News of the World

[kyonides]

Chinese Police Overseas NY Outpost Can Be Tool for Sabotage in US: Expert

A report emerged in September that said Chinese authorities have opened 110 police service centers outside of mainland China—including one in New York City—that repatriate Chinese people using coercion, according to a security policy expert, but which also may be used for sabotage or espionage.

Frank Gaffney, the executive chairman at the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, said that as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) global transnational repression those service centers can be tools to conduct espionage and sabotage work.

“The Chinese are not simply forcing people to go back to China and stand trial, but they may be giving them directions to do other things,” such as espionage, recruitment, influence operations, sabotage, or subversion, Gaffney told the “China in Focus” program on NTD news.

With such a vehicle, the regime could also “compel foreigners to China to suffer whatever fate the Chinese Communist Party would have in mind for them,” in his opinion.

“Some 230,000 people have been compelled to return to China,” said Gaffney, referring to the report that says more than 110 police service centers operate in 30 countries across 5 continents. “That alone is an extraordinary indictment of what these service centers are actually servicing.”

“China claims 230,000 suspects of fraud and telecom fraud were successfully ‘persuaded to return’ to China from April 2021 to July 2022,” according to the Safeguard Defenders report (pdf).

Gaffney said he believes the operation is likely contrary to U.S. laws given that there is no reciprocity agreement in place to allow the FBI to operate in China.

[DerVVulfman]

ELECTRIC VEHICLES CATCHING FIRE
IN FLORIDA AFTER HURRICANE IAN

Besides the destruction from the rain and wind damage caused by the Category 4 storm that swept Florida, an new danger and form of destruction never met before. A number of electric vehicles submerged within flood waters have since burst into flames.

There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start. That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale.
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It takes special training and understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely.

Florida is only behind California for most electric vehicles on the road at more than 95,000 registered in the state, according to the US Department of Energy.

PAYPAL GOT BUSTED!  BACKTRACKING ON PLAN
TO FINE USERS $2500 FOR 'MISINFORMATION!'

Criticism erupting on social media forced them to change their mind!

The Daily Wire broke the news that Paypal was going to penalize users who promoted misinformation or 'present a risk to user safety or wellbeing.' It was set to go into effect November 3rd. But since then, Paypal released the following statement.

PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy.

At least two of the company's former leaders, including founder Elon Musk, took the proposed penalties suggested very seriously and pushed back on Twitter.

It’s hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to. PayPal ’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in. A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity.

Agreed.

[kyonides]

South Africa May Soon Take Land Without Compensation

South Africa’s National Assembly passed legislation on Sept. 28 that would allow the government to seize land without paying the owners, a practice known as “expropriation without compensation.”

“This thing is emotional. We cannot deny it,” South African farmer Herman J. Roos said in a Sept. 29 message to The Epoch Times.

He noted that the law wouldn’t change Article 25 of South Africa’s constitution—a more radical move that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has frequently advocated.

The Expropriation Bill, the latest effort toward land reform in a racially and economically divided nation, is still awaiting approval from the National Council of Provinces.

It would then need the signature of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has publicly supported expropriation without compensation for years.

The legislation passed over the objections of several minority parties.

Notably, the National Assembly is dominated by the country’s ruling party, the left-wing ANC.

 Now I know why Elon Musk lives in the US and not in South Africa.

White House, Pentagon Officials Traded Chinese Stocks While Mulling Blacklist

High-ranking Pentagon and White House officials traded in Chinese stocks even as their offices were tasked with considering the companies for blacklisting, according to a new report.

More than 2,600 government employees owned or traded stocks whose prices would rise or fall depending on their actions, according to a new investigative report by The Wall Street Journal, which analyzed 31,000 financial disclosure forms from 12,000 senior government employees and political staffers.

Of those 2,600 federal officials, more than 400 owned or traded in Chinese stocks, including in the Department of Defense, Department of State, and White House, the Oct. 11 report said.

“The Defense Department was among the federal agencies with the most officials who invested in Chinese stocks, even as the Pentagon in recent years has shifted its focus to countering China,” the report said.
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Notably, officials in the Pentagon, State Department, and White House were found to have traded in numerous Chinese companies, including Alibaba, Baidu, and the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, also known as Sinopec.

