocal opponent of fossil fuels, repeatedly claiming oil and coal are more dangerous than cocaine – informally, Colombia’s top export under Petro – and has hinted at destroying Colombia’s fossil fuel industry.

Petro had initially announced in June that he would cut coal exports to Israel “until the genocide ends,” referring to self-defense operations against Hamas terrorists, who themselves follow an explicitly genocidal ideology. The decree signed on Sunday will take effect on August 22, giving time for Colombia’s coal companies to comply, and will reportedly remain in place until “the orders of provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice in the Process of the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip are fully complied with.”

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), responding to a petition by the government of South Africa, ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military operation” in Rafah, southern Gaza, in May. The ICJ is a non-binding body and Israel does not formally recognize its jurisdiction.

Petro celebrated the decree on Twitter, where he regularly publishes screeds referring to those opposing jihadist terrorism as “Nazis.”

“With Colombian coal they make bombs to kill the children of Palestine,” Petro wrote.

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the goals of a surprise attack by his military in Russian territory, stating Sunday that Kyiv is seeking to create a “buffer zone” in Russia to stop incoming soldiers.

Local reports first began revealing the presence of Ukrainian soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region on August 6, actively seizing uncontested Russian territory and threatening the neighboring region of Belgorod. Ukrainian authorities did not directly address or explain the seemingly abrupt change in military strategy for a week, offering only vague statements indicating that the Ukrainian leadership felt that Russians should “feel” the wages of war as Ukrainians have for over a decade.

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin first invaded and colonized part of Ukraine, its eastern Crimean peninsula, in March 2014 and has supported irregular separatist fighters in the eastern Donbass region since that year. Putin escalated his threat to the sovereignty of Ukraine to a full-scale invasion in February 2022, claiming that a “special military operation” was necessary to oust Zelensky on the grounds that his government was “Nazi.” Zelensky, Ukraine’s first-ever Jewish president and the descendant of World War II survivors, vehemently denied the accusations.

Putin has since annexed four more regions of Ukraine: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk.

In his national address on Sunday, Zelensky said he was satisfied with the progress of his army’s counter-invasion of Russia so far and detailed that he believed the move was necessary to disempower the much larger Russian military.

“All this is more than just defense for Ukraine; it is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions,” Zelensky said, according to a translation of his remarks by the presidential office. “This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region.”

“Everything that inflicts losses on the Russian army, Russian state, their military-industrial complex, and their economy,” the president continued, “helps prevent the war from expanding and brings us closer to a just end to this aggression – a just peace for Ukraine.”

Elsewhere in his speech, Zelensky said his “guys are doing great on all fronts,” but that they needed more support from the West.

“There are no vacations in war. Decisions are needed, as is timely logistics for the announced aid packages. I especially address this to the United States, the United Kingdom, and France,” he demanded.

The administration of leftist President Joe Biden has gifted Ukraine $55.4 billion since February 2022 and regular commits new security packages to Zelensky’s troops. It nonetheless faces continuous pressure not to cut the flow of weapons and funding.

Quote:Three weeks after freeing Wall Street Journal report Evan Gershkovich in a hostage swap for dangerous Russian criminals held in the United States and Europe, Moscow is threatening to arrest a group of Washington Post journalists who crossed the border with Ukrainian troops to file a story on their incursion into Kursk.

Ukraine launched a surprising attack on Kursk on August 6 and has reportedly managed to hold a remarkable amount of territory against Russian counterattacks so far. One of Ukraine’s targets in Kursk was the town of Sudzha, the location of a strategic natural gas hub.

The Ukrainians have retained control of Sudzha for 11 days as of Sunday, when Washington Post correspondent Siobhan O’Grady, photographer Ed Ram, and Ukrainian human rights activist Tetiana Burianova were escorted into the town by Ukrainian troops to write an article about the occupation.

The article described “unmistakable evidence” from Sudzha that “some citizens of Russia are living under Kyiv’s control and Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine is really not going as planned.”

Many of Sudzha’s residents were camped on the grounds of a former school, surrounded by Ukrainian soldiers who provided them with food and water. The center of the small down was heavily damaged by explosive weapons.

The part of the report that probably annoyed Moscow was the insistence, by both the Washington Post team and the captive Russian citizens they interviewed, that Ukrainian forces were treating civilians fairly well.

One older gentleman asked if the Ukrainians would take him home with them when they pulled out of the city, so he could search for his daughter, who went missing during the Russian attack on Kharkiv. A group of women in Sudzha thanked Ukrainian forces for treating them kindly and said they were still unable to “wrap our heads” around the swift and sudden invasion.

“Let Putin make an agreement with your Zelensky. We really want some kind of agreement, guys. You’ve come to us, thank you, you’re treating us very well. But you must understand, we want to return to our children, to go home, do you understand? We want things to be resolved in a good way,” one Russian woman said to the Ukrainian troops escorting the American newspaper team.

Ukrainian troops interviewed by the Washington Post were generally upbeat, although perpetually on guard for Russian snipers and drones. They left notes for each other to keep the facilities they were occupying. They even took time to care for Russian pets and farm animals.

Someone from the invasion force cheekily spray-painted the name of a popular Ukrainian grocery chain on the walls of a local food store. The Ukrainians marked the Russian side of the border with a white surrender flag decorated with a swastika, to mark Russia as a “Nazi state” – an inversion of the propaganda Russia often uses against Ukraine.

There was not much in the Washington Post report for the Russians to like, and they clearly did not like it. On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russian police are “studying the facts in connection with the actions of the American journalists.”

Quote:Leading populist lawmakers in Germany, from both the left and right, have demanded consequences for Kyiv over Ukraine’s alleged involvement in the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, including reparations and the cessation of arms deliveries.

Last week, it was reported that German authorities had issued an arrest warrant against a Ukrainian citizen for alleged involvement in the 2022 sabotage against the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines owned jointly by Russia and Germany.

This was followed by a report from the Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had initially approved the plot to attack the pipelines but had ordered the plan to be scrapped after the CIA got wind of the plot. However, according to the paper, Zelensky’s then-commander-in-chief, Valeriy Zaluzhniy, continued on with the plan anyway.

Following the reports of the Ukrainian government’s alleged involvement in the attack on critical German infrastructure and energy security, there have been growing calls for Berlin to punish Kyiv.

Suggesting that Ukraine should pay reparations to Germany, parliamentarian and co-chairwoman of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, wrote on Friday: “The economic damage to our country caused by the demolition of Nord Stream, presumably ordered by Zelensky—and not Putin as we were led to believe–should be ‘billed’ to Ukraine.”

Weidel added that any “aid payments” paid for by the German taxpayer “should be stopped.”

The demands to punish Ukraine over its alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines did not only come from the right, with Sahra Wagenknecht, a member of the Bundestag parliament in Berlin and leader of the left-wing populist BSW party, also calling for stern repercussions against Kyiv.

“If Ukraine was involved in the attack on Nord Stream, the [traffic light government] must draw consequences and stop arms deliveries immediately. It is outrageous that the federal government is not making any effort to address the revelations and is even withholding information,” Wagenknecht said.

Over the weekend, the former leader of The Left party also called for the formation of a committee in the Bundestag to investigate what role the German government played during the attack and specifically whether Berlin had any advance knowledge of the plot.

“If it turns out that German authorities knew about the attack plan in advance, then we would have a scandal of the century in German politics,” Wagenknecht said according to broadcaster ZDF.

While criticising the government for failing to inform the public about the situation, the leftist populist leader said that the sabotage of the pipelines was a “terrorist attack on our energy supply.”

Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security has denied that Kyiv had any involvement in the attack on Nord Stream, stating: “Versions in the media about the alleged involvement of Ukraine are based on dubious anonymous sources and are unrealistic from a technical standpoint.”

Quote:A German court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by a 99-year-old woman who was convicted of being an accessory to more than 10,000 murders for her role as a secretary to the SS commander of the Nazis’ Stutthof concentration camp during World War II.

The Federal Court of Justice upheld the conviction of Irmgard Furchner, who was given a two-year suspended sentence in December 2022 by a state court in Itzehoe in northern Germany.

She was accused of being part of the apparatus that helped the camp near Danzig, now the Polish city of Gdansk, function. She was convicted of being an accessory to murder in 10,505 cases and an accessory to attempted murder in five cases.

At a federal court hearing in Leipzig last month, Furchner’s lawyers cast doubt on whether she really was an accessory to crimes committed by the commander and other senior camp officials, and on whether she had truly been aware of what was going on at Stutthof.

The Itzehoe court said that judges were convinced that Furchner “knew and, through her work as a stenographer in the commandant’s office of the Stutthof concentration camp from June 1, 1943, to April 1, 1945, deliberately supported the fact that 10,505 prisoners were cruelly killed by gassings, by hostile conditions in the camp,” by transportation to the Auschwitz death camp and by being sent on death marches at the end of the war.

Prosecutors said during the original proceedings that Furchner’s trial may be the last of its kind. However, a special federal prosecutors’ office in Ludwigsburg tasked with investigating Nazi-era war crimes says three more cases are pending with prosecutors or courts in various parts of Germany. With any suspects now at a very advanced age, questions increasingly arise over suspects’ fitness to stand trial.

Germany’s main Jewish leader welcomed the ruling. “For Holocaust survivors, it is enormously important for a late form of justice to be attempted,” Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council of Jews, said in statement.

“The legal system sent an important message today: even nearly 80 years after the Holocaust, no line can be drawn under Nazi crimes,” he added.

Quote:Authorities on the southern Greek island of Crete detained 76 migrants early Tuesday after they arrived on three boats as smugglers seek new routes in the region to evade coast guard patrols.

The migrants, from Syria, Egypt, Sudan, and Bangladesh, included six children and arrived before dawn on the tiny island of Gavdos, near Crete’s southern coast, local officials said. Usually, they are detained for identification and processing, after which they can apply for asylum while waiting in refugee camps, with cases accessed on an individual basis.

Smugglers typically target Greek islands close to Turkey’s coastline, but in recent months they have increasingly chosen longer routes to Crete and islands in the central Aegean Sea, where coast guard patrols are more relaxed.

The Greek government is considering setting up state-funded processing centers on Crete to assist local authorities. Currently, migrants are housed in sports facilities, disused buildings, and schools during the summer months.

According to data updated by the United Nations refugee agency, more than 28,000 migrants have arrived illegally in Greece this year, a rate slightly lower than in Italy and Spain. The rate of migrants arriving illegally in Greece has eased slightly so far this year following a post-pandemic spike in 2023, according to UNCHR.

Greece has received backlash from human rights organizations over the treatment of migrants trying to reach its shores. In June, it denied a BBC report that accused its coast guard of brutal practices resulting in dozens of deaths.

Quote:The emergency Operation Early Dawn measure to clear prison space amid the sentencing of anti-migration rioters, protesters, and social media posters will reportedly see at least 5,500 criminals released early by the autumn.

The left-wing Labour Party government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer enacted emergency measures on Monday to free up prison cells in England as over 1,000 people have been arrested in connection to the outbreak of violence, or for posts on social media, in the UK following the mass stabbing at a children’s dance party in Southport last month allegedly by a second-generation Rwandan migrant teen.

According to Sky News, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is reportedly planning to cut the mandatory time behind bars before parole by 40 to 50 per cent for certain criminals. This would result in 5,500 prisoners being released back on the streets early in September and October.

The measures will specifically target prisons in the Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside, the North East, and Yorkshire regions. In total, the prison system capacity of England and Wales currently stands at 89,191, however, as of Friday 87,893 slots were occupied, the BBC reports.

The government has claimed that those convicted of domestic abuse, sexual offences, terrorism, and some violent offences will not be eligible for early release. Those involved in the recent riots will also not be eligible.

Prisons Minister Lord Timpson said: “We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks. As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating.

“However, thanks to the hard work of our dedicated staff and partners, we have brought forward additional prison places and now introduced Operation Early Dawn to manage the pressure felt in some parts of the country.”

Operation Early Dawn, which was previously used by the former Conservative government in May amid prison overcrowding, will also allow for the holding of criminals in police cells while they await trial.

Some have warned that this measure will have a negative impact on the ability of police forces to function, including Mark Fairhurst of the Prison Officers’ Association

“It’s justice delayed at the moment, because we are now clogging up police cells, so they might have to delay some of their operations. When they arrest people, they have to make sure that they have got them a custody space because we might have prisoners filling up their cells and of course they have to pay overtime to supervise prisoners,” Fairhurst told the BBC.

“In reality, the most serious offences will end up in court; we will guarantee them a prison cell, and the lesser offences, the police will decide ‘do we hold on to them or do we bail them’,” he added.

However, Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp of the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “We are working closely with criminal justice system partners to manage demand in the system and ensure that the public are safe.

Quote:Chinese Premier Li Qiang, dictator Xi Jinping’s second-in-command in charge of implementing his policy ideas, arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for a visit arriving amid a surprise Ukrainian invasion of uncontested Russian territory that could dramatically change the battlefield landscape in the ongoing invasion.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry depicted the trip as a pre-planned meeting, part of an annual tradition to discuss bilateral relations with top Russian officials, including strongman Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. Official government statements did not mention the status of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a topic in Li’s itinerary. Yet the timing coincides with a significant change in the dynamic of that invasion, one that Chinese state media outlets have condemned Ukraine for bringing about.

The Chinese state outlet Xinhua confirmed on Tuesday that Li was in Moscow to “exchange in-depth views on bilateral relations, practical cooperation and key issues of common interest.” The Russian news agency Tass offered a similar report with little detail, other than to say that the Russian government requested the visit and Russian leaders expect to discuss “developing the comprehensive partnership and expanding cooperation in several spheres, including energy and automotive industry.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning similarly described Li’s presence in Moscow on Monday as part of a tradition of annual meetings between the premier and prime minister, describing the current one as the 29th “meeting of the mechanism.”

“Under the strategic guidance of the two presidents, the China-Russia relations have overcome external disturbances and maintained sound and stable growth,” Mao told reporters. The regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government is an important mechanism for delivering on the common understandings between the two presidents and promoting practical cooperation and people-to-people and cultural exchanges in a coordinated way.”

Mao added that Li would travel to Belarus, a Marxist dictatorship that essentially functions as a subordinate of Russia, after departing Moscow.

The Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper, citing regime-approved “experts,” predicted that much of the discussion in Moscow would revolve around the economy, not geopolitical issues.

“The heads of government of China and Russia are more in charge of economic affairs and the implementation of practical cooperation projects,” one such expert, scholar Cui Heng, was quoted as saying.

Both China and Russia are struggling to address languishing economies, though Russia’s has built up significant momentum through oil sales – a blow to Western attempts to sanction Russia’s top industries. Russian officials have avoided the damage sanctions can cause largely by selling oil outside of the European market, to large clients such as China and India.

Quote:China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Friday released economic data that showed youth unemployment rose to 17.1 percent in July, an increase from 13.2 percent in June and the highest level recorded in 2024 so far.

Voice of America News (VOA) noted the real numbers are probably even worse. Unemployment reports in China are dodgy even by the usual standards of the Communist regime because when youth unemployment hit 21.3 percent in June 2023, the government stopped reporting jobless numbers altogether.

Six months later, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics reluctantly began publishing unemployment figures again — but now the books were blatantly cooked to exclude students entirely. China’s unemployment reports also exclude rural areas, where joblessness is much higher — often twice the rate reported in big cities.

The latest figures showed the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds was almost triple the rate of 6.5 percent for 25 to 29-year-olds, and well over triple the 5.2 percent general unemployment rate. Another trick the Chinese Communist Party pulled after the June 2023 debacle was splitting the older cohort into two groups, 25-29 and 30-59, when they had formerly been lumped together.

“The new unemployment figures come on the heels of other disappointing economic data from Beijing, including figures showing dampened industrial production, despite recent government measures aimed at boosting growth,” VOA reported.

Real estate sales remain sluggish in China despite a raft of programs introduced in May to revive the property industry. World oil prices slipped last week on news that Chinese consumer demand is still far below pre-pandemic levels, leading to a disappointing June shopping season, normally a sales bonanza for online retailers.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) saw Friday’s unemployment report as a gloomy harbinger of times to come as the largest group of university graduates in China’s history is about to hit the job market.

The poor July jobs report was an embarrassment for Chinese leaders, including Premier Li Qiang, who have been insisting for months that they understand the importance of young people to the job market and would make it their highest priority to keep unemployment down.

Quote:China’s Ministry of Water Resources said on Monday that 25 “significant flood events” have been recorded on major rivers since the beginning of the annual flood season in late July.

This marked the highest number of floods recorded in a single season since China began keeping records in 1998.
Vice Minister of Water Resources Wang Bao’en noted that flood season will continue for several more weeks, but the “critical period” has passed.

The critical period in 2024 saw heavy rainfall in both northern and southern China, plus the massive rainfall event of Typhoon Gaemi, which dumped more than 216 billion cubic meters of rain on the southern part of the country in late July.

Gaemi was only the third most powerful typhoon to strike eastern China in 2024, but it was a massive rainmaker with a prolonged “tail” that lingered over areas that were already saturated from heavy July rain.

Wang said China’s annual rainfall is now about ten percent above its usual average, and river flood warnings are 120 percent more frequent than normal. Flash flooding and landslides struck many small towns, while larger cities experienced disasters such as a highway bridge collapsing in Shaanxi province.

The bridge collapse in Shaanxi dropped two dozen vehicles into a raging river, killing at least 38 people. Flood waters struck the bridge with such force that part of it was bent at a 90-degree angle. The disaster prompted criticism of the Chinese government for building bridges too quickly and cheaply as city populations swelled.

Ministry of Water Resources officials logged 3,683 river flood warnings and 81 mountain flood disaster alerts during the 2024 flooding season. Nearly 5,000 reservoirs were activated to divert flood waters.

China’s Ministry of Emergency Management issued an emergency response alert for the eastern coastal region of Guangdong province and southwest Liaoning province on Monday, as heavy rainstorms threatened to cause more flooding along swollen rivers.
China’s central bank announced that it would disburse $14 billion in loans to support rebuilding in flood-damaged areas. The Ministry of Emergency Management reported more than $10 billion in losses from natural disasters in July, one of the worst months on record.

Vice Premier Liu Guozheng urged local officials and agribusiness leaders to use rebuilding funds to improve disaster prevention and mitigation, drain accumulated floodwater to make farmland viable again, and replant crops in fields that floods destroyed.

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan on Sunday for a two-day state visit, looking to bolster Russia’s relationship with the aggressive Islamist power even as relations with Armenia — Russia’s former best friend in the region — deteriorate.

Azerbaijan is on the relatively short list of countries Putin can visit safely, as he faces an outstanding warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges related to his invasion of Ukraine. Azerbaijan is not a signatory to the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), so it has no legal obligation to arrest him.

Putin’s visit comes at a bad moment for Russian military pride, as Ukraine is now almost three weeks into a surprising border incursion that has brought several Russian towns under Kyiv’s control. Armenia already had a very low opinion of Russia’s ability to protect vulnerable borders.

The Armenians are seething because Russia did not lift a finger to prevent Azerbaijan from seizing, and ethnically cleansing, the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in September 2023. Russia deployed “peacekeepers” to the area after brokering a truce in the Armenia-Azerbaijan war of 2020, but they merely stood by and watched as Azeri troops rolled in, then packed up their gear and headed off for the front lines in Ukraine.

Nagorno-Karabakh was rated the most unfree region in the entire world by Freedom House six months after the Azerik conquest. Freedom House noted the Armenian Christian population was already sick, hungry, impoverished, and terrorized from a brutal Azeri blockade before the conquering army rolled in and forced most of them to flee.

In June, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced his country would withdraw from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Russia’s regional security bloc. Pashinyan said the CTSO had not “fulfilled its objectives as far as Armenia is concerned” when it allowed Azerbaijan to first isolate, and then conquer, the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

In July, Armenia enraged Russia by authorizing a joint military exercise with a small American force. The 11-day exercise, called Operation Eagle Partner, was seen as a landmark in Armenia’s turning away from Russia and toward the Western world.

“The appearance of the Americans in the South Caucasus, we have already seen this repeatedly in various parts of the world, will only fuel the conflict potential persisting in the region, and create new dividing lines,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova fumed in July.

“Western countries are maniacally dragging Armenia into various formats of interaction in Transcaucasia,” she said.
U.S. Under-Secretary of State Uzra Zeye countered that the United States saw no evidence to “indicate that Russia’s military presence contributes to a more peaceful and stable South Caucasus region.”

Putin said on Monday that he wanted to broker a new truce between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but his visit looked more like a signal that Russia is moving on and seeing other countries after a messy divorce from Armenia.

Quote:Representatives of the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas condemned the terms of an alleged “bridging proposal” to move it towards a ceasefire with Israel on Monday.

Hamas representatives told various media outlets that the provisions U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that day were a “coup against” a previous Hamas-friendly proposal Israel rejected.

Blinken was in Israel on Monday to discuss what he called the “last opportunity” for an end to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ongoing self-defense operations in Gaza, Hamas’s stronghold territory used to launch the unprecedented October 7 attack on the Israeli homeland. Reaching a ceasefire agreement this week would grant President Joe Biden and his political party a major diplomatic victory to tout during the ongoing Democratic National Convention (DNC).

Blinken did not specify why the current talks are the “last opportunity” for a deal. Pressed by reporters on Monday, he offered only that “intervening events come along that may make things even more difficult if not impossible” if the parties wait longer to hash out an agreement.

Biden himself told reporters on Friday he was more optimistic than in recent months that a ceasefire deal was possible, emphasizing, “I think we’ve got a shot.”

Blinken nonetheless appeared optimistic on Monday, confirming that the Israeli government had agreed to the “bridging proposal” and stating, “the next important step is for Hamas to say yes and then, in the coming days, for all of the expert negotiators to get together to work on clear understandings on implementing the agreement.”

Speaking to reporters on Monday night, President Biden told reporters that “Hamas is now backing away” from any agreement, adding that the deal was nonetheless “still in play.”

Hamas representatives told multiple media outlets that Washington had misrepresented how close both sides were to coming to a ceasefire deal and complained that the current terms of an agreement were too favorable to Israel.