ICE Issues Smartphones to 255,602 Illegal Border-Crossers; Cost Is $89.5 Million a Year

U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies issued more than 255,000 smartphones to illegal aliens during fiscal year 2022, according to data on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website.

The phones are trackable and the individual is responsible for checking in with ICE on a regular basis, often by sending in a geo-tagged photo of themselves.

The cost for the 255,602 phones and their accompanying technology is $245,377 per day. Over a year, that’s $89.5 million.

The majority of the phones were issued to single adults.

ICE has failed to provide any data on the compliance rate of the smartphone program or on how many aliens have absconded from it, despite repeated requests by The Epoch Times.

ICE began issuing the smartphones within the past year as border stations became overwhelmed. Agents started processing illegal aliens under a newly created category called “Parole+ATD.” ATD is an “alternatives to detention” program, which acts as a workaround for the legal requirement to detain illegal aliens.

By law, parole is designed to be used on a “case-by-case basis” and for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” according to the Immigration and Nationality Act.

So now they reward illegal immigrants by granting them  cellphones!?

China Conducting ‘Race-Baiting’ Social Media Campaigns to Polarize Americans: Former CIA Officer

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is actively working to erode trust in the U.S. political system and to increase political polarization among Americans by inflaming racial tensions on social media, according to Nicholas Eftimiades, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.

I thought that was Biden's job indeed.

Race-baiting refers to the encouragement or coaxing of racism or anger about racial issues for political gain.

Eftimiades, who previously worked in the Central Intelligence Agency, State Department, Diplomatic Security Service, and Defense Intelligence Agency, said that the CCP maintained several organizations that carried out overseas information operations and could promote such campaigns.

Among these, he said, were the CCP’s propagandistic United Front work department, the intelligence-focused Ministry of State Security, and the People’s Liberation Army, all of which have conducted covert influence operations in foreign countries.

Often, Eftimiades said, CCP social media campaigns were short-lived because they were found out by security professionals employed by the social media companies.
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The purpose of the campaign appeared to be to inflame tensions and increase polarization among Americans on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Eftimiades said that this phenomenon presented an evolution in CCP information tactics, as the regime previously focused on swaying opinions about Americans abroad rather than interfering with its people internally.

[kyonides]

FBI Offered Christopher Steele $1 Million to Prove Dossier Allegations Against Trump: FBI Analyst

The FBI offered former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele $1 million as an incentive if he could prove the allegations made in his infamous dossier against former President Donald Trump, a senior FBI analyst revealed on Oct. 11.

FBI supervisory counterintelligence analyst Brian Auten revealed the offer while testifying at the criminal trial of Igor Danchenko, a key source who supplied information for the anti-Trump dossier, which was commissioned by Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign.
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Danchenko, a Russian national, is facing five counts of making false statements to the FBI during interviews with agents and faces up to 25 years behind bars if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.

According to Auten, the $1 million offer was made when he and Steele met with a group of top FBI agents overseas in October 2016. At the time of the meeting, the agents were trying to corroborate claims Steele had made that Trump’s campaign was colluding with Russia in order to win the election.

“Mr. Steele was offered anywhere up to a million dollars for any information … which could help prove the allegations,” Auten added.

However, Auten said that the FBI ultimately never paid the money to Steele because he was unable to substantiate the claims made in his dossier. He also noted that Danchenko did not identify the dossier’s sources.

Tulsi Gabbard speaks out after leaving 'woke' Democratic Party: My 'loyalty' is to the country, not the caucus

Former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said her love of freedom was behind her decision to leave the Democratic Party, telling Fox News' Tucker Carlson she could no longer be a member of a party that seeks to "destroy" and silence its opponents and undermine freedom.

"I've always been an independent-minded person," Gabbard told "Tucker Carlson Tonight." A Democrat, yes, but an independent Democrat. And my loyalties are very clear: I love our country. And I took an oath both as a service member, as a soldier, as well as a member of Congress, to support and defend the Constitution. And that's an oath that I take extremely seriously."

"And so when you look at this party, the today's Democratic Party, it's controlled by fanatical ideologues who hate freedom. They despise the Constitution. They actively find ways to undermine our God given rights enshrined in the Constitution, like freedom of speech, if you say something and I say something that they don't like."
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The U.S. Army National Guard officer accused the Democratic Party of "racializing" every issue while stoking anti-White racism and derogatory sentiment.

Gabbard had long been previously attacked by leading Democrats like Hillary Clinton, who accused her of being a Russian apparatchik, and said she decided it was time to break with a group now controlled "by an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness."

LA City Council President Steps Down After ‘Racist’ Audio Recordings Leaked

Los Angeles City Councilor Nury Martinez stepped down as the council’s president on Oct. 10 after audio recordings of her and two other councilors’ “racist” remarks surfaced the day before, with a wave of politicians—including Mayor Eric Garcetti—calling for them to resign from the council altogether.

After the audio was leaked, a slew of California officials and political candidates, as well as Gov. Gavin Newsom, came forward to condemn her comments. The incident comes just a month away from the Nov. 8 general election.

The recording, dated October 2021—published by a now-suspended Reddit user and first reported by the Los Angeles Times—included Councilmen Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.

In the recording, Martinez, 49, spoke about Councilman Mike Bonin’s black son as “Parece changuito”—which is translated to “like a little monkey”—while recalling seeing Bonin’s son on a float during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, where she said the child was like “an accessory.”

As a Spanish speaker myself, i find it outrageous to call somebody changuito or monkey. It's curious how a Hispanic Democrat dares to criticize black people. Didn't she know she's also part of a minority group living in the US? Would she love to hear her neighbors call her names just for being Latina?

[kyonides]

Democrats Want to Transfer Missile Systems From Saudi Arabia to Ukraine as Punishment

A group of top congressional Democrats is aiming to punish Saudi Arabia after the OPEC+ announcement to cut oil production by taking back U.S. missile systems as well as other missiles and giving them to Ukraine instead.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced in a statement that “for several years, the U.S. military has deployed Patriot missile defense batteries to Saudi Arabia to help defend oil infrastructure against missile and drone attacks.”

Specifically, the Democrat wrote that the United States should reroute 280 missile systems and send them to Ukraine.

“If Saudi Arabia isn’t willing to take the side of Ukraine and U.S. over Russia, why should we keep these Patriots in Saudi Arabia when Ukraine and our NATO allies need them?” Murphy said. “We should remove these Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia and move them to either Ukraine, or NATO partners who have transferred weapons to Ukraine and need to backfill defense systems.”

Elaborating, Murphy wrote that the “Ukrainians are using (and need more) air-to-air AMRAAM missiles,” adding that they are “needed to defend against” Russian airstrikes. “The U.S. is scheduled to send 280 AMRAAMs to Saudi Arabia. These should be redirected to Ukraine,” he declared.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told the Guardian newspaper that “at the very least, the Patriot missiles will be suspended,” adding that “at a minimum, it is going to happen.”

Xi Says China Will Never Renounce Right to Use Force Over Taiwan as CCP Political Conference Opens

Held every five years, the CCP’s 20th Party congress kicked off in Beijing amid public frustration fueled by escalated COVID-19 restrictions at home and international criticism of the CCP aggression toward Taiwan.

During the weeklong meeting, the next round of the Party’s top leadership will be announced, while Xi, 69, is likely to secure a record third five-year term in office, cementing his place as the Party’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.
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Reaffirming the Party’s hard stance, Xi said China would “never promise to renounce the use of force” on Taiwan, angering the self-ruled island, which vowed to defend its sovereignty and democracy.
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During the speech, the words “security” and “safety” appeared more frequently than five years ago... While he mentioned food security and supply chain security, the emphasis was given to “national security.”

Popular Athletic Clothing Brands Have High Levels of Hormone Disrupting Chemical BPA: Watchdog Group

Sports bras and athletic shirts made by some of the major global sports brands were found to contain dangerous levels of the estrogen-mimicking chemical bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, posing a considerable risk to people’s health, according to legal notices sent by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH).

BPA—an endocrine disrupting chemical that upsets the body’s functioning through blocking or mimicking hormones—is linked to developmental and health problems mostly for young children. For adults, studies have found that high levels of the chemical results in heart problems, while experts have connected BPA to obesity, diabetes, ADHD, and other ailments, with more research pending for definitive conclusions.

The CEH has sent legal notices to Athleta, PINK, Asics, The North Face, Brooks, All in Motion, Nike, and FILA regarding sports bras, and The North Face, Brooks, Mizuno, Athleta, New Balance, and Reebok for its activewear shirt collection. Testing conducted on branded clothing showed that individual wearers were exposed to 22 times the safe limit as permitted under California law.