“The Israelis have retreated from issues included in Biden’s proposal,” a Hamas spokesman, Osama Hamdan, told the Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera on Tuesday. “Netanyahu’s talk about agreeing to an updated proposal indicates that the US administration has failed to convince him to accept the previous agreement.”

Quote:Israeli forces conducted a daring and difficult operation in the tunnels under Khan Yunis, in Gaza, on Monday night to retrieve the bodies of six hostages who died in Hamas captivity.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet, or Shabak) said in a joint statement:
Overnight (Monday), in a joint IDF and ISA operation, the bodies of the hostages Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Haim Perry were rescued from the Khan Yunis area in the Gaza Strip.

The rescue operation was conducted under the command of the 98th Division and carried out by the Paratroopers Brigade, ‘Yahalom’ Unit, and the 75th Battalion, along with ISA forces.

The operation was enabled by precise intelligence from the ISA, IDF intelligence units, and the IDF Intelligence Directorate Hostage Headquarters.

Following an identification procedure carried out by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israel Police, the IDF Manpower Directorate’s Hostage team, which is responsible for accompanying the families of the hostages, notified their families and communities today. The IDF and ISA send their heartfelt condolences to the families.

The IDF and ISA are continuing to deploy all operational and intelligence means in order to fulfill the supreme national mission of bringing back all the hostages.

At least one of the hostages had appeared alive in a Hamas hostage video in December.

In a statement, Kibbutz Nir Oz noted that Avraham Munder, 79, had been a beloved member of the community. His son, Roee, was murdered by Hamas on October 7, and his wife and grandson were abducted and later released during a truce in November.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged Monday that Israel had accepted the U.S. proposal for a hostage and ceasefire deal, while Hamas had not. There are roughly 109 hostages still in Gaza, about half of whom are believed to be alive.

Quote:The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations jointly claimed a “suicide mission” in Tel Aviv late Sunday, warning there are more to come on Israeli soil.

The Times of Israel reports the claim of responsibility came hours after the police and the Shin Bet security agency confirmed the blast near a synagogue was an intended terror attack.

The force reported one person — who Israeli media said was the suspected assailant — was killed and another wounded.

The man behind the planned attack was walking down Lehi Road in south Tel Aviv on Sunday evening when the bomb he was carrying in his backpack detonated, killing him instantly and moderately wounding a passerby.

The Times report set out the events immediately before the bomb exploded:

The man behind the planned attack was walking down Lehi Road in south Tel Aviv on Sunday evening when the bomb he was carrying in his backpack detonated, killing him instantly and moderately wounding a passerby.

In the immediate aftermath of the blast, police had also been examining the possibility that it was linked to criminal or gang activity, but on Monday morning the Shin Bet and police said in a joint statement that after an initial investigation, “it can be said that this was a terror attack, with the detonation of a powerful explosive device.”

In its statement, Hamas confirmed it carried out the attack along with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad — another Gaza-based terror group — and warned suicide bombings would continue in response to Israeli attacks.

The groups threatened to carry out more such attacks in Israel “as long as the occupation’s massacres, the displacement of civilians and the policy of assassinations continue.”

It occurred shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv to push for a ceasefire in Gaza after more than 10 months of war, triggered by Hamas’s murderous October 7 attack on Israel.

Quote:CLAIM: The Democratic National Committee claimed Wednesday in a video that Gov. Tim Walz rose to the rank of “Command Sergeant Major.”

VERDICT: True but missing context.

Walz is not a retired command sergeant major. The military promoted him to command sergeant major, but his rank was reduced to master sergeant a day before he retired because of his failure to complete the requirements to remain a command sergeant major. He is a retired master sergeant (E-8), not a retired command sergeant major (E-9).

Walz retired on May 16, 2005, Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong reported:

The rank and title of command sergeant major carries weight — as a command sergeant major is in charge of enlisted soldiers in a battalion. While Walz was promoted to command sergeant major, he did not retain that rank, since he retired before his contract was up and did not finish the Sergeant Majors Academy. He was reduced back to a master sergeant on May 15, 2005, a day before he retired, according to a statement from the Minnesota National Guard released on August 13, 2024. The statement said (emphasis added):

Governor Tim Walz received his notification of eligibility for retirement on August 3, 2002. He was promoted to sergeant major (E-9) on September 17, 2004, and immediately began serving as the command sergeant major for the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery while his packet was submitted to the National Guard Bureau to appoint him to command sergeant major (E-9). Once approved by NGB, he was laterally appointed to command sergeant major (E-9) on April 1, 2005. He retired from the Minnesota National Guard on May 16, 2005. Our records do not indicate when he made his request to retire. Leadership reviews and approves all requests to retire. He was administratively reduced to master sergeant (E-8) on May 15, 2005, because he did not complete all required U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy coursework.

Quote:CLAIM: Former United States Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell claimed that “five officers” were killed “as a result” of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

VERDICT: Mostly false. No police officers died on January 6. One died of natural causes the day after, and four took their own lives later that same year.

During his speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Wednesday, Gonell claimed that he “nearly died” while protecting the Capitol from rioters in 2021, and that “five officers” had “died as a result of January 6.”

“Before I begin, I need to acknowledge the sacrifices that five officers, who died as a result of January 6, made on that day,” Gonell told the crowd. “My name is Aquilino Gonell. I immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic when I was 12. I became an American citizen, I was a sergeant in the U.S. Army and a Capitol police officer, and I’ve seen violence while serving in Iraq. But, nothing, nothing prepared me for January 6.”

“We officers risk everything to protect innocent people,” Gonell continued. “We were beaten and blinded. I was assaulted with a pole attached to the American flag. President Trump summoned our attackers, incited with them. He betrayed us. When I joined the Army and Capitol Police, I took an oath to defend the Constitution. I did so with duty in my soul and I still feel it. To Donald Trump, I ask, why don’t you? On January 6, I nearly died protecting the Capitol, and I would do it again for our democracy.”

As Breitbart News has previously reported, Democrats such as President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland have stated that five Capitol Police officers died while defending the Capitol from rioters on Jan. 6. However, none of the officers were killed during the violence.

One of the U.S. Capitol Police Officers, Brian Sicknick, ended up dying a day after the riot. However, a medical examiner later revealed that Sicknick had died from natural causes: “two strokes at the base of the brain stem caused by a clot in an artery that supplies blood to that area of the body,” according to the Washington Post.

As Breitbart News previously reported, “four Capitol Police and Washington Metropolitan Police Officers” who had responded to the January 6 riot, died from “suicide”:

In the weeks after the attacks, four Capitol Police and Washington Metropolitan Police Officers died by suicide. The Capitol Police officer’s union has said about 140 officers were injured during the protests.

The death of Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, who died by suicide, was ruled as a line-of-duty death, according to NBC News. This allowed Smith’s widow to be eligible to receive survivor benefits.

Quote:Judy Woodruff of PBS Newshour apologized Wednesday for a false claim she made earlier this week that former President Donald Trump had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reject a hostage deal with Hamas.

She also retracted the report, which had been based on an earlier report in Axios, which itself was based on unnamed U.S. sources. (Axios later updated its report after both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu flatly it.)

Woodruff’s retraction and apology came hours after Breitbart News published a story earlier Wednesday, reporting that Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) had demanded that she retract and apologize.

As Breitbart News reported Wednesday:

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) demanded Wednesday that PBS NewsHour‘s Judy Woodruff retract her claim on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump was telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reject a hostage deal.

Waltz, speaking at a press briefing at Trump Tower, flatly denied Woodruff’s claim, and said that the veteran anchor needs to “come with the goods” to back up her reporting, or else retract her report.

Trump told reporters last week that the last time he had spoken to Netanyahu was in July, when the latter visited Mar-a-Lago.

Quote:The “Uncommitted” movement, which has threatened to withhold votes from Vice President Kamala Harris unless she promises to end U.S. support for Israel, is furious at Democrats for allowing Israeli speakers but not Palestinians.

The Democratic National Convention heard a moving speech on Wednesday evening from Ron Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the American-Israeli parents of hostage Hersh-Goldberg Polin, 23. Like the delegates at the Republican National Convention in July, who heard from the parents of American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra, Democrats welcomed the hostage family and gave them a standing ovation, chanting “Bring them home! Bring them home!”

But the “Uncommitted” movement, while supporting the appearance of the hostage family, was furious that the Democratic National Convention did not also allow a Palestinian speaker to talk about the ongoing war in Gaza.

CommonDreams.org reported:

While welcoming a scheduled Democratic National Convention speech by the Israeli-American parents of a young man kidnapped in Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, the co-founders of the Uncommitted National Movement on Wednesday implored the DNC to ensure that Palestinian voices are also heard on the event’s main stage.

…

In a Wednesday statement, Uncommitted National Movement co-founders Abbas Alawieh and Layla Elabed said the 30 Uncommitted delegates attending the DNC “urge the Democratic Party to reject a hierarchy of human value by ensuring Palestinian voices are heard on the main stage.”

“We are learning that Israeli hostages’ families will be speaking from the main stage. We strongly support that decision and also strongly hope that we will also be hearing from Palestinians who’ve endured the largest civilian death toll since 1948,” the pair continued, referring to the year in which the modern state of Israel was established amid the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine, an event known among Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”

Later, on Wednesday evening, after Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents spoke, the Uncommitted movement issued a new statement in which they called on fellow “Uncommitted” delegates, who support a ceasefire in Gaza, to protest:

Harris has attempted, both publicly and secretly, to court the members and voters of “Uncommitted,” who could form a large enough bloc to affect the outcome of the 2024 election in Michigan and other swing states.

She has done so despite the fact that pro-Palestinian protests, both at the Democratic National Convention and elsewhere, have included participants who openly support Hamas terrorism, use antisemitic rhetoric, and burn American flags.

Quote:Fifty Republican military veterans serving in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday sent a letter to Democrat vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz (MN) harshly condemning his lies about his military service.

They said in the letter, which was released as Walz readied to deliver remarks at the Democratic National Convention:

The Office of the Vice President is a position that requires the trust of the American people and a solemn commitment to duty on behalf of the United States of America. As veterans who have served our nation, we feel compelled to address your egregious misrepresentations and urge you to come clean to the American people.

The Republican members said Walz should be proud of his service in the National Guard, but added, “There is no honor in lying about the nature of your service.” They wrote.

Repeatedly claiming to be a ‘Retired Command Sergeant Major’ when you did not complete the requirements was not honorable. Nor was it honorable to claim to carry weapons ‘in war’ when you had not served in war, and abandoning the men and women under your leadership just as they were getting ready to deploy was certainly not honorable either.

Walz falsely claimed he was a retired command sergeant major — the highest enlisted rank in the Army, when he was actually a retired master sergeant. He also falsely claimed he carried weapons “in war” when he had never deployed to a combat zone.

“To be blunt, when you falsely claim military service that did not happen and abandon your post, you diminish the real sacrifices made by veterans who did serve in combat,” they wrote, adding:

The honor of wearing the uniform is earned through dedication, bravery, and an unwavering sense of duty. You have displayed none of these characteristics as you have lied your way through a political career launched on the foundation of a title you did not earn and combat deployments you did not take part in.

They said their grave concern stemmed from the office he was running for, Vice President, which is “one heartbeat away” from Commander-in-Chief.

“You’ve already demonstrated your unwillingness to lead in time of war and a lack of honor through your blatant misrepresentations exploiting and co-opting the experiences of America’s combat veterans for personal gain,” they said, adding:

As a result, America’s veterans and servicemembers are rightfully concerned about what would happen to them should you ascend to the Presidency. When America asked you to lead your troops into War, you turned your back on your troops. You have violated the trust of our brothers and sisters in arms. Their blood, sweat, and sacrifice are the only reason our nation is able to exist. Until you admit you lied to them, there is no way you can be trusted to serve as Vice President.

Quote:Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, says their campaign is considering joining forces with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump.

In an interview with Tom Bilyeu on his show, Impact Theory, Shanahan revealed that she trusts “the future” of the United States under the leadership of people such as Trump and his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH).

When questioned about rumors that Kennedy was in talks with either Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign about a “potential endorsement” in exchange for a position in their cabinets, Shanahan said they were “definitely not in talks with Harris” and “definitely never have brought up this idea of an endorsement” with Harris’s campaign.

“There’s two options that we’re looking at, and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump — or we draw, somehow, more votes from Trump,” Shanahan revealed. “Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump, and we walk away from that, and we explain to our base why we’re making this decision.”

“If we’re splitting hairs, I would say that I trust the future of this country more under the leadership of the Trump and the Theos and the JD Vances than I do of the Harrises and Reid Hoffman,” Shanahan added during the interview.

Kennedy has previously announced that he has “no plans to endorse” Harris for president.

In a post on X, Kennedy wrote that the “Democratic Party would be unrecognizable” to his father and uncle.

“VP Harris’s Democratic Party would be unrecognizable to my father and uncle and I cannot reconcile it with my values,” Kennedy wrote. “The Democratic Party of RFK and JFK was the party of civil liberties and free speech. VP Harris’s is the party of censorship, lockdowns, and medical coercion. Kennedy Democrats were anti-war. Kamala’s is riddled  with neocon warmongers.”

Kennedy, who initially began his presidential campaign as a Democrat, has slammed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for having a “rigged” primary system.

Quote:There has a been a sharp increase in the number of so-called “sanctuary cities” for President Joe Biden’s illegal migrants, according to a report by the Center for Immigration Studies.

Sanctuary areas are defined as “state and local jurisdictions that have laws, ordinances, policies, or practices that prevent state and/or law enforcement agencies from cooperating fully with ICE in gaining custody of criminal aliens who have been arrested for local crimes,” the organization explains.

“These localities seem to be flouting state law, and there should be consequences if they do not reverse the policy right away,” said Jessica M. Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

According to data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 170 new jurisdictions have been added to the sanctuary map maintained by the Center for Immigration Studies.

CIS has maintained the sanctuary map since 2015 after the organization filed a Freedom of Information Act request and was granted access to ICE data.

The organization has identified at least 425 jurisdictions that qualify as sanctuary areas for illegals, which represents a 40 percent surge over the previous accounting.

Added to the map are new locations in Virginia, North Dakota, Nebraska, New York, and Minnesota.

Some of the new listings include:

North Dakota has been listed as a state, as none of its 24 corrections facilities cooperates fully with ICE.
Virginia has 27 additional counties and nine cities now listed.
Nebraska has 21 additional counties and one city listed.
New York has 13 additional counties listed.
Minnesota has 12 additional counties or regional corrections centers listed.
Jurisdictions were added in six states that have anti-sanctuary laws: South Carolina, Indiana, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas and North Carolina.
CIS adds that about 17 percent of the nation’s jails refuse to cooperate with ICE, meaning that many illegals are arrested multiple times for crimes but let go, only to be arrested again instead of taken into custody by immigration officials for deportation.

“Over the years, more than 10,000 criminal aliens have been released by local authorities due to sanctuary policies, and many of these criminal aliens have subsequently been arrested for additional crimes,” the CIS report notes. Vaughan said:

It is alarming to see the continued proliferation of sanctuary policies, especially in places like Virginia, where ICE has had to use its scarce resources to re-arrest violent gang members and rapists in our communities who were set free by local jails, when they should have been transferred directly to ICE custody for a plane ride home.

Quote:The Madrid-based outlet Diario de Cuba reported on Tuesday that, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics, 15,645 Cubans arrived in the United States in July — an average of 504 per day.

Cuba is facing a grave economic and humanitarian crisis that is a direct result of more than six decades of communist mismanagement under the authoritarian Castro regime. The situation has led to severe shortages of food, medicine, and basic supplies, as well as the collapse of its economy, which has forced nearly 90 percent of Cubans to endure conditions of extreme poverty.

The communist regime’s policies have led to the near-complete collapse of the nation’s infrastructure, forcing Cubans to face near-endless power blackouts that can last more than 12 hours at a time. Some areas reportedly only receive 30 minutes of running water every two months. This even includes the capital city of Havana, which serves as the communist regime’s seat of power.

The inhumane living conditions that the Castro regime continues to submit its citizens to have resulted in the worst migrant crisis in Cuba’s history and the ongoing decline of its population.

Diario de Cuba, citing CBP statistics, stated that 196,567 Cubans arrived in the United States during the 2024 fiscal year, so far. The outlet pointed out that, while the statistics from June and July show a lower registered number of arrivals than May’s 18,984, more than 235,000 Cubans are projected to arrive by the end of the 2024 fiscal year on September 30 if the average is maintained. That number would make the 2024 fiscal year record-breaking, surpassing the 2022 fiscal year’s 224,607 arrivals and 2023’s 200,287 records.

Quote:The residents of the Brickell neighborhood of Miami were reportedly terrorized on Tuesday by graffiti messages alluding to Venezuela’s socialist regime and its dictator, Nicolás Maduro.

“The Bolivarian Fury and the colored rooster are here,” the graffiti read,

The picture of the graffiti, originally posted online by Univision journalist Maria Alesia Sosa, reportedly went rapidly viral on social media as many users expressed their surprise and concern upon seeing a pro-Maduro graffiti in Miami, given its status as home to one of the largest Venezuelan diaspora communities in America.

“Bolivarian Fury” is the name of an ongoing brutal crackdown launched by Maduro in January against political dissidents, activists, and critics of the rogue socialist regime in Venezuela. At the time of its announcement, Maduro claimed that the “Bolivarian Fury” campaign was necessary to stop assassination plots against him.

In the past several months, the Maduro regime has used “Bolivarian Fury” to arrest dozens of civilians and members of the military, including activist and lawyer Rocío San Miguel, who the Maduro regime accused of being involved in the dubious and unproven assassination plot against Maduro.

The crackdown also saw the arrest of several members of Vente Venezuela, the country’s only mainstream center-right party. Vandalism also struck the headquarters of other political parties, radio stations, and media outlets critical of the regime. The arrests of Vente Venezuela members occurred in the months before the July 28 sham presidential election, which Maduro claims he “won” despite widespread rejection of the results internationally.

“The colored rooster” that the graffiti in Brickell also mentions refers to a moniker Maduro adopted during the presidential campaign originating in a popular children’s song. In July, Venezuelans in New York angrily denounced that Maduro’s colored rooster slogan and logo briefly appeared on an advertisement display in Times Square.

Quote:The chaos outside the DNC came inside the house on Tuesday when anti-Israel protestors crashed Stephen Colbert’s live CBS broadcast, disrupting what was supposed to be a fluff interview with Nancy Pelosi.

Stephen Colbert was interviewing former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) about her new book when shouting was heard from the audience, prompting producers to halt the interview. “The subject is on Israel and Palestine and if you have a seat, we have to go to commercial break,” a clearly peeved Colbert said.

Watch below:

Later, he scolded the protestors for expressing their views on his show. “Please don’t interrupt my guests,” he said.

This year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago has experienced chaotic protests as woke progressives have descended on the city to express their anti-Israel sentiment as well as their refusal to vote for Kamala Harris in November.

Their demonstrations have received support from non-establishment left-wing candidates Cornel West and Jill Stein. West even urged voters to “abandon” Kamala.

The mainstream news media have tried to downplay the scope of the protests, but the party poopers are finding ways to make themselves heard.

In recent weeks, Democrat leaders have tried to assuage the woke, anti-Israel section of the party by having Kamala Harris distance herself as much as possible from Joe Biden.

But young progressives aren’t buying it.

Protestors have disrupted a number of Kamala’s speaking events, even provoking her into a tit-for-tat exchange in Michigan during which Kamala scolded them in a condescending tone.

“I am speaking now,” she said, regurgitating one of her favorite lines.

Quote:Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) gave credit to Vice President Kamala Harris for getting help to Baltimore after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed during his speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Moore, who entered gubernatorial office last year, gave Harris the shout-out after reflecting on the tragic cargo ship crash that led to the destruction of the bridge and the deaths of six maintenance workers.

“A port that drives 13 percent of our state’s economy was now closed. Thousands of workers were hours away from waking up and realizing they no longer had a job,” Moore told the Wednesday evening audience. “Six Marylanders who had been on the bridge in the middle of the night fixing potholes lost their lives.”

He continued, “One of the first phone calls that I got that morning started with these three words: ‘Gov, it’s Kamala.'”

According to the progressive governor, Harris told him, “I know you spoke to the President, and I want you to know we are here with you every step of the way.”

“She said, ‘Help is coming,’” he remarked. “I saw Kamala Harris is the right one to lead in this moment firsthand.”

After the bridge collapsed, President Joe Biden pledged to fully fund its replacement.

“It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstruction in that bridge. I expect the Congress to support my effort,” Biden said from the White House hours after the news broke.

Harris reiterated that she and Biden “directed the federal government to use all the resources that are available to assist with the search and rescue, to reopen the port, and to rebuild the bridge as quickly as possible”:

While the Biden administration was quick to pledge money to the situation, Maryland Department of Transportation officials said it would take until fall 2028 and an estimated cost of $1.7- 1.9 billion, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Quote:The administration of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heeding left-wing demands to stay out of a dispute between railroad companies and unions.

If labor and management cannot reach an agreement, Canada will experience its first complete shutdown of rail freight on Thursday, with devastating consequences for both Canadian and American businesses.

Canada is heavily reliant upon rail freight, especially for agricultural products and manufactured goods. The vast and sparsely-populated country is crossed by over 26,000 miles of railroad, which handles about 70 percent of freight between cities and half of Canada’s international exports, according to statistics compiled by the Railway Association of Canada (RAC).

The RAC noted that Canada’s railways move 330 metric tons of freight per year, including $200 billion worth of exports, at very competitive rates. Rail freight is integral to many Canadian business models.

Canadian rail freight is dominated by two companies, Canadian National Railway (CNR) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC). CPKC dispatchers also coordinate passenger rail travel in the big cities of Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, since the passenger trains use rails that also handle large quantities of freight.

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which counts about 9,000 railroad employees as members, has been negotiating a new labor agreement with CNR and CPKC since early this year.

Quote:A Turkish national has been arrested in Germany after a man was shot three times in the head in an execution-style killing in Frankfurt Central Station on Tuesday evening.

A 27-year-old man from Turkey was shot and killed on the platform of the main train station for the German city of Frankfurt at around 9 pm local time on Tuesday night. The man, who was shot three times in the head, died at the scene.

On Wednesday, German authorities said that a 54-year-old man, also from Turkey, has been arrested and brought before a local magistrate.

“We have applied for an arrest warrant to be issued against the suspect on the urgent suspicion of murder,” said Frankfurt prosecutor’s office spokesman Dominik Mies, according to German broadcaster NTV.

It is currently being investigated whether the two men knew each other, Mies said, adding that investigations are “still at the very beginning”.

The prosecutor’s office did reveal that the 54-year-old was seen approaching the victim and allegedly shooting him in the back of the head.

After the 27-year-old fell to the floor of the platform, the suspected assailant is said to have shot him twice more in the head before fleeing the scene.

However, Federal Police officers tracked the Turkish national down before he was able to board a train and escape, detaining him near the location of the killing.

The prosecutor’s office said that they recovered the suspected murder weapon and have determined that the suspect is registered in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

Quote:Two men accused of planning an attack in Sweden for an affiliate of the Islamic State group in response to the burning of copies of the Quran have been charged in Germany, where they were arrested earlier this year, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The two Afghan citizens, identified only as Ibrahim M.G. and Ramin N. in line with German privacy rules, were charged with conspiring to commit a crime and violating export laws. Ibrahim M.G. was charged with membership in a terrorist organization and Ramin N. with supporting one.

The men were arrested on March 19 near Gera in eastern Germany. Federal prosecutors said they filed the indictment on Aug. 12 to the state court in Jena, which will decide whether and when the case goes to trial.

Ibrahim M.G. is accused of joining an IS affiliate that has carried out attacks in Afghanistan and elsewhere, known variously as ISIS-K, IS-K or ISPK, in August 2023. Prosecutors said that prior to that, the two suspects collected about 2,000 euros ($2,220) in Germany in donations for IS.

Ibrahim M.G. allegedly was tasked by the IS affiliate in summer last year with carrying out an attack in Europe as a reaction to Quran burnings in Sweden and elsewhere. The two suspects planned to kill police officers and other people near the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm using firearms and made “concrete preparations” in close consultation with members of the group, prosecutors said in a statement.

The two men conducted online research on the location and tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to procure weapons, prosecutors said.

Quote:A 67-year-old man has been jailed after making derogatory remarks about Islam and chanting “you’re not English any more” at police during a London demonstration last month.

David Notley, of Buckhurst Hill in Essex, was jailed by the Inner London Crown Court this week for 20 months after pleading guilty to causing religiously aggravated distress and taking part in violent disorder, the BBC reports.

The court heard that Notley had joined in with the crowd to chant “you’re not English anymore” at police officers outside Whitehall and sang “Who the f*** is Allah?”

During the alleged “far-right” demonstration, which was organised hastily in the wake of the mass stabbing that left three young girls dead in Southport, 121 people were arrested amid an outbreak of violence.

The broadcaster reported that bottles and cans were thrown at police during the demonstration.

While it was not alleged that Notley directly engaged in attacks on police, prosecutor Alex Agbamu told the court that he had confronted police with a “fighting pose” and had helped push another protestor towards police, which “precipitated a physical confrontation involving the police [and] demonstrators.”

According to Essex Live, the 67-year-old claimed that he did not engage in violence towards police and denied intentionally pushing anyone. He said that he was already in London at the time of the demonstration and was “swept up” in the protest.

Judge Freya Newbery said that the protest “caused serious disruption” and had a “serious detrimental impact on the community at the heart of our parliamentary democracy.” She also informed the court that Notley was previously jailed in 2009 for drug smuggling and that his involvement in the protest had violated his license release conditions.

Notley is among over 1,000 people so far arrested in connection with the widespread unrest and riots that broke out across the UK since the Southport stabbings.

Quote:Criminals being set free in a bid to reduce overcrowding at a prison are reoffending and being returned to custody, an inspection report released Wednesday reveals.

The early release scheme — known as the end of custody supervised licence (ECSL) — is designed to free up space to ease prison overcrowding.

The BBC reports a new study shows revealed a quarter of HMP Nottingham prisoners released under the scheme were homeless, leading to “inevitable recalls”, said chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor.

The report comes as the left-wing Labour government’s emergency Operation Early Dawn measure to clear UK prison space amid the sentencing of anti-migration rioters, protesters, and social media posters will reportedly see at least 5,500 criminals released early by the autumn, as Breitbart News reported.

Taylor conceded it was “uncertain how many had been recalled”, the number of inmates who were homeless when they were released early was “astonishing.”

He cautioned high-risk offenders are not being given enough attention, despite warnings about the danger they posed.

At HMP Nottingham, preparation for the early release of inmates under the scheme was “often chaotic and rushed”, despite staff “doing their best”, the HM Inspectorate of Prisons report as seen by the BBC said.

“A quarter of prisoners released on this scheme were homeless and although data was not clear, it resulted in inevitable recalls,”Taylor said. “Overall, Nottingham is a jail that is coping with the many challenges that it faces, but it remains a fragile institution that carries a lot of risk within its constantly churning population.”

The early release scheme was introduced by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative administration in October, initially releasing prisoners 18 days early.

More than 10,000 prisoners were released up to 70 days early between October 2023 and June this year under the emergency plan, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures published last month.

Quote:London Mayor Sadiq Khan has waded into American politics once again, saying that he is worried about his safety if Donald Trump returns to the White House and that the left-wing Labour Party should openly support the campaign of Kamala Harris.

The far-left Mayor of London, who has a long history of public verbal spats with former President Donald Trump, said in an interview with the globalist New Statesman this week that he has personal fears of the Republican nominee being victorious in the presidential election in November.

“The last time we had a Trump presidency, as a matter of public record, there was a massive increase in hate crime towards me… I worry about what a second Trump presidency would mean for me and my family, but I’m not going to allow these people to cower me. It makes me even more determined to do my job,” Khan told the British news magazine.

Khan, one of the most powerful members of the Labour Party, broke ranks with the now-governing left-wing party to argue that it should openly support Vice President Kamala Harris in the U.S. presidential race.

In light of the possibility of needing to negotiate with a second Trump administration, the new government of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has attempted to take a more neutral stance, while dispatching figures such as Foreign Secretary David Lammy to meet with Trump allies in Washington, including now running mate JD Vance.

It is unclear how successful such a rebrand will be given Lammy’s own history of criticising Trump, previously branding the American leader as a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath.”

Mayor Khan argued that the leftist party should abandon attempts to cover up its true preferences in the race, saying: “It’s obvious what my politics are. I’m a member of the Labour Party – we’re a social democratic party. I want the Democrats to win.

“It’s no secret many Labour Party members go and volunteer for the Democrats during presidential elections. We shouldn’t pretend otherwise. Many of my staffers helped all three: Obama, Clinton and Biden,” Khan said.

“I’ve been so impressed with Tim Walz. It just shows the judgement that Kamala Harris has in relation to her choice for vice-president. Compare and contrast that with the choice made by the other guy, in JD Vance,” he added.

The far-left mayor rose to international attention through his feud with Trump, which began in earnest in 2017 when Khan demanded that the then-President be refused a state visit to the UK when he met with Queen Elizabeth II.

Quote:The Danish and Swedish justice ministers vowed Wednesday to go after organized crime leaders abroad, whom they say have been hiring teenagers in Sweden to carry out deadly shootings in Denmark.

Denmark’s Peter Hummelgaard has said that gangs have hired young Swedes to commit crimes in Denmark at least 25 times since April, in part because Swedish law imposes lighter penalties for minors who commit serious crimes.

“Several of the people who orchestrate this reckless and violent crime are hiding under warmer skies, and of course this is completely unacceptable,” Hummelgaard told a press conference Wednesday after a meeting with his Swedish counterpart Gunnar Strömmer in Copenhagen. He said they were “often in the greater Middle East” but didn’t name any specific country.

One of Sweden’s two major gangs is led by a Swedish-Turkish dual national who lives in Turkey, which refuses to extradite its own citizens.

Swedish and Danish media say that gang is involved in a deadly feud with one of the main criminal gangs in Denmark – Loyal to Familia which was banned in 2021.

Sweden has grappled with gang violence for years, while in Denmark, police have also seen violence between gangs but on a lesser scale.

Last year, Swedish police noted an increase in the number of teenagers under 18 who were recruited to carry out killings for hire because they do not face the same police controls as adults and are often shielded from prosecution.

Strömmer said that Sweden would tighten its laws, noting that minors who are convicted of murder in Sweden are placed in juvenile facilities, while they can face up to 16 years in prison in Denmark.

The two also vowed to crack down on online gang activity, with Strömmer saying that “leading figures in these criminal networks order murders and bombings totally out in the open online.”

Earlier, Hummelgaard has said that solutions could include changing Danish law to allow facial recognition technology, and deploying better software to monitor encrypted messages.

Quote:Serbia’s top diplomat, Foreign Affairs Minister Marko Đurić, sent a letter to a Democrat-affiliated organization this week expressing “deep concern and disappointment” over the presence of Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

Kurti attended the convention this week and participated in a panel on the sidelines hosted by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that describes itself as having a “loose affiliation with the Democratic Party.” Joining Kurti on the panel were longtime Democratic commentator Donna Brazile and former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD).

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and has still not received formal recognition as a state from Belgrade. Ethnic tensions between Serbs and Albanians in the region have simmered for decades and recently worsened during the term of leftist American President Joe Biden, who has not prioritized relationships in the region, leading to riots by ethnic Serbs in Kosovo and brawls in the Kosovar Assembly, the national legislature.

President Donald Trump, in contrast, invested significant diplomatic energy into reducing violence and discord in the region. His work there earned him one of several nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Kurti has used his time in Chicago, currently hosting the DNC, to meet with members of the ethnic Albanian community there and some lawmakers. The prime minister highlighted a talk with Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) in which he thanked the lawmaker for a “warm and positive meeting” in which he shared Kosovo’s “strong democratic and economic progress during our Government’s mandate over the past three and a half years.”

Kurti described the NDI panel as delivering a “fruitful discussion on the best lessons we’ve learned from leading and being part of political parties.”

Đurić, the Serbian foreign affairs minister, wrote a letter to the NDI reportedly arguing that Kurti did not deserve a warm welcome from Democrats as he had allegedly worked against American interests in eastern Europe. Đurić accused Kurti of human rights violations, a translation of the content of the letter by the news site Kosovo Online indicated, and claimed he “repeatedly engaged in practices undermining U.S. interests and presence in the Western Balkans.”

Quote:Moscow came under one of the largest attacks yet by Ukrainian drones since the start of fighting in 2022, Russian authorities reported Wednesday, saying they destroyed all of those headed toward the capital.

The drone attacks come as Ukrainian forces are continuing to push into Russia’s western Kursk region.

“This was one of the biggest attempts of all time to attack Moscow using drones,” Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel. He said strong defenses around the capital made it possible to shoot down all the drones before they hit their intended targets.

Russia downed 45 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 11 over the Moscow region.

Some Russian social media channels shared videos of drones apparently being destroyed by air defense systems, which then set off car alarms.

Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, reported a “mass” attack on his region but said that all 23 drones were destroyed.

While Ukraine has been bogged down in a land conflict in eastern Ukraine in which the Russians have been driving forward slowly at a heavy cost to both sides, Kyiv has also been attacking Russia with drones. Ukraine has targeted oil refineries and airfields in an attempt to weaken Russia’s fighting potential, and also has targeted the capital several times.

The daring incursion into Russia has raised morale in Ukraine with its surprising success and changed the dynamic of the fighting. But it’s uncertain how long Ukraine will be able to hold the territory it has seized in Kursk.

It has also opened up another front in a fight where Ukrainian forces were already badly stretched. The gains in Kursk come as Ukraine continues to lose ground in its eastern industrial region of Donbas.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, said in its daily report late Tuesday that the Ukrainians had made additional advances in their incursion in Kursk, now in its third week.

The Russian state news agency Tass reported that 31 people had died since Ukraine´s attack on Russia began Aug. 6, citing an unnamed source in the medical service – figures which are impossible to verify. It said 143 people had suffered injuries, of whom 79 were hospitalized, including four children.

Ukraine´s attacks on three bridges over the Seym River in Kursk, in areas it does not control, could potentially trap Russian forces between the river, the Ukrainian advance and the Ukrainian border. Already they appear to be slowing down Russia´s response to the Kursk incursion.

Ukrainian forces appear to be striking Russian pontoon bridges and pontoon engineering equipment over the Seym in an area west of the Ukrainian advance point, the Washington think tank said.

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday extending temporary residency to foreigners who share “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values” and would like to take a vacation from “the destructive neoliberal ideological agenda.”

The “neoliberal agenda” described by Putin’s order includes “gender change, LGBT policies, and criticism of traditional religions,” as Turkey’s Anadolu Agency put it on Monday.

Russia passed laws against promoting LGBT values in 2022 and designated the worldwide LGBT movement as “extremist” in 2023.

Putin’s decree instructed the Russian Foreign Ministry to cook up a list within 30 days of all the countries that are “pursuing a destructive neoliberal agenda.” Putin’s government will probably require a lot less than 30 days to comply with that demand.

According to Putin’s order, foreign nationals and stateless individuals who have “spiritual and moral values” compatible with Russia can obtain a three-month residency permit without learning the Russian language or taking exams on Russian history, which are standard requirements for other immigrants.

Putin instructed his government this week to create a program dubbed “Russia In the World” for promoting “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values” overseas.

The order was rather vague about exactly what values the program would advance, but it seems like a safe bet that opposition to the LGBT movement would be on the agenda.

Putin has previously denounced the Western world as “Satanic” for indulging gay and transsexual politics. He has also claimed he is not “homophobic,” but wishes to promote “traditional values” that are “more stable and more important for millions of people” than what he refers to as “neoliberalism.”

The notion for extending special visas to foreigners who share Russian “values” was ostensibly hatched during a conversation between Putin and an Italian exchange student at Moscow State University named Irene Ceccini in February.

Ceccini told Putin at a panel discussion that she was having trouble securing a residence permit, in part because of the notoriously slow pace of Russian bureaucracy. She suggested the authoritarian Russian leader create exactly the sort of program he would announce six months later, granting expedited services and migration assistance to “foreigners who share our values and dream of moving to Russia.”

Putin initially responded with a creepy insistence that a beautiful girl like Cecchini must be eager to move to Russia because she was romantically involved with a Russian man, but when she insisted that was not the case, he said he found her notion of aggressive “inpatriation” interesting. He claimed Russia’s economy would have plenty of room in the future for skilled immigrant labor.

Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin paid his first visit to Chechnya in 13 years on Tuesday, meeting with erratic Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and performing a surprise inspection of Chechen troops preparing to fight for his imperial war in Ukraine.

“As long as we have men like you, we are absolutely, absolutely invincible,” Putin told the fighters training at the Russian Special Forces University in Gudermes, Chechnya.

“It is one thing to shoot at a shooting range here, and another thing to put your life and health at risk. But you have an inner need to defend the Fatherland and the courage to make such a decision,” Putin told the Chechen troops.

Kadyrov said over 47,000 fighters have trained at the Russian Special Forces University. A substantial number of Chechens opposed to Kadyrov and Putin are also fighting — on behalf of Ukraine.

Putin’s ostensibly unscheduled and unannounced visit to Chechnya came at a moment when Russian forces have been embarrassed by a surprisingly successful Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk border region. Ukrainian forces have now held Russian soil for three weeks, marking the largest and longest invasion of Russia since World War II.

Business Insider speculated Putin chose this moment to visit Chechnya, whose bid for post-Soviet independence was ruthlessly crushed by Putin two decades ago, to send Ukraine a message that its independence will meet a similar fate.

Putin might also have  felt he needed a morale-boosting photo op with his superfan Kadyrov, who has described himself as Putin’s eager “foot soldier.” Putin personally appointed Kadyrov to rule Chechnya in 2016.

Putin arrived by helicopter in Grozny, shook hands with Kadyrov, and then strolled to a limousine with his arm around the Chechen leader’s shoulders.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich despite the hard working day is full of energy and ready to visit several places in Chechnya,” Kadyrov excitedly wrote on Telegram.

The Moscow Times reported that Putin also visited North Ossetia on Tuesday, where he made an appearance at the Beslan school where 330 people were killed during a siege by Chechen rebels in 2004.

During his visit, Putin compared the vanquished Chechen rebels to the Ukrainian forces invading Kursk. He angrily accused the Ukrainians of “trying to destabilize” Russia with their attack.

“We will punish the criminals. There can be no doubt about that,” he promised.

Quote:Genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping welcomed the country’s delegation to the 2024 Paris Olympics to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, haranguing them about their duty to the Communist Party and greeting them during an extended standing ovation to himself.

China sent a massive, 716-member delegation to the Paris Olympics this month that came home with 91 medals, 40 of them gold. China tied with America for most gold medals of any country but was dwarfed by America’s overall 126 medal haul. The athletes’ participation was not with controversy, as several Chinese swimmers were implicated in longstanding doping allegations and animosity between fans of two Chinese women table tennis players resulted in at least one arrest at home.

The Olympics were nonetheless tremendously popular in China, where fans filled up movie theaters to cheer on their athletes.

That popularity appears to have alarmed the Communist Party, which moved following the Olympics Closing Ceremonies to silence Olympians’ online fans and redirect praise towards Xi. Xi addressed the athletes in Beijing on Tuesday, crediting “the country’s growing national strength” under his leadership for their victories.

“China’s delegation has been committed to winning gold medals for morality, conduct and integrity, and has demonstrated sportsmanship and earned broad respect and recognition,” Xi declared, according to the state-run Global Times newspaper.

“The fundamental reason why China has joined the ranks of the world’s leading sports nations and become a major Olympic player is the country’s growing national strength, Xi said,” the state outlet reported.

“He praised the athletes for showing the world the profound heritage of traditional Chinese culture, displaying an open, inclusive, vibrant and enterprising image of modern China, and demonstrating the ambition, courage and determination of the Chinese people.”

Quote:The Taliban announced Wednesday that U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett has been banned from entering the country.

The Taliban claimed Bennett was banned for lacking “professionalism” and spreading “propaganda.”

Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi told Reuters on Wednesday that Bennett was “unable to acquire a travel visa to Afghanistan” because the Taliban junta was displeased with his conduct.

“Even after repeatedly requesting Mr. Bennett to adhere to professionalism during work … it was decided that … his reports are based on prejudices and anecdotes detrimental to (the) interests of Afghanistan and the Afghan people,” Balkhi said, as Reuters quoted.

“Mr. Bennett’s travel to Afghanistan has been prohibited because he was assigned to spread propaganda in Afghanistan,” another Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told the Afghan media outlet Tolo News.

Mujahid claimed Bennett “took small issues and exaggerated them for propaganda.”

A diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday that Bennett was “informed of the decision that he would not be welcome to return to Afghanistan several months ago.”

The Taliban spokesmen were most likely referring to Bennett’s criticism of their regime’s appalling human rights record, especially concerning women.

Bennett issued a report in March 2023 that said the Taliban’s mistreatment of women and girls “may amount to gender persecution, a crime against humanity.”

“The Taliban’s intentional and calculated policy is to repudiate the human rights of women and girls and to erase them from public life,” Bennett said at the time.

Bennett was among those who criticized the United Nations in June for sweeping human rights issues and women’s rights off the table at the third round of U.N.-sponsored talks in Qatar on the future of Afghanistan. The Taliban did not participate in the first two rounds and said it would only attend the third forum if it was not harassed on its human rights record.

“If these exclusions are the price of the Taliban’s presence in Doha, the cost is too high,” Bennett wrote in a June op-ed for the New York Times.

“The Taliban are not recognized by the United Nations as a government and should not be treated as such. They must not be allowed to use the threat of backing out of the talks to dictate the terms of this conference or any future international process,” he wrote.

Quote:Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, currently on a visit to Poland, announced on Wednesday that he would travel to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and work on “deepening” India’s ties to the country.

The visit to Kyiv will be the first ever for an Indian head of government and address mounting tensions between Kyiv and New Delhi, exacerbated by India’s close relationship to Russia and incidents such as the Ukrainian Defense Ministry sharing art featuring a scantily clad depiction of a Hindu goddess. It will also be the first visit for an Indian Prime Minister to an active war zone.

While India has long relied on Russia for regular weapons sales and continues to purchase vast amounts of Russian oil, Modi’s upcoming conversation with Zelensky also comes on the heels of outrage in India after families of the missing accused Russia of scamming young Indian men into fighting on the front lines in the Ukraine invasion.

Modi announced the visit via social media, where he specified that Zelensky had personally invited him to his country. Zelensky has enthusiastically encouraged prominent international figures to make the pilgrimage to wartime Kyiv since the full-scale invasion began in 2022 and welcomed a host of world leaders, such as President Joe Biden, as well as popular personalities such as comedian Ben Stiller and Swedish climate alarmism activist Greta Thunberg.

“This visit will be an opportunity to build on the earlier discussions with him and deepening the India-Ukraine friendship,” Modi wrote. “We will also share perspectives on the peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict. As a friend and partner, we hope for an early return of peace and stability in the region.”

Ukrainian state media site Ukrinform reported that Modi is expected in Kyiv on Friday after his stop in Poland and will mark Ukrainian Flag Day with Zelensky.

“During the visit, Modi will hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss bilateral and multilateral cooperation. A number of documents are to be signed between Ukraine and India,” the state outlet added. “On Thursday, August 22, Modi will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw.”

Traveling to Kyiv by air is not feasible given the ongoing Russian invasion, so Modi will travel from Poland to Ukraine via a special ten-hour train, India’s World Is One News (WION) reported on Wednesday.

Modi confirmed his arrival in Poland on Wednesday, emphasizing the use of meetings there to improve bilateral ties.

While Ukrinform reported on the scheduled trip, Zelensky has personally not commented on it at press time. On Monday, however, Zelensky noted in a thread on Ukraine’s foreign policy that he hopes to emphasize forging closer ties with “Asia-Pacific” states.