“Studies have shown that BPA can be absorbed through skin and end up in the bloodstream after handling receipt paper for seconds or a few minutes at a time. Sports bras and athletic shirts are worn for hours at a time, and you are meant to sweat in them, so it is concerning to be finding such high levels of BPA in our clothing,” said Kaya Allan Sugerman, director of the Illegal Toxic Threats Program at CEH.

[kyonides]

Truss Resigns as UK Prime Minister After Just 6 Weeks in Post

Liz Truss, who became UK prime minister just six weeks ago, has resigned after a significant number of Conservative MPs lost confidence in her leadership.

She’s set to become the shortest-serving UK prime minister in history after failing to stem an open revolt from her own MPs demanding her departure.

Speaking in Downing Street shortly after Oct. 20 lunchtime, Truss said she had told King Charles III that she’s resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.
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Truss said she’ll stay on as prime minister until a successor is chosen via a leadership election that will be held within the next week.
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But opposition parties have called for an immediate general election.

 How curious! This is the second female prime minister that resigns in Europe in the last year or so.

Mexico Sues US Gun Industry in US Courts a Second Time

The government of Mexico is suing five U.S. gun sellers in a federal court in Arizona, claiming the businesses are illegally engaging in arms trafficking for cartels in that crime-ravaged country.

The new lawsuit comes after a federal judge in Massachusetts threw out a $10 billion lawsuit on Sept. 30 that Mexico brought against arms makers, including Smith & Wesson, claiming that U.S. companies deliberately undermined that country’s draconian gun laws by making “military-style assault weapons” that found their way to drug cartels and criminals.

The judge in that case found that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) of 2005 “unequivocally bars lawsuits seeking to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the acts of individuals using guns for their intended purpose.” The PLCAA was enacted to protect the industry from frivolous lawsuits filed against businesses related to crimes they didn’t commit.

Mexico is appealing the dismissal, as reported by The Epoch Times.

Critics say Mexico is exploiting U.S. laws in an effort to cripple the U.S. firearms industry and weaken the Second Amendment protections enjoyed by Americans.

 It depends on how they submitted the appeal. On first glance, it simply states that US arm dealers are selling weapons to Mexican cartels. If that's the case, it's the same as selling weapons to American criminals. Nonetheless, there's no proof that clearly points to any specific manufacturer, not even Smith & Wesson. Thus there might be some sort of overreach there after all.  

CEO Warns Biden Put US in a ‘Very Precarious Position’ After More Oil Is Released

After President Biden announced an additional 15 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) would be released to combat rising gas prices just weeks before the midterm elections, one American oil industry leader is now calling it the “strategic political reserve.”

“This is a very precarious position we’re in today at a time of dramatic geopolitical upheaval,” American Petroleum Institute president and CEO Mike Sommers told Fox News on Thursday. “We need to have that SPR in place and at the right levels dealing with the current geopolitical situation we’re in today.”

In the coming months, the United States could again see record-high gas prices, he warned.

After receiving criticism from GOP lawmakers that he’s misusing the SPR, Biden said the release of oil is not being done for political reasons.

 Oh really? So it's a TOTAL coincidence that he released it just a few weeks before the midterms.

Australia and Fiji Sign New Security Deal to Counter ‘Challenges’ in Pacific

A new security deal between Australia and Fiji will provide both countries with a framework to counter and respond to “common security challenges” in the Pacific.

While no explicit reference to China was mentioned, both The Australian and Fijian Defence ministers—who signed the “Status of Forces Agreement” on Oct. 20—said the new deal marked an “important milestone” in the defence relationship.
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This follows Australia’s push to seek closer defence ties with Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Fiji—to counter China’s growing influence in the region.
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Marles said that the legal framework provided under the agreement was “rare” between both countries, particularly in relation to defence.

“We don’t have many of these, and it speaks to how close our relationship is with Fiji,” Marles said. “It is a very, very significant step.”

Under the agreement, both defence forces will have a closer working relationship while building “interoperability” and capabilities in the process.

The agreement also covers immigration and customs, arrangements for visiting forces to wear uniforms while in the other country, and criminal and civil jurisdiction over visiting forces while in the other country.

Ohio Voters to Decide If Non-US Citizens Can Vote in Local Elections

If passed, Issue 2 would change the Ohio Constitution. It proposes that only adult U.S. citizens who legally reside and are registered to vote in Ohio for at least 30 days can cast a ballot in future state and local elections.

The current Ohio Constitution states that “every citizen of the United States, of the age of eighteen years and has been registered to vote for thirty days is entitled to vote at all elections.”

The state constitution doesn’t say that noncitizens can’t vote.

Federal law prohibits noncitizens from casting ballots in federal elections.

A 1917 ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court determined that the state constitution’s home rule, which gives cities control over their local issues, provided municipalities permission to expand voting rights in city elections.

Issue 2 would ensure that a city’s home rule doesn’t circumvent the law that only adult U.S. citizens can cast ballots.

Beware of the Muslims trying to vote for candidates that support the imposition sharia law in American soil.

[kyonides]

Former FBI Official to Testify on Agency Allegedly Inflating Domestic Terrorism Data

Former FBI Counterterrorism Division Assistant Director Jill Sanborn is to be interviewed by the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 2 over alleged politicization, including inflating domestic terrorism numbers, House GOP members announced Thursday.

“Only late last Friday did your attorneys offer a specific date for a transcribed interview—December 2, 2022—a date six weeks in the future and nearly four months since our initial request,” the lawmakers wrote.

Sanborn served as Counterterrorism Division assistant director at the law enforcement agency and then as executive assistant director at the National Security branch between January 2020 and April 2021, until she left the federal service.

One whistleblower identified Sanborn as an official who pressured agents to hit self-created performance metrics, said the GOP officials.

According to the latest letter, Sanborn’s attorneys claimed that the FBI’s approval for the former official’s appearance must be in place.

The two [lawmakers] also dismissed a forthcoming letter from the FBI, which Sanborn’s attorneys had claimed would fully respond to the committee’s request and could bypass the need for testimony.

Biden Admits Concerns About His Age Are ‘Totally Legitimate’

In just a few weeks, Biden—already the oldest sitting president—will turn 80 years old in November. If Biden were to win reelection in 2024, he would be 86 at the end of his second term.

“I think it’s a legitimate thing to be concerned about anyone’s age, including mine,” Biden said when asked during an MSNBC interview on Sunday. “That’s totally legitimate. But I think the best way to make the judgment is to, you know, watch me. Am I slowing up? Am I—don’t have the same pace?”

If voters concluded “I am missing a beat,” they should “support some other Democrat if they decide to run,” Biden added. “I don’t want to jinx myself. I am in good health. Everything physically about me is still functioning well, and mentally, too … But I understand people want to ask that question,” he added.

Yes guys, he admitted that his age might be a problem. Just one of them I would say here.

6 Feared Dead in Small Plane Crash Off Costa Rica

Six people, apparently including the German businessman behind Gold’s Gym, were feared dead Saturday after a small plane crashed into the Caribbean just off the Costa Rican coast.

All five passengers were believed to be German citizens, Security Minister Jorge Torres said. The plane’s pilot was Swiss. At least one other of those aboard the plane appeared to be a relative of Schaller.

Costa Rican authorities said pieces of the twin-engine turboprop aircraft were found in the water Saturday, after the flight went missing Friday.

A flight plan filed for the small, charter plane listed Rainer Schaller as a passenger. A man by the same name runs international chains of fitness and gym outlets, including Gold’s Gym and McFit. At least one other of those aboard the plane seemed to be a relative of Schaller, but the relation was not immediately confirmed by authorities.

Martín Arias, Costa Rica’s assistant security minister, said no bodies had been found yet at the site, about 17 miles (28 kilometers) off the coast from the Limon airport.
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The plane disappeared from radar as it was heading to Limon, a resort town on the coast.

The security minister said the flight had set out from Mexico.

[kyonides]

Decades of Student Progress Wiped Out; National Math and Reading Scores at Historic Lows

National math test scores in fourth and eighth grades showed the biggest drop since a national testing program began in 1990, and the reading level for the same grades reverted to a level from three decades ago.
Eighth-grade math performance has dropped eight points since 2019, and about a third of students in both grades can’t read at the minimum required level, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report.
NAEP, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” is the only national and continuing assessment program administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the Department of Education. The Nation’s Report Card is the gold standard for measuring student academic achievements. The results released on Oct. 24 were based on tests administered in the spring.
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U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called the results “appalling” and “unacceptable.”
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Virginia saw the sharpest decline in the nation in fourth-grade reading scores, 13.6 points since 2017 and three times the national average.
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He said the reason for Virginia’s decline was lowered standards and expectations and gave examples of recent events: the 2017 accreditation standard revision and the lowering of standards for math (2019) and reading (2020) in the Commonwealth’s Standard of Learning tests.