“This region is one of the centers where the future of the next decades will be decided. Ukraine has its own view on global development, which should be exclusively peaceful within the framework of a rules-based world order,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “Ukraine is ready to contribute to these processes as a security donor and defender of the international order. We will strengthen our diplomatic presence in Asia.”

Modi will visit Ukraine slightly over a month after visiting Russia, where strongman Vladimir Putin offered Modi a warm welcome and awarded him the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle, the highest award Russia offers to foreign nationals. New Delhi’s close relationship to Moscow harkens back to the days of the Soviet Union and has since been strengthened through membership in BRICS, a global anti-American alliance originally featuring, in addition to Russia and India, China, Brazil, and South Africa. BRICS welcomed five new members – Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, and Egypt – in January. BRICS also welcomed Saudi Arabia to join, but the latest reports indicate that Riyadh has not yet completed the bureaucratic work to become a full member.

Quote:An asylum seeker from Syria has been arrested after a mass stabbing at a “festival of diversity” in Germany on Friday evening.

At around 11 pm local time on Saturday, over 24 hours after the attack in Solingen, 26-year-old “Issa al H.” surrendered to police.

According to German tabloid Bild, he came up to a patrol car and said: “I am the one you are looking for.” He reportedly hid in a backyard to evade detection while the day-long police manhunt was underway.

During the attack, which took place in the city centre of Solingen at a “festival of diversity” as the city celebrated its 650th anniversary, three people were stabbed to death and six others were wounded, including four with life-threatening wounds.

The attacker was said to have specifically targeted his victim’s necks, leading to speculation that it was terror-related.

Der Spiegel reports that Issa al H. was born in Syria, in the city of Deir al-Zor, before coming to Germany in 2022 as an asylum seeker. Last year, he was granted protection, allowing him to remain in the country as a result of the civil war in his homeland.

He was reportedly not known to security authorities as an Islamic extremist, however, he is said to be a Sunni Muslim.

It was claimed that, according to witness statements gathered by police, the attacker had shouted out the Jihadi war cry “Allahu Akbar” as he carried out the attack on the diversity festival.

Meanwhile, Bild reported that an Islamic State (ISIS) branch claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, saying that it was intended as revenge for “Muslims in Palestine”.

Quote:Four Syrian brothers have been arrested after a 67-year-old teacher was nearly killed in a knife attack last month in a suburb of Hamburg, Germany.

The 67-year-old music teacher from Tornesch barely escaped with his life after being stabbed on July 19th in the parking lot outside of an adult education centre in Wedel outside of Hamburg.

The teacher reportedly suffered wounds to his neck and upper body before he escaped his attackers by fleeing inside the school.

Shortly after the attack, police arrested two men in connection with the stabbing, yet they were released due to a lack of evidence.

However, this week, four men, reportedly all brothers from Syria, aged 17, 19, 21, and 21, were arrested by the local homicide squad on suspicion of attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm,” Bild reports.

Public Prosecutor Peter Müller-Rakow said: “After the attack on a lecturer at the music school in Wedel, the public prosecutor’s office applied for arrest warrants against the four now urgent suspects for attempted murder in conjunction with dangerous bodily harm after extensive police investigations.”

Local police have confirmed that the teacher knew his attackers, however, it is currently unclear if they were students of his at the education centre.

The four Syrian brothers have now been remanded in custody and have yet to comment on the attack in front of the magistrate.

The education centre describes itself as “a place of lifelong learning, an education and meeting centre for all citizens, companies, institutions, clubs and associations in our region.”

“With our work, we stand for equal educational opportunities for all,” it’s website states.

Quote:Security at a NATO air base in western Germany has been raised because of intelligence information pointing to a “potential threat,” and all staff not essential to missions have been sent home as a precaution, NATO said.

The Geilenkirchen air base, near the border with the Netherlands, is where the alliance’s Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, aircraft are based.

A post on the NATO AWACS fleet’s account on social media network X late Thursday night announcing that “we raised the security level” did not elaborate on the nature of the potential threat. It said that “operations continue as planned.”

The Geilenkirchen base said Friday that it had nothing to add to the statement and “the situation at the moment is unchanged.”

German news agency dpa said a reporter saw police cars on the grounds of the air base. Police confirmed a deployment Thursday night but gave no details, and offered no information on Friday morning.

Last week, a major German air force based near Cologne was locked down for several hours amid fears that its water supply might have been tampered with. An investigation found no evidence of such sabotage. There were also reports of suspicious observations at Geilenkirchen and a person was briefly detained for questioning near the base, dpa reported at the time, but there turned out to be nothing untoward.

The incidents come at a time of jitters about the possible vulnerability of infrastructure to attempted Russian sabotage.

On Thursday, prosecutors in Flensburg, in Germany’s far north, said they were investigating suspicions of espionage for the purpose of sabotage, without elaborating on who might be behind it. German media reported that drones had been spotted over a chemical park in Brunsbuettel, on the North Sea coast.

Quote:Ukraine did not warn Berlin before its Aug. 6 cross-border incursion into Russia,  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday, adding he expected Kyiv’s military operation to be limited in time and scope.

Speaking at a press conference after talks with Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Chisinau, Reuters reports Scholz said Germany is monitoring further developments closely as Russia vows to repel the incursion.

Ukraine has prepared its military operation in the Kursk region very secretly and without feedback, which is certainly due to the situation.

This is a very limited operation in terms of space and probably also in terms of time.

Separately Scholz said Germany would continue to be what he said was Ukraine’s biggest supporter in Europe after controversy in recent days over what critics call wavering German support for Kyiv driven by domestic politicking.

As Breitbart News reported, Germany has halted future aid to Ukraine amid Berlin’s budget struggles.

All future requests from the Ministry of Defence for Ukraine aid will not be approved by Scholz as his leftist government seeks to cut costs to address the 12 billion euro budget shortfall.

More broadly Scholz’s awkward three-way coalition, which has struggled to reach a deal on its budget, plans to halve its aid next year, betting the shortfall will be made up by a G7 plan to loan Ukraine $50 billion.

Scholz said the G7 plan to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets to give the loans was “technically demanding, but politically clarified” and would give Ukraine a considerable increase in support.

Quote:Czech President Petr Pavel said that attacking the Nord Stream pipelines would have been a “legitimate” target for Ukraine amid reports pointing the finger at Kyiv for the sabotage.

Pavel, who previously served as NATO chairman and before that at the head of the Czech Armed Forces, said that while he has no information to confirm reports that the Zelensky-led government in Ukraine was behind the September 2022 assault on the Russo-German Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, such an attack would have been justifiable in light of the Russian invasion months prior.

Speaking to the online news magazine Novinky on Wednesday, the Czech president said: “When an armed conflict is waged, it is waged not only against military targets, but also against strategic targets. And pipelines are a strategic target. If the attack was aimed at cutting off gas and oil supplies to Europe and back money to Russia, then—and I say conditional on purpose—it would be a legitimate target.”

Pavel also attempted to downplay the significance of the sabotage, claiming that Nord Stream was not “critical” for European energy security, saying: “It certainly brought some complications, but not those that we couldn’t deal with. Pipelines have always been and will always be targets, because they have the potential to influence the conflict in one direction or another.”

However, in a likely reference to Germany, the Czech leader noted that if it was proven that Kyiv was behind the sabotage of Nord Stream, it could “affect the willingness of countries to provide assistance to Ukraine.”

Quote:Some new Ukrainian soldiers refuse to fire at the enemy. Others, according to commanders and fellow fighters, struggle to assemble weapons or to coordinate basic combat movements. A few have even walked away from their posts, abandoning the battlefield altogether.

While Ukraine presses on with its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, its troops are still losing precious ground along the country’s eastern front – a grim erosion that military commanders blame in part on poorly trained recruits drawn from a recent mobilization drive, as well as Russia’s clear superiority in ammunition and air power.

“Some people don’t want to shoot. They see the enemy in the firing position in trenches but don’t open fire. … That is why our men are dying,” said a frustrated battalion commander in Ukraine’s 47th Brigade. “When they don’t use the weapon, they are ineffective.”

The accounts come from commanders and soldiers who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely about sensitive military matters. Others spoke on the condition that they be identified only by their call signs in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol.

Commanders say the recruits have contributed to a string of territorial losses that enabled Russia’s army to advance, including near the city of Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub. If it falls, the defeat would imperil Ukraine´s defenses and bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the Donetsk region. Russian soldiers are now just 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away.

Adding to Ukraine’s woes are Russia’s huge advantage in manpower and its willingness to accept staggering losses in return for capturing small objectives.

The recently conscripted Ukrainians are a far cry from the battle-hardened fighters who flocked to join the war in the first year of the full-scale invasion. The new troops lack even a minimal level of training, commanders and soldiers from four brigades defending the Pokrovsk area said.

They described having to plan operations with infantry who are unable to shoot targets and uninformed about basic topography. Some recruits simply lacked faith in the battle plans of their superiors and walked away from prepared positions.

Frustrated with the quality of the new conscripts sent to the front line by territorial recruitment centers, commanders are now seeking to conduct their own mobilization drives to better screen and train new fighters, multiple commanders and soldiers said.

Quote:Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a historic visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, signing multiple agreements with the state and honoring the victims of Russia’s invasion.

Modi became the first person in India’s top government office to visit sovereign Ukraine and sought to improve ties after months of tensions between Kyiv and New Delhi, originating in India’s close relationship with Russia. India is one of Russia’s most loyal buyers of crude oil, buying it cheaply and refining it to sell it at higher prices to the West. The Indian government has also refused to sign onto sanctions on the Russian economy and Modi himself has visibly elevated his friendship with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in the public eye, visiting Moscow in July.

Zelensky was publicly critical of Modi for meeting with Putin, to which Modi responded by agreeing to visit Kyiv.

Modi began his tour of Kyiv by meeting with Indian nationals in the capital city, then met with Zelensky to mark the eve of Ukrainian Independence Day and honor civilian victims of the Russian full-scale invasion:
...
“Conflict is particularly devastating for young children. My heart goes out to the families of children who lost their lives, and I pray that they find the strength to endure their grief,” Modi said in a statement for social media.

Quote:Snipers from Russia’s national guard on Friday killed four inmates who had seized prison guards as hostages and declared allegiance to the Islamic State group, Russian media reports said.

The National Guard Service said the rebellious inmates were “neutralized” and all the hostages had been freed, although the number of hostages was not immediately specified, the reports said.

Details of the violence at the prison in Surovkino, 860 kilometers (535 miles) southeast of Moscow, were sparse and it was not clear how the inmates had taken hostages several hours earlier.

Before the inmates were shot, state news agency Tass said four victims were taken to a local hospital and two of them were in serious condition. Unconfirmed reports on Telegram messaging channels said one or two people died.

Russian news site Meduza posted a video that it said was from the scene, showing men wielding knives inside and in a prison yard and several men in what appeared to be guard uniforms lying in blood on the ground.

In the video, the alleged attackers claimed support for the Islamic State Group and for the suspects arrested in the March terrorist attack on a Moscow concert hall that left 145 people dead. An IS affiliate claimed responsibility for that attack, in which gunmen killed patrons waiting for a popular music group to perform and set the building on fire.

Tass said court records showed that the hostage-takers were from former Soviet Central Asian countries; all the concert hall attack suspects are from Tajikistan.

Quote:Russian officials filed criminal charges Thursday against CNN reporter Nick Paton Walsh, along with Ukrainian reporters Olesia Borovyk and Diana Butsko, for allegedly crossing the Russian border illegally to file reports on the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk.

Russia’s FSB, successor to the KGB, said it would place all three journalists on an “international wanted list.”

Walsh is CNN’s chief international security correspondent. The Ukrainian government invited him last week to visit Sudzha, a Russian town held by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian troops pushed across the border into Russia’s Kursk province on August 6, and still hold territory in Russia to this day.

Walsh filed a report from Sudzha last Friday. He described residents of the town as stunned by the swift and sudden Ukrainian assault, and noted they have generally been treated well by the occupying force.

“Throughout this conflict our team has delivered factual, impartial reporting covering both the Ukrainian and Russian perspectives on the war,” CNN said in Walsh’s defense after the FSB announced its criminal investigation.

“Our team was invited by the Ukrainian government, along with other international journalists, and escorted by the Ukrainian military to view territory it had recently occupied. This is protected activity in accordance with the rights afforded to journalists under the Geneva Convention and international law,” the network pointed out.

The FSB took similar action last weekend against two Italian journalists who entered Kursk with Ukrainian troops.

Moscow summoned the Italian ambassador to complain that reporters Simone Traini and Stefania Battistini of Italian state broadcaster RAI illegally crossed the border to commit journalism. Italy responded that RAI plans its reporting activities in a “totally free and independent way.”

The Russians have also threatened to file charges against an American reporter and photographer, Siobhan O’Grady and Ed Ram of the Washington Post, for filing a report from Sudzha.

Quote:The number of asylum seekers being granted UK refugee status has soared to the highest number since records began nearly 40 years ago, official figures released Thursday show.

A total of 67,978 asylum claims were granted by the Home Office in the year to June, more than triple the 21,436 in the previous year, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Migrants who arrived by crossing the Channel on small boats accounted for more than a third of the decisions – some 35,176, over four times more than in the year ending June 2023, when there were just 7,888, according to the Home Office data seen by the outlet.

The Telegraph report details the exact numbers:

Home Office caseworkers made just under 92,000 initial decisions on asylum claims in the year – the highest level in two decades.

Of those, 58 percent were given asylum or another form of humanitarian protection, down from 71 percent in the year ending June 2023 after the Tories tightened the rules.

Before the pandemic, the “grant rate” – the proportion of asylum applications which lead to refugee status at the initial stage – was about a third.

The sheer volume is even higher than during the asylum crisis in the early 2000s.

The introduction by former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of fast-track schemes and trebling in the number of caseworkers making decisions has been pinpointed as the moment approvals started soaring.

The schemes were introduced in an attempt to clear a backlog of cases as Sunak scrambled to deliver on his pledge to “abolish” the list.

The surging number of migrants being granted asylum shows no sign of diminishing under the new left-wing Labour government of Sir Keir Starmer.

As Breitbart News reported in July, since the new government came into power over 3,000 illegal boat migrants have crossed the English Channel from France, throwing into question Starmer’s ability to “stop the boats”.

Quote:A survey of UK Labour Party voters found that a majority think that the government should work to reduce immigration into Britain, putting further pressure on fledgling Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The JL Partners polling firm asked over 1,000 voters of the left-wing Labour Party to put themselves on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 representing a desire for significant reduction of migration and 100 for more migration into the country.

The survey found that 57 per cent put themselves below 50, meaning that they favoured cutting immigration, compared to just 27 per cent who supported more foreigners entering the country, The Sun reports.

While those surveyed put Prime Minister Starmer’s position at 43 out of 100, the average Labour voter scored themselves at 37, meaning that his own base is to the right of the government on immigration.

The poll also found that around one in four Labour Party voters would consider defecting and voting for Brexit leader Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.

While the Farage-led party holds many traditionally conservative policy positions, Reform UK has made its mission to target voters in working-class Labour Party strongholds, many of whom voted for Brexit over a desire to reduce immigration.

Indeed, in last month’s election, Farage’s upstart Reform party outperformed the Tories to come in second-place to the Labour Party in 98 seats, suggesting that the relatively new party’s message is resonating in the so-called “Red Wall” areas of the country.

Quote:Taxpayer-funded British foreign aid is being directed to areas of the world that are wealthier than some sections of the UK, including to fund projects in Communist China, a study found.

A report from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) think tank has found that taxpayer money has been directed to aid projects in wealthy areas of countries like China, Mexico, and Malaysia.

While areas of Britain continue to languish with lack of investment, the IEA claimed that foreign aid was acting like “Robin Hood in reverse” and called on the government to “urgently re-evaluate” the priorities of international aid spending.

The report found that aid dolled out by the UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) has been directed over the past five years to fund arts, infrastructure, and tech projects in middle-class areas throughout the world, often in regions richer than parts of the UK.

According to the IEA, British taxpayer money funded a £200,000 project in the prosperous Chinese city of Shanghai to promote a traditional all-female opera through digital media. Another £200,000 project backed by the UK sought to “foster creativity in Chinese communities” in Shanghai, despite the city having a similar GDP per capita to leafy London suburbs like Redbridge and Waltham Forest.

The report found that the richest region to receive British taxpayer money was the Chinese city of Ordos, which is wealthier than 69 regions in the UK. Other relatively prosperous Chinese cities to receive aid included the capital Beijing, Guangzhou, and the Hong Kong-adjacent city of Shenzhen, which is richer than seven British regions.

Elsewhere, the UK taxpayer funded projects in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, which is wealthier than five UK regions, and the Mexican city of Campeche, which has a higher GDP per capita than 36 regions in Britain.

The think tank said that the reason for aid being directed towards relatively well-off areas of the world was likely a result of civil servants and aid workers preferring to locate themselves in areas with more comfortable living standards, better infrastructure, and more opportunities for professional networking.

The paper called for the International Development Act 2002, instituted under former Labour Party PM Tony Blair, to be amended so that foreign aid is only sent to regions with a £10,914 GDP per capita or below.

Quote:The latest effort to ease pressure on Britain’s overcrowded prisons has been issued with magistrates told to stop jailing convicted criminals for several weeks and postpone sentencing.

A “listing direction” has been issued to the managers of magistrates’ courts in England and Wales with the order.

It suggests offenders likely to be jailed should have sentencing postponed until the left-wing Labour government’s early release scheme comes into effect on September 10, as Breitbart News reported.

The order to magistrates from Lord Justice Green, a senior judge who sits on the Court of Appeal and is also the deputy senior presiding judge, is reportedly likely to affect hundreds if not thousands of offenders.

The Times reports a Ministry of Justice spokesman said the guidelines did not apply to high-risk offenders who were already on remand, adding the problem of overcrowding has been inherited from the previous Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak:

The changes coming into force in September will bring it under control.

Independent judges decide when to schedule court hearings and do so in the interests of justice, including to ensure the effective operation of the criminal justice system.

Magistrates’ courts handled more than 1.3 million cases last year.

Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Magistrates Association, told the Times: “Every delay in magistrates’ work adversely affects the timely delivery of justice and impacts victims, witnesses and defendants.”

He said Green’s direction was “the latest sticking plaster to try to get through until the big release of prisoners on September 10 but just highlights the crisis that the justice system is in.”

Quote:The United Nations issued a warning to the UK on Friday saying the time has come for it to take action to curb racist hate speech, including by politicians.

A report containing the caution, released at the globalist body’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland,  claimed the persistence of hate speech published in mainstream media, online, and spread by politicians and public figures, needs immediate redress in the UK.

No direct examples were given within the study to back the assertions. The UK was included in the work alongside Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Venezuela as needing attention forthwith.

No single UK politician has been singled out for a direct warning to curb their speech, but authorities were told to “formally and publicly reject and condemn hate speech and the dissemination of racist ideas”.

The unelected body said it was “particularly concerned” about racist acts and violence by “far-right and white supremacist” groups, seen during anti-mass migration riots across England and Northern Ireland.

The recommendations were contained in a four-year external review addressing the UK’s record on tackling racial discrimination – a requirement for countries signed on to international conventions.

The U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the UK to address alleged racial profiling by police and alleged discrimination in criminal justice, housing, schools and healthcare.

It also said it was especially disappointed and concerned by the claimed persistence and in some cases “sharp increase” of hate crimes and hate speech in the UK.

The committee highlighted what they said were recurring racist acts and violence against minorities, asylum seekers and refugees, including during riots in late July and early August.

The U.N. report follows a study in 2021 that decried a disproportionate focus on the political right that has taken away the necessary resources from confronting Islamist extremists in the UK’s battle against terrorism, as Breitbart News reported.

Quote:The crew of a Greek coast guard vessel opened fire on a speedboat smuggling migrants – including several children – from neighboring Turkey killing one passenger, Greek authorities said Friday.

A coast guard statement said shots were fired, first into the air and then at the speedboat’s engine “to avert the direct threat to the patrol boat and its crew” after the helmsman rammed the Greek patrol boat in a bid to escape arrest.

When the boat came to a halt, the statement said, the passenger was found fatally wounded, “probably by a bullet.”

The remaining 13 people on the plastic speedboat – 5 children, 7 men and a woman – were unharmed and were taken to the southeast Aegean Sea island of Symi. The dead passenger was identified as a 39-year-old man. His nationality was not immediately known.

The statement said the incident occurred northwest of Symi after the helmsman of the smuggling boat ignored multiple calls to stop. It said he “repeatedly carried out extremely dangerous maneuvers, ramming the patrol boat.”

Quote:UPDATE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated he is suspending his campaign but not ending it, urging residents of blue states to vote for him but throwing his support behind former President Donald Trump in battleground states.

Original story follows below:

Democrat-turned-Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to endorse former President Donald Trump for president on Friday in Arizona, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Kennedy, the son of the late Democratic Party icon Robert F. Kennedy, built a career as an environmental lawyer. He has embraced unlikely causes throughout his life, gaining notoriety for questioning the efficacy of some vaccines.
He launched his campaign as an anti-establishment mission to shake Washington free from the grip of establishment elites. Unlike many Democrats, he did not demonize Trump or Trump supporters.

He ran as a Democrat at first, but left the party after he concluded that Democrats were arranging their primary to make it impossible for any insurgent campaign against President Joe Biden to succeed.

While he gained some traction as an independent — together with running mate Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley attorney — he also found his path blocked by Democrats and Democratic Party-aligned groups that sued in several states to keep him off the ballot.

Democrats — ostensibly “defending democracy” — were concerned about losing votes to Kennedy, enabling Trump to win key swing states.

Kennedy is set to speak to reporters in Arizona early Friday afternoon, and is rumored to be joining Trump at a campaign event later in the state.

Quote:Former President Donald Trump pledged at his rally in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday night to create a commission on presidential assassination attempts if he is elected in November.

Trump said the commission would be in tribute to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who joined him on stage at the Turning Point Action rally at the Desert Diamond Arena as the Republican presidential candidate’s special guest.