Emphasis is totally mine and it's there for a worrisome reason indeed.

But man, lowering the standards sound like a crazy measure from the very beginning.

Newsom Says He’s Not Eyeing Oval Office Despite Shots at GOP Presidential Contenders

If reelected, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is committed to finishing his four-year term as governor—a promise that reiterates his consistent denial of rumors that he is running for president.

Newsom announced his intention during the first and likely only gubernatorial debate ahead of the Nov. 8 election. He met his opponent, state Sen. Brian Dahle, in San Francisco for a debate aired by KQED Sunday afternoon.

The candidates fielded questions about issues impacting California and presented voters with a picture of how they would approach the job in the final weeks before the Nov. 8 election. Newsom is expected to win reelection over Dahle, a Republican and farmer from rural California who recent polling shows is unfamiliar among most likely voters.
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The two candidates spent a sizable period of time talking about inflation and the impact it’s having on Californians—particularly at the gas pump. Newsom agreed that inflation is a big issue impacting voters and touted the $9.5 billion in rebate checks to address the high cost of gas and food.

US Charges 10 CCP Spies in Alleged Espionage Campaigns Targeting Americans

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Oct. 24 announced charges against 10 Chinese intelligence officers and officials over their alleged involvement in espionage campaigns in the United States to further communist China’s strategic interests.

The charges, across three separate cases, accuse agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of conspiring to forcibly repatriate Chinese dissidents living in the United States, obstructing the criminal prosecution of a Chinese telecommunications company, developing pro-China spies within the United States, and illegally acting as agents of the CCP’s intelligence and security apparatus. A total of 13 individuals were charged.
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He Guochen and Wang Zheng orchestrated a scheme to steal files and other information from the U.S. attorney’s office in New York, according to court documents.

The complaint alleges that He and Wang are intelligence officers conducting foreign intelligence operations targeting the United States on behalf of the CCP and the telecommunications company. It alleges the effort had continued since at least 2019.

He and Wang sought to interfere with the prosecution of the company by bribing a U.S. government employee to steal top secret documents including witness lists, details on employees associated with the case, and prosecutors’ notes which, according to court documents, were “expected to cause serious damage to the national security of the United States.” These documents were then delivered to higher-ranking intelligence officers in China, according to prosecutors.

In exchange, He and Wang paid the government employee more than $41,000 in bitcoin, jewelry, and cash, and advised them as to a location in Las Vegas where they could convert the assets to U.S. dollars, according to the criminal complaint.

What He and Wang didn’t know was that the documents they received were fake, the DOJ said. The government employee they believed themselves to have compromised was in fact a double agent for the FBI.

Both He and Wang remain at large.

India Successfully Launches Rocket Carrying 36 Satellites Into Orbit

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said Sunday that it had successfully launched its heaviest rocket carrying 36 satellites owned by London-based satellite company OneWeb into orbit.

The LVM3 rocket was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 12:07 a.m. local time carrying 36 OneWeb satellites and weighing 5,796 kilograms in total, according to the agency.

ISRO said the satellites detached successfully from the rocket and were dispensed in nine phases over a period of 1 hour and 15 minutes.
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The liftoff from southern India was the first launch for OneWeb since breaking with the Russian Space Agency in March because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

OneWeb now has 462 satellites flying, which is more than 70 percent of what the company said it needs to provide broadband services around the world.

Despite this year’s disruption, OneWeb said it remains on track to activate global coverage in 2023 with a planned constellation of 648 satellites. It’s already providing service in the northernmost latitudes.

 Why am I feeling quite uneasy all of a sudden after reading that last paragraph, guys?

[kyonides]

New Email Reveals Answer to Establishment’s Efforts to Oust Trump

An FBI email previously not known to the public has revealed that the bureau planned to make Igor Danchenko—the primary source for British former spy Christopher Steele’s Trump dossier—a confidential human source (CHS) before it had even interviewed him.