“After I was — can’t even believe I have to say this — nearly assassinated in Pennsylvania last month, Bobby called me to express his best wishes. He knows firsthand the risks incurred by leaders who stand up to the corrupt political establishment,” Trump said. “And when you stand up, you bring on some trouble for yourself, but you have to do what’s right. You have to do what’s right for the country. I’ll tell you, we are both in this to do what’s right for the country.”

Both Kennedy’s father and uncle were assassinated. Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy, was shot on June 5, 1968, after winning the Democrat primary in California and died the next day. Kennedy’s uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been very vocal in his belief that the CIA was involved in the killing of his uncle.

“He lost his father and uncle in service to our country, and Bobby himself was subject to repeated threats to his safety during the course of his campaign, while being denied protection by the Harris-Biden administration,” Trump said. The Biden administration notably only ordered Secret Service protection for RFK Jr. after the Trump assassination attempt and after Trump demanded protection for him.

Trump said the commission would be “tasked with releasing all of the remaining documents pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.” Over 13,000 documents pertaining to his assassination were released in 2022, although many are still being withheld from the public.

Quote:Like clockwork, the proverbial complaints from musicians rolled in after a Trump rally, as bands who once “raged against the machine” now rage for it. On Friday, the Foo Fighters decried their 1997 hit song “My Hero” being played at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Glendale, Arizona, as Democrat-turned-Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the stage to endorse the 45th president.

The chorus of “My Hero” played as John F. Kennedy’s nephew walked out on stage while flash pots went off and Trump rally attendees cheered.
...
An X account named “Wu Tang is for the Children” posted video of the rally, asking the Foo Fighters if they “let Trump use ‘My Hero’ to welcome RKJ Jr. on stage,” to which the band simply replied, “No.”
...
The Foo Fighters then took a screenshot of the exchange and posted it to their own X account for their 3.2 million followers to see — alongside the caption, “Let us be clear.”
...
“Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and if they were, they would not have granted it,” the band’s spokesperson told Billboard, adding that “appropriate actions are being taken” against the Trump campaign.

Any royalties received as a result of the song usage will be donated to the Harris/Walz campaign, the spokesperson said.

Notably, the Trump rally was co-hosted by Charlie Kirk’s organization, Turning Point Action, known for its usage of flash pots and other effects that make political events feel more like concerts.

Quote:Democrat vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) was caught inflating his background and making it seem like Harvard University was behind a teaching program in China in which he participated, according to a recent report.

A report from the Washington Free Beacon found that Walz had lied about being “named the Outstanding Young Nebraskan by the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce,” and seemingly implying that Harvard University was behind a teaching program, and had picked Walz for “an opportunity” to teach in China through a university program. The program, WorldTeach, was founded in 1986 by several graduates from Harvard University, according to the organization’s LinkedIn page.

Both lies appear in his biography in an archived version of his campaign website in 2006 as he was running for Congress.

This comes after Walz previously falsely claimed that his children were conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), claimed that he had carried weapons of war “in war,” and that he had retired as a “command sergeant major” when he had actually retired as a Master Sergeant.

“With his teaching degree complete, Harvard University offered Walz an opportunity to gain a new perspective on global education by teaching in the People’s Republic of China,” Walz’s biography on the archived website says. “Working in China during 1989-1990, Walz was a member of one of the first government sanctioned groups of American educators to teach in Chinese high schools.”

The outlet noted that Walz’s congressional biography had allegedly “said the same thing,” and that a 2018 biography allegedly implied that Walz had been teaching in China through the WorldTeach program, “a program at Harvard University.”

The program in question is the WorldTeach program, a nonprofit founded by Harvard undergraduates, including the Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Kremer, in 1986. For a time, the program was funded by Harvard’s Phillips Brooks House Association, which the Harvard Crimson has characterized as “a student-run community service group” that disburses resources to an array of nonprofit organizations and facilitates volunteerism for Harvard students. WorldTeach, which is currently dormant, does not appear to have ever been an official program of Harvard.

A 2001 article in the Harvard Gazette notes that WorldTeach, which began as a “student-run organization,” was “sponsored by the Center for International Development (CID)” and was “an independent nonprofit organization.”

WorldTeach got its start as a student-run organization in the Phillips Brooks House 15 years ago. Although it is sponsored by the Center for International Development (CID), WorldTeach is now an independent nonprofit organization. The center finances eight spots for Harvard students in WorldTeach’s 2-year-old summer undergraduate internship.

Quote:Democratic politicians nationwide are trying to put many illegal migrants into apartments and homes that would otherwise go to young Americans.

In California, Democrats in the state Assembly have passed legislation that would create homebuyer tax breaks for illegal migrants who walked through weak border controls.

“When undocumented individuals are excluded from such [house-buying] programs, they miss out on a crucial method of securing financial security and personal stability for themselves and their families,” according to the sponsor, Rep. Joaquin Arambula, a Democrat with a large and poor Latino constituency in Fresno Valley.

The giveaway will drive up Americans’ housing costs — and make life tougher for the 85 percent of American-born California families who earn less than roughly $80,000 per year and spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to a pro-migrant advocacy group.

In Canada, the government’s mass migration policy is preventing many young Canadians from buying homes, reducing the birth rate, exploding Canada’s homeless population, and shifting vast wealth to older investors. Many young people will lose the retirement wealth that their parents earned from house ownership, Canada’s pro-migration Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted in July.

Quote:On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” CNN host Kaitlan Collins said that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris should do interviews because “anyone who wants to have access to the nuclear codes should be willing to sit down and take questions.”

Host Bill Maher said, “What do you think about the fact that Kamala doesn’t talk to the press? In a way, I feel like it’s more insulting than what Trump does. And Trump says you’re the enemy of the people, which is pretty bad. What she’s kind of saying is, I don’t need you, and I’m not talking to you, you don’t matter, you’re not relevant anymore. To me, that’s even worse than I hate you. It’s like, I don’t think about you.”

Collins responded, “I don’t know if it’s worse than denigrating the press on a daily basis, which is what Donald Trump did. I covered him in the White House every day as a correspondent, and oftentimes, to kind of shake you if you were asking him a question, he would try to get into a personal argument with you or just deny or lie about what you were asking about. And so, I don’t know if I would compare the two. I do think she should talk to the press. I think anyone who wants to have access to the nuclear codes should be willing to sit down and take questions. And we’d love to have her on the show.”

Quote:The Canadian government finally took action to resolve the railroad labor crisis on Friday, ordering Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), and the Teamsters union to accept mediation by a third party.

Even as a faint glimmer of light appeared at the end of the railroad tunnel, Air Canada’s pilots voted overwhelmingly to authorize their own strike.

Canada’s railroad drama, a confluence of bad timing and seemingly intractable demands by all parties, triggered a shutdown of railroad freight on Thursday. Both Canadian and American business groups pleaded with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take action, as consumers in both countries stood to suffer billions of dollars in damage, particularly in the food and agriculture sector.

Trudeau has been under enormous pressure from the left wing of his political coalition to stay out of the dispute because the left saw mediation of the dispute as inevitably favoring the railroad companies over labor.

On Friday, Labor Minister Stephen MacKinnon ordered the union and rail companies to accept binding arbitration from a third-party mediator, namely the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

“These collective bargaining negotiations belong to these parties, but their effects and the impacts of the current impasse are being borne by all Canadians. And there is an impasse,” MacKinnon said.

“It is the government’s responsibility to ensure industrial peace in this critically vital sector. Thus we will be examining why we experienced repeated conflicts in the railway sector and the conditions that led to the parallel work stoppages we are seeing,” he said.

MacKinnon insisted the Trudeau administration is still “committed totally to collective bargaining” and wants to give it “every possible opportunity to succeed,” but the government felt the consequences of a railroad shutdown were simply too dire to allow it to continue indefinitely.

The labor minister said he expected the arbitration process to deliver results within a matter of days. Meanwhile, he required the railroads to begin resuming services, and told union employees to return to work under emergency extensions of their existing contracts.

CN said it effectively lifted its lockout a matter of hours after it began on Thursday, in order to “expedite the recovery of the economy.”

CPKC, on the other hand, said that while it would like to resume railroad operations, the unions remain intransigent and may file a legal challenge against MacKinnon’s arbitration order.

The Teamsters insisted the “main obstacles to reaching an agreement remain the companies’ demands, not union proposals,” and on Friday they issued a 72-hour strike notice against CN. Meanwhile, the union representing about 3,300 CPKC employees did indeed announce they would file a legal challenge against the arbitration order.

“We are focused on getting back to work. The Teamsters are focused on getting back to the picket line,” CN spokesman Jonathan Abecassis said on Friday.

Quote:At least five U.S. Secret Service officials involved in the planning of former President Donald Trump’s ill-fated July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, have been placed on administrative duty.

At least five Secret Service officials involved in planning Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, where the 45th president was shot in the ear by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, have been put on administrative duty, two sources familiar with the situation told ABC News.

The Secret Service officials are still allowed to work, but they are prohibited from being involved in anything operational, such as security planning, the sources added.

The agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility investigation has reportedly expanded to not only the failures involving July 13, but also the classified threats against President Trump by Iran, and what the Secret Service did in response.

A Secret Service official told the outlet that more senior officials could get caught up in the probe.

“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler, Pennsylvania and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” the agency said, adding that its “mission assurance review is progressing.”

“We are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure,” the Secret Service said.

Quote:The U.S. Secret Service is ending protection for Democrat-turned-Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following the suspension of his campaign on Friday.

Kennedy, who had been seeking Secret Service protection for months and finally had it granted after the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, is now having his protection pulled because he suspended his presidential campaign, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.

On Friday, Kennedy announced he was “suspending” — although “not terminating” — his bid for the White House, and endorsed President Trump in battleground states. Kennedy is still on the ballot in blue states.

Notably, the Secret Service typically protects presidents, vice presidents, their immediate family members, former presidents, former first ladies, children of former presidents, visiting heads of state, and top presidential candidates.

If a candidate drops out of a race, the agency usually scales back its protection, but can also terminate it altogether, the New York Post noted.

Kennedy, whose father Bobby Kennedy and uncle President John F. Kennedy were both assassinated, had cited evidence of 34 instances of threats and concerning rants against him while trying to obtain Secret Service protection, according to a July 11 report by Newsweek.

On July 13, President Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he was shot in the ear by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, who killed former fire chief Corey Comperatore and severely injured two other rallygoers, David Dutch and James Copenhaver.

The agency has since faced heavy backlash in response to the events that unfolded on July 13, in what is seen as the biggest Secret Service failure in four decades.

After the assassination attempt against Trump, it was reported that top officials within the Secret Service have denied requests to increase security for the 45th president over the past two years.

These revelations came after Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) introduced legislation threatening to strip President Trump of his Secret Service detail if he is convicted — a move that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson referred to as “a death threat.”

Quote:Former President Donald Trump had the right to play Foo Fighters’ 1997 hit “My Hero” during his Friday rally in Glendale, Arizona — despite the band claiming otherwise — as the campaign says it licensed the song through BMI’s Songview service.

“We have a license to play the song,” a Trump campaign spokesperson told the Independent.

The outlet also noted that it “has seen documents confirming that the campaign had indeed licensed the song from BMI’s Songview service.”

As Breitbart News reported, the Foo Fighters claimed the Trump campaign did not have permission to play “My Hero” while Democrat-turned-Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the stage to endorse Trump during his Arizona rally on Friday.

“Let us be clear,” the Foo Fighters wrote in a Friday X post, sharing a screenshot of the band replying “No” in response to an X user that asked, “Did you let Trump use ‘My Hero’ to welcome RFK Jr. on stage?”

“Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and if they were, they would not have granted it,” the band’s spokesperson told Billboard on Friday, adding that “appropriate actions are being taken” against the Trump campaign.

The spokesperson went on to say that any royalties received as a result of the song’s usage will be donated to the Harris/Walz campaign.

The band did not acknowledge the apparent contradiction of receiving royalties for the song while claiming it was played without permission.

“Foo Fighters LIED about Trump not having permission to use ‘My Hero’ while introducing RFK Jr.,” podcast host Nick Sortor reacted, adding, “Trump should SUE these leftist hacks for defamation.”

“Imagine being so woke that you are mad your music was used to introduce one of the greatest political movements in U.S. history,” podcast host Cash Loren commented.

Political strategist Roger Stone also chimed in, writing, “The Foo Fuckers.”

“The Foo Fighters don’t even realize they sold the rights to their music to BMI,” another X user laughed.

“Foo Fighter’s so dumb they forgot they don’t own their songs,” another echoed.

Internet personality Cam Higby, meanwhile, surmised that the “Foo fighters are coping.”

Other X users accused the Foo Fighters of lying.

“These people do nothing but lie. They’re despicable,” one commented.

“All they do is lie,” another echoed. “@foofighters are a fn joke.”

“Lies and more lies,” another X user said. “They just spread hate. We the people are growing stronger and stronger. United we stand MAGA.”

“More lies brought to you by the corrupt Democrat machine,” another commented.

“I will never support @foofighters again,” another remarked. “This is disgusting.”

Quote:There are not enough Merchant Marines for the U.S. Navy to fully man 17 vessels, reportedly causing officials to plan to take them out of regular operation.

The Merchant Marines organization, made up of civilian mariners managed by a combination of federal government and the private sector, has lost too much manpower to “properly crew and operate ships across the fleet,” Fox News reported.

“The problem, of course, is the ships are at sea, away from home port 12 months of the year,” Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation for the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, said.

While they are not officially members of the U.S. military, Merchant Marines are operators of commercial ships who also serve as an auxiliary during wartime or in a national emergency, according to the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Maritime Administration.

According to Montgomery, “We’re desperately short of the number of people.”

“There’s a lack of experienced merchant mariners to crew the ships, and this is really a clear danger to national security,” he added.

The Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) has planned to put 17 ships into “extended maintenance,” the U.S. Naval Institute reported Thursday.

Sources told the news organization that MSC has scheduled “two Lewis and Clark replenishment ships, one fleet oiler, a dozen Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF) and two forward-deployed Navy expeditionary sea bases” for “force generation reset,” and to have their crews redistributed to other ships.

Montgomery stressed that the issue mostly affects Merchant Marines.

“The sailors tend to man our warships … the merchant mariners man something that’s equally important, which is the logistics backbone of the Navy — oilers, ammo ships, transports ships that move the Army and Marine Corps across the water,” Montgomery told Fox.

“Just like 90 percent of trade is done by ships and not aircrafts, the same thing applies at sea: It’s too difficult, too expensive — it’s not sufficient to move all that stuff by aircraft, so it’s moved by ships.”

Quote:The record-shattering surge of migrant crossings in the Swanton Sector continues with the apprehension of more than 2,700 migrants in July. The sector of the U.S.-Canada Border experienced an increase of nearly 200 percent from the same record-setting period one year earlier.

According to the CBP Nationwide Encounters report, during the first ten months of Fiscal Year 24, which began in October 2023, Swanton Sector agents apprehended 15,612 migrants who illegally crossed the border from Canada into Northeastern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. This is up 197 percent from the 5,257 arrested during the same period in FY23.

During the last three months, agents apprehended nearly 30 percent more migrants than during the entire previous fiscal year.

Border Patrol officials previously told Breitbart Texas that most migrants crossing from Canada into the Swanton Sector are not looking to surrender. Rather, agents must track down and rely on community tips to find the migrants attempting to sneak into the U.S. interior.

In June, Chief Garcia reported that agents apprehended migrants from 85 different countries this fiscal year, Breitbart Texas reported.

The list of nations includes migrants from Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Anguilla, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Liberia, Lithuania, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Romania, Russia. Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Togo, Turkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

In addition to the migrants being smuggled into the U.S., Swanton Sector agents also arrested a Chinese citizen who allegedly attempted to smuggle 28 eastern box turtles out of the U.S.

Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont accused Wan Yee Ng, a 41-year-old Chinese national living in Canada, of loading a duffle bag into an inflatable kayak. Border Patrol agents arrested the Chinese woman on the Vermont bank of Lake Wallace as her husband, and another man set out from the Canadian bank in an inflatable watercraft.

Officials found 29 eastern box turtles individually wrapped in socks inside the duffle bag. Prosecutors stated that the colorful turtles are “especially prized” animals in the foreign pet trade, especially in China.

Quote:The “Russia collusion” conspiracy theory is back, this time in the form of a memoir by former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, who complains: “I cannot understand Putin’s hold on Trump.”

Once again, the facts are brushed aside: the fact that Putin did not invade anything while Donald Trump was president; the fact that U.S. forces killed hundreds of Russian mercenaries in Syria under Trump; the fact that Trump slapped sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia; and the fact that Trump held Russia in check while being outwardly polite.

McMaster, long seen as a favorite of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the anti-Trump establishment, is cashing in on the opportunity Trump gave him, writing a memoir timed for election season that revisits the debunked Russia collusion hoax.

In an excerpt published by the Wall Street Journal, McMaster writes about how he disobeyed Trump’s orders, ostensibly to prevent Putin from using Trump to his own advantage:

About two weeks later, on March 4, 2018, former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in Salisbury, England, with a banned military-grade nerve agent that was easily traced to Moscow. Russian spy agencies—the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the military Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU)—were the perpetrators. The use of a nerve agent had placed hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives at risk. It was with this particularly heinous method that Putin had apparently decided to assassinate Skripal, a former KGB double agent who had been imprisoned for 13 years in Russia but was then released by Moscow in an exchange in July 2010, the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.

Just a few days after the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter, a story appeared in the New York Post with the headline “Putin Heaps Praise on Trump, Pans U.S. Politics.” When I walked into the Oval Office that evening, on another matter, the president had a copy of the article and was writing a note to the Russian leader across the page with a fat black Sharpie. He asked me to get the clipping to Putin. I took it with me. When I got home that night, I confided to my wife Katie, “After over a year in this job, I cannot understand Putin’s hold on Trump.”

News was breaking about the poisoning in England, and I was certain that Putin would use Trump’s annotated clipping to embarrass him and provide cover for the attack. The next morning, I stuck to procedures and gave the clipping to the White House Office of the Staff Secretary, which manages any paper coming into and out of the Oval Office. I asked them to take their time clearing it and to come back to me before sending it to Putin via his embassy in Washington. Later, as evidence mounted that the Kremlin and, very likely, Putin himself had ordered the nerve agent attack on Skripal, I told them not to send it.

The book is called At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House.

McMaster waited more than six years after his firing to release it, right before the 2024 election.

As late as 2022, 72% of Democrats still believed that Russia was responsible for Trump’s victory in 2016. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, armed with a phalanx of left-wing prosecutors and tens of millions of dollars, could find no evidence that Trump, or any other American, had colluded with Russia.

Quote:Courtney Kramer, a Republican candidate for District Attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, is pledging to put an end to Fani Willis’s prosecution of rapper Young Thug.

The rapper, whose given name is Jeffery Williams, has spent the last two years in jail on RICO charges as his trial, which started in November of 2023, continues to grind on. In fact, the prosecution has been going on so long, it has now become the longest trial in Georgia state history, according to the website Hot New Hip Hop.

Young Thug was arrested in May of 2022 along with 27 others, all charged with conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO statutes and street gang charges.

But Kramer wants to put an end to all this and set the Grammy-winning rapper free.

In a campaign letter posted to X/Twitter last week, Kramer accused current Democrat DA Fani Willis of “pursuing fame” by even bringing the case in the first place, and she pledged to voters that he would end the case in an effort to “restore justice, transparency, and integrity” to the Office of the District Attorney.

“If I am elected as the next District Attorney of Fulton County, I promise to end this prosecution immediately,” Kramer wrote in her letter. “I challenge my opponent [Fani Willis] to do the same thing, the right thing, and end this prosecution and release the accused in this case who are being held without bond.”

Kramer is not the only Republican insisting that the trial is a face. GOP candidate for president Donald Trump also blasted the case and insisted recently that the rapper was being treated unfairly.

“I heard it from other people that he’s being treated unfairly. So, he’s got to be treated fairly,” Trump told Internet streamer Adin Ross.

The latest in the case is that a new judge has been put in charge after Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville was removed from the case because he improperly took a meeting with prosecutors and a state witness in the case.

Quote:A Michigan judge ruled that independent presidential candidate Cornel West must appear on the state’s ballot.

In a ruling on Saturday shared by the watchdog group Fair Election Fund, Judge James Robert Redford ruled that state officials were “ordered to qualify” West and his running mate, Melina Abdullah, as independent candidates on the Michigan ballot.

Redford wrote in his ruling:

The state defendants are ordered to qualify West and Abdullah as independent candidates for the ballot, on the condition that the Board of State Canvassers does not determine they are disqualified after a review of the signatures on the qualifying petitions and West complies with MCL 168.590d(2).

The Fair Election Fund wrote that “voter suppression efforts” from Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson had been “overturned in a win for democracy and a loss for Democrats.”

“Judge Redford has just ruled that @CornelWest must be on the ballot in Michigan,” the group wrote in their post.

Redford’s ruling comes after Michigan state election officials denied West ballot access, citing notary issues, according to the Washington Post.

In response, West’s campaign announced that it would be appealing the decision.

“Victory in Michigan! We brought thousands of voices to the table, and the court listened, rejecting the Democrats’ technical challenges,” West wrote in a post on X. “This is a win for democracy and for every person fighting for truth, justice, and love. Onward!”

On Friday, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer ruled that West could not appear on the ballot in the state, siding with the Pennsylvania secretary of state’s office, which had rejected paperwork West had submitted for his candidacy, according to the Washington Examiner.

The secretary of state for Maine recently ruled that West was allowed to appear on the ballot. This came after Maine residents had filed two different challenges regarding West being on the ballot.

Quote:The Republican National Committee (RNC) is accusing Detroit, Michigan’s election commission of hiring more Democrat than Republican poll workers as the presidential election approaches.

The RNC has slapped the Election Commission of the City of Detroit with a lawsuit that alleges officials broke state law by hiring over seven times more Democrats than Republicans for those roles, Fox News reported on Friday.

The outlet continued:

Michigan requires that the board of election commissioners “shall appoint an equal number, as nearly as possible, of election inspectors in each election precinct from each major political party,” according to Section 168.74 of the state’s election law.

However, the city of Detroit hired about 2,300 Democratic poll workers and only about 300 Republican election inspectors for the state’s 2024 primary election, according to the Detroit Election Commission Report cited in the lawsuit.

In a statement to Fox News, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and Co-Chair Lara Trump stated, “Detroit’s failure to hire Republican poll workers is the kind of bad-faith Democrat interference that drives down faith in elections.”

It is important to note that the RNC and Trump campaign recently surpassed 150,000 poll watchers and workers after setting a goal of 100,000 for their election integrity program, according to Breitbart News:

The RNC and Trump campaign announced the launch of the massive election integrity program earlier in 2024, describing it as the “most extensive and monumental election integrity program in the nation’s history.”

…

Every battleground state will have an election integrity hotline, and with that comes poll watching, which is a massive part of the program. Along with this comes “comprehensive training sessions” every month on election monitoring. In fact, in late July, the GOP celebrated 100 days until the election by holding a nationwide election integrity training event.

In September 2022, the RNC criticized the cities of Kalamazoo and Flint, Michigan, once city leaders appointed significantly fewer Republican election inspectors than Democrats, Breitbart News reported at the time.

“Under Michigan law, local election commissions must hire an equal number of Republican and Democrat poll workers. However, Kalamazoo and Flint officials significantly deviated from this requirement,” the outlet said.

The case is Republican National Committee v. Election Commission of the City of Detroit in the Michigan Circuit Court for the County of Wayne.

Quote:On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Source,” Harris Campaign Surrogate Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) responded to criticism that 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t solved the inflation problem during her tenure as Vice President by stating that she’ll “continue to lead as Vice President,” and will “be out there talking about the things that she’s going to do for people.”

Host Kaitlan Collins asked, “[S]he was…talking about a more secure border, talking about tamping down inflation, housing prices, what voters are dealing with. The response that I saw also was, well, she is the Vice President right now, it’s not like she doesn’t have any power, that she’s out of office and saying what she would do. Obviously, being at the top of the ticket and being the president is much different. But what would your response to that criticism be?”

Healey responded, “Well, on immigration, the fault’s really with Congress on this one. They’re the ones who did not act, and they did not act, because Republicans in Congress, once again, bowed down to Trump. So, I think she’s going to continue to lead as Vice President, of course, alongside President Biden. But the game is on. We don’t have many days, many weeks to go, Kaitlan, and every day, I know she’s going to be out there talking about the things that she’s going to do for people. And again, whether you’re talking about health care or reproductive freedom, whether you’re talking about middle-class tax cuts, whether you’re talking about increasing housing, these are things that most Americans support and want, they’re the things that Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz (D) are offering.”

Quote:The Syrian asylum seeker suspected of killing three and injuring several others at a “festival of diversity” in Germany on Friday reportedly had a deportation order last year, but authorities failed to remove him from the country.

According to information obtained by German paper of record Die Welt, 26-year-old Issa Al H., the Syrian asylum seeker who surrendered himself to police on Saturday after the mass stabbing in Solingen, was supposed to be deported in 2023.

The suspected terrorist had a removal date scheduled to have him sent to Bulgaria, the country where he first entered the European Union, and therefore, under the Dublin regulations, the country where he should have had his asylum claims processed.

However, following his deportation order, Issa Al H. disappeared from his residence in the Western German city of Paderborn. He re-appeared several months later, but rather than removing him, he was reportedly granted “subsidiary protection” for people from countries with civil wars and transferred to a refugee centre in Solingen, where Friday’s attack took place.

While the suspect was apparently not on the radar of police for extremist leanings, the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack in Solingen, claiming that it was intended as an act of revenge against “Christians” for “Muslims in Palestine and around elsewhere.”

The alleged knifeman is also reported to have shouted out the jihadist war cry “Allahu Akbar” during Friday’s attack on the diversity festival, which saw three people killed and eight others injured, including four with life-threatening wounds. The suspected terrorist is said to have specifically targeted the necks of his victims.

The attack has led to increased pressure on the leftist government coalition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz to crack down on mass migration and ramp up deportations.

The leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, Friedrich Merz, called for the government to begin deportations to Syria and Afghanistan, which have been halted over safety concerns, and to stop accepting asylum seekers from the countries.

“It’s enough,” Merz wrote, saying: “After the terrorist act in Solingen, it should now be finally clear: it is not the knives that are the problem, but the people who run around with it… In the majority of cases, these are refugees, in the majority of the deeds, there were Islamist motives behind them.”

The CDU leader also called on the government to immediately revoke residence status for any alleged asylum seeker who travels back to their home country after it was revealed that many so-called refugees from Afghanistan had vacationed in their homeland despite supposedly needing asylum from the country.

However, while the centre-right party has been out of power since the end of 2021, some have still cast blame on the party given its role, under former leader Angela Merkel, for “opening the gates” to mass migration from the Middle East and Africa in 2015 and sparking the Europe Migrant Crisis. A sign placed at the memorial in Solingen sarcastically quipped, “Thank you, Angela Merkel Party Greens”.

Quote:France’s acting interior minister ordered police reinforcements to protect Jewish places of worship after a suspected arson attack Saturday on a synagogue in a southwestern Mediterranean town.

Two cars parked at the Beth Yaacov synagogue in the seaside resort town of La Grande Motte near Montpellier were set ablaze on Saturday morning, injuring a police officer, according to French media reports. It was not immediately clear how many people were inside the synagogue at the time. There are no reports of other injuries.

Acting Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the incident was being treated as an “attempted arson” that is “clearly a criminal act.” One of the cars allegedly contained a propane gas tank, local media reported.

“I want to assure our Jewish fellow citizens of my full support and say that at the request of President Emmanuel Macron all means are being mobilized to find the perpetrator,” Darmanin said in a post on X.

He ordered more police deployed at Jewish places of worship around the country following a surge of antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war last year.

Darmanin is expected to travel to Le Grand Motte later on Saturday along with France’s acting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

Quote:A man suspected of trying to set a synagogue ablaze in the southern French city of la Grande-Motte was arrested late Saturday after a shoot out with police, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

About 200 police officers had been hunting for the suspect, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal confirmed earlier, adding the attacker had set fire to several entry doors to the synagogue and several cars nearby, as Breitbart News reported.

Earlier the alleged arsonist had been seen running from the front of the Jewish religious building on foot, his face uncovered, a red keffiyeh on his head.

He was also reportedly wearing a Palestinian flag wrapped around his waist alongside two plastic bottles containing a yellowish liquid in his hands, Le Parisian reports.

Jewish community leader Yonathan Arfi said the incident was “an attempt to kill Jews” and seemed to have been timed to target Saturday morning worshippers.

President Emmanuel Macron said the incident was “a terrorist act.”

BFM TV said the suspect was a 33-year-old Algerian. Local police declined to give further details, Reuters reports.

“Before the police could intervene, (the suspect) opened fire on the (police), which returned fire. The man was wounded in the face,” the office said in a statement describing the moments leading up to the apprehension and arrest.

Two other people were taken into custody after the incident.

A policeman was slightly injured when a gas bottle exploded as police secured the site of the attack on Saturday morning, Attal said.

“This is an antisemitic attack. Once more, our Jewish compatriots are targeted,” Attal said on X.

Quote:The first day of London’s annual Notting Hill Carnival saw at least 38 arrests, multiple knives seized, and a man stabbed, prompting police to enact stop and search powers.

Notting Hill Carnival, the two-day multicultural Afro-Caribbean street party dating back to the 1960s, once again experienced an outbreak of violence as the festivities began on Sunday.

At the time of this reporting, London’s Metropolitan Police said that they made 38 arrests and recovered four knives. In a statement, the police force said that a man believed to be in his 20s was stabbed, though thankfully his injuries are said to not be life-threatening.

“While the majority at today’s event have come to enjoy themselves, a number of people regrettably have not,” the Met said.

The British capital’s police force also announced that a Section 60 order has been put in place in the area until 2 am on Monday, granting officers stop and search powers in the designated zone to “prevent further violence”.

The two-day event, Europe’s largest street festival, will continue on Monday, with around one million expected to attend.

During the Carnival last year, there were 275 arrests, eight people stabbed, and around 80 police officers assaulted, including multiple officers who were sexually assaulted.

Ahead of the street party this weekend, retired Met detective chief inspector Mike Neville told The Telegraph that the Carnival represents the “ultimate in two-tier policing,” alleging that officers are afraid of making too many arrests for fear of being accused of racism.

“If the behaviour of the Notting Hill Carnival was replicated at football matches or any other event, it would be banned,” the former policeman said.

“You see people openly smoking drugs, abuse of police officers, dancing with female officers to the point of sexual assault. I challenge anybody to do the same thing on the way to a Millwall football game.”

Quote:Police arrested four people, three men and a woman, following a stabbing in front of a row of shops in the multicultural British city of Birmingham.

At around 1:25 in the morning on Saturday, a 34-year-old man was attacked at the junction of Dudley Road and Bellefield Road in Birmingham. The man sustained a slashing knife injury and was brought to hospital, where he remains in stable condition.

Footage purporting to have captured the attack was widely shared on social media.

While some had speculated that the victim had been on the street with a child as it appeared that he was pushing a pram, police said this was not the case, saying that the man merely had a “trolley of belongings” and that “no children were involved” in the incident.

Following the attack, West Midlands Police arrested three men aged 34, 29, 26 and a 22-year-old woman, while further information has not been revealed to the public.

The 34-year-old man remains in custody on suspicion of attempted murder, while the woman and the 26-year-old were released with no further action planned. The 29-year-old man has been arrested and charged with unrelated offences, the police said.

West Midlands Police said that it was “aware of video circulating on social media showing the incident and it is being examined as part of our enquiry.”

The force said that detectives believe that the attack was an isolated incident and are not currently looking for any other suspects.

Quote:Prosecutors in Italy said Saturday they have opened an investigation into culpable shipwreck and multiple manslaughter after a superyacht capsized during a storm off the coast of Sicily, killing seven people onboard. They included British tech magnate Mike Lynch and his daughter.

Termini Imerese prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio confirmed the investigation has been launched, but said no suspect is currently identified.

“We are only in the initial phase of the investigation. We can’t exclude any sort of development at present,” he told reporters at a news conference.

Cartosio said his team will carefully consider each possible element of responsibility, including those of the ship’s captain, the crew, individuals in charge of supervision, the ship-builder and others.

“For me, it is probable that offences were committed, that it could be a case of manslaughter, but we can only establish that if you give us the time to investigate,” he said.

The main question investigators are focusing on is how a sailing vessel deemed “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed.

Prosecutors said the event was “extremely rapid” and information they gained seemed pointing to a “downburst,” a localised, powerful wind that descends from a thunderstorm and spreads out rapidly upon hitting the ground.

Initially, Civil protection officials said they believe the yacht, which featured a distinctive 75-meter (246-feet) aluminum mast, was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout.

Investigators were also asked why the crew was almost entirely saved, except for the chef, while six passengers remained trapped in the hull.

Local official confirmed that most of the bodies recovered were found in the same part of the ship, close to the exit, suggesting that passengers had tried to get out.

Deputy Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said it was likely that the passengers were asleep, adding that one of the main focus of the investigation is to ascertain whether they were alerted by someone.

Cammarano confirmed that one person was on watch in the cockpit.

Rescuers on Friday brought ashore the last of seven bodies from the sinking of The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged luxury yacht that went down in a storm near the Mediterranean island in southern Italy early Monday. The sailboat was carrying a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers.

Quote:Five people died in Ukrainian shelling in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, officials said Sunday, while Russian forces struck a hotel in eastern Ukraine, leaving one journalist missing and two others injured.

Twelve other people were wounded in the Russian village of Rakitone, 38 kilometers (23 miles) from the Ukrainian border, including a 16-year-old girl reported to be in critical condition, said regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Russian forces struck a hotel overnight in the city of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region, injuring two people and leaving one trapped under the rubble, regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said. All three were reported to be journalists from Ukraine, the U.S., and the U.K.

Reuters news agency said Sunday that their journalist covering the war in Ukraine was missing and two other team members were hospitalized after Hotel Sapphire, where a six-person crew was staying, was hit “by an apparent missile strike” on Saturday. “One of our colleagues is unaccounted for, while another two have been taken to hospital for treatment,” the agency said.

The rest of the team has been accounted for, said the news agency.

In addition to the hotel, a nearby multistory building was also destroyed, Filashkin said, and rescuers were busy clearing the debris at the site.

Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region also came under Russian fire, resulting in multiple civilian injuries, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

In Kharkiv’s Chuhuiv region, five people were injured, including a 4-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, after two houses were struck by Russian fire. In Kharkiv city, eight people were wounded when a two-story house was set on fire by a Russian attack.

In Balakliia, a Russian strike destroyed six houses and damaged others. A 55-year-old man was injured. In the Kupiansk area, a house was set on fire by a Russian attack, wounding four women.

Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced early Sunday morning local time that it had launched a preemptive strike on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to thwart a major imminent attack by the Iran-backed terror group.

Residents of northern Israel were advised to enter bomb shelters and “safe rooms” in their homes in anticipation of a response by Hezbollah. Israel’s missile defense system, notably the Iron Dome, was said to be intercepting rockets.

Israel’s Army Radio reported that residents were being advised to take shelter even in cities relatively far from the northern border, such as the port city of Haifa, which is in the north of the country but typically safe from rockets.

The Home Front Command prohibited public gatherings of over 130 people, from the Tel Aviv region northwards.

In a statement in Hebrew, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the military had detected that Hezbollah was about to fire a large barrage of rockets and missiles into Israel. Therefore, he said, the Israel Air Force (IAF) had taken preemptive action. A response was expected from Hezbollah, and therefore he said that residents of the north should enter safe rooms for at least ten minutes. He stressed that Israel’s defenses were “not hermetic.”

Israel’s Army Radio reported that Hezbollah acknowledged that it had been about to attack, but claimed that it had, in fact, done so, prior to the Israeli airstrikes.

A more comprehensive briefing was expected.

Update: Hagari said in a public statement that the IDF would attack Hezbollah “throughout Lebanon,” not just in the south as necessary. He repeated the restrictions on public gathering, and added that the Home Front Command had said people should not go to work in the northern region if they were far from a bomb shelter. “The defense is not hermetic, and therefore you should continue to listen to instructions from the Home Front Command,” he said.

Hagari concluded by saying that the IDF would do whatever was necessary to defend the citizens of Israel.

He added that Ben-Gurion airport had been closed but would reopen at 7 a.m. local time. He said that it would close again if necessary.

Asked whether the U.S. had provided intelligence that led to the preemptive strike, Hagari did not answer directly but said that Israel was cooperating with the U.S., and noted the arrival in the region Saturday of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman U.S. Air Force General Charles Q. Brown.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would convene his security cabinet at the “Kirya,” the main IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, at 7:00 a.m. Defense minister Yoav Gallant said that he had spoken with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and agreed on the need to avoid a broader regional escalation (presumably, involving Iran.)

Quote:The New York Times reported Saturday evening that Hezbollah had planned to hit Tel Aviv with missiles at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning Israel time, which is why the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a pre-dawn preemptive strike.

The Times’ Ronen Bergman reported:

Israel’s preemptive attack was aimed at missile launchers in Lebanon that had been programmed to be fired at 5 a.m. in the direction of Tel Aviv, according to a Western intelligence official. The official said that all the launchers that were targeted were destroyed and that Israel was anticipating a harsh response from Hezbollah.

As Breitbart News reported, the IDF launched a large preemptive strike early Sunday morning local time, preempting what it said was a major imminent attack by Hezbollah. Israeli authorities urged residents of the northern half of the country, from Tel Aviv northwards, to stay near bomb shelters and safe rooms, and prohibited public gatherings of more than 130 people as a precaution. It said people should feel free to go to work if they were near available shelters.

A major response is expected from Hezbollah, and Israel’s political and military leaders are reportedly gathering in the “Kirya,” the main IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv.

According to Israel’s Army Radio, Hezbollah claimed that it had, in fact, struck first and was not surprised by Israel.

The Hezbollah attack could have been the long-anticipated response to Israel’s killing last month of the terror group’s second-in-command, Fuad Shukr.

Quote:Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror organization that controls much of Lebanon, is being widely mocked after claiming on Sunday that it was attacking military targets in Israel, but hitting a chicken coop and little else.

As Breitbart News reported, Israel launched a preemptive strike on thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers early Sunday morning after concluding that Hezbollah was about to launch hundreds of rockets, including Tel Aviv among its targets.

Hezbollah did launch several hundred rockets and drones. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that the attack was meant to be a retaliation for Israel’s killing of second-in-command, Fuad Shukr, in Beirut last month.

Hezbollah also claimed that Israel had not preempted anything — which also confirmed Israel’s suspicions that an attack had been imminent.

With 100 Israeli aircraft participating in the mission, a significant portion of the Hezbollah rockets were prevented from being launched, and Israel’s missile defense system took care of the rest.

But one, apparently, hit a chicken coop.

Israel Hayom reported that Nasrallah was being mocked by on social media, including in the Arab world, for his exaggerations, and for offering what amounted to a very flimsy retaliation against Israel.

Quote:The Greek-flagged oil tanker MV Sounion was left adrift and burning in the Red Sea on Wednesday after multiple attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen.

The Sounion has a 25-man crew and was carrying about 150,000 tons of crude oil through the Red Sea, en route from Basra, Iraq, to the port of Agioi Theodoroi in Greece. The vessel is operated by the Athens-based Delta Tankers company, which has seen two other ships attacked by the Houthis during their terror campaign against Red Sea shipping.

Two small boats full of armed men approached the tanker as it passed about 77 nautical miles west of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah on Wednesday morning. The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Center said the crew of the Sounion exchanged small arms fire with the attackers.

Later on Wednesday morning, multiple projectiles launched from near Hodeidah targeted the tanker, probably either ballistic missiles or explosive-packed drones. The attack started a fire aboard the Sounion and caused it to lose engine power.

According to Delta Tankers, the tanker’s crew was able to extinguish the fire before abandoning the ship. The vessel made a distress call to the European Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) in the region, which dispatched a warship to assist the Sounion.

The EUNAVFOR ship reported targeting and destroying an unmanned surface vessel (USV) — or drone boat — which “posed an imminent threat to the ship and the crew.”

The crew was evacuated safely and taken to the nearest safe port of Djibouti. The Sounion was left adrift for several hours, but its anchor was eventually lowered.

EUNAVFOR warned on Thursday morning:

Carrying 150.000 tonnes of crude oil, the MV Sounion now represents a navigational and environmental hazard. It is essential that everyone in the area exercises caution and refrains from any actions that could lead to a deterioration of the current situation.

The Houthis took responsibility for the attack on Thursday, claiming a Western ship was “violating a blockade on vessels heading to Israel” and was left “adrift due to waves after it malfunctioned because of strikes.” The Houthi statement did not identify the Sounion by name.

Greek Shipping Minister Christos Sytlianidis condemned the attack as a “flagrant violation of international law and a serious threat to the safety of international shipping.”

Quote:A Brooklyn Muslim cleric who once partnered with New York Mayor Eric Adams on a campaign to end hate is now spreading it by calling for the annihilation of Israel, The Post has learned.

Meanwhile, one of his counterparts at a mosque in the Bronx has taken to blasting “Zionist Hollywood” and Christians for packing their churches with LGBTQ worshippers, whom he claims they are recruiting to bolster dwindling congregations.

As the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza continues, imam Sheikh Muhammad Al-Barr, called on Allah at his Bay Ridge mosque to “liberate Palestine from the occupiers and the plunderers” during a Friday service earlier this month.

“Oh Allah, annihilate those who occupied their lands, and those who betrayed and deserted them, and those who spilled their blood,” Al-Barr said in Arabic August 12 at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge’s Masjid ibn Umair.

The video of Al-Barr’s sermon was posted last week by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a think tank that features human rights activist Natan Sharansky and lawyer and former diplomat Stuart Eizenstat, among other religious leaders on their board of advisors.

Al-Barr, whose last name is also spelled “Elbar,” also said that “the mujahideen [Hamas fighters] in Gaza are achieving more than our Arab armies could in 1967 and 1973,” a reference to the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, respectively.

“Muhammad Al-Barr explains how…Hamas managed to do what the Arab armies of Egypt and Syria …did not do in 1967 and 1973,” said Yigal Carmon, president and founder of MEMRI in an interview with The Post Monday.

“He ignores one thing: How Hamas used the population as human shields…The imam shows total support for a terrorist organization in the heart of New York and totally ignores how October 7 began.”

More than 1,200 died and 240 hostages were kidnapped during the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on that date last year.

Adams joined forces with the Bay Ridge mosque and a host of elected officials in April 2017 in a campaign to combat hate against the Muslim community. At the time he was Brooklyn Borough President.

Quote:Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks broke down his AR-15 rifle into two pieces so that he could stash it inside his backpack as he made his way through the Butler, Pa. rally crowd, the FBI announced Wednesday.

The bureau released the first photos of the semi-automatic DPMS DR-15 rifle, as well as the black backpack authorities recovered onsite featuring orange and white accents.

“Thomas Crooks’ rifle broken down as was likely done for transport and the backpack recovered onsite,” The FBI captioned the bombshell new image.

A separate photo showed the rifle fully assembled and positioned next to a ruler, which pegs its length at around 36 inches stock to barrel.

The agency also released images of two improvised explosive devices in the trunk of Crooks’ car — with the receiver enabling remote detonation set in the “off” position. The bureau said the devices had “several problems with the way they were constructed.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.

Quote:Donald Trump’s would-be assassin considered targeting a number of events involving both the Republican nominee and President Biden before settling on last month’s rally in Butler, Pa., federal investigators said Wednesday — while adding that the gunman’s ultimate motive remains unknown.

Thomas Matthew Crooks “conducted more than 60 searches related to President Biden and former President Trump,” including queries about both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, FBI Pittsburgh Field Office Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek told reporters.

“He looked at any number of events or targets,” Rojek explained. “[When] the Trump rally was announced early in July, he became hyper-focused on that specific event and looked at it as a target opportunity.”