The revelation, which was discovered as a result of special counsel John Durham’s case against Danchenko, indicates that the FBI deliberately targeted 2016 presidential candidate and later President Donald Trump with claims it already knew at the time to be false.

The email—of which only the subject line has been made public—was first uncovered by an internet sleuth who goes by the moniker “Walkafyre” and was included in hundreds of unused exhibits from Danchenko’s trial.

The FBI used Danchenko—who was acquitted last week on all charges of lying to the FBI—in its investigation of Trump, despite knowing that Danchenko had helped fabricate the dossier.

With the benefit of this new information, a renewed examination of the timeline between the Nov. 8, 2016, presidential election and the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller on May 17, 2017, reveals that the FBI—with the help of the Obama administration and Washington establishment figures—executed a concerted campaign to oust a sitting president.

The newly discovered email was sent by FBI agent Kevin Helson to unknown recipients on Jan. 12, 2017. The email’s heading reads “Plan to Convert Danchenko into CHS.”

Green Policies Damage Economy, Have ‘No Impact on the Climate’: Witnesses at PA House Hearing

The Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee held a contentious hearing on Monday, titled “Fossil Fuels: Driving America’s Economy and Quality of Life.”
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Committee Chair Daryl Metcalfe, a Republican, has vowed to get Pennsylvania out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a 12-state cap and trade program for energy producers.

Much of the conversation in the hearing centered on the United Nations initiative to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 by cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions reabsorbed from the atmosphere by oceans and forests.
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This means, among other changes, that consumers would need to switch to electric cars and avoid fossil fuels in home heating.

“What happens if you eliminate CO2 emissions from the United States completely, starting now?” asked Kevin Dayaratna, senior research fellow at the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation. Analysis using federal data shows less than 0.2 degrees Celsius temperature mitigation by the end of the century, Dayaratna testified about his research.
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“The conclusion is, lawmakers should avoid carbon taxes and carbon capture related policies, because they will have significant economic costs and negligible environmental impact,” Dayaratna said. “We encourage you to employ cost benefit analysis as was done here.”
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Dayaratna said the climate has been changing for over 4.5 billion years and climate change may be beneficial because life expectancy and personal income has increased over the years.
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Carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels has been a major contributor to the overall greening of the earth, Wrightstone said. Farm machinery, pesticides, and fertilizers derived from carbons have enhanced agricultural productivity and fuel by coal, and natural gas lowers demand for many metals and minerals.

Carbon dioxide stimulates plant growth, and there is an increase in tree cover in Pennsylvania, the United States, and globally, Wrightstone said.

“We don’t see deforestation, we see reforestation,” he said.

I strongly disagree with his estimation of how old the universe or the earth actually is. We weren't there to tell how old they are anyway.  

Yet, the biggest problem here is that  China and India don't care about such policies. In fact, there's no real pressure coming from the Western world to force those nations to reduce the emissions. At the end it seems that the UN goals are nothing but a method to pave the way for Eastern countries to become a lot more powerful than other nations like the US or the EU.

Sunak’s Plan to Advance UK Green Energy Agenda ‘Unrealistic’ Amid Economic and Geopolitical Realities

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer and hedge fund boss Rishi Sunak became the new leader of the governing Conservative Party on Oct. 24. The following day, at the invitation of King Charles III, he stepped into the role of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Sunak is taking the helm at a critical moment as the country spirals into recession amid soaring inflation. Domestic gas prices shot up 96 percent year over year in September, and electricity prices soared 54 percent. The same month, shopping basket costs for food and non-alcoholic beverages surpassed 14 percent, representing the biggest price spike for food in the UK since 1980.

And while Sunak claims that tackling inflation is his main priority, he’s also putting the country’s progressive green energy agenda at the top of the list. He openly shared his ambition to make Britain the world’s first net zero emissions financial center during the COP26 summit in November 2021.

Sunak reinforced that intention in August this year by saying he’s committed to helping the UK reach its goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
...
“The policy of ‘net zero by 2050’ … is a myth and simply is not going to happen—no matter what policy changes are made immediately,” geopolitical analyst and president of Scarab Rising, Inc., Irina Tsukerman, told The Epoch Times.

Tsukerman explained that for Sunak to achieve a true net zero 2050 goal, irrational and extreme economic shifts would need to happen.