Investigators determined that Crooks espoused a “mixture of ideologies” but didn’t appear to have a “definitive” world view, with Rojak saying investigators had found “valuable insight into his mindset but not a motive.”

“We have not uncovered any credible evidence indicating the subject conspired with anyone else,” he added before declaring there was “no second shooter” in an apparent response to conspiracy theories swirling online.

Crooks, 20, was killed by a counter-sniper July 13 after his bullets cut down audience member Corey Comperatore and wounded Trump, 78, and two other spectators.

Eight days before the rally, investigators found, Crooks had searched for “When is the DNC convention” and “When is the RNC in 2024.”

Other alarming searches asked, “Where will Trump speak from at Butler farm show,” “Butler farm show podium,” “Butler farm show photos,” “detonating cord,” “blasting cap,” “How to make a bomb from fertilizer” and “how do remote detonators work.”

As far back as September 2023, authorities found, an account associated with Crooks had searched Trump’s “schedule” for Pennsylvania events.

In addition to pouring through Crooks’ internet history and overseas encrypted messaging accounts, investigators had conducted “nearly 1,000 interviews,” according to Rojak, including a sit-down with Trump.

Rojek stressed that Crooks’ parents, who have retained a top Pittsburgh law firm, “have provided all the information that we have asked and have been extremely cooperative.”

Crooks fired eight rounds before he was stopped by a “single gunshot wound to the head,” officials confirmed.

Meanwhile, the bipartisan House task force probing the attempted assassination blasted out a sprawling document and interview request earlier Wednesday.

Chairman Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Ranking Member Jason Crow (D-Colo.) demanded the Department of Homeland Security fork over a trove of internal communications, as well as lists of individuals in charge of 17 specific aspects of rally security, transcripts of internal interviews, and the security plan for that day, among other records.

“The Task Force is investigating all actions by any agency, Department, officer, or employee of the federal government, as well as State and local law enforcement or any other State or local government or private entities or individuals related to the attempted assassination,” Kelly and Crow wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Kelly, whose district encompasses Butler, and Crow gave DHS a deadline of Sept. 4 to comply with their lengthy list of demands in a seven-page letter, which was first reported by Politico.

Six Democrat and three Republican members of the task force visited the Butler Farm Show grounds Monday to tour the site where the harrowing attempt on Trump’s life took place.
There are multiple investigations already underway into the attempt to kill the 45th president, including from several Senate committees, the FBI, DHS review panel and DHS Office of the Inspector General.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) unveiled the bipartisan task force last month to look into the security failings that preceded the attack.

The Secret Service has faced a firestorm of criticism after Crooks managed to crawl across the top of a shed about 130 yards from where Trump was speaking and squeeze off multiple rounds.

Quote:A SWAT counter-sniper who was working the Pennsylvania rally where former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated last month agreed with Republican lawmakers Monday that an “odd” pattern of evidence-handling had occurred following the deadly shooting.

Washington Regional SWAT counter-sniper Ben Shaffer said it was “absolutely” concerning that the roof of the AGR International building had been quickly scrubbed and gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks’ body disposed of before an official autopsy report could be released.

Five House Republicans — Reps. Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz and Cory Mills of Florida, and Chip Roy of Texas — hosted the panel discussion with Shaffer and other witnesses at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“Do you find it odd that literally only days after the attempted assassination on President Donald J. Trump, while the roof was too sloped to place individuals for counter-sniper operations, that it wasn’t too sloped of a roof for the FBI to go ahead and tamper, in my opinion, with evidence by washing the roof off that may have had significant evidence on it?” Mills asked Shaffer, referring to the chain of events following the July 13 shooting at the Butler, Pa., campaign event which left one audience member dead and three others, including Trump, injured.

“Yes, I do,” Shaffer answered.

“Do you also find it odd … that the body of Matthew Crooks had not only been released and cremated — but that the coroner who’s responsible for releasing the body had no knowledge of it?” Mills pressed.

“Yes, absolutely,” Shaffer said.

“It sounds like destruction of evidence,” replied Erik Prince, a former US Navy SEAL who founded the private military contractor Blackwater in the late 1990s.

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned over her disastrous testimony to Congress in the wake of the near-assassination of the 45th president, infamously said in her first interview since the attack that counter-sniper teams had not been placed on the AGR International building where Crooks later perched because of the “sloped roof.”

Mills also accused the FBI of a lack of transparency about Crooks’ purported “online” research into explosives and encrypted overseas messaging accounts.

Earlier, Shaffer told Biggs that Crooks being seen walking the grounds of the Butler Farm Show with a rangefinder scope should have elevated him from a “suspicious person” to a “person of interest” in law enforcement’s eyes.

“That would warrant some type of either investigatory detention or stop-and-question,” he said.

Crooks was first photographed by local counter-snipers at 5:10 p.m. and observed with the rangefinder “shortly after 5:38 p.m.,” according to Shaffer — 33 minutes before he targeted Trump at 6:11 p.m.

The gunman fired eight shots, striking Trump in the right ear and killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore, 50, and critically wounding David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74.

Counter-sniper teams fired two shots in response, but it is unknown whether just one of those shots or both killed Crooks, Shaffer noted in his testimony.

The 20-year-old shooter’s death was ruled a “homicide” by a “gunshot wound to the head,” according to an Aug. 2 report by Butler County Coroner William Young.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), a former police officer and member of the House select task force probing the Butler shooting, revealed in a preliminary investigative report to the panel’s chairman, Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), that “the FBI released the body for cremation 10 days after” the attack.

Crooks’ motivations remain a mystery for many lawmakers in the House and Senate — including Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), another member of the select task force whose members traveled to Butler on Monday to examine the rally scene.

At one point, lawmakers were spotted on the roof of the building where Crooks took up his position, about 150 feet from the stage where Trump was speaking.

Waltz said last week that FBI briefings had revealed Crooks’ use of messaging accounts on platforms located in Belgium, Germany and New Zealand.

“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aide need encrypted platforms not even based in the United States, but based abroad — where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into?” Waltz said at a press conference last week.

“How did he learn to build those IEDs? How did he learn to install remote detonators? How did he conduct those searches and not get popped?” he told The Post the following day. “I still have a lot of questions.”

“We’ve heard both the Secret Service and the FBI kind of phrase it in different ways — that everything they’ve seen [points to] he acted alone and that they have yet to find any co-conspirator,” Waltz added. “I find that hard to believe, and I want to see, where’s the proof?”

“Any suggestion the FBI is interfering with congressional efforts to look into the attempted assassination which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, is inaccurate and unfounded,” the bureau said in a statement Monday evening. “The FBI has been working closely with our law enforcement partners to conduct a thorough investigation into the shooting, and we have followed normal procedures in the handling of the crime scene and evidence.

Quote:Sarah Palin on Wednesday won her bid for a new trial against the New York Times over an editorial that the former Alaska governor said was defamatory.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals said Palin can try again to prove that the Times should be liable for a 2017 editorial that incorrectly linked her to a mass shooting six years earlier that killed six people and seriously wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

Lawyers for Palin argued that US District Judge Jed Rakoff, who oversaw the February 2022 trial, wrongly excluded evidence of the Times’ actual malice and wrongly instructed jurors to disregard some of that evidence.

Media critics, and Palin herself, have viewed the case as a possible vehicle to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 US Supreme Court decision that set a high bar for public figures to prove defamation.

To win, public figures must show that media demonstrated “actual malice,” meaning they knowingly published false information or had reckless disregard for the truth.

Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have urged a reconsideration of the Sullivan decision, with Gorsuch citing changes in the media landscape, including the growth of cable TV news and online media and spread of disinformation.

The Times’ editorial, “America’s Lethal Politics,” addressed gun control and lamented the rise of incendiary political rhetoric.

It was published on June 14, 2017, after a gunman opened fire at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, injuring Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.) and others.

The editorial noted that before the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona, in which Giffords was wounded, Palin’s political action committee published a map with crosshairs over Giffords’ election district.

Palin objected to the editorial, saying “the link to political incitement was clear” despite there being no evidence that the map motivated Jared Lee Loughner, the Arizona gunman.

Quote:Massachusetts Republicans have submitted a formal request with the state’s government for information on the alleged “$1 billion in secret migrant crisis spending” as the Bay State grapples with the migrant crisis.

In a release from the state’s Republican Party, MassGOP, the group demanded that Gov. Maura Healey’s administration provides a detailed cost breakdown of the toll that the migrant crisis has caused for the state’s residents.

“The Healey-Driscoll Administration has shrouded nearly $1 billion spent in secrecy, leaving Massachusetts residents in the dark,” MassGOP chair Amy Carnevale said in a statement. “They have withheld critical information on 600 incidents involving police, fire and EMT. Blocking journalists at every turn, the administration has obstructed the flow of information to the public.”

In a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Carnevale demanded the specifics of the state’s funding to provide housing for migrants.

In the FOIA request, Carnevale called for the Healey administration to provide the names of government and private entities that are providing emergency housing for migrants, where the emergency housing is located, any correspondents relating to public safety concerns, and any incident reports or police reports.

Carnevale argued that the Democrats’ supermajority has created a “veil of secrecy” surrounding the migrant crisis.
“Today, the Massachusetts Republican Party is standing against the veil of secrecy and the obstructionist efforts of the Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Democratic supermajority,” she said. “We stand with the Massachusetts press corps in declaring: enough is enough. The public deserves transparency. Release the details on the vendors profiting from this crisis and the public safety issues affecting our communities.”

“On behalf of Massachusetts residents, we are demanding accountability,” Carnevale added.

The MassGOP’s request comes after the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a report on July 24, which predicted Massachusetts will struggle to manage the growing number of migrants coming to the state.

The report noted that the state has already spent more than $1 billion on the Emergency Assistance sheltering program that houses migrants.

“The cost to Massachusetts taxpayers of temporary housing and shelters is enormous, but it pales in comparison to the costs that will accumulate in the future if those in the temporary shelters today remain in the Commonwealth for the long term,” wrote Jessica Vaughan, CIS director of policy studies.

In addition to housing, some other costs taxpayers will have to cover include schooling, social services, medical care and public safety.

Quote:Parents and students of a school district outside of Boston were informed last week that they would be without school bus service, citing a lack of funding and a shortage of buses.

The 150 students at Stoughton Public Schools will have to find a new way to get to school ahead of the academic year's September 4 start date, the Boston Herald first reported. The news comes at the same time that the state has started paying for buses for the migrant students of the more than 200 migrant families that recently moved into their community.

"Unfortunately, for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year, 150 secondary students who signed up to ride a bus were not able to be placed on a bus," a letter sent to parents from Superintendent of Schools Joseph Baeta read. "Those families not receiving bus transportation were notified this week. Those receiving bus transportation will receive their bus postcards the week of August 19."

"We understand the feelings of disappointment and frustration this caused for the families who did not receive bus transportation," the letter added. "We feel it is important to explain this situation to all of our families to allow you to better understand how we arrived at this point."

Over 160 more students applied for bus transportation compared to the year before, the letter said. Because of budget restraints, the district has one less bus than the year before. The superintendent also said there is a shortage of bus drivers.

There is no requirement in the state of Massachusetts to provide transportation for students in grades 7-12, but the district is required to provide busing to students living in hotels and shelters, the letter said. However, according to the superintendent, the arrival of migrant families in Stoughton is not the reason for the shortage of buses.

"We are utilizing funding the state provides to the district to bus the students living in hotels/shelters," the letter said. "The funding for these two buses does not come from our operational budget. It is inaccurate to suggest that these children receiving busing is the reason yours did not. If we were not receiving the funding from the state for the students living in hotels/shelters, we would not be able to have these two additional buses."

The district indicated there wasn't much it could do to provide additional busing, but announced there would be a virtual forum on Monday night where families could express concern or ask questions.

In a March letter issued by the Stoughton Superintendent, he recognized the uptick in migrants as a contributor to "financial pressures."

Quote:President Biden charged ahead with a $230 million pier to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza despite the urgings of multiple federal aid workers, according to an internal report on the project, which delivered less than a third of the intended assistance to the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave.

Biden, 81, announced the pier plan with great fanfare during his March 7 State of the Union address to Congress, with the White House projecting it would help convey enough provisions to feed an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians over a three-month period.

But thanks to “rough weather and high seas,” the pier only operated for 20 days, delivering enough food and medical aid for just 450,000 Palestinians before it was decommissioned on July 17, according to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report issued Tuesday.

Not only did the pier fail to meet its goal, but three service members were injured — one critically — during operations there.

Pier pressure

With far-left Democrats calling for Biden to stop supporting Israel’s war efforts against Hamas, the president pitched the pier as a way to placate concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance
getting into Gaza every day,” Biden told lawmakers.

Behind the scenes, however, “multiple” USAID staff members were expressing “concerns that the focus on using [the pier] would detract from the agency’s advocacy for opening land crossings, which were seen as more efficient and proven methods of transporting aid into Gaza,” the watchdog found.

“However, once the president issued the directive, the Agency’s focus was to use [the pier] as effectively as possible,” it added.

In addition, almost no implementation planning had taken place before Biden’s announcement, according to the report, forcing State and Defense Department officials to quickly work together on the project.

In fact, it took USAID another 20 days after Biden’s announcement before it could submit its formal request to the Pentagon for official assistance.

“In the week following the State of the Union address, DoD and USAID held several meetings on the initial operational planning to use [the pier], according to multiple USAID staff,” the report said. “On March 27, USAID formally requested that DoD ‘facilitate maritime delivery of humanitarian supplies and associated logistics support’ from Cyprus to Gaza to support its humanitarian response operations.”

While the Defense Department had put such systems in place before, it had never done so in the “non-permissive environment” of an active combat zone, according to the report.

Not even the United Nations’ World Food Program was on board with Biden’s plan, according to the IG’s office.

“Before its launch, WFP highlighted in its USAID award documentation that lack of community buy-in among Palestinians for the maritime corridor could result in significant safety and security risks and compromise its operations,” the report found. “Further, the WFP documentation stated that its participation … ‘potentially entailed significant risk exposure for WFP.’”

Quote:On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby stated that he doesn’t regret saying that he “didn’t see” chaos in Afghanistan from his “perch.” Because even though “there was chaos,” “the question was asking me just a blanket sort of bumper sticker adjective slapped onto the withdrawal,” and “it deeply offends me, as a veteran myself, that we’re just slapping that bumper sticker on the whole withdrawal and I think that does a disservice to all the brave men and women, civilian and military alike, who pulled that withdrawal off.”

Host Phil Mattingly said, “[Y]ou received blowback last year for a comment that you made after one of the administration’s reviews came out. I want to give you a chance to respond to it, but first, this is what it was.”

He then played video of Kirby stating, “Proud of the fact that we got more than 124,000 people safely out of Afghanistan? You bet. Proud of the fact that American troops were able to seize control of a defunct airport and get it operational in 48 hours? You bet. Proud of the fact that we now have about 100,000 Afghans, our former allies and partners, living in this country and working towards citizenship? You bet. But does that mean that everything went perfect in that evacuation? Of course not. … For all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it, not from my perch.”

Mattingly then asked, “It was that last line that drew some criticism on Capitol Hill from Republicans, but also from those — others who were involved in that. I don’t ask about the impassioned point you were making before that last line, but on that last line, do you wish you had kind of framed it differently?”

Kirby responded, “Look, I think the line’s being taken a little bit out of context. And look, I’d be the first one to admit that I could always be more contextual in answering questions. I don’t regret saying it. Look, I had said, many times, and I did two briefings a day during the withdrawal at the Pentagon, and I was nothing but honest and forthcoming about the things that didn’t go well in that withdrawal. And of course there was chaos, of course there was confusion, there was blood, there was violence at different times during that evacuation. And you can find me saying that on the record and numerous times during the withdrawal and afterward. What I was referring to was the question was asked of me — and that’s missing in this soundbite — the question was asking me just a blanket sort of bumper sticker adjective slapped onto the withdrawal, I hear it all the time, chaotic. And I don’t apologize for the fact that, from where I was sitting at the Pentagon and watching how hard our troops and our State Department civilians and our intelligence community [were working] to get that airport up and running and to get it functional and to get more than 120 folks out, you — they created order out of disorder, Phil. They created the opposite of chaos on that field to try to get those folks out.”

He continued, “Now, yes, of course, outside the field, there was lots of confusion and chaos and violence, and I recognize that. And you can find me saying that in any number of interviews and press conferences, but I make no apologies at slapping back to criticism that everything about the withdrawal was faulty and everything was wrong, and that that does a disservice to the men and women who so bravely and courageously tried to get so many people out, and did so successfully. At one point, Phil, during the withdrawal, there was a C-17 full of people taking off about every hour. In fact, less than every hour, at one point during that withdrawal. That’s not chaos to me. So, I understand that criticism I’m coming under there. I think you have to look at the question as well, not just my answer. Could I have been more contextual? Probably. I freely admit that there are times when I’m not as contextual as possible, but I make no apologies and no bones and I don’t regret saying that, because it deeply offends me, as a veteran myself, that we’re just slapping that bumper sticker on the whole withdrawal and I think that does a disservice to all the brave men and women, civilian and military alike, who pulled that withdrawal off.”

Quote:Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would be “reducing the number” of “temporary foreign workers” in the country.

In a post on X, Trudeau wrote that businesses in Canada should be investing in hiring “Canadian workers and youth.”

Trudeau’s words come as Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has vowed to make cuts to Trudeau’s migration flood, implying that immigration numbers would be linked to the rate of homes being built and the jobs that are created.

“We’re reducing the number of low-wage, temporary foreign workers in Canada,” Trudeau wrote. “The labour market has changed. Now is the time for our businesses to invest in Canadian workers and youth.”

During a press conference on Monday, Trudeau explained that Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program would be receiving an overhaul, according to BBC News.

Trudeau explained that not only is it “not fair to Canadians” who are having difficulties finding employment, but to some foreign workers who are being “mistreated and exploited.”

“It’s not fair to Canadians struggling to find a good job, and it’s not fair to those temporary foreign workers, some of whom are being mistreated and exploited,” Trudeau explained.

This comes as Canada saw the unemployment rate rise 0.2 percent to 6.4 in June, according to Statistics Canada.

Trudeau has previously acknowledged that young Canadians would be denied housing wealth due to the country’s housing market being impacted by an influx of foreign workers.

In April, Trudeau revealed that he had plans to reduce the number of migrant workers coming into the country and noted that “more and more businesses” in Canada were “relying on temporary foreign workers in a way that is driving down wages in some sectors.”

Canada was reported to have reached a population mark of 40 million in June 2023, and in March 2024, it was reported to have reached the 41 million mark.

Statistics Canada attributed the increase in Canada’s population to “international migration” during the first quarter of 2024.

Quote:The new Israeli ambassador to the United Nations has issued a stern warning to the international body amid escalating tensions with Hezbollah and concerns that Iran could be close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Ambassador Danny Danon told Fox News Digital that Security Council Resolution 1701 "said very clearly that there would be no military force in southern Lebanon besides the Lebanese military, but look what happened since 2006."

"Hezbollah took over, they controlled the region, and they made this area a hub for terrorism with tens of thousands of rockets that, unfortunately, in the last few months, we felt the capabilities," he argued. "I think if the U.N. is not capable of implementing the resolution, we will have to implement the resolution and push Hezbollah away from our community in the north."

Part of tackling the various groups in the Middle East – such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen – requires dealing with Iran.

"I think it’s about time that not only Israel will deal with Iran, but the Western democracies will realize that they have to put pressure on Iran, they have to be active in order to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear capabilities," he said.

"We thought on April 14 when they sent hundreds of projectiles into Israel and their intentions … imagine they had nuclear capabilities," Danon noted. "We will not wait for that day. We will not allow them to achieve nuclear capabilities."

Danon replaced Gilad Erdan, who in May decided to end his tenure as the permanent representative to the U.N. Danon previously held the role from 2015 until 2020, after which he took the role of Minister of Science, Technology and Space.

Erdan served in the U.N. during the Oct. 7 attack and roughly the first nine months of Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip as the Israeli Defense Forces hunted down Hamas.

Erdan rose to international prominence for his fiery rhetoric, his bold speeches – including symbolically shredding the U.N. charter – and labeling the United Nations as a broken institution. Just last week, he declared that "the U.N. building in Jerusalem needs to be closed and erased from the face of the Earth."

Quote:The Taliban on Monday rejected concerns and criticism of the United Nations over new vice and virtue laws which ban women in Afghanistan from baring their faces and speaking in public places.

Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the U.N. mission in the country, UNAMA, said Sunday the laws provided a "distressing vision" for Afghanistan’s future. She said the laws extend the " already intolerable restrictions " on the rights of women and girls, with "even the sound of a female voice" outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.

Zabihullah Mujahid, main spokesman for the Taliban’s government, in a statement warned against "arrogance" from those who may not be familiar with Islamic Sharia law, particularly non-Muslims who might express reservations or objections.

"We urge a thorough understanding of these laws and a respectful acknowledgment of Islamic values. To reject these laws without such understanding is, in our view, an expression of arrogance," he said.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers last Wednesday issued the country’s first set of laws to prevent vice and promote virtue.

They include a requirement for a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home. They also ban images of living beings, such as photographs.

"After decades of war and in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis, the Afghan people deserve much better than being threatened or jailed if they happen to be late for prayers, glance at a member of the opposite sex who is not a family member, or possess a photo of a loved one," Otunbayeva said.

In response to the UNAMA statement, Mujahid added, "We must stress that the concerns raised by various parties will not sway the Islamic Emirate from its commitment to upholding and enforcing Islamic Sharia law."

Quote:Violent knife and sex offenders can increasingly escape prosecution if they show contrition and say sorry, a report Wednesday claims.

According to the Daily Telegraph, more than 147,000 people accused of offences including sex crimes, violence and weapons possession across the UK were given community resolutions in the year to March instead of being prosecuted.

Such resolutions do not result in a criminal record. The outlet set out the terms applied to each case of forgiveness against a background of jail overcrowding:

Police guidance says community resolutions should be restricted to low-level crimes, with offenders required to apologise to the victim, accept “responsibility” for their crime and offer some form of recompense.

But the resolutions, which are issued at the discretion of individual officers, have increased by 40 per cent since 2019 – when 102,574 were recorded – and are now nearly twice as likely as a criminal charge, according to an analysis of Ministry of Justice data.

The surge comes amid a deepening crisis in the criminal justice system. Prisons are so full that the Government is releasing thousands of criminals early next month in the wake of the riots, while police have raised concerns that any worsening of jail overcrowding could limit their ability to make arrests.

Jess Phillips, the Home Office minister responsible for safeguarding, has ordered a review of the police response to “non-contact” sexual offences.

This issue was reportedly raised by the inquiry into the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Pc Wayne Couzens, who had a history of exposing himself to women.

Phillips told the Telegraph: “This Government has been clear that violence against women and girls is a national emergency, and we expect police to treat all sexual offences with the seriousness it warrants.”

Since 2019, community resolutions given for robbery have increased by 127 percent, from 175 to 397. Those issued for sex offences have risen by 29 percent, from 482 to 621.

Resolutions for offences involving violence against a person have risen by 57 percent, from 29,188 to 45,845, while those for possession of weapons are up 77 percent, from 1,590 to 2,821.

The surge in community resolutions comes as knife crime approaches record levels and orders given to clear prison space amid the sentencing of anti-migration rioters, protesters, and social media posters that will reportedly see at least 5,500 criminals released early by the autumn, as Breitbart News reported.

Quote:London’s Metropolitan Police have described the multicultural Notting Hill Carnival as a “fantastic event” and a “family day” as a mother was left in critical condition after being stabbed while she was with her child.

Accusations of “two-tier” policing have once again been levelled at the Met, as the British capital’s police force appeared to take pains to paint the two-day Afro-Caribbean street party as a wholesome event fit for families, despite frequent violence, drug use, sexual assaults, and participants often attending in scantily-clad, highly-sexualised outfits.

At the end of the first day of the Carnival on Sunday evening, the police said: “Hundreds of thousands of people came to Notting Hill Carnival today to enjoy a fantastic celebration… Regrettably, a minority came to commit crime and engage in violence.”

Sunday saw three people stabbed, including a 32-year-old mother who was with her child as she was attacked. She has since been hospitalised with life-threatening injuries. Two men, aged 29 and 24 years old, were also stabbed on Sunday.

Additionally, 15 police officers were assaulted, 10 emergency workers were assaulted, and 90 people were arrested for a range of offences, including possession of weapons and drugs.

Nevertheless, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said: “Carnival is a community event and the vast majority of people come to celebrate, to dance, to enjoy music and have a fantastic experience… This was supposed to be ‘family day’ – a celebration suitable for all ages.”

Quote:Police in Birmingham have launched an investigation after three instances of apparently anti-white graffiti appeared in the multicultural British city.

The inner-city Birmingham neighbourhood of Alum Rock saw graffiti reading “no whites” and “no whites allowed” appear over the past week, the Daily Telegraph broadsheet reported.

The paper obtained CCTV footage appearing to show a man in a hoodie sweatshirt scrawling the message “no whites” on a wall outside of a primary school in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Two other locations were marked with a similar message, however, there is currently no indication that the same man was responsible.

Birmingham, the United Kingdom’s second-largest city behind London, was listed in the 2021 Census as one of Britain’s minority-majority cities, with ethnic minorities making up 51.4 per cent of the population.

Birmingham’s white population has fallen from 71 per cent in 2001 and 58 per cent in 2011 to just 48.6 per cent according to the latest census.

The area which reportedly saw the anti-white graffiti, Alum Rock, is heavily dominated by people identifying as “Asian”, which in Britain typically refers to people from South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.

Responding to the apparent anti-white incidents, a West Midlands Police spokesman said: “We are investigating after graffiti was sprayed at locations around the Alum Rock area. An investigation is under way to identify who is responsible, and we are carrying out CCTV enquiries.

“We are in contact with the community and will be carrying out patrols in the area. We are working with the local authority to ensure the graffiti is promptly removed.”

Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters Tuesday that his country will “finalize” a peace plan to end the Russian invasion by November — the month of the scheduled American presidential election.

Zelensky said that he hoped to present the plan to leftist American President Joe Biden and the top two candidates vying to replace him, his Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. He added that Ukraine is also planning to host a second iteration of the “peace summit” hosted by Switzerland in June, which Russia did not participate in and resulted in no significant changes on the battleground.

Ukraine has faced some form of aggression from Russia for over a decade, since Moscow announced the colonization of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014. After years of low-level military conflict in the eastern Ukrainian Donbass region between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin announced that he would deploy the Russian military for a “special operation” in February 2022 to oust Zelensky. That “special operation” led to the “annexation” of four other regions of Ukraine — both Donbass regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — and remains ongoing to this day.

The Ukrainian military appeared to change the momentum of the war in early August by invading uncontested Russian territory in the Kursk region, and threatening neighboring Bryansk and Belgorod. Ukraine continues to control significant territory in Kursk, according to both Russian and Ukrainian estimates, but Russia launched a massive nationwide attack on the Ukrainian power grid on Monday that has limited Kyiv’s ability to expand its attacks.

Zelensky emphasized in his remarks during a press conference on Tuesday that his administration is looking to end the war as soon as possible.

“The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war. And I want that very much — (that it would be) fair for Ukraine,” Zelensky said, according to Reuters, referring to the plan he expects to debut in November. He nonetheless suggested that dialogue with Russia would not be part of the peace plan: “There can be no compromises with Putin, dialogue today is in principle empty and meaningless because he does not want to end the war diplomatically.”

Zelensky signed a decree in October 2022 that outlawed dialogue with Russia so long as Vladimir Putin remained at the helm of the country.

On the peace plan in development, Zelensky said it would address energy safety, food security, and the release of Ukrainians imprisoned or forcibly moved into Russia.

Quote:Ukraine continues to reel from Russia’s missile strike on Monday, which ranks as the largest attack since the start of the war, as Moscow is beginning to suggest that Ukraine could make desperate moves.

"Russia’s large-scale strikes on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure on Monday are almost certainly in response to Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk Oblast, breaching Russia’s border," Rebekah Koffler, told Fox News Digital.

"Zelenskyy likely anticipated Russia’s retaliation and accepted the risk anyway," Koffler explained. "Zelenskyy wants to stay in the fight - there’s no other path for him personally or professionally."

"To stay in the fight, he needs more weapons and financing from the West," she added. "Zelenskyy likely seeks from the Biden Administration the removal of restrictions for the employment of U.S.-provided weapons, so Ukrainian forces can strike targets deeper inside Russia that are currently within range."

On Monday, Russia launched 100 missiles and 100 drones as Ukraine continued its incursion into the Kursk region, which marked the first land invasion of Russia since World War II and the most significant setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin since his troops invaded Ukraine. The strikes knocked out key energy infrastructure in 15 regions across the country, killed five people and injured many others, French outlet Le Monde reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on his Telegram channel that Western allies had effectively hamstrung Ukraine with restrictions on weapon use, arguing that "We could do much more to protect lives if the air forces of our European neighbors worked together with our F-16 [fighters] and anti-aircraft defenses."

Russia followed up that massive strike with a second volley overnight Monday, which killed at least two people as missiles and drones rained down across the Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast, the BBC reported. Ukraine used newly-deployed F16s to help shoot down five missiles and 60 drones, limiting the second strike's impact to a couple dozen projectiles overall. 

President Biden blasted Russia for the "outrageous" attacks and promised to support Ukraine's energy grid. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy ridiculed Russia for "cowardly missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure."

Quote:The governor of the Russian region of Belgorod claimed on Tuesday that Ukrainian troops had launched an attempt to “break through the border,” potentially expanding the surprise ground campaign targeting neighboring Kursk that began on August 6.

The Ukrainian government began a campaign to seize land in Kursk, uncontested Russian territory, in early August that forced the Russian military to redirect resources out of war-torn eastern Ukraine and resulted in mass evacuations of Russian civilians from the border. After nearly three weeks of headlines suggesting that Ukraine had shifted the momentum to its benefit in the two-year-old full-scale invasion, the Russian government launched nationwide airstrikes in response, targeting the Ukrainian power grid.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Monday that the country was facing blackouts “everywhere,” while electricity officials announced they would have to implement rolling power outages to ensure that enough electricity would go to essential services. The Russian government confirmed that it had targeted electrical infrastructure in an attempt to cripple the Ukrainian military.

Ukrainian authorities have not at press time addressed the reported attacks in Belgorod.

“There is information that the enemy is trying to break through the border of the Belgorod Region,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced on Tuesday, according to the Russian news network Tass. Russian authorities reportedly insisted that the situation was “under control,” though suggested that fighting was ongoing.

The Moscow Times reported that, in addition to official information, unofficial news on Russian regime-linked Telegram channels suggested that hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were participating in assaults on the Belgorod border. One such account indicated that 200 Ukrainian troops had deployed “near” one border checkpoint and 300 near another. Neither the Russian nor Ukrainian government have confirmed those reports, however.

Belgorod is located southeast of Kursk, where the August Ukrainian ground initiative has largely focused, and 25 miles from the border with Kharkiv, Ukraine. Its location has made it vulnerable to Ukrainian attack throughout the war. Governor Gladkov offered to voluntarily relocate residents out of the region in January in the face of mounting Ukrainian attacks, seven months after the first large-scale reports of “paramilitary” fighting in the region. Deadly shelling in July, targeting locations the Russian military uses to fire into Ukraine, outraged local residents, who lamented to Al Jazeera that they did not feel that Moscow was protecting them. At the time, Gladkov claimed that over 200 Belgorod residents had died as a result of the war since 2022.

Gladkov declared a state of emergency in Belgorod on August 14 in response to the Kursk counter-invasion, which had also affected parts of his region.

“Houses are destroyed. Civilians died and were injured,” he said in his announcement, describing the situation in Belgorod as “extremely difficult and tense.”

In a meeting with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin shortly before the state of emergency declaration, Gladkov said his region had begun planning to evacuate as many as 11,000 people to protect from Ukrainian attacks.

A week ago, the Russian news agency Tass reported a barrage of Ukrainian bombing over Belgorod.

“Eight drones were shot down by the air defense system,” Tass quoted Gladkov as reporting. “One residential building, three private households, five cars, one social facility, two production enterprises and a communications infrastructure facility were damaged.”

Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday that 90% of the Hezbollah rockets that were intercepted Sunday were fired from civilian areas in southern Lebanon, a further violation of international law by the Iran-backed terror group.

In a statement, the IDF said:

Early Sunday morning, following the detection of preparations by Hezbollah to launch missiles and rockets aimed toward the north and the center of the State of Israel, the IDF struck Hezbollah targets that posed an immediate threat.

During the strike, about 230 launches and 20 aerial targets were identified crossing into Israeli territory.

The Hezbollah terrorist organization places its terrorist infrastructure in the middle of the civilian population while using Lebanese civilians as human shields. 90% of the launches were from the heart of a civilian area, near civilian facilities such as mosques, schools, UN sites, etc.

Hezbollah and Hamas, a Palestinian terror group, both follow the practice of hiding weapons among civilians so that if Israel attacks the weapons sites, there will be civilian casualties for which Israel will be blamed — even though intentionally exposing civilians to enemy fire is a violation of international humanitarian law by the terrorists.

Israel launched a preemptive strike targeting thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers before the terror organization attacked. One of the targets of Hezbollah had reportedly been Tel Aviv. Hezbollah was seeking to avenge the death of its second-in-command, Fuad Shukr, killed by Israel last month. Shukr was also linked to the U.S. Marines barracks bombing in 1983 that killed 241 U.S. servicemen.

Hezbollah’s very presence in southern Lebanon is a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006, which requires southern Lebanon to be demilitarized.

Quote:The Israeli military carried out a major operation in the West Bank this week that killed nine militants, Israel Defense Forces announced Wednesday.

The IDF said a large group of its forces entered the city of Jenin on Wednesday, adding that all nine people who were killed in the operation were militants. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said three of the individuals were killed in an airstrike on Tulkarem, while four others were killed in an an airstrike in Al-Faraa.

The final two were killed by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on social media that the goal of the operation was to destabilize Iranian "terrorist infrastructure" within the West Bank.

"We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required," Katz wrote. "This is a war for all terms and purposes and we must win it."

The West Bank operation comes one day after the Israeli military successfully rescued a hostage being held by Hamas in Gaza on Tuesday.

"The IDF and ISA have rescued Qaid Farhan Alkadi from Gaza where he was held hostage, and brought him to his family in Israel. This operation was part of the IDF’s daring and courageous activities conducted deep inside the Gaza strip," said Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

Quote:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is speaking out after the Biden-Harris administration slapped a sixth round of sanctions on Israelis on Wednesday, as part of an effort to appease anti-Israel critics on the political left.

“Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel. The issue is in a pointed discussion with the US,” Netanyahu said in a statement circulated by the Government Press Office.

The sanctions apply to an organization called Hashomer Yosh, which the Times of Israel describes as a group that  “arranges for volunteers to provide help and support for at least 26 illegal farming outposts in the West Bank, among other activities.”

The Times of Israel adds:

At least two of the illegal outposts that the organization supports, Meitarim Farm and Moshe’s Farm, are run by US-designated individuals. The group has also provided support for Yinon Levi, Neriya Ben Pazi and Zvi Bar Yosef, who have all been designated by the US for their involvement in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
…
Hashomer Yosh has received over NIS 8 million ($2.2 million) from the Agriculture Ministry and the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry since 2018 for its activities.

The sanctions are part of a Biden-Harris crackdown on “extremist” settlers, motivated in part by anti-Israel groups such as Democracy for the Arab World Now, and based on unconfirmed accusations.

The sanctions also further the agenda of the anti-Israel (and antisemitic) “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” (BDS) movement. No such sanctions have been applied to the Palestinian Authority or Palestinian organizations.

Quote:Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, 52, the Bedouin Israeli Arab Muslim hostage whom Israeli soldiers rescued from a Hamas tunnel in Gaza on Tuesday, thanked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the “sacred” work the soldiers had done.

The Government Press Office published a transcript of their telephone conversation, as al-Qadi, the first Israeli hostage to be rescued from within a tunnel, was treated in Soroka Hospital in Beersheba after being rescued.

Prime Minister Netanyahu: “Farhan, hello to you my friend. Welcome back!”

Farhan Qadi: “Hello; welcome. Hello Bibi, Abu [father of] Yair!”

Prime Minister Netanyahu: “Farhan, I am so happy to speak with you.”

Farhan Qadi: “I am also happy. I have been waiting for this moment. I swear to you, Abu Yair.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu: “Tell me, have you already met with your family?”

Farhan Qadi: “Yes, two of my children are here.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu: “I want you to know that we are truly moved from the depth of our hearts, for both you and your family.”

Farhan Qadi: “I thank you for this work, that you have reached a situation in which I see my family and am here. You truly did sacred work. There are other people who are waiting.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu: “I want you to know that are not forgetting anyone, just like we did not forget you. We are committed to returning everyone, without exception.”

Farhan Qadi: “I thank you very much. I invite you, Abu Yair.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu: “Thank you. I would like you to embrace your family and I want you to know that the entire people of Israel embraces you, and the others. We will bring them.”

Farhan Qadi: “Thank you. May it be G-d’s will. Thank you very much.”

The freed hostage also spoke with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose office released the following statement:

President Isaac Herzog spoke this evening with Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, a resident of Rahat who was abducted on October 7th and rescued today by security forces from captivity in Gaza. Qaid Farhan is currently receiving treatment at Soroka University Medical Center.

The President emotionally said to him: “Dear Farhan, how moving it is to hear your voice! Our brother has come home. Our brother has returned!”

Farhan thanked the President and responded: “I am grateful to the State of Israel, to the army, who came. People are suffering there. Do everything you can to bring people home. Work 24 hours, don’t sleep until they return. People are really suffering, you can’t imagine. Suddenly, I heard someone speaking Hebrew outside the door, I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it. I thank you very much. This is thanks to our army, they are doing a sacred duty, risking their lives. Thank you very much, Mr. President.”

The President replied: “You went through hell there, I understand, it’s hard. The most important thing is to bring everyone back. Thank God you’ve returned, and now you can see your entire big family. We are very, very proud of the army, the Shin Bet, and all the forces that took part in this amazing operation. There are still so many brothers and sisters there, and we want them all home, the entire nation of Israel is with us. The entire country, the entire state. Welcome back, dear brother, and good health.”

A-Qadi was described as thin but in stable condition after his rescue, which was described as a complex operation.

Many Bedouin Arabs, who are Muslim, serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and are loyal to the Jewish state.

Quote:Tombs dating back to the ancient Roman era have been opened to the public for the first time after a meticulous restoration process, according to an announcement from the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The two tombs, estimated to be nearly 2,000 years old, were originally discovered by British archaeologists in the 1930s.

For nearly 100 years, the tombs were closed to the public to protect the paintings depicting vines, Roman deities, and mythological creatures.

The tombs, located in Ashkelon, Israel about 6 miles from the Gaza Strip, were ultimately renovated when the city decided to make the site an educational park for public visits.

They are located within a stones' throw of the beach, and were likely a burial site for aristocratic Roman citizens in Ashkelon about 1,800 years ago.

"This tomb has wonderful paintings that were preserved remarkably well, and that’s surprising considering that the time that has passed and the location next to the sea, the humidity, the sand, the winds, everything affects the plaster and the paintings," said Anat Rasiuk, an archaeologist with the Antiquities Authority to the Associated Press.

The murals depict birds, children picking bunches of grapes, nymphs with lotus plants, and figures from Greek mythology that were adopted by the Romans like the head of Medusa and Demeter, the goddess of the harvest.

Some of the lime-based plaster paintings were removed from the tombs' walls and taken off-site for restoration, where others were painstakingly cleaned and given touch-ups that look the same as the ancient pigment on-site.

Quote:Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hinted on Tuesday that he could be open to resuming limited nuclear negotiations with Iran’s great “enemy,” the United States.

He also advised civilian government officials not to trust anything the “enemy” says during those negotiations.
The Supreme Leader was firm on regarding the U.S. as a deeply distrusted adversary, but said Iran can still “interact with the same enemy in certain situations.”

“There is no harm in that, but do not place your hopes in them,” he said. “Do not trust the enemy.”

Khamenei, who has absolute power and final say over international relations under Iran’s authoritarian theocracy, made his remarks while speaking with President Masoud Pezeshkian and his cabinet.

Pezeshkian, billed as a “moderate” and “reformer,” was the surprise winner of the July emergency election to replace President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May. Pezeshkian’s candidacy was supported by the marginalized “moderate” wing of Iranian politics that negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal with former President Barack Obama.

In fact, the new president’s first pick for vice president was the chief negotiator of the deal, former foreign minister Mohmmad Javad Zarif, but he quickly resigned because he disagreed with Pezeshkian’s choices for cabinet minister. Zarif just as suddenly un–resigned on Tuesday, seemingly pleased with the Ayatollah’s support for resuming nuclear negotiations.

“My colleagues and I in the steering council and committees take pride in the fact that nearly 70% of the ministers and vice presidents, along with numerous deputy ministers and organizations, stem from expert recommendations derived from this transparent and inclusive process,” Zarif said in a post on social media, essentially taking back the entire reason he ostentatiously resigned from the vice presidency less than three weeks ago.

“Following the thoughtful follow-ups and consultations led by the president, along with his written directive, I am committed to resuming my responsibilities in the Strategic Vice Presidency, with faith in Allah and the support of our great nation,” he said.

Pezeshkian campaigned on improving ties with the West and said he favored resuming nuclear negotiations to lift crushing sanctions and “normalize relations with the world.” As with all Iranian leaders, including the most bloodthirsty hardliners, he insisted Iran’s defense plan “does not include nuclear weapons.”

Iran-watchers have been curious to see how much room the hardline Supreme Leader would give Pezeshkian to negotiate. The U.S. State Department did not seem terribly impressed by the signals Khamenei sent in his remarks to the cabinet on Tuesday.

“We have long said that we ultimately view diplomacy as the best way to achieve an effective, sustainable solution with regard to Iran’s nuclear program. However, we are far away from anything like that right now given Iran’s escalations across the board, including its nuclear escalations and its failure to cooperate,” the State Department said.

“If Iran wants to demonstrate seriousness or a new approach, they should stop nuclear escalations and start meaningfully cooperating with the IAEA,” the statement added.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, has been complaining for years about Iran refusing to fully cooperate with its inspectors. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi denounced Iran’s level of cooperation as “completely unsatisfactory” after a visit to Tehran in May.

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) senior fellow Ray Takeyh told the New York Times (NYT) on Tuesday that although Iran insists it has no interest in the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Tehran would be far more likely to negotiate with an extended Biden administration under his vice president, Kamala Harris.

Quote:The Pentagon said on Tuesday that the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion, abandoned in the Red Sea after a pirate attack by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen on August 21, appears to be leaking oil — possibly the prelude to a much-feared environmental catastrophe.

The Sounion was en route from Iraq to Greece with 150,000 tons of crude oil when it came under repeated attack by the Houthis, including pirate attacks with armed men in small boats. The ship was eventually disabled with multiple explosions and caught fire in several locations along its superstructure. The crew was rescued by ASPIDES, the European naval task force in the Red Sea.

The Houthis gleefully celebrated their successful terrorist attack by broadcasting images of the burning ship on their state media. The Biden-Harris administration helplessly complained that the burning oil tanker, which is much larger than the infamous Exxon Valdez tanker at the heart of a historic environmental catastrophe in the late 1980s, posed a major threat to the surrounding sea.

“Through these attacks, the Houthis have made clear they are willing to destroy the fishing industry and regional ecosystems that Yemenis and other communities in the region rely on for their livelihoods, just as they have undermined the delivery of vital humanitarian aid to the region through their reckless attacks,” the State Department said on Saturday.

The Pentagon initially said there was no sign of oil leaking from the stricken tanker but, on Tuesday, it revised its appraisal and warned the Sounion now appears to be leaking oil.