“For instance, all plastic products would have to be banned completely. Whenever anything carbon based is utilized, some level of emission can be expected,” she said, adding, “This is even more unrealistic than the ‘zero COVID’ policy in China.”

She noted that committing to overly optimistic energy goals is great for generating votes, but considers it “highly irresponsible.”  Tsukerman thinks it is setting the country up for failure. Further, she said foundering energy policies just “kicks the can down the road” to future leaders who inevitably have to either lower expectations or admit defeat.

Russian Court Upholds US Basketball Star Griner’s 9-year Drug Sentence

A Russian court on Tuesday dismissed U.S. WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against a nine-year sentence for possessing and smuggling vape cartridges containing cannabis oil.
...
The presiding judge said the verdict was upheld “without changes” except for the counting of time served in pre-trial detention as part of the sentence.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, was arrested on Feb. 17 at a Moscow airport, a week before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, and her case has inevitably been viewed in the context of the ensuing crisis in U.S.-Russian relations.

The U.S. chargee d’affaires in Moscow, Elizabeth Rood, who attended the hearing, called the sentence “excessive and disproportionate.”
...
Permitted to make a final statement to the judges by live video link from her detention center in the town of Novoye Grishino, just outside Moscow, Griner said how stressful her eight-month detention and two trials had been.
...
She has said she used medical cannabis to relieve the pain from a series of sports injuries. Both recreational and medicinal uses are prohibited in Russia.

 Some people suspect that this is just an attempt to negotiate a prisoner exchange in the future. Well, her lawyer hopes that might take place any time soon according to Reuters.

JPMorgan President Says ‘Deeper Recession’ Is Acceptable Price for Taming Inflation

The president of the world’s largest investment bank says that a “deeper recession” is an acceptable price for taming high inflation.

Daniel Pinto, president and chief operating officer at JPMorgan, told CNBC in a recent interview that he supports the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes.

“I think putting inflation back in a box is very important,” he said in the interview. “If it causes a slightly deeper recession for a period of time, that is the price we have to pay.”

The United States is dealing with 40-year high inflation and a technical recession after two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the first half of the year.

Many analysts fear that the Fed’s current rate policy will force the U.S. economy into a serious recession, leading to economic chaos worldwide after global financial markets were conditioned to 14 years of extremely low interest rates and increasing interdependency.

That sounds more like a way to impoverish the whole world in no time to me.

[DerVVulfman]

PHIZER OFFICIAL ADMITS VACCINE NEVER
TESTED TO STOP COVID TRANSMISSION

This removes the entire legal basis for the COVID PASSPORT in Europe!

This video is straight from the EU Parliament.

Judge orders Fauci, Psaki deposed

in social media censorship lawsuit

Fauci, Psaki, and others including the Surgeon General Vivek Murthy
must now testify in a lawsuit brought by Attorney Generals Schmitt
of Missoury and Jeff Landry of Louisiana

We've had a really big couple of weeks here, Stuart with, uh, uncovering a vast censorship enterprise. And what we uncovered so far is that at least fourty-five folks from the Biden Administration were in constant communication with these social media platforms to censor and suppress speech. Had weekly calls. Had censorship calls. These social media platforms were changing their terms of service to de-platform folks. And in addition to that, you had literally a high ranking Facebook official texting the Surgeon General of the United States saying 'Hey, we did what you asked. What more can we do?' So that's what we uncovered last week.

... A federal judge ordered now that the White House Officials... DOJ had been fighting this... White House Officials now..  These White - White House officials must..ah.. produce their eMails like Fauci and the Press Secretary. And so that's very important because now we're going to figure out what they were doing and what their communications were with these social media platforms too.

All this should scare Americans that their government is actually... you know.. moving and... and using an outsourcing their censorship to these social media platforms to silence Americans.

The attorneys sought testimony of Fauci because he of his High Profile and public comments rejecting that the Virus was leaked from the Wuhan Lab.

Plaintiffs assert that they should not be required to simply accept Dr. Fauci’s ‘self-serving blanket denials’ that were issued from someone other than himself at face value. The Court agrees

Judge Doughty also ordered a deposition from Elvis Chan, the manager of the Cyber branch of the FBI and his communications with Facebook Founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg about censoring the Hunter Biden Laptop story. Meta's own council identified Chan as the FBI agents [sic] who made contact to suppress the story.